Page 13 of Infatuated as They Come (Sinful Trilogy #2)

Sawyer

Holly had the tendency to be a bit of a dreamer.

It wasn’t a bad thing. Not for someone in her situation, anyway.

I loved her with everything in me, but she kinda had her head in the clouds about me making it, about me being some big artist who had a whole heap of success.

I didn’t even need that success. I just needed to be the man who looked after her.

She was always so damn positive, always so sure that things were gonna work out, and while I loved that side of her, I still needed to be realistic about things.

It would have been nice to do nothing but paint all day and focus on making a name for myself, but I knew that wasn’t an easy reality to achieve.

I still had cash stashed away from all the art projects I had been doing, but that wasn’t going to last forever.

Holly was busy spending her morning at college buying all her textbooks, so I thought I’d use that time to leave the apartment and hunt down a job.

And that seemed fucking pointless, because after hitting up four different auto shops, I was told that the positions had already been filled.

There was one left and I was counting on whoever the hell Big Jay was to be utterly desperate for someone who knew what to do with a car.

New York City was loud. Louder than the trailer park that had been conveniently placed near the freeway, where I had the wonderful opportunity to hear cars going up and down it at all hours of the night.

But that prepared me for all the deafening street noise as I made my way to Brooklyn, stopping outside Big Jay’s Auto Shop.

The front of it looked pretty small, and the street was lined with over a dozen cars, making the space feel even more cramped.

But maybe that was a sign they needed help.

Pushing open the door, I was greeted with the sound of loud bickering, bringing me right back to Cedar Crest. There was a lot of commotion inside the office. People yelling. People swearing. Right back at home.

“Could everyone please just relax for a minute?” A woman suddenly appeared behind the desk, all big, blonde hair and worried looking blue eyes.

“Hi,” she said to me, Brooklyn accent thick as I approached the desk.

“I’m sorry, but if you’re bringing your car in today, you might have to wait a good while to get it back.

As you can see, we’re very much swamped today. ”

My brows rose. “Yeah, I can see that. I’m not bringing my car in. I was here to ask about the job ad you posted online.”

“Oh, thank God.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “We’re actually doing the interviews next week. We being me and my husband. Have you applied online?”

“Uh, yeah, but…” I was desperate. “Thought I’d just come check out the place and see you face to face.”

“I appreciate your enthusiasm, but we still need to go through all the applications. But apply online and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!”

A big, tall guy was storming through the back door, a rag in his hands as he gave them a wipe. “Audrey, do you know where Lex is? I can’t find that kid anywhere.”

“He’s probably sleeping somewhere. You know what he’s like.” Then she pointed a hand my way. “Jay, this is one of the guys who applied for the job. This is… Hun, what was your name?”

“Sawyer,” I said. “Look, I know you have a whole process to go through or whatever, but you guys have a hundred people in here and probably a hundred more cars in the back, and I can help.”

Jay’s brown eyes met mine. “Have you applied online?”

“I have, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to come down here and talk to you face to face.

I haven’t been to trade school and have no intention of going, but I know how to fix a faulty radiator and how to deal with a blown head gasket and how to rebuild a differential, and it looks like you’re really busy, so maybe you can do us both a favor.

I worked as a mechanic back in Dallas. I’m good with my hands and I know what I’m doing. You can trust me.”

He tapped a pen against his desk. “Dallas, huh? You’re a long way from home.”

I blew out a breath of air. “Trust me, I know.”

“I’ve been here for over two hours!” somebody snapped from behind me. “Did you forget?”

I turned around, seeing the way the guy threw his hands up in frustration. Patience wasn’t a thing for people who were waiting on their cars, something that I was hoping would play to my advantage.

“Yes, and your engine is totally busted, so please give us some time,” Audrey said with gritted teeth.

“Kid, I’ll consider you, but you gotta apply online like everyone else,” Jay said. “I appreciate you coming in here. I like the initiative. But me and my wife are gonna go over all the applications together and then we’ll organize interviews.”

