Chapter 12 #2
“I thought you sold it,” Dylan said, leaning down to look in the window. “You said you sold it.”
“I did,” I replied. The Chevelle looked like it hadn’t been touched since the last time I’d driven it. Everything was the same down to the little black tree air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror.
“Then how did Gray get it?”
“You didn’t tell me you had a sick black Chevelle,” Jesse said, practically screeching. “Holy shit. Holy shit.”
“It’s navy,” I mumbled, still staring.
“Can we go for a ride?” Finn asked. “Does it have seatbelts?”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. I’d spent years restoring that car, and I’d never thought I’d see it again. My throat felt tight as I reached out to run my hand over the hood.
“Okay, let’s give Curt a minute, yeah?” Teddy called. “Everybody back inside.”
“Mom, it’s a ’64 Chevelle,” Jesse argued.
“It’ll still be a Chevelle later. Go. Inside now.”
After a few moments, the street was quiet again when Teddy’s arms slid around my waist, and she tucked herself under my arm.
“So this was yours, huh?”
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I spent most of my teenage years fixing it up. I mean, I spent every fuckin’ dime I made on this thing. Finally finished it when I was seventeen. I fuckin’ loved this car.”
“So what happened?”
“Life,” I replied. “Dylan. When he was two years old, he needed tubes in his ears, and even with insurance, we couldn’t afford it. The doctors were sayin’ that if he didn’t get ’em, he could end up with permanent hearing loss.”
“So you sold your car.”
“Fuckin’ killed,” I confessed. I hated that I’d felt that way. I’d given up a lot to stay close to my boy, and I’d never regretted it for an instant, but selling the Chevelle had felt like pouring salt on a wound. “I’d left it in my parents’ garage when I went to Montana, so I had my dad sell it.”
“He obviously didn’t,” she said, looking up at me.
“No, he did.” I swallowed hard. “I think one of my grandpas must’ve bought it. If my dad still had it, I would’ve seen it before now, and Gray wouldn’t have been the one to deliver it.”
“Do you think it was Casper or Dragon?”
“Don’t know.” I shook my head. “Gray’s dad, Leo, is my mom’s brother, but his stepmom is Casper’s daughter. It could’ve been either one.”
“Jesus, your family tree is a damn spider web.”
“You have no idea.”
“What did he mean by ‘peace offering’?”
“I haven’t exactly been makin’ friends at work,” I told her, tightening my arm around her shoulders.
“You said it was all good now.”
“It’s not bad,” I hedged.
“You know they were just trying to—”
“I know exactly what they were doin’,” I cut her off. “And it was fucked.”
Teddy sighed.
“Dad!” Dylan yelled.
We turned to look at the house and found the kids standing in the open garage.
“I moved your bike so there’s room,” he called.
I looked down at Teddy. “You wanna climb in?”
Teddy laughed and leaned up to kiss my jaw. “Nah, I’ll let you take the first, very short ride yourself.”
She left me and crossed the street, herding the kids onto the front porch as Dylan climbed into his truck and drove it out to the curb.
My heart pounded as I climbed inside the Chevelle and sat there for a moment, inhaling the long-forgotten scent of the interior. The car was just a car, but the memories it brought back were like a ten-year home video of my life.
“You realize you can’t even drive it for four more years, right?” my dad asked as we stared at the beat-to-hell Chevelle that they’d just towed to the garage. “And it’s gonna cost more to restore than it’s worth right now? All right, son. I’ll help you, but you’re payin’ for it.”
“You can’t paint it yourself. It’ll look stupid,” Draco said, tossing a baseball into the air. “Just wait until you’ve saved up for it. Get it runnin’ first, then worry about how it looks.”
“Curt, I’ve told you a thousand times. I don’t want you under that car unless your dad’s home. Get out of there and come help me put away the groceries.”
I rolled out from under the Chevelle to look at my mother.
“Ten more minutes and I promise I’ll take you on its maiden voyage.”
“Tempting, but no. You’re not going to get crushed by a muscle car on my watch. Come on. The ice cream is getting cold.”
“Fine.”
“Plus,” she said, grabbing my hand to yank me to my feet. “Your brother would cry if you took anyone but him on the maiden voyage.”
“We’re gonna get so many girls in this thing,” Draco announced, leaning back in the newly reupholstered passenger seat. “We should take a road trip. Go to the Grand Canyon or somethin’.”
“You two eat twice as much as I do,” Charlie accused, all dressed up in the backseat as she hit Draco.
