Page 4 of Working for the Runaway Bride

“Who is that, Carter?”

“Dad, just forget it.” He hangs up.

I keep the phone pressed to my ear for another second before lowering it. I look down at the grease stains on my hands and feel disappointment settle in my chest like a stone. Maybe I tried too hard or I made things too easy. But I know I didn’t raise my son to humiliate a woman who trusts him.

Every instinct I have tells me to drive to wherever my son is and demand an answer face-to-face. But Molly is sitting at an elementary school with a car that may not be safe to drive, less than a week before she’s supposed to walk down the aisle.

I pick up the photograph on my desk, staring at the boy with the wide grin and sticky blue fingers.

“What the hell are you doing?” I ask him.

The boy doesn’t answer. Neither does the man he became. I set the frame facedown. A knock sounds against the office door before Luis pushes it open and leans his head inside. He’s been working for me for twelve years, long enough to know when to keep his distance and when curiosity is worth the risk.

“Everything good?”

“No.”

He holds up the paper bag. “I brought you a breakfast burrito.”

“It’s almost lunch.”

“That’s why I bought two.”

I point through the office window at the Ford. “I need you to finish checking the fuel delivery on that truck.”

“I thought you said the carburetor was the problem.”

“It isn’t.”

“You sure?”

I give him a look.

He raises both hands. “Fuel delivery. Got it.”

“I have to go pick up a car.”

“We have a tow company for that.”

“It’s Carter’s fiancée.”

“Molly?”

“Yes.”

His eyebrows rise, but he wisely keeps whatever thought he has to himself.

I grab my keys from the desk drawer. “Her check-engine light is on, and the car was shaking. Call Rick and tell him to meet me at Sunnybrook Elementary with the flatbed.”

Luis drops the paper bag onto my desk. “Sunnybrook? That’s across town.”

“I know where it is.”

“Do you?”

I pause at the door.

His mouth twitches. “You got lost going to the dentist last month.”