Page 24 of Searching for Sadie
Which when she stopped to look at, was surprisingly clean. Growing up, her uncle was a plumber, so blue collar jobs and work vehicles weren’t new to her, but this was nice. And didn't have a particular odor, thinking of the smell of a couple of her uncle's old work vans was enough to have her nose scrunching at the mere memory.
The door next to her opened and as Lucas took in her face, he cocked his head to the side and sniffed. "Is there a problem?"
A chuckle bubbled up in her, breaking some of the tension. "No. Not at all! I was just thinking about riding around in my uncle's work van and they always had a weird smell, but your truck is so clean and smells normal."
"Well, phew," he said as wiped pretend sweat from his brow. "Glad my truck passed the smell test," he said as he started his truck. "It's a good thing I toss my hockey bag in the back. It might not smell so good if I had to transport that thing in the cab."
"Hockey bag?"
"Yeah," he said as she glanced at her, putting the truck into reverse. "I play a couple nights a week in a rec league here."
"Ohhh," she said as if a light just came on. "So, it's not a murder bag!"
"Excuse me?" He shot her a curious look as he started to back out of the driveway.
"I've seen you come in a couple times with a huge bag, and I couldn't figure out what it was."
"So, you went with murder bag?"
"I didn't think you were actually murdering people."
"Well, that's good I guess, because I'm not murdering people... unless I'm murdering on the ice," he said, laughing a little at his own joke.
The familiar sounds of Dolly Parton filled the air. He immediately moved to turn it down.
"Are you a Dolly fan?" she asked.
"Who's not a Dolly fan? And living next to your aunt for all these years rubbed off a little.”
This man was bad news, because the more time Sadie spent around him, the more she wanted to spend more time with him. He was easy when nothing else in her life was.
"What's going on with your car?"
"I'm not sure. It just decided this morning it didn't want to start."
"Hmm," Lucas hummed as a little scrunch appeared between his brows. "I can take a look at it when I'm done with this job if you want."
"I couldn't ask you to do that."
"You're not asking. I'm offering."
She bit her lip as her phone buzzed in her purse.
"I'm not promising I can fix it, but I can give it a jump and see what I can figure out."
She couldn’t let him do that. She needed to fix it herself. "I can figure it out and I mean, I can walk just about everywhere I need in Mystic Falls," she said as her phone buzzed again in her purse.
"Do you need to get that?" he motioned to her purse.
"No... It's fine."
A silence settled between them as he drove her to the town square. And her phone dinged once again in her purse.
"Wow. You're a popular person," he said.
"No. I just know really annoying people," she said deadpan.
And to her pleasant surprise a good hearty laugh came from the handsome man next to her. "I know a couple of those myself," he said as he pulled up to the diner. "If you're not busy this weekend, I have a Saturday game. There are usually lots of people there. Poppy comes sometimes because her brother plays. And sometimes Wes Darling even comes."
