Page 17 of I Found You (Wilder #1)
Wyatt
“Are one of you Jackson,” one of the kids mocked. He had his chest puffed out and his arms wide on either side of him as he strutted toward me. My brow hitched. Who the fuck was this kid. Was this Maeve’s brother? Was that stance supposed to be me?
“Sam, fuck off. He’s helping me out.” Okay, good. Not Jackson, then.
“Nah, I’m just fucking with him,” he laughed. I didn’t. The kid, Sam, was walking around, making his way toward the garage door. I stepped in front of him, blocking his progress.
He feigned left and right, quickly bouncing back and forth like he was going to make a run past me. This kid was fucking bizarre. I stood in front of him and didn’t move an inch.
He stood and turned back to his friend. “This place is a shithole, J. You don’t need to be here. Trey said he’d find a place that you can leave it.”
“I’m not leaving my truck in the back of a parking lot somewhere,” Jackson grumbled. “It’ll end up getting towed. Or stolen.”
Jackson walked over to me. He had blond hair shaved close to his head and brown eyes. The resemblance to Maeve wasn’t obvious, but the shape of his eyes gave away a relation. And his nose. He had her nose, which was petite and fucking adorable on her and, well, just a nose on him.
“Wyatt, I’m Jackson. Thanks for letting me bring her here.
” He gave me a firm handshake, his bloodshot eyes darting over to his buddy before he dropped his hand.
“Are you sure you’re okay with it? If not, let me know now before we offload her.
It’s cool if you’re not. I won’t even tell Maeve.
” A knowing grin spread across his face, his eyelids drooping.
The kid was clearly high, but at least he was polite.
“No. It’s fine. I have the space for you to work. But I don’t run a hangout. This is a business.” I looked back at his buddy. He had hopped onto the truck’s running boards and was jumping around. The driver yelled something at him, but he just laughed and kept at it.
“I get it.” Jackson nodded, looking back at his friend.
I directed Jackson to the bay I had cleared for him. I’d come in at the crack of dawn to move things around and make room. My garage was still excessively busy this summer, and my tools had a way of migrating throughout the space when I wasn’t looking.
Jackson and Sam made quick work of unhooking the truck and getting her situated in the bay. His friend took off shortly after, leaving me with my new garagemate.
He seemed like a quiet kid, unlike his friend .
“This is a good-looking truck. Mind if I take a look?” I asked him.
“Have at it.”
I did a perimeter walk, checking for obvious body damage. “Exterior’s not in bad shape. You’ll need to sand some spots down, use some rust remover, but I doubt you’ll need to fully replace any of it. What’s under the hood?”
Jackson hurried to the cab so he could unlatch the hood.
I propped it open and took the flashlight out of my pocket.
“Battery needs to be replaced… fluids have to be flushed… some of these hoses will need to be replaced too…” Jackson stood behind me, keeping out of my way. “What do you know about cars?”
“A bit. Not enough to get her running right now, but I’ll figure it out,” he admitted, glancing at the floor and scratching the back of his neck.
“Look here. See where the drive belt is fraying along the edge? That means you have an alignment problem with the pulley.” I pointed the flashlight at the belt while Jackson looked over my shoulder.
“Yeah, okay. Is that hard to fix?”
“No. You just have to make some tweaks to it until it’s in alignment. I have a straightedge you can use to check it.”
“Thanks, man.”
I finished my assessment of his truck and gave him a rundown of the priority repairs versus what could wait until later. We blasted some music and both got to work on our respective tasks, me getting back to work and Jackson starting to take stock of what he needed for his repairs.
The ringing from my cell automatically paused the music that was connected to my Bluetooth, my father’s name lit up the phone screen. We talked every couple of days, but my schedule had been so busy lately I hadn’t had a chance to swing by to see him.
“Hey, so you’re not missing. That’s good to know.”
“Hey, Dad. Sorry, I know I’ve been MIA lately. Just busy.”
“Just work?”
I paused, thinking about how I wanted to answer that.
