Page 5 of Finding Jeremy
“My grandparents.”
“Did they raise you?”
“Partially. I spent every weekend, holiday break, and summer vacation out on their ranch, learning how to ride, caring for the animals, tending the garden, and helping to maintain the vehicles. One of the biggest things it taught me was that everything was a process. A person could have the best idea in the world, but if they didn’t have a way of bringing it to life, it really wasn’t doing them any good.”
Nodding, Jeremy tugged Gray’s arm around him and stared into the lightly fogged-up mirror at the distorted image of them in the glass. Gray was just tall enough that his chin rested on top of Jeremy’s head while he hugged him.
“Pops is always after me to do something with my artwork too,” Jeremy admitted. “He says that musicians are constantly looking for original designs for their covers and that other people might want to have my designs printed on their water bottles and different stuff like that. I’ve looked into a few sites that offer that kind of thing, but the process of uploading even a single piece of artwork is sort of daunting, so I keep putting it off.”
“Yeah, you need to quit that shit and stop looking for reasons to not put yourself out there.”
Nodding, Jeremy sighed, turned a little, and snuggled against Gray’s chest. “I-I guess I’m just afraid that it will sit there and no one will be interested in it. It’s like, I dunno, different, I guess, when I’m racing and pulling off some sick-ass freestyle trick. I can hear the people going fuckin’ nuts, and I can see them standing and waving and encouraging me, which just fuels me to push harder.”
“And you need that kind of encouragement because it’s hard to be your own cheerleader,” Gray declared. “I get that. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll grab a pair of pom-poms whenever you start trying to bully yourself into giving up. That way you’ll know you have at least one other person in your corner.”
“You gonna stop at the pom-poms or go full-on crop top and mini skirt too?” Jeremy asked, the words slipping out the moment they popped into his head.
Snorting, Gray chuckled and shook his head, groaning a bit in between snickers. “I’ll even wear my hair in pigtails if that’ll help you. Can’t promise they won’t be crooked, but I’ll wear matching ribbons, lipstick, and everything.”
Laughing at the image that popped into his head, Jeremy truly believed that Gray would do it too, and maybe even rope Chaos and Haven into joining him, which meant River would get involved, and they’d all wind up with sparkly eyeshadow and nail polish to go with their outfits and who knew what else by the time he got through with them. Now Jeremy wanted to draw them all that way and color them using markers from his anime set. Maybe he’d even frame it when he was finished and put it up on a shelf in his room where he could look at it any time he needed a reminder that there were people who truly, wholeheartedly believed that he could do anything he put his mind to.
So maybe it was time for him to finally get off his ass and start proving it.
Chapter 3
(Grayson)
“Hey kid, you look lost, you okay over there?” Grayson said as he wiped the grease off his fingers on his way over to garage bay number three, where Haven stood with his shoulders slumped and his head cocked as he studied the front end of an SUV.
“More like trying to figure out where to start,” Haven replied, rubbing his forehead. “I tried popping the hood, but it’s so mashed down that the release mechanism isn’t working and I can’t get my fingers in there to reach the latch either, so I think I’m going to have to weigh the lever down and use a pry bar which just feels like a lot right now.”
Gray listened to him sigh heavily and watched him run his fingers through hair that was damp and curling with sweat at the ends. His cheeks were a bit flushed too, which wasn’t surprising considering the heat in the garage even with two industrial sizedfans running. Summer was refusing to ease its grip on the area and had doubled down on the heat as if going for one last hurrah before finally giving way to fall. Keeping the bay doors open did little but add to the sweltering conditions while necessitating frequent water breaks. It was still better than being stuffed in a stifling cellblock with a struggling air conditioning system that couldn’t keep up with the number of warm, sweaty bodies occupying all those cells.
“You feeling okay, or is the heat starting to get to you?” Gray asked, concerned because he’d seen Haven experience a few heat-related issues in the past.
“A little,” Haven admitted, groaning as he headed for the fridge, passing Loki-Bear, the large German Shepherd who spent the bulk of his days with them there in the shop. He had his own personal box fan that faced the large, thickly padded bed he was sprawled out on.
For whatever reason, the dog didn’t like spending his days in the backroom of Maddox’s shop a few blocks over and insisted on hopping out here with Haven every morning. Grayson watched his former cellmate check the dog’s water bowl before adding cold water to what was left in it before he saw to his own needs. When his old buddy Chaos had asked him to look out for his son’s best friend, Gray had expected to be saddled with a mouthy brat, not a scared kid trying to pay for his brother’s crimes. He’d been rough around the edges and determined not to let anyone drag him into any of the prison house shit that went on, but he’d also been one of the first to sit down and listen if someone needed a person to vent to, and he was loyal, which counted for a lot. He didn’t put up with bullies either and refused to cave when others tried to threaten him to get him to walk away when they were mistreating someone.
That Haven had always had Gray’s back, even when the people who’d come after him had been too much for him tohandle, had earned Grayson’s respect, but never in a million years had he expected the young man to have a job waiting for him when he got out.
Yeah, he promised it, but men behind bars promise a lot of things, especially to those who were supposed to be protecting them. The number of times they actually delivered on their promises, however, Grayson could count on one hand.
Haven was different, but then so was Jeremy. Between the two of them, Grayson had never been without entertaining stories, jokes, and amusing bits of gossip fodder until the day they’d cut him loose. They’d kept him updated on the storylines of the comic books they read, the new vehicle models they’d encountered, and the crazy ass foods and condiments that had hit the shelves.
Jalapeno ketchup, ketchup-ranch blends, hot honey sauce, Dr. Pepper Barbeque sauce, he’d have sworn they kept track of when that shit came out just so they could try it and tell him about the experience, complete with scrunched noses and funny faces as they’d regaled him with tails of their culinary misadventures.
While his conversations with Chaos and Reggie had always been more on the serious side, keeping him up to date on MC business and the enterprises that had been developed and launched in his absence, Jeremy and Haven had always strived to keep the tone light and his mood elevated, so he wasn’t a raging mass of anxiety and frustration when he returned to the cellblock. Living in there with his life on hold had left him restless and edgy at times but knowing they would be popping in to visit him had always left him with something to look forward to. Losing hope was the biggest way men on the inside got lured into shit that wound up piling on more time. Support from those on the outside had given him reasons to keep his focus onkeeping his head down, doing his time, and getting the fuck out from behind those bars.
Sweet, sweet freedom. Crisp as the water in the bottle Haven passed him and just as refreshing too. Holy shit these past two weeks have been amazing.
“So, this is what you two get up to all day? And here I expected you to be all greasy and bent over an engine, swearing at it.”
The unexpected voice was accompanied by a bounding swirl of energy as Jeremy burst into the room with a jangle and a clank.
“Should have been here five minutes ago, brat, and that’s exactly what you’d have walked in to.” Grayson said. “But then you’re about five hours early as it is; what happened to the gig?”
“A couple of rodeo bulls got loose and trashed the fairgrounds,” Jeremy explained, running his fingers through hair that had been a lot longer the last time Gray had seen it. “They were forced to shut down, so we headed home.”
