Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 91434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
I was also really good at designing car details, which is why I went into architecture. I loved drawing and designing things and then seeing them all come together. After drawing, building things was always my favorite part. I’m the transmission specialist in the area, obviously, but more than that. A couple of us focus solely on transmissions, and I’m one of them. Something the Cartwrights couldn’t bury was my name in other counties. I have a waiting list of people to work with me, all of which are old cars that need rebuilding. This list has grown even more in the past couple of years.
The phone rings beside me, and I look down to see it’s Saige. I press the FaceTime button and wait for her face to fill the screen.
“Good morning, baby girl.” I smile at her face and see that it looks like she just got up. “How did you sleep?”
“Good,” she mumbles as she rubs her eye with her palm.
“That’s good.” I grab the cup of coffee that has grown cold since I got here. “Did you have good dreams?”
“Yeah, I dreamed of the beach,” she says, as if her hints are subtle, and I laugh. “You know, like the one we went to the last time.”
“I remember,” I say of the trip we took this year on her spring break when it was my week. We spent a week in St. Thomas, and she loved every single second of being on the beach. She would wake up and be ready. She even learned how to surf and then wanted to go scuba diving, but I drew the line at that and instead just let her snorkel.
“Can we go there again?” she asks.
“I think I can maybe see if we can go when I get you at Christmas,” I say, and her face lights up.
“Saige, let’s go,” Karla says in the background, and my dick cringes. “I’ve called you three times already.”
“I’m talking to Dad.” She looks over at her.
“Your breakfast is on the table, and it’s getting cold,” she scolds, and Saige sighs.
“Okay, Daddy, I love you.” She puts her whole face on the camera and gives me a kiss.
“Love you too, baby girl,” I say. “You have a good day at school and then call me later, yeah?”
“Okay,” she agrees and disconnects with me. I finish the cold coffee when the front door opens, and I hear the sound of the bells.
“Morning,” Ryan says from the front as he walks into the garage on his way to the break room, his cooler in his hand. “What time did you get here?”
“About five,” I mumble as I take my tools out.
He doesn’t say anything until he returns from the break room. “You almost finished with that?” he asks, and I nod.
“I’m almost done with the paint job also,” he informs me. I hired him when he came to town a couple of years ago. He didn’t know how to fix anything but could do a mean paint job on a car. He is also great at design, which is something he’s getting more and more comfortable doing.
“Once we get this in and Eddie finishes the engine, it’ll be done,” I say of the Camaro someone brought to us a couple of months ago. It was literally just a shell of a car; weeds were growing between the steering wheel and the front window.
“When are the seats coming in?” Ryan asks as the bells ring again, letting us know someone has come in.
“I have to check,” I reply, and he leans against the table.
“You need to hire someone to do paperwork,” he reminds me. “It’s a shit show out there.”
“Why do I need to hire someone?” I ask. “You are all grown-ass men. Can’t you put things away neatly?”
“You just answered your own question. We are grown-ass men. We don’t do any of that shit.”
He laughs as Eddie comes in. “I need a coffee and a donut, bad.”
Ryan laughs at him, and the hair on the back of my neck stands up. “You mean you need to go and make sure Everleigh remembers your name.”
The minute they say her name, the tool falls from my hand onto the metal table, the sound making the two sets of eyes come to me. I don’t say anything because the bell rings again, and we hear two more voices as they walk to the back, only one of them has their lunch box.
“Are we going for coffee?” Eddie asks once the other two walk in.
“Let’s go, lover boy.” Ryan pushes off and looks at Tony. “He apparently needs a coffee so bad.”
Tony just laughs at him. “I’m going to need you three to stop fucking around and get to work.”
“It’s not even eight yet,” Tony reminds me. “I’ll get you a coffee and a donut.” He slaps my shoulder. “That should get you in a better mood.”