Page 23 of Baby Blue
“No, sir.”
“I owned a chain of car dealerships. Still own them, actually,” he said, and Blue was shocked. No one had ever told him that. Maybe none of them knew. “The Vanguard auto dealerships here? Headquartered over in the HoustonCounty part of Macon?”
God, they were huge! And Blue was shocked. “So I don’t understand, sir. Why are you bringing your car to Turner’s?”
“Because my son runs the dealerships now and all he hires in his service department are book-learned idiots! They don’t know jack shit about cars,” he said, and Blue was stunned to hear him talk that way. In all the time he’d known Mr.Wentworth, he’d never heard a foul word come from the old man’s mouth, but apparently when he got cranked up, he let ’er rip. “Oh, yeah, they’re all ASE certified, but there’s not a damn one of them that can drive a car and tell if there’s anything wrong with it. If the computer doesn’t show them a code, they don’t know what to do. Know what I mean?”
“Yes, sir, I do.”
“You know anything about these on-board computers?” Mr.Wentworth asked.
“Yes, sir. Just enough to be dangerous,” Blue said with a snicker.
Mr. Wentworth chuckled. “At least you’re honest about it.” Blue couldn’t figure out where the conversation was going until Mr.Wentworth said, “Blue, I want you to come to work for the dealership. The pay will be?”
“But I’m not ASE certified, sir,” Blue explained. “And I know that’s important, but I can’t afford?”
“We’ll pay for that. So you think about it. And you could get away from that foul man you work for. My god, he’s a piece of shit,” Mr.Wentworth said under his breath, and Blue started to laugh. He couldn’t help it. The old gentleman had just summed up Turner in three words. “Well, he is!” Mr.Wentworth said to Blue’s laughter, and then he started to laugh too. The two of them laughed for a good minute before he said again, “Think about it, Blue. You deserve better than that. You’re a damn fine mechanic, and your talents are going to waste there. What about your wife and kids? Don’t you want to do better for them?”
Blue sobered instantly. Then he pulled out his phone and brought up the picture. Handing the phone to Mr.Wentworth, he said, “That’s my daughter, Indigo.”
“What a beautiful baby! So precious! How old is she?”
“About six months.” Without thinking, he added, “I just got her Saturday.”
He was afraid he’d just messed up, judging by the look on Mr.Wentworth’s face. “What do you mean, just got her on Saturday?”
“Her mother left her in a basket on my porch. I didn’t know about her until then,” he said in explanation, and Mr.Wentworth’s mouth fell open. “Yeah. That was my initial reaction too,” Blue added.
“Wow. Well, son, you’re a better man than I. I probably would’ve called the police to take her away. Are you married?”
“No, sir.”
“Doing this alone?”
Blue tried to think of a way to explain it. “My next-door neighbor is a nurse. She and her kids are helping me,” he said, hoping it didn’t sound too pathetic.
“Good woman. That’s great. And she looks happy and healthy. You look happy in that picture too,” he said, handing Blue’s phone back. “I’ve always sensed you didn’t have an easy time of it growing up.”
“I didn’t. But I’m not going to let that happen to her,” Blue announced, and he was surprised at the strength in his own voice.
“Good man. If you decide to take me up on the offer, just let me know. I’ll tell my son to piss off and hire you myself,” Mr.Wentworth said with a grin. “Now let’s get back before Turner gets all crazy again.”
“Yes, sir,” Blue told him and turned the key in the ignition. They chatted about benign things on the way back. When he waved goodbye to Mr.Wentworth, he felt a familiar yet grating presence at his side.
“Thought you were going to fix his car,” Turner said, his voice snippy.
“Nothing wrong with it as far as I can tell,” Blue answered.
“Then you wasted almost an hour for nothing. You should’ve charged him for diagnostics,” Turner said.
“There were no diagnostics. I just drove it. Told him it’s the crowned roads around here that make it feel like it’s pulling to the side. That’s all.”
“Give him another freebie,” Turner said, “and I’ll be free of you. Understand me?”
Blue had taken about all he could take. “Yeah. I understand you. But it’s hard for me to be as much of an asshole as you are, Turner. Doesn’t come naturally for me like it does for you.”
“Shut up, Wallace, and get back to work. You’ve wasted enough of my time already.” With that, Turner stumped back to his office and slammed the door shut behind him.
