Page 1 of Finding You

ChapterOne

Open road.

Windows down.

Some good country music practically blowing out the car stereo.

Life was good.

Devin Maxwell smiled as he drove along the interstate. For the first time in what seemed like forever, he had taken some time off. For more than four years, he’d put his own vacation dreams on hold while he built up his business–Sweetbriar Auto Care. Every day–sometimes ten to twelve hours a day–he spent working on cars and doing his best to earn the trust of the residents of his hometown.

And it had finally paid off.

Business was booming–to the point where he’d been able to hire three mechanics to work beside him–and it felt great. Rewarding. Word of his work ethic, honesty, and respect for his customers helped word spread like wildfire to surrounding towns. There were some major changes going on in the small mountain town of Sweetbriar Ridge–tons of construction projects that all started because the old ski resort was being rehabbed and re-opened–and that was bringing a lot of new life to the area. He almost had more business than he could handle, but he had met the challenge and was reaping the rewards. And luckily, now he was finally free to breathe a little and relax.

Because damn if he wasn’t exhausted.

That’s why this weekend had been so important–four days of pure relaxation. His grandparents’ farm just outside of Richmond had been the perfect solution for him, a little R&R while spending time with two of his favorite people. Devin knew he was guilty of not visiting enough and could still hear the excitement in his grandmother’s voice when he told her of his plans. And the smile on her face when he arrived told him it was all worth it.

Was it his dream vacation?

No.

Hell, if he could have taken his dream vacation, he’d be sitting on some tropical beach with a drink in his hand and not a care in the world.

And he would have gone away for longer than four days, that’s for sure.

Still, even though it was short, the weekend had been the perfect little getaway. He’d gone fishing with his grandfather, played Scrabble with his grandmother, and eaten some of the best food he’d had in years. He felt well rested, refreshed, and ready to get back to work.

Letting out a long breath, Devin’s mind already started to stray back to business mode. Tomorrow he had to do some inventory because he knew they were running low on some key parts. After that, he needed to put in a call to his accountant because he had a few questions about changing up his payroll program. He told himself this was finally going to be the week he put an ad up to hire someone to man the front desk at the shop–something he’d been avoiding for far too long. And lastly, he seriously needed to hit the grocery store because after eating his grandmother’s home cooking, there was no way he could go back to frozen meals.

Reaching over, he patted the cooler full of leftovers she’d sent home with him. There was easily a week’s worth of food in there, but he knew he was going to freeze most of it and dole it out to himself slowly to make it last.

Groaning, he raked a hand through his hair as his mind was already making a dozen to-do lists while he tried to figure out how he was going to get everything done. The main problem was that he was kind of a control freak–but in a good way. He simply enjoyed helping out with everything that pertained to his business. Hiring a team of mechanics was supposed to lessen his load, but he was still a hands-on boss who liked to oversee all of their work so that he knew they were up to his standards.

So between being a business owner, mechanic, manager, bookkeeper, receptionist, and in charge of any and all marketing promotions, Devin was spreading himself thin. Hell, it was all-consuming his life and leaving no time to actually have a life outside of the garage.

And…now all the tension was back in his body.

“Awesome,” he muttered.

Clouds were starting to move in and it seemed to be getting dark awful quickly, he thought to himself. Virginia wasn’t known for any massive amounts of rain this time of year, so he wasn’t worried, but it still put a little damper on his mood. The sunshine had felt perfect–along with the open windows–but it looked like it wouldn’t be long before the sky was ready to open.

Not the best way to end a relaxing weekend.

With a muttered curse, he rolled up the windows on his Ford F250. Devin couldn’t help but rub his hand reverently over the dash of the new truck. It was something he had always wanted, something new of his own that he didn’t have to work on. That’s not to say he didn’t love his job and his career–he did! But after having his head bent over an engine all week long, it was nice to know he wouldn’t have to do it on his own vehicle.

Growing up, Devin had envisioned himself owning his own shop and driving some sort of classic muscle car he’d completely restored on his own. What he didn’t realize back then was how much it cost to do something like that and the time and effort you would have to put in to do it right.

So instead of the restoring, he’d put that time and money into making his business something he could be proud of.

But every once in a while, he toyed with the idea of finding that perfect car he could set up in his garage at home and make it into something spectacular. Hell, at least once a week he found himself online simply searching for that diamond in the rough that he could afford and that he could turn into a pet project or a hobby.

So far, he’d had zero luck in finding anything, but he knew someday he would. And in the meantime, he had more than enough vehicles to work on in his shop.

A slow smile spread across his face because…yeah, owning his own business in his hometown was still a dream, even without his dream car. Life was good.

“And we’ve come full circle,” he murmured as he saw a flash of lightning off in the distance. Checking the GPS, he saw he still had another hour of driving ahead of him before he was back in Sweetbriar Ridge. On a clear day, it was a thing of beauty driving up the mountain into town, but with a downpour like this? Well…it had been a long time since he’d had to do anything like that. With a weary sigh, he resigned himself to driving the rest of the way home in a storm.

---