Sully stopped at the doorway. “What’s up?”
I could not screw up my brother’s wedding because the mayor and I were in this stupid head-to-head combat. “Nothing. Go on and get ready.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, Sully. I got this. Go on.”
“Sully? He’s there?” Her perpetually husky voice went up an octave. “Oh, God. Don’t tell him. Please? Shit, shit, shit.”
“Calm down, Mercy. Where are you?”
“I’m on Valley Road. My engine just freaking died.”
“Not the battery?” A jump I could handle with my car.
“No. At least I don’t think so.”
“I’ll be right there.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. It’s freaking New Year’s Eve—there’s not another tow truck for miles that will be available.”
“Where’s yours?”
“Too far away.”
“God. I can’t screw this up, Ripley.”
The sound of tears in Mercy’s voice hollowed me out. Hell. She wasn’t the kind of woman to cry. I’d dealt with dramatic tears for a whole lot of years being the only tow truck in town. Some real, some definitely performative—Mercy would rather cut off her tongue than cry.
“It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”I looked around the garage. My smaller backup tow truck was up on the lift getting new tires, sothat wasn’t going to work. My work—and all the Murdock trucks— were full of tools and too dirty to put a damn cake in it.
I spotted my Caddy in the corner with the cover on it.
“I’ve got an idea. How big is the cake?”
“Dude, it’s feeding three hundred people, how big do you think it is?”
I blew out a breath. I’d have to make it work. Thankfully my Caddy was old and built like a tank with plenty of space. “Okay, I’m on my way.”
I hurried over to the room where all my brothers were in varying levels of dress. “Hey, you guys go ahead. I have to go deal with something.”
Sully turned away from the full-length mirror, his bowtie in his hands. “More important than my wedding?”
Fuck.
“No, of course not.” I cleared my throat. “Okay, look that was Mercy Hart.”
Sully dropped the ends of his tie. “What?”
“Yeah. Her truck died on the way to delivering your cake.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. So, I’ll be right behind you guys.”
“Without your damn tow truck?” Sully laced his fingers at the back of his head. “I can’t believe this.”
