Chapter Eight
Simon
I stare at her with a brutal discomfort building in my chest. Until last night, we hadn’t seen each other since the hospital.
Vivian had fled, running back home. I suppose the sight of me had been too much for her.
She was so damn angry, and normally I would brush it off, but I can’t.
It’s too fucking much to bear. Her sadness is killing me.
I’m not sure why I have this pain, so I push it away because a headache starts to hammer through my skull. Digging in my pocket, I open my bottle and pop two pills and then go back to my work.
I focus on the way my hands easily turn the wrench and not on the way her eyes had slanted with painful sadness. I look over at my father, giving him a simple nod, which sends him over to me. In a whisper, I ask him, “Hey, Pops, what is she doing here?”
“Her dad wants me to help her learn about the books for her classes.” I wonder what she is taking this last semester.
Then I recall she isn’t taking any math, so what’s the real reason she’s here?
I already know the damn answer. My parents are trying their best to fix us—to fix me.
The last broken piece of me. The part that even I know only Vivian can mend.
Maybe I’ll never remember what happened that weekend, but it doesn’t matter as much as learning how to win Vivian.
To remember why she was so furious with me, more than any other time before.
“Oh,” I mutter. My lips clamp together as I duck my head down toward the bike, refusing to look at her.
He grasps my shoulder and gives it a squeeze.
“You need to focus on school. Everything missing will come to you. Just give it some time. She’s not going to linger down here.
I’m taking her upstairs.” Upstairs, where he takes Mom to screw?
An unexplainable possessive feeling comes over me, and I grow angry.
“Into the office?” I question, dropping my wrench.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean, Son?” he sneers, giving me a scowl.
“Nothing. Just nothing.” Jealousy—a foolish sense of jealousy tears at my gut. There’s no reason for it because my dad is obsessed with my mother, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still suffering from those emotions.
“Yeah, that’s right. Go get to work,” he says with a chuckle.
My alarm goes off, reminding me it’s time to turn on the cameras and check in with my instructor for class.
My presentation with my teacher goes well for the first fifteen minutes, until I catch his gaze shift behind me.
I pause in my explanation and turn my head to see Vivian walking up to Petrol with some paperwork.
He’s nodding, and they’re talking. A low rumble comes from my chest.
“Mr. West? Mr. West,” I hear my professor call out.
Finally my attention is returned to the screen. “I see you are easily distracted.”
“I wasn’t the one initially distracted.”
“She was lingering in the camera’s view. I assumed she needed something,” he snipes back as if I offended him, and perhaps he’d been correct. Vivian was probably looking around to find Petrol and caught the instructor’s attention. I’m just overreacting.
“Have you found out who caused your accident?”
“No. We don’t have any access to the cameras, so we can’t determine if there was a busted-up vehicle, and I’m sure they’re protecting their own up there.”
“Probably someone with a lot to lose. Can you determine what type of vehicle?”
“I don’t remember the incident, but from the injuries, it was definitely a freaking SUV.”
“So it should have a smashed hood and front end, at the very least.”
“Yeah. No doubt.” I didn’t tell anyone that I had a Ford logo imprinted on my shoulder for a few weeks.
“Well, I hope you find them soon.”
“Thank you. Me too. So, with regard to my assignment?”
“It looks great. You’re proving why you’re first in your class, even after everything you’ve been through.
Keep it up. I’ll check in next week. That one will be in person, so it’s going to be at four instead of the usual office hours session.
” I would claim it’s due to Vivian, but it was already on our schedules.
“Thank you.”
“Have a good day, Simon.” He ends the session first, and then I turn off all my monitors and clean up my space because I have three oil changes that are calling my name before lunch.
I can’t help but twist my head around to see if Vivian is still near Petrol, but she’s nowhere in sight, so I’m assuming she’s back in the office.
I get my ass back to work and keep my mind focused because that’s the only thing that gets me through the day.
The idea of Vivian talking to the other mechanics with her sexy body and gorgeous face…
I’m going to want to smash something or someone’s face.
“Careful, Son. You’re going to actually crack that wrench,” my dad says with a chuckle.
“Sorry, just thinking…”
“Well, I don’t pay you to think. How many oil changes do you have left?”
“One.”
“Your lunch is going to get cold if your ass doesn’t get moving.
” He pats my shoulder and laughs before walking away.
There’s no sympathy anymore. It’s back to work for me, and I smile because it’s just what I need.
