Page 25 of I Found You
Jackson walked over to me. He had blond hair shaved close to his head and brown eyes. The resemblance to Maeve wasn’t obvious, but the shape of his eyes gave away a relation. And his nose. He had her nose, which was petite and fucking adorable on her and, well, just a nose on him.
“Wyatt, I’m Jackson. Thanks for letting me bring her here.” He gave me a firm handshake, his bloodshot eyes darting over to his buddy before he dropped his hand. “Are you sure you’re okay with it? If not, let me know now before we offload her. It’s cool if you’re not. I won’t even tell Maeve.” A knowing grin spread across his face, his eyelids drooping. The kid was clearly high, but at least he was polite.
“No. It’s fine. I have the space for you to work. But I don’t run a hangout. This is a business.” I looked back at his buddy. He had hopped onto the truck’s running boards and was jumping around. The driver yelled something at him, but he just laughed and kept at it.
“I get it.” Jackson nodded, looking back at his friend.
I directed Jackson to the bay I had cleared for him. I’d come in at the crack of dawn to move things around and make room. My garage was still excessively busy this summer, and my tools had a way of migrating throughout the space when I wasn’t looking.
Jackson and Sam made quick work of unhooking the truck and getting her situated in the bay. His friend took off shortly after, leaving me with my new garagemate.
He seemed like a quiet kid, unlike his friend.
“This is a good-looking truck. Mind if I take a look?” I asked him.
“Have at it.”
I did a perimeter walk, checking for obvious body damage. “Exterior’s not in bad shape. You’ll need to sand some spots down, use some rust remover, but I doubt you’ll need to fully replace any of it. What’s under the hood?”
Jackson hurried to the cab so he could unlatch the hood. I propped it open and took the flashlight out of my pocket. “Battery needs to be replaced… fluids have to be flushed… some of these hoses will need to be replaced too…” Jackson stood behind me, keeping out of my way. “What do you know about cars?”
“A bit. Not enough to get her running right now, but I’ll figure it out,” he admitted, glancing at the floor and scratching the back of his neck.
“Look here. See where the drive belt is fraying along the edge? That means you have an alignment problem with the pulley.” I pointed the flashlight at the belt while Jackson looked over my shoulder.
“Yeah, okay. Is that hard to fix?”
“No. You just have to make some tweaks to it until it’s in alignment. I have a straightedge you can use to check it.”
“Thanks, man.”
I finished my assessment of his truck and gave him a rundown of the priority repairs versus what could wait until later. We blasted some music and both got to work on our respective tasks, me getting back to work and Jackson starting to take stock of what he needed for his repairs.
The ringing from my cell automatically paused the music that was connected to my Bluetooth, my father’s name lit upthe phone screen. We talked every couple of days, but my schedule had been so busy lately I hadn’t had a chance to swing by to see him.
“Hey, so you’re not missing. That’s good to know.”
“Hey, Dad. Sorry, I know I’ve been MIA lately. Just busy.”
“Just work?”
I paused, thinking about how I wanted to answer that. My dad already knew about Jane, but if I told him that I was spending time at Maeve’s, he would read too much into it. He didn’t like that I was single. Well, not just single but actively not dating, ever. I didn’t need someone in my life and in my space. Not unless it was the real deal, the same kind of love my parents had. Otherwise, what the fuck was the point?
Apparently, I was taking too long to answer, so my father just continued on. “Well, why don’t you take some time off tonight? Come by the house for dinner.”
“I can’t make it tonight,” I told him through the speakerphone. “I already have plans.” They weren’t official plans, considering I’d never even mentioned them to her, but I wanted to stop by Maeve’s again and see Jane. And Maeve.
“I feel like I haven’t seen you all summer. Tomorrow night, then. No, actually, let’s make it Thursday. That will give me time to ask Sheila if she’ll make her lasagna.”
My brow hitched, not that he could see it through the phone. I knew he had been spending some time with our local diner owner, but I didn’t realize they were getting so close. It was good for him, and I told him that.
“Is she going to be joining us, Dad? You planning on introducing us to your girlfriend?” I chuckled. I could hear him stumbling over his words, trying to downplay their relationship.
“No, it’s not. She’s not. It isn’t like that. She’s just a friend, you know that.”
“Yeah, Dad. I also know that Mom’s been gone a long time. None of us are going to be upset if you’ve found someone to spend your time with. We’re grown now. Even Reid. If you’re going to ask her to make her lasagna, which I hope you do, then ask her to join us for dinner too. I’ll let Luke and Reid know. Maybe we can make it a big family affair.”
“So you want me to have someone special and your brothers to come with their significant others, and what about you, huh? Just going to be the seventh wheel at this dinner?”
