13. Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
H e was giving her gifts. What was next?
Maxi knew her initial reaction to the book hadn’t been appropriate.
It was just that he’d caught her off-guard.
No one had gifted her a book—not since she was a kid and her mother had given her books to help her overcome her dyslexia.
The memories poked at her scarred heart.
Her life had changed drastically after she lost her mother.
And there were no more gifted books—until now.
Maxi knew she should explain her reaction to the book, but she couldn’t formulate the words. She knew how he’d look at her differently when she told him she had problems reading. He would think less of her. And she couldn’t bear the thought of that.
But she had a secret that was worse than that. It was something only her aunt knew. It was a secret that she hoped to overcome—she’d never graduated high school. It was her biggest shame.
Thanks to her mother, she could read. It took a lot of effort. And when she was tired, trying to read would give her headaches. That was why being a mechanic made things simpler for her. There was less reading than other professions.
“Could we stop by my aunt’s place?” she asked. “I’d like to get some of my stuff.”
“Stuff…for what?”
“Working on the car.” There was a lot to do and not much time.
“You want to start tonight?” The surprise was obvious in his voice.
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
There was a pause. “Uh, no. Not at all.”
“Do you know where my aunt lives?” No sooner had she gotten the words out than she realized the foolishness of it. “Of course, you do.” The heat of embarrassment consumed her cheeks. “What’s it like living in Bluestar?”
He shrugged. “It’s the friendliest place you’d ever want to live.”
“Have you ever considered living elsewhere?” She was so glad to turn the conversation away from herself. And there was the fact that she was dying to know more about her fake boyfriend. She tried to tell herself it was so she could play her part better—but she knew there was more to it than that.
He nodded again. “Definitely. It isn’t always easy living under a microscope.”
“I take it you’ve ended up under that microscope.” She didn’t miss the frown that briefly passed over his lips.
“Yes.” He pressed his lips into a firm line.
Disappointment assailed her when she realized he wasn’t going to share more. Feeling as though this was the end of their getting to know each other, she turned the conversation toward her car. She was anxious to figure out a plan to repair it.
Feeling impatient, she started talking about the condition of the car. She was surprised by his insight. For an island that outlawed automobiles, she wasn’t expecting him to know much about them.
Owen explained that he’d grown up tinkering with his grandfather’s Mustang.
Every summer, his grandfather would transport it to the mainland and drive it throughout the New England area.
When Owen was a teenager, he’d accompany his grandfather.
They sounded like great memories. She was a little jealous that she didn’t have similar memories. But she was happy for him.
When they arrived at her aunt’s, Maxi told him she’d be right back. She ran inside, hoping her aunt wouldn’t be home.
When she opened the front door, she didn’t hear any sounds.
She was just about to head up the stairs when she heard her aunt call out her name.
Maxi hesitated before heading toward the kitchen.
She stepped into the kitchen to find Aunt Bonnie sitting at the table beneath the window with a cup of tea.
“Hi.” Aunt Bonnie treated her with a cheery smile. “How was your date?”
“It wasn’t a date.” The words were out of her mouth before she remembered the deal she’d made with Owen. “I mean, it was just a casual dinner.”
“And a stroll through the park.”
“Wow. That didn’t take long to get back to you?” Maxi was seriously impressed with the speed of Bluestar’s gossip chain.
“Actually, I heard about it a half-hour ago. Agnes Dewey saw you sitting on the seawall with Owen. And she told Birdie, who called me.”
Maxi realized her mouth was ajar and pressed her lips together. “Then I suppose you already know that Owen is outside waiting for me?”
“Uh, no. I didn’t know. But if you give it a minute, I’m sure my phone will ring.” Her aunt gave her a teasing smile.
“We’re, uh, going to his parents’ place to work on my car.”
“We? As in he’s going to help you fix it?”
Maxi nodded. “It was his idea.”
“But what about your shoulder? You’re not even wearing the sling.” Her aunt sent her a worried look.
“It’ll be fine. I promise not to overdo it.”
“Well, at least you’ll have help.” Aunt Bonnie bestowed upon her an approving smile. “I would offer to help you, too, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t know the radiator from the battery.”
“I bet in your day that you would have made a great mechanic.”
Aunt Bonnie laughed. “I don’t know about that. But what I do know is that you can do anything you set your mind to.”
