Unsteady (The Torqued Trilogy Book 1) (5 page)

Grabbing my keys from my toolbox, I pass by Tyler’s stall. Clasping my hand over his back, he smiles, knowing what I’m about to say as I hand him the application. “Give this to Lennon. And... my sister is pissed at you, so bad news for you.”

Tyler gives me a blank stare as he takes the application, his eyes wandering around the shop looking for my sister, and then landing on mine. “You leavin’?”

“Gotta go get Nova. I’ll be back in an hour.”

NOVA TURNED FIVE
in March, so she wasn’t ready for school just yet, but I just enrolled her to start in September. I can honestly say I’m not prepared for her to start kindergarten. I have enough troubles trying to keep her in daycare. It seems every other day I’m getting called to come get her early or for fighting and her foul language.

That’s my fault. I’m a bad influence and fuck flies out of my mouth more than civilized conversation does. She’s also been raised around a bunch of mechanics. Kid has a mouth on her for sure.

“Hey, darlin’,” I say when she’s walking toward the car. She doesn’t wait for me to come inside Elle’s house. Instead, she’s on the front steps with her arms crossed over her chest, scowling at the driveway. “How was your day?”

I don’t like that she’s waiting outside either with no adult supervision. I mean, Christ, she could have run off. Just as I’m about to say something, Elle’s waving at me through the front window. At least she’d been watching her.

Nova climbs into the car, jumping over the seat and into the back. “Not awesome,” she huffs, crossing her arms over her chest again as she gestures to the straps on her car seat. “And Dad, I’m five. Can I please get out of this thing?”

“No. You can’t.” Twisting around in my seat, I buckle her in and then turn back to look out the windshield. “Why did you hit Kale?”

“I didn’t hit him.”

Our eyes meet in the review mirror. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not.” Her eyes meet mine, her little brow scrunching.

“Then why did Elle call and have me come pick you up?”

Nova keeps her eyes trained straight ahead as if she knows she can’t look at me now. “She must have seen me punch him.”

“You said you
didn’t
hit him.”

“I didn’t. I punched him,” she clarifies. “There’s a difference.”

I lay my arm over the front seat and look at her. “In what world, Nova?”

“In most worlds,
Red
.” Her eyes never break contact with mine.

“So now I’m Red?”

“When you’re mean to me, you are.”

“I can’t wait for you to be a teenager,” I say with sarcasm.

“Me too. Maybe then I can get out of this stupid car seat!”

“Maybe.”

It’s only around three, but I know Nova is going to be hungry so I should probably feed her before I take her back to the shop. We’re halfway to McDonald’s because I know that’s the only thing she ever wants to eat when Nova asks, “Can I have ice cream?”

“Tell me why you punched Kale and then I’ll decide.”

“He kissed me.”

That little fucking brat. How dare he?

“Yep. You can have all the ice cream you want.”

Nova looks around when we’re at a stoplight, seeing we’re heading the opposite way from our house. “Where are we going after McDonald’s?”

“I gotta head back to work for a little bit.” I’m actually not sure why she asked. It’s not like this is much different from any other night. Poor kid has spent most of her time inside a shop keeping herself busy while her daddy works all night. It’s certainly no life for a little girl, but then again, I was raised that way and so were Raven and Rawley. Let’s just hope she doesn’t turn out like them.

Nova’s eyes light up, and she leans forward a little in her chair, her hands on the back of my seat. Our eyes meet in the mirror again, her smile damn near radiating through me. It’s nice to see her this happy, considering when I picked her up moments ago she was ready to punch even me. “Can I play cards with Uncle Colt tonight?”

“Colt is
not
your uncle.” I don’t even know how that term got started with him but knowing Colt, he probably taught her it.

“He might as well be.”

“No.”

I chuckle, rolling down my window as we approach the drive-thru to McDonald’s. “Daddy?”

“Yes, darlin’?”

“When are you going to date? Auntie said you need to get a girl in your life.”

This conversation has been coming up monthly for the past year. My sister is hell-bent on finding me a date, and now she’s using my own daughter against me. Next thing you know my mom’s gonna jump on board too. “I have a girl. You.”

“Oh, right.” She looks at the McDonald’s menu out the window. “I want a toy. See if they have a My Little Pony.”

“You can’t choose the toy. You get what they have.”

Groaning, she face palms her forehead when she sees the menu. “I don’t even like Barbie.”

“Welcome to McDonald’s, would you like to try our new Carmel Frappuccino?”

“Yes!” Nova yells from the backseat. “With whip cream!”

“No, we wouldn’t,” I say, waving my hand for Nova to be quiet.

Nova crosses her arms over her chest, curls falling on her face. “Fine. Get me nuggets.”

Our eyes meet and I glare at her.

“
Please
get me nuggets,” she revises.

After we get her chicken nuggets, Nova and I head back to the shop. The sun is now peeking over the tips of the trees, just about swallowed by the night. We sit in the car for a moment, Nova crunching down on her nuggets and me watching the parking lot as I eat a hamburger I know is probably shit for me.

“Ready?” I ask when I’m finished with my burger.

Nova’s out of her seat immediately and reaching for her root beer next to her. “Yep.”

“Nova!” Colt yells the moment she walks into the shop. “I’ve been waitin’ on you, princess.”

Naturally, she runs to the crazy bastard. I’ll never understand why she likes that man so much. Then again, he may seem perfectly normal to her.

