Me After You (13 page)

Huh.
How did he know that? I didn’t know that. I mean, I know the garage does well, but
…
“Glad to hear it. I make sure to have the best mechanics on hand. Bikes are our lives.”

“I knew I’d like you, kid. Your policy, ‘We’ll have it done on time or it’s on us,’ is something I’ve never heard before. It’s bold. Most might actually think it’s a stupid move—business suicide.”

“Well, we make it a point never to be late. I know that’s half the issue with people going to a mechanic. It’s never done when they say it will be done. It’s always more expensive than they anticipate. I like to make sure we have satisfied return customers.”

“You’re smart, too. Jerry Drake had great things to say about you.”

I nearly choke. “Jerry Drake? As in Drake Motor Industries Jerry Drake?”

Rob chuckles. “He’s a good friend of mine. Apparently, he just bought a Streetfighter from you. And I’ve been in the market for a good investment business. He seems to think I’ve found the right place.”

How had I not put two and two together?

“I’d like to make you an offer for your garage.”

“What kind of an offer?”

“Well, I’d like to buy it. I want you working there, managing it, but I’d like to take the business end off your hands. I think you’ve really got an interesting concept going on and I’d like to expand it.”

“I really appreciate the offer, Rob, but the garage isn’t for sale.”

“I’ll pay you $300,000 for it. Cash.”

If I had been drinking something, it would have come out my nose. “I’m sorry?”

“It’s a generous offer. But I’m willing to negotiate.”

I swallow. “With all due respect, sir, I’ve never had any interest in selling the garage. I just started it up a couple years back. It’s a passion of mine, and I enjoy what it is I do. I don’t think I could sit back as a manager and watch you do what you’d like with it.”

“I can understand that. But I promise you, we could make Preston Motorsports more than you could imagine. I tell you what, I’ll give you $350,000 for it.”

I pause to think. “That’s quite an offer, but I built this business up myself. It’d be very difficult to let it go just like that. I think I’m going to have to pass, Rob.”

“$500,000 then,” he counters again.

I run my hand down my face and sputter out a laugh.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
“If you don’t mind. I’m going to have to think about this proposal. It’s a big decision.”

“I understand. I can be a patient man, Dean, but the offer will only stand for a few weeks, and then I will take my business elsewhere.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you. Have a nice day.”

“You too.”

When I get off the phone, I lean back in my chair and sigh in disbelief. I wish I could wake my dad from the dead and tell him that someone thinks I have the potential to amount to something in this town. Someone wants to see me succeed.

I
WAKE
UP
to Alix’s ringtone the following Sunday. “Breakfast at Moment In Thyme?”

“It’s 8:45, Felix,” I groan with my eyes closed. “It’s my only day off. I’m sleeping in.”

“No, you’re not. I want some blueberry stuffed French toast, and I’m not about to go to Haley’s and look like a cow while I stuff myself all alone.”

“Oh my gosh, Alix. Really?” I yawn.

“Yes, really. If you’d ever had her blueberry French toast, you would understand. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” The tone in her voice leaves me no choice.

“Ugh,” I grunt and throw my comforter off. “Fine. But this breakfast better be worth it.”

“You know Haley’s food is always worth it.” I hear a click, sounding the end of our conversation before I can say bye.

***

There’s only one table available in the very back of Moment In Thyme when we walk in, so we head that way. It isn’t until we’re halfway to the table that I see Dean and Lily, and I want to turn around and make Alix save me, but I’m so tired of being a coward. Alix doesn’t notice them until we’re almost passing their table, and she pinches my arm as if I haven’t already seen them.

I flinch and hiss, “Ouch!”

Dean looks up first. His eyes jump, but other than that he shows no telltale signs that he’s uncomfortable. I hope he’s uncomfortable.

“Dean, Lily, how are you two this morning?”

Lily lifts her head at the sound of her name. When she locks eyes with me, she’s visibly uneasy. I try to keep walking, but Alix holds me in place, enjoying watching them squirm.

“Sawyer,” Lily says my name, breathless. “Hi.” She gets up awkwardly, her chair nearly falling backward. “It’s good to see you.” She’s coming at me for a hug, and I know I cringe, but that doesn’t stop her from putting her arms around me as if she’s still the best friend I had back in high school.

