Chapter 26
RAQUEL
Life had a way of kicking your legs out from underneath you when you least expected it, and after the last week, I was cloud nine. For one whole, glorious week, I’d forgotten to brace myself for something bad to happen.
I should’ve known that would mean it was right around the corner, but I was too happy to be suspicious of how well everything was going.
A week had passed since the camping trip and I’d spent almost every day with Theo. We worked together on his motorcycle and my house. He took me out on dates that actually required getting dressed up for, which I hadn’t experienced since I’d been a teenager.
One night, he’d even taken me to dinner at a restaurant two towns over simply because he’d heard they had a great chef there. The food had been good, but the company had been even better.
Meanwhile, I took him on cool hikes early in the morning or as the sun set, showing him hidden overlooks and old mining ruins. I’d taken him to every part I loved of Quartz Pass, and somehow, he’d never gotten bored.
If anything, he was only getting more excited about staying and I’d started feeling like something missing had finally been found. After just one week, I shouldn’t have felt as secure in our relationship as I did, but it honestly felt like things were falling into place and I couldn’t stop smiling.
Until I stepped through the front door of the autobody shop one morning and heard shouting. The smile immediately faded from my lips, and a frown tugged sharply at my eyebrows when I realized this wasn’t regular shop talk or banter.
The argument was angry and cutting, the voices emanating from my dad’s office. The rest of the shop was quiet, no sign of Luis or any of the other mechanics, and when I turned to look around, I saw the Closed sign still up on the front door.
My stomach dropped as I hurried in that direction, seeing Avery and Dad facing off through the window. Dad was standing behind his desk, red-faced with his hands clenched at his sides.
Avery stood opposite him, just as angry as he jerked a finger toward Dad. “You can’t keep doing this!”
“I built this place.”
“And now you’re running it into the ground,” Avery snapped, venom in his tone as he glared at Dad. “It’s time.”
Dad slammed a hand against the desk. “I said, I’m fine.”
Well, that part isn’t true. I might not know what they were arguing about, but Dad absolutely was not fine.
He’d been on a new medication and it wasn’t agreeing with him, making him feel unwell and snappy at times. Clearly, he wasn’t having a good day and it looked like Avery was putting his foot down.
“You’re not fine, Dad.”
“I am!” My father’s expression darkened. “I didn’t ask for your help, Avery.”
“That’s the fucking problem,” my brother roared, a vein throbbing in his neck as he shook his head. “If you had just asked for help, none of this would be happening.”
I felt my heart skip a few beats. Dad’s mood swings, obvious frustration, and exhaustion had been bad this week. The diagnosis and the medication were difficult enough. The adjustment after seemed even worse.
Whatever was going on, Avery shouldn’t have been talking to him that way. Finally convincing my feet to move through the shock, I gave a sharp rap on the office door and then opened it. “Hey, what’s going on in here?”
Neither man looked at me, both of them too busy glaring murder at the other to pay much attention to anything else. I stepped into the room and shut the door firmly behind me. “Avery?”
“Retire, Dad,” my brother insisted, his voice dangerously low. “Now. Let me take over and?—”
Dad’s eyes finally snapped to me. “He thinks I’m useless.”
I frowned. “No one said that.”
“I heard what he said,” Dad spat, then spun back to Avery and pointed at his chest. “You want the shop so bad? Take it.”
Avery scrubbed both hands over his face. “Dad?—”
“No. I’ve heard enough.” A harsh, bitter laugh shot out of him. He grabbed his jacket, turned toward the door, and stormed off.
The front door slammed hard enough that I felt the crack of it right to the center of my soul. I winced, then turned to face my brother and crossed my arms. “What the fuck are you doing? You know he’s been struggling with the new meds. The doctor said to be patient.”
Avery stared at the floor, his jaw tight and his body shaking slightly, which was odd. Very odd, actually. “Patience isn’t going to fix this, Raquel.”
“Fix what?” I asked, but my voice was quieter now, my anger and annoyance fast melting into fear. “What happened?”
Avery exhaled before he moved around the desk to lower himself into Dad’s chair.
When he finally looked up at me, I realized he was ashen, looking ten years older.
He blew out a heavy breath and focused on me, and my heart started hammering as I recognized the look in his eyes.
It was genuine fear. True, deep-seated terror.
“I got a phone call from the bank this morning,” he said. “Dad lost about fifty grand in an investment scheme.”
Every nerve in my body misfired, the words not registering at all for a few long seconds. “What? No, that can’t be right. He doesn’t even have that much money to lose.”
“The shop does,” Avery said slowly. “Or at least, it did. It doesn’t have it anymore.”
“Nooo,” I drew out the word. “No. It just can’t… He wouldn’t…”
Since I honestly didn’t know what to say, I trailed off, my head shaking as I stumbled to the nearest chair and collapsed into it. “When did it happen?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay, then how did it happen? Dad isn’t stupid or reckless. He understands money and risk. He’s just not the type to randomly throw everything we’ve got into some scheme.”
