Page 4 of Need for Speed

“Okay, okay, I’ll be there in a few. Just chill for a bit,” I tell him. I hang up with Ace and run into check on the shop. I can hear the sounds ofStarsetfrom out here. I don’t like to be too strict on my crew because they are great and for the most part, they have pretty good taste in music. As I enter a few of my employees holler out and wave. I stop by the main office where I see the secretary, Elsa, sitting on the phone. I step inside and she waves. “Good morning, Elsa. How’s everything?” I ask her.

“Pretty good. Got a full roster but have almost everything in stock. Here’s a list of what we are using and then some of the things that have become flagged because were out,” she tells me. Elsa somehow created a system for us to keep track of parts. A lot of customers are returning customers, so I like to try and keep the most basic parts on hand, so they don’t have to wait as long to get their vehicles back. Elsa keeps count of thethings we use and lets me know once we are getting low or out of an item. The system works great and gives our shop a good reputation despite the part of town it’s located in. Customers know that more than likely they’ll get their car back quickly if it’s something minor.

“Great job. I’ll get this stuff ordered. Anything else? If not, I need to go help my brother with some stuff.”

She shakes her head. “Nope, that’s it. Jagger and Bowie are both on the floor so if we need any signatures, I’ll just grab them.”

“Sounds great. Have a good day,” I tell her as I leave and head to my office. I sit down and get everything ordered. Before I leave, I go in search of my brothers. Spotting them I head over. “Hey, I’m heading out.”

“Already?” Bowie asks.

I nod. “Yeah, did you hear about Kynlee’s sister?”

“Yeah, bad news right before the wedding,” Jagger comments.

Bowie and I both nod in agreement. “Yeah, it is but they are rescheduling the wedding which is why I’m leaving. I’m heading over to Inkredible to help him get things rescheduled. I’m sure he’s losing his shit by now.”

Bowie laughs. “Probably but if anyone can help him…it’s you. Call us if you need anything.”

“Will do,” I tell them before leaving the shop and heading back to my car. I made a quick stop to grab some subs from the local deli then head over to meet Ace. As I enter the shop the music goes off letting the artists know they have people up front. I quickly call out and let them know it’s just me, so they don’t have to stop what they’re doing.

Ace appears looking stressed, his hair is in disarray from him pulling on it. “Well it’s about damn time. Where the hell have you been?”

I hold up the sack and drink holder. “Getting food so we can figure out what you’re doing.” We head back to the room that he uses to tattoo in. After getting situated we go through Kynlee’s book and get just about everything moved a month up. Everything except for the band which is already booked for the night.

“Damn it! What do I do?” Ace says, pulling on his hair again.

“Breathe. Call Kenndrix and see who else Kynlee would like? We’ll figure it out.” I tell him. It’s odd to see my brother stressing over a wedding. I was certain that he’d never get married. Losing our mom had affected him the most, but then Kynlee came along, and he changed. She brought a different side out of him just like Sadie did for me.

****

Sadie

I get to work early so I grab a cup of coffee from the employee lounge and a protein bar and head outside to sit in the sand. While sitting there I watch the waves coming back and forth, constantly in a tug of war. That’s how I feel right now. I’m in a tug of a war but Axell doesn’t even know about it. I know he’d rise to occasion and become my knight in shining armor but there’s a part of me he doesn’t know. The part of me that I left in South Carolina when my mom shipped me off to L.A. It’s been almost fifteen years and I’m afraid the truth can’t come out now.

I don’t want Axell to see me differently and I’m afraid he would if he knew about the girl I used to be. He knows I had a wild streak, but he thinks that’s where the story ends but it doesn’t. Is anything ever that simple? I’ve been living a lie for so long that I had started to believe it myself, but history has a way of resurfacing when we least expect it and biting us in the ass.

“Hey you!” I hear Lyndsay, my co-worker and best friend, call out to me as she makes her way out to sit beside me. Shelooks over at my measly breakfast and shakes her heard. She hands me something warm wrapped in foil. “Here, I figured you’d have one of those again and I didn’t think I could bear to watch you choke it down.”

“I don’t choke it down,” I reply which is pretty much true because I barely taste anything anymore. I only eat because my body requires it.

“Okay, then I choke while trying to watch you eat that. Those things are nasty, and no one should have to eat them unless they just have to,” she says with a laugh. “I made breakfast burritos so humor me and just eat the damn thing.”

I smile and take the burrito. Lyndsay has always been like this, I would call her bossy but she’s really not. She’s just honest and opinionated. She’s determined to make sure that everyone has everything they need and that’s what makes her such a great nurse and mother. After Harlyn was killed I could have fallen back into old habits and if it hadn’t been for her and the fact that Axell and I were raising Jovi, I probably would have. When I had first moved here all I knew was my cousin Harlyn and my brother Seth. Seth worked graveyards down at the docks and after work he’d go surfing for a few hours in the morning. I’d only get to see him a couple of hours after school. I became really close to Harlyn and her best friend at the time, Lyndsay, we became the female version of the three musketeers. The Charlie’s Angels if you will.

Then Harlyn got killed and life took a tailspin. I did the one thing you aren’t supposed to do when that happens. I kept trying to correct it and every time I did it got harder and messier. Finally, I realized that I couldn’t fix it for everyone. I couldn’t tell them how to grieve. I couldn’t tell them how to feel. I had to sit down and watch everyone handle it in their own way, and I had to figure my way out.

Harlyn and Seth were the only two that knew me, like truly knew me. When she died so did that part of me because I knew there was no way in hell that Seth would ever say anything about that girl to anyone? He’d take her to the grave. Without Harlyn reminding me of the girl from South Carolina I fell deeper and deeper into the lie of who I was.

“Eat!” Lyndsay demands, using her mom voice. I laugh then take a bite of the burrito to appease her. Lyndsay hasn’t changed much since I first met her. Her medium length brown hair is pulled back into a ponytail. She is a queen when it comes to makeup and I hardly ever see her without it.

We finish the rest of our breakfast in silence then make our way back up to the rehab center where we work. I love my job. Spirit rehab facility deals with a range of patients, all separated by floors. We have patients that are dealing with substance abuse, mental illness and eating disorders. It’s really fulfilling when you get to see your patients getting well and then move on. I’ve seen a handful of my former patients around town and it’s always heartwarming to see them healthy and still living life. It makes my job worthwhile. Of course, not all of them stay healthy and for those ones that we lose, it’s hard to take but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

The other great thing about my job is that it demands all my attention. Whenever I’m at work I’m fully here. I have no down time to think about myself or my life. No outside situation is more important than my patients and what they are going through. Work is my distraction and it’s the best one I’ve found.

****

It was such a long day at work. All I really want is to soak in a hot bath, eat some pasta and watch some horrible TV. As I pull into the driveway, I see Jovi’s car but not Axell’s yet. I make my way inside and the house is quiet except for the music comingfrom Jovi’s room. I stop by and see him sitting over an open book. “Hey buddy.”

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