“Well, quit it, would ya?”
“Lach,” she groaned. “I’m serious. I’m still furious over what he did at Davney’s, but if he’s using more of the garage for his business, it’s only right that you should get a cut of that.”
“Maybe. I’m thinking about it, Jess. I promise.” Lachlan placed his hand on her shoulder blade as he opened the door and led her outside. “I was going to wait until we made it back to the garage, but I have a surprise waiting there for you.”
“You do?” Her smile grew as she attempted to bounce on her toes. Gosh, being almost full-term really did limit what she was able to do. Bee gave a good kick in solidarity.
“Mhm. I’m finally ready to show you the restoration I’ve been working on.”
Her heart skipped a beat. She knew how important the project was to her brother, and her eyes welled with tears.
“Really?”
He looked at her, absolute mortification written all over his face. “Jesus, Jess. Don’t cry! Hawk will kill me if he calls to check up on you and you sound emotional.”
“Sorry.” She gave a watery laugh. “I’m just already so proud of you. I can’t wait to see it.”
Ten minutes later, Jessie’s breath caught in her chest as she ran her fingers over the robin’s egg blue paint.
“This is beautiful. I can’t believe how well you’ve done with this.”
“It’s been so much fun. I didn’t think this sort of thing would interest me, but god. Yeah. Every time I lift the car up and get to work, it just lights something up inside of me.”
Jessie smiled at her brother. It had been such a long time since she’d heard him speak so passionately.
“Maybe this is something we can work more into the business. One or two passion projects for collectors in the area. If we market this correctly, document more of the process for people to watch, this might be able to supplement the mechanic business.” Jessie smiled.
Lachlan nodded, clearly in agreement. “Do you think you could take some pictures or videos of me while I work on it today? We could start advertising services soon if we did.”
Jessie’s heart warmed. “Yeah, absolutely. Let me grab my phone and we’ll get to it.” She pushed up out of the chair, slapping away her brother’s hand as it flew in front of her to help. “Hawk may get away with doting on me, but you and Colt— hell, Beau and Hayes too—didn’t teach me to be so needy.”
“Yeah, well, sometimes, I think we put too much on your shoulders. Expected too much outta ya. A little doting now won’t hurt. Until my niece pops out. Then I’ll forget all about you and start doting on her.”
Jessie laughed, holding her bump up so it didn’t do that weird shaking thing like Santa’s belly when he laughed. It wasn’t her favorite sensation.
She made it back to the office, sliding into the chair behind the counter. Her phone was plugged in, charging, becauseHawk made her promise to keep it near one hundred percent as much as possible. Like she wouldn’t be able to get to him, two streets over, if something was wrong.
Jessie laughed at the image floating in her mind of him running all the way from their apartment to the auto shop. His hair blowing in the breeze… he’d probably take his shirt off because the summer heat was absolutely brutal. And he’d either be in his tailored work pants, or those loose-fitting shorts she loved…
Oh god. She needed to snap out of it! Jess wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth and felt her body heat through sixty shades of red.
“Sorry, guys. Shops closed today. If you’ve got car trouble, you can leave it with me, but I won’t be able to look at it until tomorrow at the earliest.”
Jess sat back in the office chair, proud of her brother for setting the boundary.
“Hmm. We certainly were expecting this place to be closed. A real fucking bummer that you’re here. Anyone else in here with you?”Jessie froze behind the desk, a shiver working its way through her body. Where did she know that voice from?
Lach coughed, and she heard metal clang in the garage.
“Nah. It’s just me. Working on a pet project.”
“Mack, check the office. Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll be here. Sure as shit would save us some time.”
“There’s no one else here.”The edge in her brother’s voice flipped her stomach. He was worried about what was going on.
At that moment, she knew she needed to run. But her shoes were slipped off under the desk. And hefting herself out of the chair was nearly impossible. She could maybe slip down under the desk, but that would require trying to pull the chair in and–
“Ah, looks like it is our lucky day.”