I wish I could say the same. “It’s good to see you, too,” I lie.

“It’s been a while. Like… five years?” she asks politely.

“Something like that.” I attempt to smile, but I know it doesn’t look like one. The last time we talked, she was trying to tell me how Dean wasn’t worth any more thought. She was trying to convince me to move on with my life. She was the one that convinced me a move out of state was a good idea. And I agreed wholeheartedly. The skank was trying to eliminate the competition, as if she knew he would come back.

“Lily couldn’t make y’all some breakfast on this fine Sunday morning? Her cooking can’t be
that
bad, Preston,” Alix taunts.

“It’s always good to see you, Alix,” he says with an easy smile as he crosses his arms and calmly leans back in his chair. It doesn’t go unnoticed that he doesn’t answer her question.

“I wish I could say the same,” Alix repeats my thoughts verbatim.

I can’t possibly stand to linger here and watch them for one more second so I say, “Have a good breakfast, you guys.” I grab Alix’s hand to pull her away.

“Thanks,” Lily mumbles with a timid smile.

“You too,” Dean says.

Alix leans close to my ear. “That was probably much more fun for me than anyone else.”

We situate ourselves at the far back table, my back purposefully facing the lovely couple. “You could have kept your mouth shut, and we could have walked by with the awkward I-know-you-saw-me-and-you-know-I-saw-you-but-we’re-going-to-ignore-each-other-anyway scenario.”

“But that would have been too easy for them. They don’t deserve to be let off the hook.”

I couldn’t say I didn’t agree with her, but I didn’t want them to see that they affected me. They shouldn’t affect me. Seeing them together doesn’t make sense. And every time I see them, it hurts more than I want to admit.

“She’s trying so hard not to look our way, but the back of your head is obviously a magnet. I guarantee they leave soon.”

As if on cue, I hear the scraping of their chairs against the black and white linoleum floor.

“Cowards,” she mumbles, tucking her hair behind one ear. “Oh wait, Dean’s coming this way,” she hisses.

My eyes bulge and my stomach drops. “What?”

She doesn’t respond. Her eyes remain glued behind me as she watches him approach. “One woman not enough for you, Preston? I’m not sure this table can help you with that.”

“Alix,” I hiss. I could strangle her.

She closes her mouth, pursing her lips, unrepentant as she looks between Dean and me. She’s waiting for me to tell him to get lost, and though that idea is probably the right choice, I’m not going to.

“Sawyer, can I please talk to you for a minute?” he asks, ignoring Alix. As he should. His voice is firm, but somehow uncertain. He assumes I’ll say no but is determined to ask me anyway.

I rub my forehead, trying to come up with a reason why I can’t. But I can’t come up with anything on the spot other than simply not wanting to. But that would be a lie. I can’t lie to myself. I’m curious about what else he has to say, though I know I’m probably not going to want to hear it.

“Sure,” I sigh. “Alix, will you give us a minute?”

She looks at me incredulously until she realizes I’m not backing out. “Fine,” she concedes. “I’ll go order our coffee.”
 

“Hot chocolate for me,” I say.

She gives me a funny look, but doesn’t say anything more as she walks over to the counter and begins talking to Haley.

“Hot chocolate, huh?”

That’s definitely not a subject I want to breech, so I nod and ask, “Won’t the Missus be a little peeved you’re talking to me?” I look up at him. Every time our eyes meet it feels surreal.

When you look into the eyes of the person you loved every day for years and are forced to stop cold turkey, you go through withdrawals. My body craved the touch of his gaze on me. It was never just a gaze. It was a promise of shooting stars and infinity of dandelion wishes.

“She’s the one that suggested it,” he admits, sitting down across from me. I’m not sure if that makes me more irritated. No, I take that back. It definitely makes me more irritated. He wasn’t man enough to come on his own this time? “She thought you should know that nothing happened between us until about a year ago. I told her you probably already know that.”

They’ve been together for an entire year? Somehow, that makes it worse. They’ve had a year of stolen glances and kisses and shooting stars, and oh my gosh, I think I’m going to be sick.

