Page 14 of The Air You Breathe

Geraldo narrowed his eyes at me like I was lying. “Boss wants to talk to him. He says he’s not answering his calls.”

“I’ll pass on the message,” I said, crossing my arms across my chest, showing them I wasn’t intimidated. There was nothing to hide except that I was his son. I didn’t broadcast it and surprisingly he didn’t either. He had his heir; he didn't need another.

“See to it that you do. I’ll let Lucio know we left it with you,” Marco said, as he hit Geraldo on the shoulder and they left.

Once the door slammed shut, I turned the deadbolt, feeling better that they were out. I locked up the office because there was no way in hell that money was going anywhere on my watch, but I didn’t think anyone would fuck around the garage.

Most people knew Lucio and knew what he would do if they fucked him over. I washed my hands quickly, wiping as much of the grime and sweat from my face.

“You ready?” I asked, as I walked over to Darcy .

She looked up at me really slow like she was drinking me in. We stared at each other for a moment.

Fuck me, she was fucking gorgeous but why was she looking at me like that?

“Uh yeah, I’m ready.” She cleared her throat while a slight blush rose to her cheeks.

I nodded, opening the door for her, wondering what the hell was going on. We jumped into the truck, and it was silent on the entire two-minute drive. It wasn’t uncomfortable or weird, but I just couldn’t get the way she looked at me out of my head.

Normally the women in town didn’t pay me any attention except those few women who wanted to take me to their bed so they could scratch that bad boy itch they had. I preferred to entertain the tourists that floated through here, less gossip to go around and most of them were people just looking for a few hours to get lost in someone.

Once we arrived at the coffee shop, Darcy instructed me to go to the back, where her car was at. It was a black Mercedes SUV that looked fairly new. I exited the truck, going straight to the car, and attempted to start it. The lights turned on but there was no sound of the starter trying to start the car. After popping the hood, I went through a check list but when I went through everything, I knew I needed to bring it back to the shop.

“Do you have any idea what might be wrong?” Darcy asked, as I shut the hood.

“I have a few guesses, but I won’t have any idea until I get it to the shop and test my theories,” I said, wiping my hands on my coveralls.

“So, it's not an easy fix?” She looked disappointed. “This is Mary’s car. We use it to go to work.”

“Not easy enough for you to drive it now. I’m sorry,” I said, starting the process of hooking her car up to the truck.

“Shit,” I heard her whisper. “When will you know how bad it is?” she asked as she watched me finish getting it strapped in.

“I should know by tomorrow,” I said, checking that everything was secure. “I can drive you home if you need me too.”

“Really? That would be great.” She looked relieved.

“Hop in,” I said, getting into the truck and turning it on. The entire way to her home, I kept getting side glances and I would kill to know what Darcy was thinking.

6

DARCY

The coffee shop was busy for a Friday at seven in the morning. It seemed everyone didn’t want to make coffee at home and came here to satisfy their caffeine addiction. Most people would say they hate the rush, but I lived for it. Making coffee, getting pastries and hearing people groan like coffee was a balm for their soul gave me great satisfaction. I knew it was weird, but I liked knowing I was helping people get their ass into gear.

“I love you,” Jeremy said, as he took a coffee from me.

I laughed because Jeremy was barely eighteen, but that didn’t stop him from saying his ‘I love yous’ and constantly asking me out.

“I was talking to you, not the coffee, Darcy,” he said, winking at me.

I laughed again because this kid was relentless. “I’m pretty sure you’re talking to the coffee, kid.”

He rolled his eyes at the word kid, but he did feel like one to me, since I was nine years older than him. He had just started his first year of college and I knew it was a matter of time before he was chasing those college girls.

“One day Darcy, you will say yes to me.”

“I doubt it.” I laughed as I walked to the register to help the next customer. I looked up to see Dev and his little sister Ava, who was looking over at Jeremy, with hearts in her eyes. When Dev noticed his sister was looking at Jeremy, he scowled.

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