But then, like a strike of lightning, a few hundred dollars appeared in the new savings account.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I closed Spencer’s laptop.
If the calls from my mother weren’t bad before, they were about to get a whole lot worse.
78
KIERA
The lightsof Lucky Strike Autobody were enough to bring on a headache if the incessant calls and texts from my mother hadn’t already done that.
It’d been less than twenty-four hours since I’d transferred my money, and Maura hadn’t stopped her full frontal assault on my poor phone. I sent her a text last night after Spencer and I finished our personal pizzas.
All good, just made a new account and moved the money around.
I didn’t want to give the woman a heart attack or have her put out some missing person’s report just because I took my money somewhere safer. The last thing I needed was Gabriel, Maura, or the police to find me with Valemont Violence.
The clatter of Leo’s wrench on the metal work tray brought me back to earth. Placing my phone on the tray, I leaned over the grill of the car and tried to see what Leo was looking at.
Instead of explaining, Leo just reached further into the engine block. A glisten of sweat and grease coated her muscular arms.
There was still a tension in the air, something odd still lingering between us since I kissed her.
Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe she wasn’t prepared for me — convinced she’d be my little experiment. But the more time I spent in that mansion, the more certain I was that I wanted her. Really wanted her.
The pulsing between my legs and the drool in my mouth at the sight of Doctor Callahan’s muscles should have been enough to set that straight… or gay I guess.
Despite my desperation to feel those hulking arms wrapped around me and those plush lips on mine, we’d hardly spoken ten words to each other over the last few days. And I wasn’t about to rush Leo before she was ready.
My throat tightened as my imagination started running wild, the thought of being between her legs on the hood of another car making me sweat.
But the slam of the office door made my eyes roll. Dom had been stomping around the shop like a pouting toddler all day. I wished I could smack that sour ass look off her face, constantly grimacing at whatever texts she was receiving.
I had no idea if it was work related or Oracle related — given that Dom seemed to equally hate both options.
“K, this is the manifold. It might be causing an unbalanced intake of air to fuel which could be causing the rough idling…” Leo started to explain.
As she kept going, my eyes drifted over to the clattering on the metal work tray. There, my phone vibrated with yet another phone call.
Staring at the lit up screen, I felt my chest tighten.Mom.
Leo leaned against the grill of the car and watched my gaze, an eyebrow raised at me as I watched the screen turn to black again. Once it stopped, she tried again. “So to fix that?—”
The screen lit up again.
“Ugh.” I grumbled as I threw my head into my hands. As bad as I felt for the lonely woman, I knew there was some insane guilt trip waiting on the other end of the phone line.
And the reality of our relationship just kept sinking further and further in. Maura wasn’t interested in a real mother-daughter relationship. What she really wanted was someone to bankroll her lifestyle. It was what she’d always wanted.
Especially after Dad died.
“Turn that fucking thing off if you’re not going to answer it.” Dom yelled from the office, her voice muffled by the pristine glass separating her from the shop, before turning her scrunched up face back to her laptop.
Leo’s jaw tensed as the phone went silent. “We’re going to—” the clatter started up again. “Kiera Tierney, I’m begging you. Are you going to just let it ring like that all day?”
My eyes widened, shocked by her aggression.
The doctor’s normally calm face had turned red with frustration and exhaustion.
