Page 35 of Fast and Dirty

“Do we ever.”

Ted Wellington’s words loop through my head.

“If you restore it, you can keep it.”

15

KIRA

Things about my new life that rock:

-Beer

-Blue jeans

-Eating

- Hockey night at the bar

- A dangerously gorgeous mechanic that pops up and makes me feel like an irresistible woman.

Things that suck about it:

-Getting up at four in the morning…?

Thatis for the birds.

But alas, I need funds, and so here I am at Maggie’s at the ungodly hour, trying not to fall asleep standing up as she shows me the ropes. But making dough isn’t so bad. In fact, once I got the hang of it, it’s been kind of therapeutic. The nearby trashcan is groaning with the several wads of discarded dough it took for me to catch on, but no matter. Maggie has a good selection of music blasting through the kitchen and good coffee brewing so there’s that.

Outside the picture window that gives a view of the street outside, I see the town start to wake up. After daybreak I see the very occasional person wander by, followed bymore and more. Maggie turns the sign around at six, and customers trickle in for warm rolls or donuts - one of which I may’ve already stuffed in my face with Maggie’s permission. Like I said: eating is awesome.

By now, I’ve perked up and feel a sense of satisfaction at having three of the four ovens warming up biscuits I’ve made. For some reason Maggie didn’t turn that one on when she opened up this morning. Things have gotten busy up front, and Maggie and her cashier have been managing coffee and pastry orders for the morning rush. I’m on such a roll making biscuits that when I’ve got a whole other tray cut out, I have nowhere to put it. Thinking Maggie would be impressed with my taking initiative, I walk over to the fourth oven and turn the knob, and the light comes on, indicating that it works. I go up front to see if there’s anything I can do to help out there.

West

I stayedup all fucking night, that fated Rolls Royce my only company as I sat next to it with the computer cart; tinkering and researching. Finally, I have an itemized list of materials, costs, time frame, you name it. Numbers crunched and a plan in place, I feel ready to share this news with Kira. I can’t wait to see the look on her pretty face when I tell her this particular weight is off her shoulders.

Pulling the tarp over the hood, I’m thinking of nothing but taking a break for some coffee and maybe grabbing a quick nap upstairs after so I can go back to running this place.

Beforehand, however, I decide to set up my work station for my first appointment of the day. Rusty will be bringing in his Harley to have the carburetor inspected, and I pull up what I’llneed on the computer, before heading over to one of my tool chests and opening a drawer for the right tool. I hear a loud pop, followed by a flash of pink. Thanks to the reflexes that come with racing cars, I turn away just in time to miss any kind of impact, but only a blind man would miss the shiny specks of pink glitter shimmering down all around me.

“What the fuck?!” I yell to no one when Hunt strolls in, coffee in one hand, a Maggie’s box in the other, and a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Fuck, I missed it!” He ducks his head with a pained grimace before snapping back to a cocky smile.

“You…” I growl, turning towards him like a shifting werewolf. “You did this, you piece of monkey shit eating mother fucker?!” I pinch the material of my t-shirt and snap it loose, making a puff of pink glitter go shimmering to my formerly manly spackled concrete floor.

“That,” he says as I duck the frosting. “Was for the motherfucking squirrel in my truck!”

“For the last time, I did not put a squirrel in your truck!”

“I had to put on a hazmat suit to remove the turds all over my seats!”

“Those were raisinettes.” I take great joy in how his eyes bug out under his brows before I remember he just made my auto shop look like a strip joint. “And this goes so far beyond reciprocal retaliation!”

“Aww, but you look so pretty,” he coos at me. “Can I start calling you Diamond Dazzles?”

“Not if you like your scrotum where it is.” I lean over and shake what I can of the glitter out of my hair. “Ryan, get a fucking broom!”

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