Page 20 of Screwed (Dad Bod Contracting 4)
“How much do you want?” I ask.
He blows out a breath, tipping his head side to side. “For you? Twenty-five.”
I frown at him. “James. You had to have put more than that in it just in custom upgrades.”
He nods. “Sure. The truck is worth that much stock.”
“Then what are you thinking, offering it to me for that price?”
He shrugs. “It ain’t about the money. I got what I need, and enough to feel comfortable. It’s just sitting there in my barn, and I gotta go out every once in a while to start it up and do maintenance on it. Truth be told, it kinda weighs on me. But I’ve got too much sentimental value in it to sell it to just anyone. So that’s left me in a bit of a pickle—too attached to get rid of it, but it’s taking up space and time, not to mention the emotional anchor of knowing it’s there.” He pauses, thinking. “Plus, the girls don’t like seeing it, Nina especially. She remembers riding around with Renée and I in it. She used to ask for rides. She loved when I’d find a bumpy back road.” He smiles faintly, sadly.
I frown again. “But won’t seeing me in it be hard?”
He’s quiet a while, thinking that one over. “Maybe at first? It’s weird sitting in the passenger seat, weird seeing you drive it. Really weird, honestly.” He makes a gruff sound in his throat. “Sorry. Bad manners to talk about that, though.”
I shake my head. “No, it’s not. We’re friends, James. You can talk about it all you want.”
“It ain’t weird for you?”
I shrug. “I mean, the whole thing with us is already kind of weird, so that’s not any weirder, you know?”
He nods. “Yeah, I get you.”
“Why is it so weird seeing me drive it?”
He sighs. “I mean, because Renée drove it around a lot. At first she was scared of it, like you said. It being so big and powerful and all, but once I got her to try it, she drove it every chance she got. I got a big ol’ kick out of seeing her tiny little ass climbing up into this thing, watching her hop down. But then she got pregnant and it became awkward to climb up into it, so we drove her CR-V everywhere. And then she…yeah. And I just couldn’t drive it myself after she was gone, you know? She’s just…in it. I still smell her in it, honestly. See her.” He adjusts his sunglasses again, clears his throat. “Sorry.”
“Do not apologize, James.”
“I just…” He shrugs. “It’s harder than I thought.”
“Maybe it should just go back in your barn.”
He shakes his head resolutely. “No. I want someone to get some use out of it. I want it to be driven. I want it to be loved. Weird, maybe, but I’m a truck guy, and trucks oughta be loved.” He pushes his Oakleys up onto his head and gives me a long look. “I want you to buy it, if you want it. I want you to have it. There’s no one else I’d rather see this truck go to.”
“Even if you have to see it a lot, and see me in it?”
He nods. “It’ll be bittersweet, but yes.”
“Then you have to let me pay you thirty.”
He shakes his head. “Not taking a dime over twenty-five. And you need something fixed, you call me, not some damn shyster mechanic.”
I stare hard at him—I know he’s doing me a favor, but I think I’m also doing something for him, taking this truck from him. “Twenty-five?”
He nods. “Twenty-five.”
“You know you’re getting screwed on this deal, financially?”
He shrugs. “More to it for me than the money, told you that.”
“How much of this is about you and me? Honestly.”
James growls, but I can’t interpret if that’s out of annoyance or something I don’t have a word for. “Why would you ask me that, Nova? I thought we agreed to leave it be.”
“I need to know.”
“Why?”
“I just…do.”
James tugs his sunglasses back into place and stares out the window rather than meet my gaze. “Truthfully, it is about you, to some degree. But not like you’re thinkin’.”
“What do you think I’m thinking?” I ask.
He rolls a heavy shoulder, rolls the window down with a touch of the button, and rests his thick forearm on the window. “I think you think I’m selling it to you for cheap because there’s…I dunno know how to put it—because there’s an attraction between us. That I’m doing you a favor because you’re a beautiful woman.”
I sigh. “Yeah, okay—you’ve got that pegged pretty squarely,” I say with a rueful chuckle.
He’s quiet a moment. “I’m doing it for the reasons I said—I need to see it go to someone I know will appreciate it, and I know you will. I have sentiment towards it that’s hard to let go of, and this way, it’s still in my sphere, you know? Not like I’m keeping tabs on it, but… I dunno.”
