Page 23 of Thick & Thin

“You’re always hungry,” Lilly joked, wiping the chocolate my dad had given Emma from her face.

“Hungry for you,” Devin responded, reaching out and swatting at Lilly’s ass.

“And we’re done here,” I said, making everyone laugh.

By the time we got back to our place, the yard was full of familiar cars. We didn’t have a large family, but we had made our own little family out of our customers at the shop. Plus, since Lilly had come into our lives, her mother stopping by was a regular occurrence. Lilly’s friend Shannon and her new husband, Matt, showed up. And Janice, my dad’s new girlfriend, had a daughter who was older than Devin and seemed nice was starting to come around more often.

Everyone brought graduation gifts that were going to be super awkward to open.

I looked over the familiar cars, figuring out who was going to be in the backyard waiting to celebrate my graduation when my eyes landed on a car I hadn’t seen before.

A ’66 Ford Mustang GT.

At least the frame to one.

It was rusted, and the tires were flat. The front windshield was cracked, and it looked like it was missing the passenger side door from what I could see, but he was beautiful.

Dad put his truck in park and sat back, resting his arm along the back of the bench seat. His beer belly was prominent in the nice dress shirt he had worn to my graduation. When I looked at his face, his eyes crinkled at the sides with his smile when he saw what I had noticed across the yard from us.

“Whose is it?” I asked.

“It’s yours.”

“You lie.” My breathing was accelerated.

The desire to get out and go touch it was extreme. I had dreamed of a ’66 Mustang since I was a little girl.

“Nope. True story. It’s your graduation present.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, I leaped from his truck and ran across the yard to the trashed car waiting for me.

I set my palms on the rusted hood, feeling a rush of tears pressing at the back of my eyes.

Dad and Devin joined me; I could hear them chuckling behind me.

“Are you serious, Dad? It’s mine?” I asked again to be sure.

I couldn’t believe it.

Most girls would have wanted a brand-new ride. Not me. The old rust bucket parked in the yard was perfect.

“Thought it might be something we could work on when you come home to visit.”

“Basically, this is your way of making sure I come home?”

He laughed. “Damn straight. By the time you graduate, I think she’ll be ready. What do you think, Devin?”

“I’d say so. It’s rough but a nice project.”

“He,” I said, running my fingers over the windowsill of the driver’s side door.

“He?”

“His name is Carlos. You name your cars after women, but Carlos fits him.”

My dad and brother laughed, and I took the moment in.

My life was about to change a ton, but I wanted to soak that moment in and hold it close to my heart forever.

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