Maxi smiled. Her aunt’s confidence in her abilities was a real boost when she was having her doubts about being able to fix the car. “I don’t know if I can pull it off, but I’m going to try.”
“You’ve got this.” Aunt Bonnie’s phone rang. “Told you it wouldn’t be long until I got another update.” As her phone rang again, she said, “Well, you don’t want to keep Owen waiting.”
“I just stopped in to pick up my toolbox and coveralls. I… I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“No worries. You do whatever you need to do. I’ll be here.”
She felt bad about leaving so quickly. When she’d made the drive north, she’d thought that she’d get to spend some quality time with her aunt, but it wasn’t working out that way.
She wished they didn’t live so far apart. She would love to spend more time with her. But any time she mentioned the possibility of her aunt moving to Virginia, Aunt Bonnie would tell her that her whole life was on this island, and she was too old to start over.
Maxi raced upstairs. Before grabbing her backpack, she glanced in the mirror.
She grabbed a ponytail holder and pulled her hair up into a messy bun.
It was the way she wore it when she went to work at the auto garage.
The last thing she wanted to do was lean over the engine and have her hair in the way or worse, get caught in the engine. She cringed at the thought.
She changed clothes before slipping on her coveralls. On the way out the front door, she grabbed her toolbox. When Owen saw that her hands were full, he rushed to her side. If he was offering to take the toolbox, she wasn’t going to argue, because it was very heavy.
“Wow. Look at you. All ready for work.” Owen’s brows rose when he took the toolbox. “What do you have in here? Every tool you own?”
“Not even close. But I wanted to be prepared. Although I didn’t prepare enough to repair a wrecked car.”
“Together, we’ll get this figured out.” He stowed the toolbox in the back of the cart and then climbed in beside her.
“You seem convinced that we can fix the car in time. I’m not so sure. I had a hard time getting some of the replacement parts this summer. It’s not like you can walk into any auto parts store and ask for them.”
He nodded. “I understand. I had the same problem.”
When they arrived at his parents’ garage, she did a thorough inspection of the car.
It made her heartsick to see the car in this condition.
She’d replayed the accident in her mind over and over again, wondering if there was some other action she could have taken.
She couldn’t find any other way to avoid the goat.
She tried to tell herself that she was lucky to have only hit the front driver’s side, but she didn’t feel lucky.
“What do you think?” Owen’s voice drew her from her thoughts.
“That there’s a lot of damage. And I don’t know if I’ll be able to get all of the replacement parts.” She reached for her backpack and pulled out her notebook.
She placed it on the workbench. As she flipped it open, Owen turned on the overhead light. Page by page she scrolled through her notes and drawings.
“What’s that?” Owen leaned over her shoulder.
“When I restored the car, I made notes of everything I did. I noted the tools I used and which parts I replaced and most of all, where they came from.” She flipped through the pages until she reached the middle section. “Here it is.”
As he continued to stare at the notebook, he asked, “Did you draw that?”
She glanced over at the opposing page where there was a detailed drawing of the driver’s side of the engine compartment. She had gone back and put in bold arrows pointing out the areas she’d worked on.
“Uh, yeah.” Then she turned to the next page because she hadn’t found the part she needed.
“That’s really good. You’re very talented.”
“Thanks. It’s no big deal.”
“No. I mean it. You could be a professional artist if you wanted to be. Have you ever considered it?”
She’d had dreams as a kid of being a famous artist, and other times she wanted to be a singer, but those weren’t practical careers. It was what her father told her all of the time. She needed a practical job, he’d tell her—something that could put food on the table.
Her father had started taking her to the garage when she was still in elementary school. He took the time to teach her everything he knew about automobiles. It took years for him to impart all of that knowledge.
And after her mother died, her father convinced her to drop out of her senior year of school to go to work for him. Her dreams of escaping that life had died the same day her mother died.
Instead of getting into all of that, she shook her head. “Being an artist isn’t practical.”
His brows drew together. “Says who?”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Then someone told you the wrong thing. You should follow your heart wherever it leads you.”
She couldn’t decide if he was too positive about things or if he was just that anxious to make their arrangement work. Dreams were for other people, not her.
This week she had to stay focused on the race. And the only way she would win was if she spent her time figuring out how to fix her car, not thinking about daydreams that had passed her by.
If for the next six days, Owen wanted to tell people that she was his girlfriend, so be it. After the race, she was leaving town. And this would all be a distant memory.