Page 11 of Drive Me Wild
“Not having answers?”
“Yeah.”
“I’d like to not talk about it yet. Now that you know, can we drop it? I’ll let you know when I’m ready.”
She reaches over and squeezes my foot. “Of course. Now, I need to ask you an unrelated but very important question.”
“What’s that?”
“Want some of Cole’s famous berry pie?”
“How is that even a question?”
I’m up on my feet and grabbing my shoes before she can stand, mostly because she’s laughing so hard. I pull her up, and we head down the stairs to the yard that joins my apartment with the main house.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a scrap of paper tucked under my car’s windshield wiper. I sneak it into my back pocket and trail Renée into the house. I have a feeling I know who it’s from, and I don’t want anyone to remind me—again—why I should stay away from him. All they see is a guy with a revolving door in his bedroom.
I see a thoughtful guy who lit up like a Christmas tree last spring when I told him I want more in life than what comes easy. It sounds silly, but I felt like he understood something aboutmeat that moment.
So I’ll keep this note and my thoughts about him tucked away where no one can touch them.
Chapter Six: Caleb
Ileft shortly after my chat with Buzz. My mind is racing with ideas for the robotics team, and I don’t feel like hanging around with Cole anymore today.
There are not a lot of things that can hurt me, but being doubted by my own kin is one of them.
Buzz taught me everything he knows about fixing and maintaining cars and heavy equipment, and he is the best there is. There is no reason that my own brother, who grew up in the same shop I did, should have considered giving a maintenance deal to a shop thirty miles away. It doesn’t make any sense, and I’m not buying his excuse that it was all about the ‘optics.’
Even though he eventually awarded me the five-year contract to service the fire engines and pickup trucks, it doesn’t change the fact that he doubted me.
I park my truck in the alley next to my shop, pull the canvas cover over it to keep the dust off, and then enter through the side door and walk upstairs to my apartment.
It’s a simple two-bedroom place. I sleep in the room where my mom and Buzz slept when we lived here as kids. I used to sharethe spare room with my two brothers until Cody and I were seven, when we moved to the house next door to where Cole lives now.
The apartment was a cheap summer rental for several years after we moved since the population of Owl Creek swells in the months between the boat festival at the start of summer and the art festival at the end. But I moved in when I graduated high school and started working full-time in the shop.
It’s been a bachelor pad ever since.
My phone chirps an alert, and I scan the screen as I reach into the fridge for a beer.
Sandra.
It takes me a minute to put a face to the name, but it doesn’t really matter which one she is. I’m not interested.
Summertime used to be the highlight of my year from the age of fifteen until…well…now. But this summer was different. This summer, I didn’t bring home any of the hordes of hot tourists and hikers who came to town. I made a promise to myself, and I kept it.
Chasing women used to be my joy, other than fixing cars and racing them. But now all I can think about isherand the way she inspired me to want more in my life than what I’m naturally good at. And I’m still figuring out what to do about it because no one has ever expected me to want more.
Including me.
I text Sandra back because I’m not rude. Just not interested in meeting up at Fat Joe’s down the road. That rush I used to get when I could make a woman cum, the control I had over her pleasure, doesn’t drive me to hook up anymore. The only thing that drives me now is being more than anyone expects.
I tell her I’m off the market and delete her number before cracking open that beer and working on my new project.
Chapter Seven: Zoe
Cole is dishing out slices of berry pie while Callie, his mom, is adding dollops of cream. Buzz is outside getting a fire going in the pit, and I feel like I was transported into some kind of family-friendly Hallmark movie.
