2. Nick #2
I’d done just about everything that I could think of short of a brand-new transmission.
But the old girl didn’t have the miles for all of that, and I’d already replaced the engine and battery…
Leaning into the car, I squinted, my eyes following the cables and tubes as I thought, probably a little too hard, about what it was that was keeping her from starting.
Like the universe was mocking me, the low purr of an engine came from behind, a few loose rocks crunching under wheels.
I didn’t straighten up, didn’t turn. My hand locked around the edge of the car until my knuckles were white. I didn’t need to; I’d recognize the sound of that car anywhere.
“He’s fucking lost it,” Caleb snapped as he threw his door open, stepping out of his beautiful Lambo with a slam of the door that set my teeth on edge.
Here I was, practically ready to lube my cock up and jam it into the fuel line if it’d sweet-talk this piece of shit into moving, and Caleb was zipping around town in a car that was worth more than my entire house and its contents.
I knew that was true thanks to the realtor who’d pounded the for-sale sign into the front yard.
“Who?” I asked tersely. It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy to see Caleb; we’d been friends since before I could remember. But things had been weird between us lately.
Well, since it came out that my dad has been fucking his stepmom behind all our backs for years, and they ran off together.
Though, from what I put together from Dad’s Facebook feed—seriously, did old people need to tell the internet fucking everything? That hadn’t lasted long after they’d been found out anyway.
Turns out that forbidden romance was only fun until the secret was out, and that the reality of losing your spouse was way less sexy than creeping around in cars between business meetings and luncheons with socialites.
“My fucking dad,” Caleb snapped as he stomped into the garage with a wave of bitter, oversteeped tea floating on the heavy, humid air. “Acts like you’re the devil, too. Grow up, asshole. It’s not like you’re the one who fucked Mom.”
My nose wrinkled at the stifling scent of his bad mood, and I forced a laugh I didn’t feel. “I wouldn’t stick my dick in your ugly mother if you paid me.”
I looked up just in time to catch Caleb’s stifled laugh. He was just as angry, if not angrier, with them than I was. Obviously, since that comment would’ve earned me a tire iron to the back of the head just about any other time.
“It’s fucking hot in here.”
“A bit of a waste to have an AC somewhere that is 90% door.”
Caleb missed the sarcasm in my tone; he was busy touching everything on my work cart, the glass of the fuses tinkling softly as he organized my wrenches by size. His grasp was light, picking most things up with only a couple fingers, obviously afraid of getting his soft hands dirty.
“Ah, fuck…” I muttered, glancing back into the engine to confirm my suspicions.
Yep, I’d forgotten to put the fuel pump fuse back in.
Ryker was right, well, half-right. Not that I was gonna tell the smug bastard that. I’d never hear the goddamn end of it.
Rolling my eyes at my own carelessness, I put my hand out, palm up toward Caleb. “Hand me that relay fuse, would you?”
The alpha looked at the items on the cart like he’d never seen any of them before.
“Uh, yeah, for sure…”
“Looks like a little ugly plug,” I offered, a little bitterly. Adding, “Pendejo....” under my breath for good measure.
Fuck me, it must be nice to be able to pay someone for whatever you needed. I wasn’t sure if Caleb would even know how to bang in a nail. For a guy whose father worked so closely with cars, he was pretty clueless when it came to even the most basic maintenance.
“Right!” he said, a little embarrassed as he picked it up, handing it over.
Our fingers brushed, and instead of the depraved flutter that usually accompanied closeness with my best friend, it was awkward.
Stiff.
Things had been fucked since the affair came out. And even though I was pretty pissed about what it did to my sister, I was angriest about what’d happened to Caleb and me.
Just a few months ago, I told him everything… and now? Now it was like I was looking at a stranger wearing my best friend's face.
That shit stung way worse than getting left.
Maybe not quite as much as losing my house though.
“Can you get in and turn the key?”
“Think you’ll actually get it to run?” Caleb asked as he rounded me, clearly relieved that I was asking him for something that didn’t make him look like an idiot.
I quickly popped the little fuse in, letting out the breath I’d been holding until he was far enough that his pheromones weren’t entirely flooding my nose. “Pretty sure.”
The other alpha slid into the front seat, and a long stretch of silence followed that made me look around the open hood.
“Are you turning the key?”
“I can’t drive manual,” Caleb muttered, his handsome face pinching uncomfortably. “I’m not sure…”
I groaned, coming around to give him a little shove, and the alpha climbed over the center console to get into the passenger’s side as I checked my e-brake and put my foot on the clutch, turning the key.
The engine sputtered, snarled—and then purred to life, our seats vibrating slightly as the car waited for me to put it in drive.
I should’ve felt happy.
Should’ve felt… anything.
But as Caleb grabbed my arm, shouting with excitement, I could barely make out the words. It was like he was talking to me in a foreign fuckin’ language.
As much as I hated my dad right now, he should’ve been here not just for this, but for Nina’s graduation coming this spring. Our lives were moving on in leaps and big life moments, and his selfish ass was missing all of it.
It fuckin’ pissed me off.
“—Let's take her for a spin!”
At least that came through clear, Caleb’s wide smile feeling like coming home after a trip that’d gone on way too long.
I’d almost forgotten what it looked like, the slight point of his incisors that added the faintest hint of danger to his grin, it’d been so long since I’d seen it.
Maybe I was the one making everything weird.
Maybe if I just let go, for even a couple hours, we could fix whatever fucked up mess had been made of our friendship.
“Uh, yeah,” I said and hopped out of the car, fumbling a little to close the hood.
I took a second to breathe deeply, trying to calm the warring emotions making my chest feel tight, and got a lungful of mouthwateringly sweet earl grey.
Fuck.
My cock stiffened in my jeans, and I shifted, clicking my seat belt into place as I rejoined Caleb in the front seat.
It wasn’t just the family stuff that’d driven a wedge between us. My stupid fuckin’ feelings were getting harder to hide, and I wasn’t sure how much longer we even had before Caleb figured me out.
I pulled out of the garage and into the street, letting out a breath of relief as the engine continued to propel us forward.
At least I didn’t have to deal with the awkwardness that would’ve come from the car shitting the bed immediately after she’d turned on. It would’ve just been another in a long line of Caleb watching me fail at shit, and I couldn’t handle that right now.
Turning to my friend, pretending that one good whiff of his pheromones wasn’t enough to give me a god damn partial, I grinned, nodding toward the open road.
“Where to?”