“We’re twice your size,” Draco said, blocking her swings. “Knock it off. You’re gonna mess up your hair.”
Charlie laughed as she continued smacking at him. “Wrong way to deter me, asshole!”
“It’s not gonna be that long,” Draco said, turning to face me. “I’ll just keep my head down, do my time, and then I’ll be out.”
“It’s fuckin’ bullshit. We should just go. You know the club has connections everywhere. We could just disappear.” I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel, resisting the urge to turn the car on and take off.
“You know I’m not gonna do that. I’d never be able to come back.”
“Fuck it. Who cares?”
“I do,” he said quietly. “You know I can’t do that.”
“You drive drunk again, and I’m gonna give you more than a fat fuckin’ lip,” my dad said, flexing his hand as I wiped the blood from my mouth.
“The fuck is the matter with you? Your mother’s got one son in prison.
You tryin’ to put the other in the morgue?
Give me the fuckin’ keys and get your ass in the house. ”
“I’m eighteen,” I blustered, tightening my fist around my car keys.
“And I’ve got thirty pounds on you, and I’m sober,” he replied darkly. “Give me the fuckin’ keys.”
I blinked, and I was back in the Chevelle across from the house, while my family waited for me to pull it into the garage.
Fitting the key into the ignition, I held my breath as I turned it, an old habit from back when I wasn’t sure if the engine would turn over or not.
When it growled to life, I couldn’t stop the smile that pulled at my cheeks. Fuck, I loved it.
By the time I’d parked it in the garage, Teddy had forced the kids back inside, and she met me when I climbed out of the driver’s seat.
“Was it everything you remembered?” she asked with a smile.
“She fuckin’ purrs,” I confirmed. “Damn, I missed this car.”
“It’s a hot car,” she replied, tilting her head as she looked me over. “You got a lot of action with this car, didn’t you?”
“You have no idea.” I laughed.
“I can imagine,” she said wryly. “Finn’s getting a Pinto.”
“Don’t think you can even find those anymore.”
“I’ll find one.”
“I can’t believe they bought this and never said anythin’,” I said with a sigh, running my hand along the door. “I’m gonna need to figure out who had it.”
“You’re going to have to forgive them,” she countered.
“Yeah, we’ll see.”
“Can’t be bought, huh?”
“If anythin’ would do it, this would,” I confessed.
“Forgiveness is divine,” she said loftily, her eyes twinkling.
“You know what’s gonna be divine?” I reached out and yanked her toward me. “Fuckin’ you on the hood of Roxanne.”
“Roxanne?” she sputtered. “You named the car?”
“Of course I did.” I leaned down and kissed her neck.
“Wait a second,” she said, shoving me back a little so she could look in my eyes. “How many women have you fucked in this car?”
“In or on?”
She just looked at me.
“Haven’t fucked anyone on the hood,” I said, choosing not to answer her question.
Honestly, I wasn’t even sure I could. There was a good chance I’d fucked women in that car that I hadn’t remembered the next day, much less almost twenty years later.
The years when Draco was in prison had been a fucking blur.
“Oh, good. So that’s just for me, then.”
“All for you,” I teased.
“Well, it’s not happening tonight,” she said, tugging me toward the door to the house. “Jesse is probably going to sneak out to stare at it. Make sure you hide the keys. My kid’s never been in trouble, but this car might be the catalyst.”
“I’ll take them for a ride soon,” I replied as we moved into the house. “Do they have their driver’s permit?”
“I have my permit,” Jesse yelled, running into view. “I have my permit! Can I drive it?”
“I’m driving it first,” Dylan said, shoving them.
Jesse stumbled to the side, bent at the waist, and body-slammed Dylan back.
“Fuck,” Dylan yelped as he went down.
“What the hell is happening right now?” Teddy asked in confusion as she stared at them.
“Ignore it,” I advised her as I moved around the wrestling teenagers, pulling her with me. “He won’t hurt them.”
Teddy laughed. “I don’t think I told you,” she said as Finn went running past us to get in on the action. “I put Jess in jujitsu when they were seven, and I realized they’d probably need to defend themselves.”
“Oh shit,” I muttered, turning back to look.
“Don’t worry,” Teddy said in amusement, patting my chest. “Jess won’t hurt him.”
“Say uncle,” Jesse ordered, sitting on top of Dylan while he laughed hysterically.
“I think I’m havin’ a flashback,” I breathed as Jesse acted like they were going to spit on Dylan’s face.
“Charlie?” Teddy asked with a chuckle.
I nodded.
Jesus, life came full circle in the way you least expected it to.