Page 39 of Sinful as They Come
I always told Marve he should have just told them to fuck off. He never listened to me.
A quick look at some notes told me the Mercedes was having some alternator problems. Easy fix. I shrugged off my leather jacket, tossing it to a nearby desk as I got to work. I got paid by the hour, plus there was a little commission that made the cheque that little bit fatter. Marve shut late, usually around ten, so working a good four days was enough for me to scrape by.
Repairing cars usually reminded me of painting. There was an art to it. There was some magic. And it let me get lost in the little things for a while. Sometimes I got too caught up in my head… like with Holly. Fucking Holly. I rolled my eyes. She didn’t even realize what a pain in the ass she was.
I focused on the Mercedes that was in almost perfect condition. It was just the alternator that was screwed. I flipped the hood open, exposing the expensive engine to my green eyes. I was good with my hands. That was why I was good with cars and had picked up fixing them so easily. And working on cars let me forget things. It let me focus on problems that weren’t mine.
Two hours later and the job was done. Almost all of the anger that had been stuck inside of me had slowly faded away. Some of it had yet to leave, though. I sighed. Maybe there was something else I could fix that would make me forget about my dad and stupid fucking Holly.
Grabbing a clean cloth that I quickly turned dirty with my stained hands, I walked back into the office. Maybe the rich prick had showed up and I could tell him to pay up and leave.
There was one guy in there. Tall but not as tall as me, with blue eyes that were narrowed. He was huffing, looking down at the watch on his wrist. Dude had a fucking Rolex and an expensive looking suit to match.
“You here for the Mercedes?” I nodded at him, stuffing the cloth into my jeans pocket.
He cleared his throat. “Is it ready? It better be.”
“Yeah. Pay at the desk, then meet me outside and I’ll bring it out to you.”
“I’ve been waiting for half an hour,” the guy said, his voice laced with frustration. “What the hell took you so long? You think I can just sit out here all day waiting for you?”
I rolled my eyes. “Look, your car’s ready. You want it or not?”
“You guys are way too slow. I’m only here because you don’t overcharge your customers. I’ll admit it: you don’t see that often with mechanics. But jeez, I don’t ever want to wait that long for my car again.”
I chuckled lowly at him. “Well, your alternator was fucked.”
“Is that how you talk to your customers?” He somehow narrowed his eyes some more.
“You’re at a mechanic. What the fuck were you expecting?”
He looked me up and down, not hiding his disgust with me. “Just tell me what the damage is.”
I was so tempted to charge him extra just for being an asshole. But Marve’s policy was honesty first. “Well, you needed a whole new alternator. The serpentine belt had to be changed too. Eight hundred is the lowest I can do that for.”
“Fine. I’ll pay by card.”
“I just need to see your license first.” I moved behind the desk.
A second later, the sound of plastic hitting the wood of the desk met my ears. I slid the license across to me, my eyes squinting at the name I was looking at. Joe Sutton. Then I saw the address that shouldn’t have been familiar to me but was…
Highland Park.
Holy shit.
I was face to face with Holly Sutton’s dad. No wonder she was such a brat. That trait seemed to be genetic. My eyes lifted up from his license to look at him some more. Of courseher dad was the rich prick who drove a Mercedes. That made perfect sense. Memories from our earlier fight hit me hard and fast. She had some goddamn nerve turning up at my place, trying to make peace with Brodie after her major screw up.
“Hey, Sawyer,” Marve suddenly yelled, making his way from the back. He dug through a stack of papers before finding what he needed. “You good out here?”
“We’re doin’perfectout here,” I said with gritted teeth, filling out a few papers for Holly’s dad before getting his payment set up on the machine.
“Awesome. Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you that I saw you at the game the other night. I was with the wife and she wasn’t feeling too well. Had to take her back home, so I didn’t get a chance to say hello. I thought you hated football,” Marve said.
“I do,” was all I said. I hadn’t seen him that night. I was too busy being pissed off at Brodie for him dragging me to that dumb game.
Marve snorted. “Well, either way, I wasn’t ignoring you. That team sucks, huh? Goddamn Wildcats… I ain’t going next week.” Marve disappeared back into the shop, leaving me alone with the asshole who helped bring Holly into the world.
Her dad eyed me closely.
