Page 108 of Taming Tesla

When I get tothe garage, I can hear Tess’s music as I walk across the tarmac in front of the garage. Above the music, I can hear her yelling. Conner yelling back. Not their usual old couple bickering, peppered with sexual innuendo.

They’re fighting for real.

“It’s none of your business, that’s why,” Tess shouts, her angry tone followed by a loud metal clang.

“It is my business,” Con shoots back. “You’re my business.”

I step into the shadows of the garage. Tess is standing next to a late model pick-up, rubbing her hands clean with her bandana, feet braced apart like she’s ready to fight. “You’re being ridiculous,” she says, face tipped down, shaking her head. “I’m not a child, Conner.”

“Then stop acting like one, Tesla.”

Her head snaps up, gaze narrowed slightly. “I’m not the one tantruming because he didn’t get his way.”

“I don’t have to ask, you know,” he tells her, a tight look on his face. “I can—”

“If you trace my cell phone, you and I are done,” she says quietly, her tone barely audible above the music. “I mean it Con—I’ll ignore you so fucking hard you’ll start to question your own existence.”

Con, shakes his head and laughs. “Sweets, you couldn’t ignore me if you tried.”

“Don’t bet on it.” Tess squares her tiny shoulders and stares at him coldly. “I’ve gotten pretty good at ignoring Gilroys over the years.”

He just laughs. “Not good enough, apparently.”

Tess’s whole body seems to vibrate with rage, hands clenched into fists like she’s ready to start swinging. “Fuck. You.”

Con folds his tattooed arms over his chest. “Wrong brother, sweetheart.”

Tess’s eyes go round and wide, her face pale like he just slapped her. A look passes over his face—half regret, half self-loathing before he reins it in, covering it all with a mask of indifference. Catching sight of me in his peripheral, he shoots me a withering glare. “What are you doing here?”

Seeing her and Conner fight—something they never do—reminds me of something Con said to me yesterday, right before he stormed out.

Shit got fucked up, all the way around.

“I—” I look at Tess for help.

“This is a place of business,” Con glowers at us both. Being dismissed isn’t something he’s used to. “Not a goddamn social club.”

“Really?” Tess lets out a hoot. “That’s rich, coming from someone who had his gir—”

“You’re fired,” Con says, turning away from us both to slam a drawer on his tool chest closed. “Get the fuck out.” Before either of us can react, he storms off, heading upstairs to the converted office space he calls an apartment. Seconds later, he slams the door.

I stand there, staring after him, stunned by his reaction. When I finally manage to focus my attention on Tess, she’s peeling off her coveralls, like she’s leaving.

I shake my head, mouth open. I’m not sure what to say. I’ve never seen either of them so angry at each other before.

“Don’t worry,” she says, wadding her coveralls into a ball and tossing them on the workbench. “That surly fuck’s fired me five times this week.”

Patrick is a completely different person. Conner has turned into an angry, confrontational nightmare. Declan is putting his mouth where it definitely doesn’t belong, and Tess is keeping secrets.

Feeling fresh tears prickle the back of my eyelids, I give up trying to figure it out on my own. “Will someone tell me what the hell is going on around here?”

After Tess and Ileave the garage, we walk. While we walk, we talk. She tells me everything that’s happened while I was gone and I listen, stunned and silent.

Conner fell in love.

Declan fell into seclusion.

Patrick fell apart.

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