Page 68 of The Inevitable Us

Cornflower blue eyes look straight into mine when a large hand with tattooed fingers comes up to grasp mine. “Hey, name’s Declan. We’re here for a car show and Rory wanted to pop in.” I scan the large man up and down. He has baby fine dark hair that’s brushed back and neatly trimmed at his collar. After giving me a confident, firm handshake, he crosses his large, thickly veined tattooed arms over his chest.

“Well it’s good to meet you, Declan. I’m excited to see you, Rory! Did you work on the car?”

“Yeah, Austin and I helped, but Declan’s more experienced employees did most of the work.”

I watch as Sawyer makes his way over to us from the main house. He nods towards Rory in greeting before taking Declan’s offered hand in greeting as well. “Man, you do the custom job on the Charger?” Sawyer asks, gesturing towards the blue car that Declan and Rory had come in. The paint job (is that paint?) is metallic in the light, and at times appears two different colors depending on how the light hits it. It must be a wrap, I decide.

“Yeah, we did it in the shop,” Declan declares proudly. “Rory here helped. First time I let him touch a car other than his own for more than an oil change.” He laughed.

“So you do a lot of this type of stuff?” I ask Declan.

“It’s custom cars, but I have a regular mechanic side as well. We work on everything from exotic cars to minivans.”

“This a ’69?” Sawyer asks.

“Close, a ’70. We’re driving it over to the custom show in Knoxville. Rory here wanted to pop in and see his sister. Wouldn’t shut up about it.”

Rory’s face turned red and he turns towards me. “Someone isn’t answering texts. I was worried.”

It’s my turn to blush this time. “Yeah, sorry about that. Why don’t y’all come inside.”

Only Rory follows, Declan and Sawyer too engrossed in conversations about muscle cars.

“I have apple crumble,” I tell my brother. “Want a slice?”

He nods his head yes. “So, I moved out,” my brother tells me proudly. “Last weekend. I moved into an apartment with Austin.”

“Where did you meet Austin?” I ask, trying to get Rory to confirm what I already know as I go into the fridge for the crumble.

“In the car show circuit,” he lies.

Removing the dessert from the fridge, I place it on the counter and finally call my brother on his bullshit. “Are you still racing?” I had no real proof, and I’d never asked, not wanting an answer until now.

He looks at me shocked and his face turns red. “No, it’s one of the conditions of working for Declan. He caught me racing with Austin. They’re brothers, Austin and Declan. He told us both if we gave it up he’d give us jobs and teach us how to do the custom work. He keeps us too tired to even think about racing after busting our ass in the garage all week,” he confesses.

Grabbing plates to serve the crumble, I answer back, “It’s too dangerous Rory, promise me you won’t do it anymore?” His shoulders fall. “I told you I’m not. It’s a part of my deal with Declan.”

With a satisfied nod of the head, I huff out a relieved, “Good. Now I don’t have to worry.”

“DoIneed to worry?“ Rory asks, gesturing his head towards Sawyer. “He’s a lot older than us and you seem to be in pretty deep.”

“We’re good,” I promise. “He’s amazing to me.”

I stop to think about the short time I’ve spent with Sawyer. We’re happy together. Really happy together. I’d thought that I’d loved Sawyer before, but I seem to love him even more now.

Rory’s fingers thump on the table while I plate a slice of apple crumble and place it in front of him, and I see him look at Sawyer outside the window before looking back at me with a nod. “You do look happy.”

I swallow my first bite of my own slice and put down my fork. “Iamhappy.”

Mylifeisgoingpretty freaking fantastically,I think to myself when I’m hand in hand with Sawyer, looking at the Craftsman style family home. It’s the eighth we’ve looked at, and I think it’s the one. It’s light and airy, and already feels like a home despite the lack of any furniture. The others we had looked at were ok I guess, but either Sawyer didn’t like the location, or it needed a great deal of updating. This one is in a cul-de-sac off a sleepy street and the kitchen has just been updated last year with new white cabinets.

“I like the sunroom,” I volunteer to Sawyer. “It will be great to go out there and read sometimes.”

“The yard’s big enough for Ranger,” Sawyer says, “and there’s a park down the road for us to take him to go play.”

“Are we really going to do this?” I ask him, biting my lip.

“What? Buy a house? Absofuckinglutely,” he says with a Rhett Butler grin before he walks back to the realtor.

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