I decide to skip lunch and knock out the oil change and two rotations as well as fixing two belt replacements.
It takes me a little longer to do one because the fucker is in a tricky spot, but I get it done before two, and then I go around hunting for a drink. I’m thirsty as fuck.
I walk into the breakroom and see Petrol talking to Vivian again. “Don’t you have work to do?”
“I’m on a break,” Vivian says. Petrol takes off without daring to challenge me. He knows damn well that I’m not asking him a damn thing. This is my family business, which means it’s mine, and although Vivian doesn’t know it yet, she’s mine too.
“Scaring off the guys?”
“They should be working, not trying to get you alone.” She blushes, looking so damn beautiful that I’m doing my best to keep myself back and not give in to the longing that I have for her.
“Please, you’re overreacting, Simon. They are just helping me with questions I have.”
“If you have questions, you come to me. Okay?”
“You’re busy. You have a lot going on.”
I close the distance between us, sliding my fingers under her chin, cradling her jaw when I say, “I don’t care. You come to me.”
“Yes, Simon.”
“Good girl. Now, excuse me. I’m thirsty, and as luscious as your lips are, now isn’t the time.
” I gently push away from her and go to the fridge, snagging a bottle of water, twisting off the cap and guzzling it down quickly.
The sound of her shoes padding away is the only thing saving her because now that I’ve quenched one thirst, my body needs to slake the other.
Ignoring the lust and jealousy that dominates me, I work even harder than before, making sure that I knock out most of the solo projects. It’s almost three when I meet up with Axel and Petrol, who are working on a classic Mustang that needs a full rebuild.
“We’re glad you’re here. We could use your help.”
“I’m finally done with my list.”
“Did you hand all your paperwork in?” my father asks as he comes up behind me, handing me a sandwich.
“Don’t think I didn’t notice you didn’t eat.
Any other time, I’d let that shit go, but you’re on meds, Son, and that can’t happen.
We’ve all had injuries and know that you can’t do that shit.
Eat, help these guys for an hour, and then get your paperwork to Vivian.
She’s got a lot to learn, and we don’t need to make her job harder than it is. ”
“I understand, Pops.” The fucks around me smirk until he scowls. I muscle down the rest of my sandwich while my father lays into these assholes.
“That goes for you shits too. Any trouble out of you guys, and you’ll find your asses unemployed and my foot up your rears.”
“You got it, Wrench.” We all get back to work for over two hours before I remember that I owe Vivian paperwork and am going to get chewed out.
The customers receive their copies, but there are things I need to submit to the office.
Most of it is done on paper so we don’t ruin the tablets with oily or greasy hands.
Fuck—not only was I going to have to face the love of my life, but now the wrath of my parents.
I rush to my station and snag all the filed paperwork in my organizer on my desk that my mother set up for me and then take the stairs two at a time.
Knocking on the door is a standard operating procedure if you don’t want your eyeballs ripped out of your head, or in my case, ripping them out myself.
My parents have enjoyed many passionate moments in there.
Hell, I might have been conceived in the office.
A fucked-up vision of bending Vivian over the desk and joining the family tradition is something I can actually get behind.
“Come in,” she calls out, and my hand just lingers on the knob like I’m terrified to open up. Since I take too damn long, she whips the door open. “Simon,” she gasps.
I rub the back of my neck. “Sorry. I know I’m behind with the paperwork.”
“Well, come in here already.” She steps out of the way.
“My parents aren’t in here?”
“No, they stepped out for a bit.” She gives me a knowing smirk, and I know damn well that they needed their afternoon delight. Shaking my head, I laugh and hand her the documents. “So are these all the ones you had today?”
“Yes, but there’s no charge on Mrs. Colson.”
“Yes, your father has a note for me on that one. I’ve already worked on preliminary reports, but I need these.” She takes the papers from me and walks back to the desk, taking a seat and organizing them in some sort of system.
“You’ve got everything under control already, it seems,” I remark, impressed at the way she moves around the desk with ease. I’ve tried to keep things neat so my mother doesn’t ring my neck, but when I’m left in charge, nothing looks that organized.
“Hardly. I’m over my head, but your parents are extremely laid back and are giving so much grace.”
“Nah, they know you’ve got this.”
“Thanks,” she says, biting down on her bottom lip.
“Well, I need to get back to work.” I rush out of the door like a fool just as she opens her mouth to say something. I turn back, needing to see her again.