She smiled.“Better?”
He looked at her hair, and touched the purple ends.“Beautiful either way,” he said softly.
They found two shots of Brewster.“Do you mind if I take these?”Pixie asked.
“Of course.Whatever you need.Does Brewster have something to do with why you left?”
“He was the last straw.Arniewas the reason I left.”
“Will I ever be able to make this up to you?”Helen asked, sadly.Hope filled her eyes as Pixie fought to remain immune to the way it tugged at her heart.
“I honestly don’t know, Mom.”
* * *
Dred could tell from the slump in her shoulders that Pixie was down.Yes, it sucked her mom didn’t know more about Brewster, but there must be someone in Pahokee who did.The place wasn’tthatbig.They needed to find the right places to look.
They stayed in the trailer for a few more awkward moments while Helen tried to find out more about what had happened that night, but Pixie retreated more and more into a shell he didn’t even know she had.
“Hey, Snowflake.Come here,” he said, tugging her against him as they walked toward the car.He cupped her face gently, pained to see the hurt etched across her face.“It’s all good.I have you and you have me.No part of the conversation that happened in your mom’s trailer needs to change your life if you don’t want it to.Right?”
Pixie nodded.“I guess it was naïve of me, but I hoped she’d have the answer.”
“I know.Me too.Let me see those photos.”
She handed them over and leaned against the hood of the car.
“Which is Brewster?”he asked.
Pixie pointed to a man at the far left of the photograph with shorn hair and a beer gut.“That one.”
He was wearing a polo shirt with a name on it.The fabric was rumpled and it was hard to make out what it said, but the last word was definitelyTIRES.“Any ideas where this is, Snowflake?”
Pixie looked at the photo.She could see the company name began with an A, but wasn’t sure what followed.Pixie grabbed her phone from her pocket.
“What are you doing?”
“Think about it,” she said excitedly.“There can’t be that many tire places around here.”She went onto her map app, and searched nearby for tire shops.“Got it.AW+F Tires.It’s six miles away.”
“Brainsandbeauty,” he said, kissing her soundly.“Let’s go.”
In less than ten minutes, they pulled up outside an industrial unit, sandwiched between a garage and a car rental place.
“What’s our story?”Pixie asked him as they got out of the car.
“I don’t know.I’m just gonna wing it,” he said as he pulled off his sunglasses.
They entered the building and approached the small glass-walled office, but before they’d reached it, a young guy in dirty blue overalls approached him.
“You’re Dred Zander, right?”
Dred turned to Pixie and raised his eyebrow.She smiled and shook her head.
“Yeah, dude.I am.”
He schmoozed the kid a little while longer, signed an autograph on the back of a dirty manifest.A couple of the other mechanics wandered over.Some with phones, some with things for him to sign.
“Hey, I’m looking for a guy who used to work here six years ago,” he said after posing for another photograph.“Who’s the best guy to talk to?”
