Page 11 of Somewhere We Belong

I walked around the car, heading to the back of the salon, hoping it was open already. Thankfully our owner was already here and I walked in and headed straight to the bathroom. I took a deep breath as my lip trembled, leaning on the sink looking down, willing myself not to cry. Colt had always been abrasive, but we had never interacted like this before.

Men were assholes. Colt was such an asshole.

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Nova walked awayfrom me after she chewed my ass out. I took a deep breath to keep myself from shouting something I knew I was going to regret or hear about later on from Theo or even Atlas. Her luscious ass disappeared behind the building, and I waited for a few more minutes before I drove down the street to park.

I wasn’t even supposed to be in the garage today, but my dumbass opened my mouth, and I volunteered to go and get them. Theo was surprised I offered. Shit, it was like an out-of-body experience and my mouth spoke before I could stop myself. I blame it on having a single mom who struggled so much that she just gave up one day, leaving me to raise myself and stay out of the system. I was sixteen when it became too much for her.

Nova was raising Sol all by herself, but she also irritated the shit out of me. Don’t ask me why, but there was something about her that rubbed me the wrong way. She was a gorgeous woman, she was funny and laid back, but I couldn’t stand her. She would have been the kind of woman I liked back when we lived in Texas. Today was the first time we had been so close to each other without someone else with us since I usually avoided her. Atlas and Theo were the ones who liked her, maybe a little toomuch, talking about her and helping her out more than enough. I tolerated her because of them.

It was a nice morning as I walked to the garage. Since I was already here, I had to look at her car because I didn’t need to be giving her rides and neither did the guys. Plus, having a kid without a car sucked, our public transportation was non-existent because we were such a small town. Most of the town was walkable, but not for us, since we lived on the outskirts, and walking out in the heat sucked, not to mention June was our rainy season. So, I had to look at her car because it would be better for Sol.

I glanced at the salon, and I walked up to the garage doors, they weren’t open yet, but Bill saw me and opened the door.

“I don’t have you on the schedule,” he said confused.

“I know but I was wondering if I could work on a car, it’s one of the girls from the salon. I’ll pay for everything, and you don’t have to pay me,” I said, as he studied me.

“Girlfriend?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes. “You damn well know that I’m with Theo and Atlas,” I snapped. “It’s for Nova.”

Bill smirked. “She just had her car in a few months ago. She’s really good about the maintenance, it could be the battery, but just pay for what you use.”

I nodded as he let me in. I grabbed a few tools, taking a few things that might be easy fixes.

“The car’s pretty old, we might need to do a full service,” he said, opening the garage doors. “If you need, I can help you drive it over here.”

“Thanks, I’m hoping it’s something easy, if not I’ll let you know,” I said, grabbing the bag and walking down the street a little, so she couldn’t see me going into the parking lot.

I really didn’t need her keys, I was a troubled teen, who had learned how to break into a car pretty easily. Most peoplewouldn’t agree with me, but I thought it was a pretty great life skill. You never knew when you needed to leave in a hurry and had to use someone else’s car or you locked your keys in your car. Locksmiths were expensive and being broke taught you a lot of things. The bad part about not having her keys was that I would have to pull some wiring to start her car, but I could easily hide that.

The salon was starting to get busy, hopefully giving me enough time to find out what was wrong with her car and fix it before anyone came out here. Nova’s Honda was at least ten to fifteen years old. At this point, she needed to get a new car before this one needed a big repair that she wouldn’t be able to afford.

Getting into her car was easy since it had been left open. I wanted to get mad, but who the hell would steal this car and it’s not like they could go anywhere with it anyway. Sterling Ridge was also not that kind of town. There wasn’t a lot of crime and at first, it was weird to be in a place that was so quiet, lacking the constant sirens and traffic of a busy city. When we first moved here, it felt suffocating and restricting, but the small town kept me in line and I didn’t need to get into any more trouble. That life was behind me now.

I popped the hood of her car checking to see if anything stood out to me. It was pretty clean under the hood as I checked her oil among other things. Nothing looked bad, so I pulled the panel at the bottom of her steering wheel pulling out the wires to start the car. The car sputtered as I tried to turn it on, and I knew exactly what she needed. Her spark plugs were bad.

It was an easy fix, so easy that I was able to do an inspection and figure her battery needed to be changed along with two filters and I topped off all her fluids. The car sounded good as I turned it on to make sure everything was working correctly. I made sure I put her wiring back after I closed the hood softly so no one would come out.

Putting my tools away, I grabbed my bag and all my trash, walking back to the garage. I paid for everything I used and put back all the tools, saying goodbye to Bill before I left. The salon was busy, leaving me to do the last thing I needed to do. Once I put the car seat back in the car, I left her a present that I knew would be the icing on the cake.

I was sad I wouldn’t be able to see her expression when she saw it, almost wondering how hard it would be to put a camera out here. I chuckled to myself as I walked away. My phone chimed when I was close to my car.

Theo: Everything go alright?

Me: Yeah, old spark plugs.

Theo: I’ll pay for them and the labor.

Me: Already taken care of.

I slid into my car, started it, and enjoyed the purr of the engine. I decided to take a drive to clear my head of Nova, now that Atlas was going to be back, I didn’t know how I would not see her.

My annoyance grew as I thought about their weird fascination with her. I didn’t get it, maybe it was some weird macho urge to help the single mom? Where were men like that when my mother needed help?

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