“I can work extra hours, extra shifts,” I said. “You look like you could use the help and I’m willing to do it.”

“You’re too young to have this much enthusiasm, which highlights my point: you’re a kid and I can’t risk it.”

“I’m not a kid. I’m nineteen.”

He snorted. “When you get to be my age, you’ll know why that’s so funny. I need help, but I’m not about to let you put your hands all over my customers’ cars. I mean, I gotta reinstall the apex seals on this guy’s RX7.”

“I know how to do that.” I nodded. “You gotta remove the engine, mess with the rotor housing, check the seals, put the new ones in, then rebuild the engine.”

He kept his eyes stuck on mine for a long moment. “You really want this job, huh?”

“More than you realize.”

“You’ve got a record?”

It would have been easy to lie, but I didn’t want that to blow up in my face in the future. “Yeah. A couple misdemeanors and some time in juvie. Nothing serious. Nothing you have to worry about.”

Hitting his pen against the desk some more, Jay looked over to the still growing crowd, and then at his wife, and then back at me. “Look, I’ll think about it, okay? I can’t just give you a job. I still have to call up your references and make sure you’re who you say you are.”

“My girlfriend is rich,” I blurted out. “Like, crazy rich. Fuckin’ Rockefeller rich.

Big ass mansion, fancy clothes, prettiest girl in the world, and somehow, some way…

she fell in love with me. I don’t know how I managed to pull it off, but I did, and I literally used to live in a trailer park and I haven’t got a lot of money and I can’t give her the world like I want to, but she still wants me and loves me and I love her so much it hurts most of the time.

I’m good with cars and I can kinda paint but most artists never make a lot of money from their art and her dad hates me and thinks I’m not good enough for her and probably wants her to marry some rich Wall Street asshole while she goes to college here, but none of those guys are ever gonna love her as much as I do and I’ll fight every last one of ‘em if I have to. So, in summary…” I released a long, deep breath.

“I just really, really love my girlfriend and wanna give her everything I can.”

“Aw, he’s in love!” Audrey pouted, her hands on her chest. “Give him the job.”

“What?” Jay snapped.

“Give it to him!”

“Because he’s in love?”

“Yes.” Audrey sighed deeply as she looked at me. “You must really love her.”

Jay held his hands up before pushing them through his short grey hair. “You really want this job?”

I nodded. “Badly.”

“And you’re okay with working long hours? Really early mornings and really late nights if I need you down here?”

“I’m fine with that. I can do that.”

“Maybe we’ll give you a trial run,” he said. “And if you’re good—and that’s a big if—then we’ll keep you. ”

“Great.” I stuck my hand out for him. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He shook my hand. “I’ll see you here first thing tomorrow.”

I froze at that. “Wait, tomorrow?”

“We’ll do a trial then.”

“But…” My heart sunk. Holly had already made all those plans for us.

“Are you gonna make me regret this already?” Jay said with a raised eyebrow. “Because I’ve got a big crowd to deal with and I really need another pair of hands that know what they’re doing. You said you wanted this job, right?”

“I did say that. And I did mean it. And…” My head shook. Jay and Audrey were doing me a favor. “Yeah, I’ll be here first thing in the morning.”

“Great. Audrey, can you please give him those forms to fill out?” Jay asked. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Seven in the morning sharp. I’ll need you to stay until five. And if it goes well, we’ll go from there.”

“Thanks,” I muttered. That was the whole day gone, and Holly was so damn excited about doing all that stuff with me. I had been excited too.

My fingers tapped the desk nervously as Audrey handed me some forms, her voice warm as she told me my girlfriend was lucky to have someone like me, someone who tried so hard. But there I was, tossing away our day out tomorrow before it had even started.

I let my mind drift back to that conversation with my dad. It was a mild fucking argument compared to all the other fights we’d had, but those words still stayed frozen in my head.

