16. Mac
Mac
I t feels like I haven’t seen my girl in forever, even though it’s been just over twenty-four hours.
My girl. Yeah, that feels good to say. I’m thankful as fuck she answers the door when I show up for another meeting with her dad Monday morning.
She’s wearing a sundress with buttons up the front and tiny flowers all over.
Her hair is in a braid down her back, and she looks fucking perfect. She looks like mine.
We both take steps toward each other. My hand reaches her waist, and I fist her dress to pull her the rest of the way into me.
MJ tilts her head up and I kiss her softly.
She grips my shirt and kisses me deeper, but I pull away.
A whimper comes from her throat. “I know, baby.” She drops back down on her flat feet, her face full of hurt.
Ducking down to look into her hazel-green eyes, I smile softly. “Do your parents know?”
She shakes her head as her eyes fill with understanding. I squeeze her side with a groan. Fuck it. I lean in to kiss her again, still soft, not too deep, and I feel her lips quirk into a smile against mine.
The creak of her dad’s leather office chair forces me to break the kiss and release her. MJ turns quickly. “Okay, okay,” she whispers, and then announces louder, “Mac’s here, Daddy!”
The leather chair groans again and her dad’s baritone voice travels to us from the office.
“Alright, I’m ready for him, Emmalynn. Bring him back.
” MJ turns and smiles at me, then leads me to her father’s office.
I swat her ass as we turn the corner, and she looks back at me with heat in her eyes.
“Later,” I mouth to her just before we reach the office.
“Three weeks until your trial, Alexander. How are you feeling?” Mr. Lawrence asks.
“Feeling okay, sir. What are we going over today?” I sneak a glance over at MJ and she gives me a soft smile.
“I think it would be best to start preparing what you can say up on the stand. I strongly advise that you take the stand, show remorse, and offer to give back to the community. That’s the goal, correct?”
I nod in agreement, wiping my palms on my jeans.
“It’s not guaranteed, as you know the maximum sentence you’re looking at is about six months in prison.
” MJ sucks in a breath, and we both look at her.
She mumbles an apology before Mr. Lawrence continues to speak.
I don’t hear much of what he says though, my heart is pounding so loud.
I silently start naming things I can see, touch, smell.
By the time I get through all five senses my heart rate has slowed but I must have missed a quest ion because Mr. Lawrence is looking at me expectantly.
“I’m sorry, sir, can you repeat that?”
He sighs loudly but asks me again if I have anything prepared already, and I shake my head.
“Okay, let’s spend the rest of our time brainstorming ideas. Emmalynn, can you take notes and then we can work on creating some talking points for Alexander for next time.” I see her nod out of the corner of my eye.
The rest of the meeting goes well. I stay engaged and am feeling more confident with the ideas we came up with.
“Are you busy today?” MJ asks as I open my car door.
I sigh. Unfortunately, I have a lot of work to do.
The shop might be closed, but there’s still plenty to keep me busy—even the cars we own need attention.
The Thunderbird I’ll be driving in the upcoming parade needs some work before I can take it out.
It hasn’t been driven in a while. On top of that, I was hoping to take advantage of the downtime to get caught up on inventory and other stuff I’ve been ignoring.
Turning to face her, I nod. “Yeah, unfortunately.” The disappointment on her face is obvious. “Tell you what, though—give me today and tomorrow. Wednesday, we can have some time, yeah?”
She nods. “Okay, yeah. That sounds good, honey.”
I smirk as her cheeks flush. Looking around to make sure her dad hasn’t come outside, I lean into her.
“Honey, hmm?”
She looks up and nods. My girl has a new nickname for me, and I fucking love it. Grabbing her waist, I pull her into me for a searing kiss. “I like it,” I mumble against her lips, feeling her smile.
Kissing her softly again, I let her go before ducking into my car. “I’ll text you later.”
June 26
I make good on my promise to MJ, busting my ass the rest of Monday and Tuesday.
Except for breaking to eat, sleep, and text with MJ here and there, I don’t stop.
The four jobs that have been at the shop since Friday are finally complete.
I wipe my brow, sweat and motor oil covering my hands and clothes.
Grabbing water from the fridge, I sip it while I send out text messages to the customers to let them know their vehicles are ready for pickup.
At least the books are about to get a boost with some income this week.
Taking a seat on the couch, finally feeling like I can take a breath, I scroll through my phone.
