Page 45 of Between the Stars

My granny once told me to run far away from anyone who makes you feel like you have to give up yourself in order to love them.

Granny, I wish you were still around.

CHAPTER16

Whiskey Sour

JACE

One drink, two drinks, who gives a fuck.

“Look at this thing.”Granger shoves a flashlight in my face while I’m covered in oil and trying to dig a dip stick out of an oil pan because his ass dropped it in there earlier. Gives a new meaning to fishing in the dark for sure.

Dropping a wrench at his feet, I glare at Granger. I like this country boy, I do, but today, I don’t. First, he’s from Tennessee and like it or not, I have a grudge against that state I might never get over. And two, he’s the reason I’m taking a bath in four quarts of Valvoline. I look at the flashlight, and then his hand covered in blood. Both his hands have dried blood all over them. “I don’t give a fuck about a light. What the hell happened to you? Did you come from burying a body?”

Granger holds his hands up in front of him. “No. I cut my hand. I guess it hasn’t stopped bleeding.”

“Apparently not,” I grunt, still wading through the oil. “You know what, you do this. You’re the one that dropped it in here.”

“Fine. But check out the flashlight though.” He pauses and clicks the button near his thumb. I realize that’s where he’s bleeding from. He practically ripped his thumb nail off. “It’s a black light.”

“I don’t care what the fuck it is. Get this done.”

“Don’t be an asshole,” he grumbles, and probably to piss me off, sticks his hand—the one with blood all over it—into the container and grabs the damn dip stick within a second.

I watch him hand it to me, blood and oil mixing on his hand. “What took you so long to find it?”

“Apparently I don’t have superpowers like you.” Have I mentioned Granger doesn’t have a threshold for pain? I watched this guy slam his hand into a grinder, shave off all his knuckles and not even flinch. Shaking my head at him standing in front of me bleeding like a crime victim, I hand him a shop rag from my toolbox. “You’re going to die of a nasty infection someday.”

If anyone was ever having a bad day, it’s me.

Do you ever want to walk up to someone and punch them in the fucking throat?

Same, bitch.Same. Okay, slow your roll. I didn’t call you a bitch. I just said, a bitch. I don’t go around calling everyone bitches. It’s just a general word, like dude, or bruh.

Oh, and to make my day worse, the office girl who answers our phones, Serenity, I’ve been thinking about taking her up on her quest to fuck me.

I know, I know. You’re wondering who Serenity is and when the fuck she became part of this. Well, my friend, that’s not an important fact here, but if you must know, she answers the phones at the shop. She’s cute, still in high school, barrel races and has high hopes of being a large animal vet. Golden brown curls she’s constantly twirling around things. Pencils, her finger, anything really. She turned eighteen last week and Granger has been trying to score with her since then. At least he waited until she was eighteen. Honorable if you ask me.

So why is she trying to hook up with me? I might never know the answer to that particular question because if you ask her—which I have a few times—I get the answer that Gentoo penguins mate with the same partner 90 percent of the time.

Do you know what the fuck that useless piece of information means about her offering to suck my dick in the parts room yesterday? Yeah, me either. Barrel racers. They’re all fucking crazy.

Just as I’m thinking of heading out for the day, Serenity approaches me. “Hey, Jace, how y’all doin?”

“Y’all?” I chuckle. “I’m the only one in here, honey.”

Her cheeks bloom with heat and she twirls her hair around her finger. “I guess so, huh?”

I pocket my cell phone on my toolbox and lift my eyes to hers. “What are you still doing here?”

“Oh.” She glances over her shoulder at the office behind us. “I offered to close up the office so Lil could take off and meet Morgan.”

“Nice of you.” Am I bitter now that Morgan and Lillian are fucking and together? Yep. Am I jealous Barron now has a live-in girlfriend suddenly? Yep again.

Why? Because they’re getting laid. That’s fucking why.

Serenity keeps twirling her hair around her finger. “Are you heading out to the party later?”

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