Page 15 of Without You

“Welcome. So… everything happens for a reason, right?” The way his eyes travel over my face gives me a little flutter in my stomach.

“Right. So tell me about you? What’s this about your new contract?”

He grins and looks away. “Now that, was definitely unexpected. I was just doing my thing, you know? Turns out I did my thing for the right person and he told absolutely the right person who told a few more right people and here I am, suddenly doing custom work for trucks that will be in country music videos.”

“Wow. That’s crazy.”

“It is.”

“You ready for it? Like, is it a happy unexpected thing for you or is it something that you’re like dang, how do I get out of it?”

“Ha! Definitely a happy thing. I mean, it’s a little overwhelming and intimidating and I’m positive the first time I meet an artist I’ll probably want to throw up but I’m excited, too.”

“I’m so happy for you. I remember way back in the day your truck always looked pretty amazing.”

He blushes. Blushes! And there’s no way I can ignore it so I nudge his foot with mine and tease him, “Aww, is the big, bad Brody Redding embarrassed to accept a compliment?”

“Shut up,” he murmurs.

I giggle and he looks up at me, his chin still tucked so his face is angled down.

“So, I was a little surprised to see you at Hannah’s reception,” he says, leaning back in his chair.

“She just needed bodies,” I explain with a flick of my wrist.

He nods like he actually agrees, or at least understands what I’m getting at.

“Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. Everything is such a presentation, right? Make sure it looks good on the outside.”

“Yeah,” I sigh. “I don’t mean to talk bad. That’s not who I am,” I sigh again.

“No. It isn’t. But you weren’t lying,” he says with a shrug. “I might have been surprised, but it was definitely a good surprise. You looked, still look, beautiful.”

I press my lips together and whisper a quiet, “Thank you.”

“Welcome.”

His phone rings loudly, a shrill sound that has me jumping in my seat, my hand flying to my chest on instinct.

He grabs his phone and must hit ignore because it silences immediately. “Sorry, I keep it turned up because it’s hard to hear in the shop.”

“You don’t say?” I say sarcastically. “Goodness, that terrified me.”

“Yeah, I’m used to it now, but it scared the shit out of me for a week straight.”

It rings again and I, of course, almost jump out of my seat. He chuckles at my expense. “Sorry. Apparently the shop is wondering where I am.”

“Oh. Were they expecting you?” Of course they were, dumbass. They probably were because it’s seven-thirty in the morning and we’ve been here for thirty minutes already. He’s probably usually been at his shop for an hour by now.

He looks at me for a moment then says, “Yeah. But they’ll get over it.” He smiles and gives me another wink. “I had something better to do.”

Well, now my stomach is really fluttering.

His phone starts ringing again, and I jump in my seat, again.

“Someone really needs to talk to you.”

He looks down at his phone. “Yeah. You mind?”

---