Page 61 of Something Good
34
SAMMY
The color drained outof Will’s face at my words, and the lust I’d seen in his eyes gave way to panic. I hadn’t meant to call him golden boy. It had just popped out. I’d never stopped thinking of him that way.
“I can’t do this.” Abruptly, he turned and reached for the door handle on his truck.
“Wait!” I called, and he paused, closing his eyes and dropping his chin to his chest. The sound of a low whine caught my attention, and it was then I noticed a golden retriever standing at Will’s feet, leaning into him.
On instinct, I dropped to a crouch, holding my hand out to the pup, who looked torn between loyalty to its owner and the excitement of making a new friend. I twitched my fingers, and with only another moment of hesitation, the dog gave an almost apologetic look to Will, then trotted over to me, tail wagging in delight.
As I was treated to doggy kisses and aggressive nuzzling, I kept my eyes on Will. If I hadn’t known he was coming out here today, I almost wouldn’t have recognized him. His hair was longer, though still worn in one of those styles that was supposedto look effortless but I suspected was achieved with the help of some sort of product. And though I hadn’t seen it coming, the neatly trimmed beard he was sporting was hot as fuck. His eyes, though, those blue eyes were the same. And right now, they were locked with mine as he released the door handle and cautiously walked toward us.
“Her name’s Goldie,” he said as if that was some sort of peace offering. It amused me that mygoldenboy had adopted agoldenretriever, but I didn’t think now was the time to point that out. Not when he was standing there looking like he was ready to bolt.
I stood slowly, afraid of making the wrong move. I hadn’t been sure I’d want to see him again. I had wrestled with it until I’d texted him in the middle of the night earlier in the week. And even after he’d accepted, I’d thought of a dozen excuses to cancel in the days between. But now that he was standing here in front of me, I found I didn’t want him to go.
“Do you want to see the shop? You drove out here, you might as well…”
He nodded, and I gestured him inside. I caught a whiff of his scent as he passed me by, and something clenched in my gut. He smelled like…him.His body wash and deodorant and laundry detergent had probably changed over the years, but underlying all of that was that scent that was uniquely, unmistakablyWill.
He looked over his shoulder with one eyebrow raised, and I realized I hadn’t moved from my spot. Quickly, I strode forward, shaking off the odd mix of sentimentality and lust that had coursed through me, trying to concentrate on the task at hand.
We started at one end of the shop, moving our way down one side and back up the other. I showed him my welding equipment, the grinders and sanders I used to add texture and polish to my pieces, cutters of various shapes and sizes, scraps of metal ranging from large sheets to smaller odds and ends,and a massive tool kit I used both in my sculpture work and on the cars I tinkered with from time to time. It had started as a small kit gifted to me by Julio after I’d celebrated my one-year anniversary of working for him in his auto shop, and I’d added to it over the years as I’d had need to expand it.
Will caught sight of the picture of Julio and me that I’d tacked up on the wall above the tool station. I’d put it there because I wanted to remember my roots. Not the roots of the woman who’d birthed and then later abandoned me, but of the man who’d given me a chance when I hit rock bottom. Who’d inexplicably gone even further and made Jimmy and me a part of his family. I owed everything to him. “Who’s that?” he asked, and I realized that while Will had known Rafi, he’d probably never met Rafi’s father.
“That’s Julio Salgado. He gave me a job at his auto shop not long after…”
His gaze slid to mine, but I couldn’t read him. I hated that I couldn’t read him anymore. “After I left for school?” I nodded, feeling like we were treading on shaky ground.
“Salgado?” He turned back toward the picture, peering at it closer. “Like Rafi Salgado? The guy I used to lifeguard with?”
“Yeah. Julio is Rafi’s dad.”
“But you weren’t friends with Rafi. Or at least I didn’t think you were…”
Confusion was evident in his expression as he tried to connect the threads.
“I wasn’t friends with Rafi. I only knew him from the few times we all hung out together. But Jason was friends with him, and he heard Julio was looking for a mechanic. He also knew I needed a job, so he connected us. Julio took a chance on me, even though I didn’t know a damn thing about cars.”
“Jason?” He huffed a breath. “Myfriend Jason helped you get a job?” There was frustration there and maybe a little anger.Or perhaps it was betrayal. It would appear Jason hadn’t told Will he’d helped me. For some reason, Will had been kept in the dark about all of this.
“Maybe you should ask him about that,” I hedged. Jason had done me a solid a long time ago, but that was the end of it. We didn’t really talk. I could only assume he had his reasons for not sharing any of this with Will.
“Are you guys friends now?” The hurt was there, underlying his words. I was surprised to find I wanted to soothe it away.
“Me and Jason? We don’t really talk, no.”
“But then, why…?”
“I honestly don’t know if I could tell you what motivated him to help me. I was definitely on his shit list after breaking your h—breaking up with you. But about a week after you left for school, Rafi showed up at Walmart while I was working my shift. Told me his dad wanted to offer me a job. I didn’t believe him at first.” I turned and leaned my back against the work table, fiddling with a small piece of scrap metal. “Who just offers a job to a random eighteen-year-old kid with no car and no experience?” It still blew my mind when I thought about it. “I questioned Rafi—was honestly kind of a dick to him—but he convinced me it was legit. Gave me a ride out to his dad’s shop in Brinkley, and Julio hired me on the spot.”
I tossed the piece of metal back on the table. We continued walking toward the open garage door and stopped when we got to my drawing table, which was tucked into the corner with a large window on the righthand side. It was the only window in the shop, allowing natural light to filter onto my drawing surface. Directly above the desk was a large bulletin board with various sketches, drawings, receipts, and reminders tacked up. My organizational system could be described as haphazard at best, which was why I’d hired Julia as my PA to help me, but Istill had a bad habit of tacking random things to the board when I couldn’t be bothered to find a proper place for them.
I watched Will study the items on the board, wrinkling his nose ever so slightly as his eyes moved from item to item. I used his distraction as an opportunity to study his face, noting all the little changes since I’d last seen him. The addition of his beard and the length of his hair were obvious differences, but there were others. His skin wasn’t nearly as tan as it had been after a summer of lifeguarding, and there were a few subtle lines around the corners of his eyes.
We were in our twenties, so I wouldn’t call them wrinkles. More like life lines. Those that come with laughter and worry and all those emotions in between. There was a tiny scar just above his eyebrow that I was pretty sure hadn’t been there before. And there was a heaviness about him, about the way he carried himself, as if he’d grown weary of the weight of the world.