“I really don’t care, Dean,” I manage to say. I’m trying so hard to hold his gaze and remain apathetic, but it hurts so much to look in his eyes when we’re this close and feel so far apart.

“Are you sure about that.” It’s not a question. It’s a statement—a snarky one at that. I’ve been caught.

I pause, stunned by his audacity. “Are you kidding me? Did you really just ask me that?”

He opens his mouth, but nothing is spoken. He obviously regrets saying the words, but he can’t take them back now.

“That was a really jerk thing to say.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it.”

I want him to leave. Being in proximity to him is torture. I don’t know how to be around him. This is such new territory for us, so I have to keep telling myself that he’s not my Dean anymore. He’s Lily’s, and I’m Grayson’s. I know I can’t really say that anymore, but I was his for over four years. It’s hard to think of myself as anything else right now. I belonged to Grayson longer than I did to Dean. That has to mean something.

“I’m sorry, but none of this changes the fact that we should talk. You may not want to, but it has to happen at some point.” He pins me with a meaningful stare that I can’t decipher.
What does he want hashed out? How he left me without a trace? How he lied to me? How our lives will never be the same?
I don’t want part it any of it.

“No. It doesn’t.” Talking would require spending more time with him than I can handle. It would require hearing him tell me how much he doesn’t want me all over again. It would require revealing things to each other that should stay buried. We need to keep it in the past where it belongs.

“Sawyer, I don’t want it to be like this whenever we see each other. We live in the same town. We are bound to see each other often. I can’t tell you how sorry I am that I hurt you. Can we please put it behind us? Forgive me. Forget about the past?”

Forget the past? I wish I could forget about the past, but it’s not that simple.

I don’t know why I gave Dean the power to take every part of me, because when he was gone I had nothing left. How pathetic is that? That I gave him everything I had. It took years for me to gain a part of myself back and, when I did, I gave it to Grayson. And Grayson took that part of me to the grave.

And now, here Dean stands, asking for my forgiveness, asking me to
forget,
and all I want to do is scream, ‘
Not until you give me back what is rightfully mine!’
I want my soul back. I want to know I’m not a shell. I want to know I can be whole again. I want to know I haven’t completely disappeared.

“Fine,” I say.

“Fine?”

“It’s fine. I forgive you.” If for no other reason than to get him off of my back. Maybe saying it will make it true. Let him go back to Lily, let him have his happily ever after. Maybe then I can finally move on if I have closure.

“Why is it that I don’t believe you?” His left eyebrow arches.

“Believe what you want, but I think we’re done here.”

“I didn’t mean to make things worse. I don’t want to make things worse, Sawyer.”

“You don’t? Then why come and talk to me at all? I thought we already established there’s nothing left to say.”

He levels his stare. His temper is rising. “I think there’s everything left to say. You just won’t give me a chance to talk.”

“I don’t care. I don’t care, Dean. I don’t care. Please leave.”

“Sawyer…” The pleading in his voice almost has me backpedaling. There’s a raging war inside me. One side wants to sit here and listen to his voice, a one-sided conversation where he tells me all the things I always wanted to hear.
Lie to me. Tell me you always loved me and that you regret leaving me.
While the other side smacks me upside the head and wants to shove him out of his seat to send him flying across the linoleum floor with only his bruised pride to carry him out the door. The conflict is weighing heavily in favor of the later.

“I think she asked you to leave, Preston.” I hear Alix come up behind me.

He clenches his jaw and shakes his head, but he’s surrendering. “We’re not done, Sawyer. You can hide in the bakery and hide in your room and hide behind Alix, but one day you’ll have to talk to me. One day,” he points his finger at me, “you’ll have to forgive me.”

“Good luck with that, champ.” Alix pats him not so nicely on the back. “Out of my seat.”

He gets up and lets Alix take his place. “Fine,” is all he says before he walks away.

I can finally breathe when the front door closes behind him.

“They really are gluttons for punishment, aren’t they?” she says, sitting back down.

“Can we stop talking about them?” I look down at the menu, not really seeing anything in front of me but splotches of letters. It takes me three tries of reading chocolate chip pancakes before it actually clicks that’s what I read.