My dad already knew about Jane, but if I told him that I was spending time at Maeve’s, he would read too much into it.
He didn’t like that I was single. Well, not just single but actively not dating, ever.
I didn’t need someone in my life and in my space.
Not unless it was the real deal, the same kind of love my parents had. Otherwise, what the fuck was the point?
Apparently, I was taking too long to answer, so my father just continued on. “Well, why don’t you take some time off tonight? Come by the house for dinner.”
“I can’t make it tonight,” I told him through the speakerphone. “I already have plans.” They weren’t official plans, considering I’d never even mentioned them to her, but I wanted to stop by Maeve’s again and see Jane. And Maeve.
“I feel like I haven’t seen you all summer. Tomorrow night, then. No, actually, let’s make it Thursday. That will give me time to ask Sheila if she’ll make her lasagna.”
My brow hitched, not that he could see it through the phone. I knew he had been spending some time with our local diner owner, but I didn’t realize they were getting so close. It was good for him, and I told him that.
“Is she going to be joining us, Dad? You planning on introducing us to your girlfriend?” I chuckled. I could hear him stumbling over his words, trying to downplay their relationship .
“No, it’s not. She’s not. It isn’t like that. She’s just a friend, you know that.”
“Yeah, Dad. I also know that Mom’s been gone a long time.
None of us are going to be upset if you’ve found someone to spend your time with.
We’re grown now. Even Reid. If you’re going to ask her to make her lasagna, which I hope you do, then ask her to join us for dinner too.
I’ll let Luke and Reid know. Maybe we can make it a big family affair. ”
“So you want me to have someone special and your brothers to come with their significant others, and what about you, huh? Just going to be the seventh wheel at this dinner?”
“That’s right,” I told him. “It’s times like this I miss having Lydia home.
” My thoughts jumped to Maeve. Visions of her at my father’s table, surrounded by my family, a sparkle in her eyes.
I would bet everything in this garage that she would love it.
As far as I knew, she’d never had that. She’d already told me she never had that with her mom, but that didn’t mean she didn’t get that loving family environment with a previous boyfriend.
During all of our conversations, she’d never once mentioned a boyfriend, past or present.
Although, I thought I would know if she had a present commitment.
“Actually, I’ll see if a friend of mine wants to join. ”
“Is this friend of the female variety?”
“Yeah, Dad. But just a friend. I just think she might like a family dinner and a home-cooked meal she didn’t have to make herself.”
After talking to my father for a bit longer, mostly about his sore knees and the fact that he most definitely was not suffering from hearing loss (he absolutely was), we ended the call, and I sent quick texts to my brothers to let them know about the dinner .
A voice from the side of the room startled me. I completely forgot I wasn’t alone today.
“She would, you know. Like all that family shit,” Jackson said quietly.
I nodded at him, thinking the same thing.
“Good to know. Alright, back to work.”
“I don’t work for you,” Jackson laughed.
A car pulled up to the garage, and a minute later, the door was flung open, two kids strolling in.
“Jackson!” one kid yelled, followed by Sam. “Let’s check this thing out!” Why was he bellowing everything he said? The kid could stand to take it down at least three notches.
Jackson met them halfway, giving them both daps. New kid immediately started touching all of the tools. My gaze tracked them from the corner of my eye.
“Put that down,” Jackson hissed.
Jackson started telling them about the truck and some of the work that it would take to get it running. I could hear him reciting what I told him earlier, and it made my lips pull up in a smirk. He paid attention, at least.
He wasn’t halfway through when the other kid interrupted him.
“Yeah, it’s dope. Speaking of dope though, let’s get out of here.”
His two friends made their way out the door while Jackson came over to me.
“My ride’s here, so I’m taking off,” he said, looking over his shoulder at the door. “But thanks for your help today.”
“Anytime. I’ll be in tomorrow around 7:00 a.m. if you want to come by to work on her.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell Jackson that his friends were dipshits, but I held back. I know I wouldn’t have appreciated that comment when I was nineteen, especially from someone I barely knew. So I let it go, for now.