Page 12 of Duty Became Desire

I was getting ready to leave him a voicemail when a beep sounded, letting me know a call was coming in. I quickly hung up and accepted the other call.

“Hey, Skylar, sorry I missed your call.”

“No worries. I figured you were busy with work.”

“Actually, no. I had to call in at the last minute. There were a couple things I needed to help my parents with. What’s up?”

I stared out the front of my window, my jaw hanging open slightly.

The fact that he was helping his parents did something to my insides. Add on that he would be willing to miss a day to help, well, that certainly made those little flutters even more intense. And I absolutely refused to focus on them.

Indigestion, that’s what it had to be.

“My car won’t start,” I blurted out. I sighed and rubbed my forehead, starting again. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to lead with that. It’s just been a crap morning, and I had a busy afternoon, but the car won’t start. It’s not turning over, no noise, no lights, nothing.”

“Huh,” he said, pausing for a moment. I heard him talking to someone in the background and couldn’t help but wonder if that was his mom. “Okay, let me drop my mom off and then I can come over. I don’t know if it’s the battery, but I can try to jump start you. If not, I can easily get a tow lined up. And if you don’t mind running an errand with me, I can probably get you over to Demi’s when she’s home, or to a rental spot?”

“Yeah, sure. I don’t mind at all.”

“Prefect. Give me about twenty minutes and I’ll be over there.”

“Sure, see you. And thank you Alec.”

“No problem.”

With that, he hung up and I tossed the phone on the seat. I was honest with him, I didn’t mind running an errand or two, if needs be. I also was grateful that he was going out of his way to help me.

What did that say about me?

I mean, I still thought he was a dickhead on the best of days, but maybe he had a few days where he wasn’t that horrible? Maybe Demi was right, and he did have some good traits I just kept overlooking for whatever reason?

“No,” I muttered, wiping my hands down my face. “Don’t start thinking like that. He’s not a friend, just someone you know. Someone who is lending a hand. Remember how he treated you,hell, how he still treats you. He’s not some knight in shining armor.”

I nodded my head, agreeing with my little pep talk. I couldn’t give Alec an inch because I knew he’d take a mile, and I just couldn’t do that with him. Not today, certainly, but not in the future. Not with our friends getting even closer and our orbits probably being aligned even more.

Ten minutes later, I saw his car pull up alongside mine and let out a breath. He tossed a smile as he got out and popped both his hood and his trunk, grabbing the jumper cables.

I popped my own hood, opening the door to watch him hook up the cables, and couldn’t stop the small smile. I mean, this wasn’t anything big to fix, but it was still nice to see.

“Okay, give a few moments to let the juices flow and then try.”

“Sure.” I waited a full minute and then turned the key, at least hearing a clicking but nothing else.

“Oh,” he said, undoing the cables. “Okay. My guess, you’re alternator.”

“Of course.”

“I have a friend who can get you in his shop today, for sure checked out and a quote. But he won’t be able to finish fixing it until tomorrow, if you’re okay?”

“I don’t think I have much of a choice,” I huffed out, instantly regretting the tone. He was only helping; I didn’t need to be a bitch.

“I’ll let that slide given the day you had.” He had his phone to his ear before I could comment, talking to whoever about the tow and again, I had to be grateful that he was able to handle it for me. “Okay, he’s about thirty minutes out. The shop is called Ruben’s and it’s actually in Henderson, so you could pick it up on the way out of town.”

“Thanks, Alec. And I really am sorry. I don’t mean to be rude.”

“Sure.” I wanted to be mad, but there was a teasing tone to his single word.

“So, what’s the errand?”

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