Tyler’s over in the corner of the shop, arguing with Daniel. “Bring it here. I don’t give a fuck.” Their voice carries through the shop as I walk toward them. I turn to watch Nova for a second, making sure she doesn’t trip over anything, her white sandals clicking against the concrete floor.

“Uncle Colt!” she squeals, wrapping her arms around his neck.

I’m screwed at trying to get her to stop calling him uncle.

The image sends a quick pain to my chest. She used to run to my dad’s arms like that. Nova’s the only grandchild and the only child that’s ever in this shop. Naturally, since I work so much, she’s always here and holds a special bond with everyone who works here.

Except for Daniel. She doesn’t seem to like him much. Probably because she’s smarter than him.

As I reach Tyler, he and Daniel must finish whatever discussion they were having because Daniel is walking toward the office and Tyler starts to gather what we need to replace the rear axle in Daniel’s modified. I just hope he stays in the office for a while. I’ll never understand why my dad hired that little greasy-haired shit.

I help Tyler get started on replacing the axle, only Daniel’s constantly trying to help us in the process. The kid knows how to drive a car but working on them, not so much.

“You heard from Berkley lately?” I ask Tyler as we work. They broke up a few months back after dating for nearly two years. After she’d had a miscarriage, she’d called him up one morning and broke up with him. By the time he got home from work, she had his things packed and told him to get out. Since then, he’s been living above the office in the apartment my dad had built there for grandpa when he retired.

“Haven’t heard from her in a while.” Tyler digs through his tool cart looking for the right socket he needs. “Saw her at the bar the other night hanging on your brother though.”

I look over at him. “Figures.” I’m not at all surprised she’s messing around with Rawley. Or that Rawley would even consider her. Fucker has no morals anymore.

He shakes his head. “I don’t know what her fucking deal is, but I’m not gonna keep putting up with it.”

“She ever give you a reason?”

“Not one I understood.” He takes an impact gun in his hand and lets it hang at his side. “Said something about needing to find herself after losing the baby.”

“Wasn’t she only like a month along?” Don’t get me wrong, a loss is a loss, but she literally missed her period, found out and miscarried like two weeks later.

Tyler laughs, just once. “Exactly my point. I mean, I get it, she was upset by it, but to throw away two years with me over it seems a bit drastic.”

Daniel leans over me and points at the brake. “Do you think that’s the right way?”

Daniel’s all for giving advice, but I’m not entirely sure what he’s referring to because it’s not like there’s more than one way to replace an axle. I don’t pay any attention to him. That is until he grabs the brake from me. Or tries to.

“Fuck, man,” I bark, dropping the brake caliper on the concrete. “Shut up.”

His head snaps up at my harshness, clearly offended. “I’m only trying to help.”

“Well, you’re not. You drive and change the oil. Leave the rest to us.”

I’ve got five cars I need to be working on right now. But I also know my dad had a soft spot for Daniel and would want us to help him. Still pisses me off, though.

Ten minutes later, we’re examining the old axle. Tyler and I are discussing it when Daniel feels the need to try to help again.

Tyler and I work well together. Daniel and I don’t.

There’s just some people you don’t get along with, and everything they do seems to set you off. I suppose that’s Daniel for me. I try. I do, but it’s not easy.

Nights like tonight where I’m already struggling with working late seem to be the ones when he gets in my face. It’s like he can tell I’m on the edge and his mission is to just push me over it.

“What if you do it this way?” he suggests, and then proceeds to do it the wrong way.

Tyler steps back, smiling, as if to say, I can’t wait to see where this goes.

I look at Tyler, no doubt my face turning a little red as my blood rushes in anger. “Fuck, Daniel, you come here so
we
can fix your car. Why don’t you shut up and let us do it?”

“Hell, Red,”—he wisely backs up a step—“I’m only trying to help.”

“You’re not.” I point to the left rear quarter panel that’s been pushed in. “What happened here?”

“Oh, well… you know just racin’ hard.”

I nod. “Uh huh.” There wasn’t a lot on the track Daniel didn’t hit on any given night. I’m amazed he won races.

Tyler gives Daniel another smile. “Why don’t you go grab Red here another beer.”

“I don’t need one,” I say, standing up and running my hands down my pants. “Where’d you put the new axle?”

I calm down for about ten minutes, maybe twenty, when Daniel starts in again. This time talking about how he thinks we damaged the axle seal. “Are you sure? I think you damaged it.”

The wrench in my hand goes flying and hits the concrete ten feet away. “Shut the fuck up!”

“Daddy!” Nova yells at me. “Don’t yell.”

“Dude.” Daniel backs up, holding his palms up. “You need to get laid.”

Why does everyone assume I’m cranky because I need pussy?

I get right in his face. “No, what I need is for you to keep your damn mouth shut for five minutes so we can finish fixing your fucking car. And my sex life is none of your business.”

“Or lack of,” Tyler adds.

I point the wrench in his face. “You stay out of it.”

“What? All I’m saying is maybe if you found a way to release some of your tension you may see things with a different perspective.”

Daniel laughs. “Yeah, Red, you should come to the track with me. Maybe you can bag yourself a pit lizard looking for a good fuck.”

Did they really think me meeting some chick for a random fuck was going to make my life easier? I hadn’t been with anyone since my wife and I didn’t think there was a need to be. She was it for me and when she died, the need did too. Or so I thought. And the notion that I just needed to fuck out my stress pissed me off.