Page 29 of Infatuated as They Come
“You can do it later. Just take it easy today. Please. For me?” I did what he said he could never say no to: batting my lashes at him and turning my lips into a little pout. “Please, please, please.”
Groaning, he threw his head back. “That fuckin’ face…”
“You said you couldn’t say no.”
“And I can’t.” He hissed, one finger stroking at my bare thigh. “Alright, alright. I’ll wait. Since you asked so nice.”
“Thank you.” Hands on the sides of his face, I kissed his lips. “What do you wanna do tomorrow? In the morning I have to go to the campus book store before all my textbooks run out, but then after that, we’ve got the whole day together. We could go for a walk around Central Park and maybe have lunch there. And then on Sunday I was thinking we could go to The Met and spend the day there. That’d be perfect inspiration for you to paint something, right?”
He hummed. “I just wanna paint you, though.”
“You have to get out of that habit.”
“No, I can’t quit.” Strong hands gripped my waist tight, drawing me in closer to him. “I don’t wanna quit.”
“You’re in New York City. There’s so many beautiful things to paint here, and you still just want to paint me?”
“You’re the prettiest thing in this city,” he said, nose nuzzling into my neck. “You’re the prettiest thing in every city.”
My cheeks felt all hot and tingly at his words. “You’ll get bored of painting me eventually.”
“Not possible.”
Chapter 7
Sawyer
Holly had the tendency to be a bit of a dreamer. It wasn’t a bad thing. Not for someone in her situation, anyway. I loved her with everything in me, but she kinda had her head in the clouds about me making it, about me being some big artist who had a whole heap of success. I didn’t even need that success. I just needed to be the man who looked after her.
She was always so damn positive, always so sure that things were gonna work out, and while I loved that side of her, I still needed to be realistic about things. It would have been nice to do nothing but paint all day and focus on making a name for myself, but I knew that wasn’t an easy reality to achieve. I still had cash stashed away from all the art projects I had been doing, but that wasn’t going to last forever.
Holly was busy spending her morning at college buying all her textbooks, so I thought I’d use that time to leave the apartment and hunt down a job. And that seemed fucking pointless, because after hitting up four different auto shops, I was told that the positions had already been filled. There was one left and I was counting on whoever the hell Big Jay was to be utterly desperate for someone who knew what to do with a car.
New York City was loud. Louder than the trailer park that had been conveniently placed near the freeway, where I had the wonderful opportunity to hear cars going up and down it at all hours of the night. But that prepared me for all the deafening street noise as I made my way to Brooklyn, stopping outside Big Jay’s Auto Shop. The front of it lookedpretty small, and the street was lined with over a dozen cars, making the space feel even more cramped. But maybe that was a sign they needed help.
Pushing open the door, I was greeted with the sound of loud bickering, bringing me right back to Cedar Crest. There was a lot of commotion inside the office. People yelling. People swearing. Right back at home.
“Could everyone please just relax for a minute?” A woman suddenly appeared behind the desk, all big, blonde hair and worried looking blue eyes. “Hi,” she said to me, Brooklyn accent thick as I approached the desk. “I’m sorry, but if you’re bringing your car in today, you might have to wait a good while to get it back. As you can see, we’re very much swamped today.”
My brows rose. “Yeah, I can see that. I’m not bringing my car in. I was here to ask about the job ad you posted online.”
“Oh, thank God.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “We’re actually doing the interviews next week. We being me and my husband. Have you applied online?”
“Uh, yeah, but…” I was desperate. “Thought I’d just come check out the place and see you face to face.”
“I appreciate your enthusiasm, but we still need to go through all the applications. But apply online and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!”
A big, tall guy was storming through the back door, a rag in his hands as he gave them a wipe. “Audrey, do you know where Lex is? I can’t find that kid anywhere.”
“He’s probably sleeping somewhere. You know what he’s like.” Then she pointed a hand my way. “Jay, this is one of the guys who applied for the job. This is… Hun, what was your name?”
“Sawyer,” I said. “Look, I know you have a whole process to go through or whatever, but you guys have a hundred people in here and probably a hundred more cars in the back, and I can help.”
Jay’s brown eyes met mine. “Have you applied online?”
“I have, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to come down here and talk to you face to face. I haven’t been to trade school and have no intention of going, but I know how to fix a faulty radiator and how to deal with a blown head gasket and how to rebuild a differential, and it looks like you’re really busy,so maybe you can do us both a favor. I worked as a mechanic back in Dallas. I’m good with my hands and I know what I’m doing. You can trust me.”
He tapped a pen against his desk. “Dallas, huh? You’re a long way from home.”