“You mean, he wasn’t the type,” Avery said sharply, then groaned and let his head drop forward. “I don’t know what happened, Raquel. I don’t know when, or how, or who he gave it to. All I know is that I have to drive to the bank’s headquarters in Yuma after this to see what can be done.”
His voice sounded hollow and icy panic spread through me in response. “They asked to see you in person?”
“No. They didn’t ask me anything. I asked them if there are any options available to us and they said I could come in to talk about it.”
“What kind of options are you hoping for?”
“I don’t know, but we’re screwed if they can’t help us.”
My stomach turned into a pool of dread. “How screwed?”
For a moment, Avery didn’t answer, but when he looked at me again, the expression on his face stunned me. I hadn’t seen my brother look truly scared in a very long time. Not since we’d lost our mom, but right now, he wasn’t just angry or worried. He was terrified.
“The money in the business account is gone, Raquel.” The room tilted as I stared at him, unable to process the words, breathe, or even think. “All of it. It’s gone. If I can’t get this fixed…”
He trailed off, his jaw tightening before he finally finished. “We probably won’t be able to swing payroll, let alone order supplies for the shop.”
Understanding suddenly dawned that this wasn’t just something Dad had forgotten to do that we could roll back.
It wasn’t just calling a customer to say their vehicle was going to take a day or two longer than expected.
Avery couldn’t just log into our bank account and make a payment that had fallen through the cracks.
If he was right, and I didn’t doubt he was, we could lose everything we’d spent our entire lives working toward and building. I couldn’t fathom it, but as I watched Avery rub both hands over his face again, I realized that it was true.
We could lose it all. Because of an investment scheme.
“What do we do?” I whispered, my heart tying itself into knots and my stomach suddenly just not there anymore. “How do we fix it?”
“I don’t know that we can, but the first step is going to see the bank,” he said slowly. “If they can’t recover the money, I’m going to have to get a lawyer to force Dad out.”
I blinked hard, convinced I’d misheard. “How would that help?”
“We can’t keep letting him make decisions if this is where we’re at, Raquel.” His gaze seemed haunted as he glanced out the window toward the workshop floor, his voice grim and tight. “I’ll have to try to get the business and all its problems transferred over to me. It’s either that, or we sell.”
No. No, no, no. Not that. Please, God, anything but that.
This shop was our life. Our childhood. Our family. It wasn’t just a business. It was where Mom used to sit balancing invoices and where Dad had taught us everything we knew. I’d bet my entire life on this place.
Quartz Pass Autobody and Tire was not only my livelihood. It was my home. I’d never moved away or chased a grander life in a bigger city because I had everything I needed right here.
If Avery sold, I would have nothing and that realization hit so hard that I was dizzy in its wake. “We can’t sell.”
“I know.” Avery checked his watch. “I have to go. I’ll call you, okay?”
He stood up and strode to the door, but when he reached it, he looked back at me, that same fear I felt clawing at my ribs reflected back at me from his eyes. “We’ll figure it out. Just keep the closed sign up for now, okay?”
I nodded, watching his truck disappear down the road just a few moments later. Silence washed over me in odd, unwelcome waves once he was gone, almost eerie in a place that was never this quiet.
There was always sound in here, signs of life, like the hum of an air compressor or the radio playing, but not today.
I leaned back in the chair and looked around Dad’s office, my gaze snagging on the coffee mug next to the old computer and the stack of paperwork waiting like he’d be back at any moment.
It all looked so normal that it was almost impossible to believe the truth that Dad had Alzheimer’s and we could lose the shop. I didn’t even know what life would look like without this place, but I didn’t particularly want to find out.
As I kept looking around, my gaze landed on a framed photograph on the desk, and I smiled, feeling tears prick at the backs of my eyes as I leaned forward to pick it up. The edges of the frame were worn and smooth after so many years of being handled by my dad.
It was one of his favorites, a picture of all four of us back when Avery and I had been kids and Mom had still been alive.
I couldn’t have been more than five or six when this had been taken, my head thrown back in laughter while Avery scowled at me, Mom looking at Dad like he’d hung the moon, and Dad grinning like he’d been the reason I was laughing.
After staring at it for a long moment, I hugged the frame to my chest and closed my eyes, feeling tears roll quietly down my cheeks as I held it close to my heart. God, I miss her. I miss all of it.
We hadn’t had enough years of all of us together. I desperately wished we’d had more. Even just a few, so Mom could’ve seen who we’d become and Dad could’ve faced this with her by his side.
Instead, time was slipping through my fingers, even the years I’d thought I had left with Dad now about to be tainted by this disease. I felt my heart starting to splinter and crack, but instead of leaning into it, I lifted my chin and wiped my eyes.
This wasn’t the time to fall apart. I had to stay focused. The shop was our life and our legacy, and crying wasn’t going to save it.
While I knew it wasn’t much by most people’s standards, it was ours, and I wasn’t giving up on it. Not yet and definitely not without a fight.