“You know exactly what bill.” I put my hand on the counter. “So let’s speed things up. Just tell me how much it’s going to be.”
“What’s in it for you?” He looks suspicious. “And there is a wrong answer.”
“We haven’t told anyone yet, but she’s having my baby.” His eyes narrow. “So I’m going to be taking care of her from here on out.”
“You have got to be shitting me.” I don’t know if it’s a question or a statement.
“I am not shitting you.” I’m running out of patience. Today has not been the best day, and it’s starting to go further downhill very fast. Fuck, I was already at the end of the hill, now I’m just digging a hole to bury someone in it. “Why don’t you just tell me how much she owes?”
“There is no bill.”
Now it’s my turn to glare at him. “I’m taking care of her. So how much does she owe you?”
“If you hurt her,” he growls, “I don’t care how much business you bring in to me. I will?—”
I hold up a hand. “You think I’m going to hurt her? Fuck, anyone who is lucky enough to catch her eye and keep it”—I take a deep sigh—“it’s fucking life-changing.”
“There’s not a lot of things the world gives to Collins,” he says, and I ball my hands into fists. “But her heart is pure. Anyone who gives her a chance will see it.”
“You are telling the wrong person,” I snap. “You should be telling everyone else who treats her like garbage because of”—I grit my teeth—“her fucking parents.”
“So you know her parents?”
“Had the displeasure of meeting them last night when they showed up at my house.” His jaw gets tight. “Took a five-minute conversation to get the gist of them. I take it you know them?”
“I’ve had a run-in with them more than once over the years. He went to school with my father, and was a couple of years younger than him. Gave him a job to help him out. He ended up stealing money from the register, along with some parts that were here one day, gone the next.”
My stomach tightens. “Fuck. I’m sorry, man.”
“Why? You didn’t do it. She didn’t do it.” He pulls out the bill. “It’s three hundred. I gave her the friends and family discount.”
“So you gave her the tires at cost and aren’t charging her labor?” I take my card out of my wallet, sliding it over to him.
“You going to tell her you paid for this?”
I shake my head.
“What the fuck do you mean no?” His tone is tight, and he sounds irritated. “She’s going to come here, and she’s going to try to pay me for it.”
“I’ll tell her when I need to tell her, but not tonight.”
“You better hurry up. She’ll try to take on extra shifts in order to pay me back as fast as possible.”
“I’ll tell her,” I assure him, hating that I have to. “Where is her car?”
“In the back. I was going to have one of the guys drop it off.”
“I’ll take care of it. She has my truck.”
He reaches for her keys hanging on the rack and tosses them to me. “Good luck.”
“Thanks,” I mumble. “I think I’m going to need it.”
My phone buzzes with a text from Caleb.
Caleb:
Everything went down like planned. Let me know if you need anything.