A text from MJ letting me know she’s at lunch with Shannon makes me smile.
Already checking in, she’s so cute. Opening the BAMF chat with Austin and Blake, I type out a quick text.
Blake replies almost instantly that they’re both chilling at their place, so I hit the call button.
Blake picks up after two rings. “Who the fuck calls people anymore?”
“I do, asshole.” I chuckle.
“You’re old!” Austin yells from nearby.
“Yeah, only by two months, so you can shove it.” The phone crackles with laughter on the other end.
“What’s up? Haven’t heard from you since you disappeared after the credits rolled on Friday.” I take a deep breath, preparing myself for this conversation. As prepared as I can be, I share with my two best friends all about Friday night with MJ.
Austin chuckles in the background and I hear a thud before an “Ouch, asshole!”
“So what does this mean?” Blake, always level-headed, asks.
“I don’t know, man. I want to be with her. But I can tell her dad is not about it.” I rub my hand down my face, thinking about the meeting on Monday. He was nice enough, like usual. But there was tension in the air, and I haven’t asked MJ about it yet.
“You could always, oh, I don’t know. Tell the truth about—” I roll my eyes before cutting Blake off again.
“No, dude, I can’t do that. Besides, the trial is just a few weeks away.”
“It’s never too late,” Austin adds.
“It is, though. I can’t do that to Jake. My decision is final. It is what it is.”
“Alright, alright. We hear you. So, what are you going to do?” Blake asks.
“I guess I’ll talk to MJ. She’s supposed to come over in a bit and we’ll see what she thinks. If she doesn’t want this, then I guess that’s it.” I blow out a breath.
“Mac, come on. That girl has loved you since she was seven years old.”
Blake and Austin have both had this story in their heads that MJ has had it bad for me since we were just kids.
I breathe out a laugh. “If you guys say so. But we’ll see what she says.” I hear the crunch of gravel under tires signaling my break is about to be over. “Customer coming in, gotta go. Thanks for the chat.”
I’m pleasantly surprised to see that it’s MJ in her red Jeep pulling up into the garage driveway when I step outside. The day has turned cloudy, and I guarantee it’s going to pour any minute. I jog out to meet her and hustle her inside just as the clouds open up.
“Perfect timing, I guess.” MJ laughs as I guide her over to the couch to sit down.
“Seriously. Do you want something to drink? I stocked some Dr. Pepper in the mini-fridge for you.” She smiles wide but shakes her head and I head to the garage doors to close them so we don’t get water in the shop.
The nice thing about the storm is I get to close shop.
Summer storms in Oakridge are a little wild sometimes, so most of the town will head inside to wait it out.
I rejoin MJ on the couch. “How was lunch with Shannon?”
“It was good. She was bitching about Blake. I guess he’s been asking her to help with the menu for the restaurant.”
I nod, remembering Blake mentioning that a while back.
“And I told her about . . .” she pauses, and I look over at her. She blows out a breath. “About us?” she finishes like she’s unsure.
“Oh, yeah?” I tease. “What about us?” She’s so d amn cute when she blushes.
“Well, um. About Friday?” Again, she says it like a question and a laugh barks from my throat.
“It’s okay, MJ. I talked to Blake and Austin about it too. They were like two girls gobbling up the juicy details.”
She gasps and hits my arm playfully.
“You didn’t tell them about the car, did you?”
“I most certainly did!” I say. She closes her eyes, groaning, but then she giggles.
“I guess we’re even because I told Shannon everything, too.”
I chuckle, figuring that was the case. “So us , huh?” I nudge her knee with mine. “Are we an us? Is that what you want?” It’s my turn to sound unsure. She bites her lip, and I resist the urge to lean over and get a taste for myself.
MJ shakes her head and my heart drops to my stomach.
She clears her throat. “I think . . .” I’m leaning into her, hanging on every word.
“I think yes. Yes, that’s what I want. If you want?
” She sounded so sure, but then had to ask me that.
My girl is scared and I get it. I’m scared shitless myself.
But just like when we were kids, if we’re together, I know we can weather any storm.
I lean further into her space and nudge her nose with mine. “Yeah, I want.”
Her eyes light up and the most beautiful smile creeps across her lips. Hooking my knuckle under her chin, I tilt her lips up to meet mine. We both groan as we open for each other, our tongues tangling. W e settle into the couch, our mouths never separating, hands exploring and touching.