You think she’s gonna stick around? I didn’t want him to be right. I never wanted him to be right, but that was something I really didn’t want him to be right about.

“Thanks so much, hun,” Audrey said as she took the forms from me. “We’ll see you tomorrow bright and early!”

I nodded at her. “Yeah, see ya then. Thanks a lot.”

And I should have been feeling hopeful as I made the long walk home because I had absolutely struck gold with that trial, but all I could think about was the look that would be on Holly’s face when I told her we couldn’t do all that stuff tomorrow. I wanted to spend every last minute with her .

There was no future with a poor man, though.

When I got back to the apartment, Holly was sitting on the couch going through a huge stack of books.

“Hey, princess,” I said. “You get all your stuff?”

She patted the big pile of thick, heavy books. “Mhm. I’m all set now.”

“Have fun reading those.” I took a seat next to her, throwing an arm around her shoulder and pulling her to my chest.

“Now we get to spend the whole day together. Should we leave now?”

“Uh…” I felt my stomach twist a little. “Before we do that, I gotta tell you something…”

“What is it?”

“I kinda got a job. Well, they wanna do a trial run or whatever, and if it goes well, then I’ll get it. They seem like they need extra help, so maybe their desperation will work in my favor.”

“You know you don’t have to do that,” she said. “You don’t have to waste your time working.”

“It’s not a waste of time. I can’t just sit around here all day.”

“You could paint all day.”

I rubbed a thumb against her shoulder. “We’ll deal with that stuff later.”

“That stuff is what you love doing, though. You shouldn’t throw it all away for a….” Her brows pulled together. “Wait, where will you be working?”

“There’s this auto shop in Brooklyn. They looked real busy today, so like I said, that might work out for me. The only thing is…”

“Is?”

“… They want me to start tomorrow,” I said, voice flat.

“That’s so…” She sat up straight, that light in her eyes that had been there a couple minutes ago no longer there. “… Tomorrow?”

I cupped her cheek as I took in the look of disappointment on her face.

“You made all those plans and I was so excited about them, but I’m lucky these guys are even giving me a chance in the first place.

I mean, I went to four other auto shops before them and they all said their positions had already been filled. ”

“Oh,” Holly said before shaking her head. “No, it’s okay. I get it. You want to show them that you’re serious about this. It’d look bad on your part if you told them no. Even though you don’t even have to work…”

She didn’t get it, but I absolutely had to. “Right. I’m sorry, Holly. We were gonna do all that stuff tomorrow…”

“No, I understand,” she said before she leaned forward to kiss me. “I hope it all goes well. They’ll be lucky to have you.”

“You’re not mad? You’re allowed to be mad at me.”

“No, I’m not mad. I’m just frustrated because you’re doing stuff you don’t have to do. Wouldn’t you rather paint?”

“I will. In my spare time, you know, when I get a chance. But until then,” I said, pulling her closer to me, “I’m gonna be real busy with you.”

“You say that like you have to babysit me or something. I guess we’ll postpone tomorrow for now. I can tell everyone at The Met how successful you’ll be another time…”

“You’re gonna get us kicked out if you do that,” I said, kissing the top of her head.

“How about we at least go to Central Park today?” she asked. “We can have lunch there and celebrate your new completely unnecessary and unneeded job.”

“Potential job, but yeah, let’s do that. Sounds good.”

My arm tightened around her shoulders, squeezing her that little bit more against my chest. There we sat, on our couch, in our living room, in our home .

Such a simple thing. God, we had sat on the couch at my place with Holly nestled against me a thousand times before, but it felt like heaven was washing over me knowing that we were in a room that was ours.

It was like feeling and seeing our future all at once.

I wanted more days like this, where it was just us, where I loved her and she loved me and that was all that mattered.

A future where she was mine forever and I was hers for just as long.

I’d fight for her and I’d build the life we’d share together from hand if I had to.

It didn’t matter how long my days were or how hard it all was: it was all worth it for her.