Page 21 of Reckless Curves
Chapter Eight
Kendra watched Tom’s jaw clench as he downshifted and slowed down as the light ahead turned red. His anger was almost palpable in the car, hanging in the air like electricity during a thunderstorm. It unnerved and excited her at the same time.
The air conditioning felt heavenly after being stuck out in the sweltering heat for so long, but Tom had turned it way down so it wasn’t such a shock to her and Connor’s systems. While it cooled her skin, it did nothing to diminish the heat that burned inside as she noted the way the corded muscles in his forearm rolled as he shifted into second gear when traffic started moving again.
“You okay?” he asked for the fifth time.
She raised her eyes to his before he focused on the road again. “I’m fine. Why are you so mad?”
His hand tightened around the gearshift. “Marcus should’ve made sure that you could change a tire on your own by ensuring you had the right equipment and the nuts weren’t too tight. What if it was an area out of cellphone coverage?”
Kendra thought his concern was sweet. “Tom, it’s okay. Marcus is not my keeper. I’ve told him that over and over, so I can’t expect him to be there as soon as I call. I hate the way he acts like the great protector.”
“He hasn’t in this case.”
His statement confused her. “What do you mean?”
He glanced at her, his eyes almost topaz in the sunlight. “If he was really being protective, he’d make sure you could change a flat or learn how to fix minor problems. What if you’d gotten a flat at night when the shop was closed and your cellphone was dead? You’d have been a sitting duck. With my son in the car, too. Plus, he hasn’t got his phone on. I don’t call that being protective.”
It shamed Kendra to realize that he was right. She prided herself on being as self-reliant as possible, but if her cellphone had been dead or no signal, she’d have had to hope that she’d be able to flag down someone nice to help her. In LA, that could be a dangerous thing to do.
“I always make sure it’s charged before I leave the house,” Kendra said.
Tom shook his head. “What if you are somewhere with no coverage?” Then he asked the question she’d been dreading. “How come you didn’t run the air conditioner? At least for some of the time.”
Kendra gnawed on her bottom lip and stayed silent.
Tom glanced at her. “Well?”
Might as well tell him.“The A/C died last week. It needs freezone.”
Tom laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Freon. It needs Freon. How do you not know this stuff? You spent so much time around us.”
“Cars are not my thing. Music is. Remember?” She wasn’t about to tell him that she’d been too busy watching him for all the car-talk to sink in.
The angry look returned to his face. “Well, it’sgoingto be your thing.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll teach you how to take care of simple repairs so that if you’re ever in a tough spot like you were today, you can fix it at least good enough to get somewhere for help,” Tom said.
Alarm shot through Kendra. “No, you’re not. I don’t want to learn.”
Tom looked meaningfully back at Connor. “Not even for his sake?”
“That’s not fair! A lot of women know little about the cars they drive,” Kendra said.
Tom grunted. “They should. Especially the sister of a race car driver who is driving a hunk of shit!” He shifted again. “We will start with changing a tire and then I’ll teach you how to check all your fluids. And I’ll put together an emergency kit for you.”
“Tom, all of that isn’t really necessary,” Kendra said.
They came to her apartment building, and Tom turned into the parking lot. He shut the engine off and turned to her. “You listen to me, Kendra. Youwilllearn because I don’t want you driving around not knowing what to do if you have an emergency. Your lives could depend on it. Do you understand me? Alternatively, you could let me buy you a new car that shouldn’t have any mechanical troubles.”
Granite couldn’t have been any harder than his expression, but Kendra wasn’t about to back down. “Perhaps it’s time I looked at buying a new car myself. But don’t you dare think you will start bossing me around, Tom? You can shove that idea right up your ass.”
Why could the men in her life not realize how much it meant to her to live her life her way? To prove to her father that she could survive. They would never understand what it had been like to be helpless against the cancer. She could fight the disease, but she had no idea if she would win. It was important for her to have control. At the moment, letting Tom into her life made her feel as if the ground was moving under her feet. She was feeling overwhelmed, and her muscles tightened from the top of her head to her toes.
Her sassy statement apparently made Tom smile. He’d always admired her feisty attitude. She needed it when she was younger to fight the cancer. “Duly noted. I don’t think anyone can force you to do anything, Tiger. But let’s arrange a time for me to take you car shopping. I am the expert you know?”
