Shaun glanced up from under the hood of the Toyota Camry she was working on, meeting the intense, dark brown-black eyes of Nate, one of her coworkers and fellow mechanics at Rodney’s Auto. “Uhh, no. Thanks, though.”
Nathaniel LaVictor was a guy in his late twenties, shorter than Shaun by about four inches, with a beefy build. He had black hair that could use a cut or a wash or even a comb, and a thick black beard that covered all of his lower face and most of his neck. He’d hired in at Rodney’s two months prior and had been asking Shaun for dates pretty much weekly since then. He was attractive in a husky, blue collar sort of way, and seemed nice enough, but something about him gave Shaun the creeps.
Like spine tingling, watch over your shoulder kind of creeps.
He wasalways staring.Like now, even as he walked away to another vehicle parked in the mechanic bay directly next to her, he justnever stopped staring.
Shaun ducked her head back under the hood, glad when she was hidden from that piercing black gaze.
Reaching into the engine cavity, she grunted, wiggling her fingers around a bolt that she couldn’t get with the wrench. Buried to her armpit, she made the mistake of meeting Nate’s eyes from across the garage, quickly turning away before he decided to come back over. She shuddered.
She’d caught him staring at her in the most inappropriate ways, too. His favorite thing to look at was her ass, second was her breasts, which for the summer months had been encased in sports bras and loose-fitting t-shirts with the arms cut off to combat the heat and humidity. She refused to layer up just because he couldn’t keep his eyes to himself.
Her cell phone rang from her back pocket, and she fished it out as she withdrew from the engine, swiping right to answer the call. “Hey, how’s my favorite preggo?”
“Miserable,” her best friend, Zoey Manning, whined from the other end of the line. “Someone needs to tell this baby to get ouuuuttt of meeee.”
“You let that baby bake in there as long as he wants,” Shaun teased, leaning her forearms against the car. “I want my nephew to be nice and well-cooked.”
“Verity was nine pounds! If this baby takes after Chase, he’s going to be ten pounds and two feet long!” Zoey laughed, though Shaun could hear the worry in her voice. “And I still have six weeks left. I already can’t see my feet.”
“Are the doctors concerned with his size?” Shaun asked, her eyebrows drawing together.
“No, she said he’s measuring right on schedule,” Zoey said, but then laughed. “But so did Verity, and she was a monster baby.”
“I am never getting pregnant,” Shaun laughed and shuddered. “I don’t think I even want babies.”
“Really?” Zoey asked, and Shaun fiddled with a hose near her fingers. “You and Tommy never talked about it?”
“Sure we did,” Shaun said, standing upright and turning to lean her back against the side of the car door. “That was just something that was way down the road for us. It wasn’t something I was even ready to consider. And I have no intention of dating again, so I think any future of being a mom is long gone. My parents are just going to have to get grandkids from the other four.”
“You really don’t think you’ll ever date again?” her friend asked quietly from the other end of the line, and Shaun swallowed past that lump in her throat.
“Zoey… I don’t think I’m made for being in a deep relationship. Please don’t hate me for this, you know I loved your brother, but… something was missing.” Glancing around the garage, she sighed. “We were great friends—best friends—and we had a great time together… I don’t know. It just didn’t feel right at the end. At the time I thought it was because he had changed, but now I’m not so sure…”
“It’s okay to take time, Shaun,” Zoey said quietly from the other end of the line. “And it’s okay to grieve the loss of that even if it wasn’t some grand love.”
“But it makes me sound heartless,” Shaun whispered.
“No, it makes you sound like you weren’t willing to settle for something less than exactly what you deserve,” Zoey said gently. “I love my brother, you know I do, but he… is flawed. He struggled with what happened to me, and with Mom’s death so close behind, he developed crappy and unhealthy coping mechanisms because of it. He hurt a lot of people because he didn’t want to deal with what was going on. You were one of them. You decided what was best for you, and I think it was best for him, too.”
Shaun swallowed hard again and whispered, “Have you heard from him?”
“Not in a few weeks. Last I heard he was downstate staying with a cousin. He refused treatment, again.” Shaun scuffed the toe of her boot into the concrete at her feet, staring down at the floor. “I gotta run, but I’ll see you tomorrow at the engagement party?”
“As maid of honor, I think Jodi would skin me alive if I missed it.” Then she groaned out loud. “You’ll have to save me from Kasey, though.”
“He’s in town?” Zoey gasped. “I didn’t think he was coming up for the party.”
“I hoped he wouldn’t,” Shaun grumbled, pacing away from the vehicle out into the parking lot in front of the building. The mid-October sun felt good, the weather unseasonably warm. “We ran into each other at the gas station this morning. He’s as insufferable as ever.”
“I thought he was nice,” Zoey said, then giggled. “And don’t tell my husband, but Kasey is a hottie! And he’s totally into you.”
“Gag,” Shaun grumbled. “Besides, I am closed for business. No-freaking-thank-you. Especially that arrogant bastard.”
Zoey laughed out loud and then said, “I’ll see you tomorrow! Try to behave yourself.”
“Never,” Shaun laughed. “See you tomorrow.”
