Page 32 of The Interception
“Did you miss the part where I said I couldn’t figure out if she wanted me to or not?” I shove the wrench in his hand and encourage him to get back to work. I only have a couple of hours before I’m supposed to meet Layne to work on our next dish.
“But you wanted to kiss her, right?” he asks and rolls under his car.
“I guess.”
He rolls back out and glares at me. “Kind of jerky to think about kissing her if you’re not even sure what it would mean to you if you do.”
I scowl. “It’s not like that. I mean, yeah, of course I wanted to kiss her. I’ve wanted to kiss her since I walked in on her dancing with Sarah Beth and Lula, but that doesn’t matter if she’s not interested in kissing me.”
Leo’s eyes shift between the car and me for a bit, then he finally sighs and rolls back under it. “How is Sarah Beth doing?” He shoves his hand out from under the car and wiggles his fingers. I hand him another wrench.
“She’s surviving, but she wants to be back out on her own. I can tell. She’s not content, you know?”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Nah, we just need to find her a place she can afford and get everything settled with the estate. You know how it is.”
Leo’s sister and father passed away in a car accident a couple years ago. I didn’t know him then, but we’ve talked about it a time or two. He’s never met his mother. At least, not his biological mother. His stepmother is still around, and he visits her from time to time, mows her lawn, and helps her with odds and ends around the house, but for the most part, Leo is a lone wolf.
“Yeah,” he whispers. “I think you should go for it.”
“For what? Finding her a house?”
Leo rolls out from under the car again. “No, I mean go for the kiss. She seemed interested last night. She kept giving you the eyes, you know.”
“I’m going to pretend I do so you don’t explain it to me like I’m a teenage boy.” I stand and rummage through his toolbox to kill time.
“Listen, God’s timing is everything. I don’t need to tell you what you already know, but sometimes we forget when we’re running for our lives. It might not feel like it right now, but things will get better for your sister. And in the meantime, life goes on. You can see what this is between you and Layne.”
“Feels like this whole situation might be too much baggage for her though. I’m not sure it’s fair to drag her into the sadness and ups and downs of the Langley lifestyle right now.”
“Think maybe she should get to decide that?” Leo stands and drops his wrenches into his tool chest. “You are allowed to be happy and fall in love. I hope you know that.”
I narrow my eyes and glance at him. “Who made you the expert on love and life?”
He grins and shoves me aside. “You know I’m wiser than you, and you know I’m right. The real reason you held back from kissing Layne Rossi is because you felt guilty that you might find love and happiness while Sarah Beth is grieving the loss of hers.”
We’re stepping all in that puddle of feelings I didn’t want to talk about, but since we’re already in the middle of it, I decide Leo is probably the safest person to talk to about them. Outside of my sister, of course.
“So what if that is how I feel? I don’t want to go rubbing a new relationship in my sister’s face. I need to focus on her and Lula right now.”
“Do you think that’s what your sister would want?” He’s not posing this as a rhetorical question. He genuinely wants to know what I would expect Sarah Beth to think of all of this, and the truth is, I don’t know. Before her husband died, she was a sap for love and constantly tried to set me up with women she thought wereperfectfor me. I don’t know how she’d feel about it now.
I shrug and flop back onto the bench beside his work area.
Leo fidgets with his tools for a while, staring down into his tool chest. Who knows what he’s thinking about, but his silence gives me some time to work through my predicament. In all honesty, I really don’t know how Layne feels. She hasn’t given me any indication she’s interested in me, at least, not outright. Assuming I’m reading her correctly…which again, I don’t know.
“I still think you should go for it with her. She’s sweet. I happen to think she’s clearly into you, and you like her. Everything else will work itself out. Pray about it, put in the work.”
I’m about to counter with a pathetic excuse as to why that’s a ridiculous idea when my phone dings. I pull it from my pocket in case it’s my sister and discover it’s a mass message from the organizers of the competition.
“That’s odd. They want us to meet this afternoon for a surprise twist in the competition. I’m not sure I like that idea very much.” Worry settles in my chest. We are sitting nicely in second place, and a wrench in the game could make us drop out or down in the rankings.
“Guess you better pick up that partner of yours and go see what it’s about then.” Leo grins.
“I think she can meet me there like always.”
“Hey, that would be a terrible missed opportunity, but whatever you say, End. Call me later. Let me know how it goes.” He genuinely cares about this competition. I’m beginning to value his friendship more and more with each passing day, which is a blessing. He’s sticking around. That’s a lot to say when you factor in that my formerfriendsditched Sarah Beth and me when her husband died. It was as if he was the one that held it all together, and when he passed, it took less than a month for them to drift away from us. Then Leo stepped up, and he’s been here ever since.
