“Because she wanted to have a relationship with you before you showed your ass,” I said evenly. If this was the way this was going to go, I might as well be honest with him. “For some ungodly reason, she liked you. Then you showed her just what a piece of shit you are. So that blew her chances with you right out of the water.”
His face darkened, and he stepped closer to me. “Just so we’re clear.Youfucked things up with Shay, not me. I’d been more than happy to entertain whatever the fuck she wanted as long as I could.”
I sucked in a breath. “I don’t know if you can really blame me for that. I mean, I see getting angry, but I’m not the one that egged you on to push me around.” That was when I realized what he said. “As long as you could? Not the long haul?” I took a step back and eyed him. “And you had the balls to call me a whore?”
“It doesn’t matter now, does it?” Kyle snapped back at me.
“Grace?” Sean called, awkwardly stepped out from behind the car he had been working on. He held the hose to the vacuum. “Are you done with that one?”
“Yeah,” I said, not looking at him. “If you don’t mind, boss, I’ve got to get back to work.” I didn’t wait for him to respond. I went to the next car and opened the door.
Kyle stood on the curb, glowering at me as I went back to work. Any hopes I had of getting Adam his job back were gone. But at this point, quitting would let Kyle win. And I’d be damned if I was going to do that.
There had to be a plan B for me to take. I just didn’t know what it would be without actually communicating with him, and I wasn’t sure that it was safe to do that. I could only hope that Cameron knew what to say to him. I got the distinct feeling that he wanted this to work.
I didn’t take Darius into consideration at all. And I didn’t even know where to start with him. The easiest person to go to would be Shay, but I doubted seriously that she would help me salvage something. I could ask, I had the night off at the bar, but I didn’t want to put any sort of strain on our relationship.
Given Kyle’s shitty attitude, I worked over the end of my shift. Ignoring Sean when he asked if I was going home, I just moved to the next car. It wasn’t until Dad came outside that I bothered to stop. My hair felt like it was soaked with sweat, and I knew that the first thing I’d be doing when I got home was taking a shower.
“Are you working or hardly working?” he asked with a bright grin. He had his suit jacket off and the sleeves rolled up. It’d been a while since I’d last seen him so laid back, and I wondered if he was about to leave.
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just plucked at the front of the collared shirt I had to wear and used it to fan my face. “Boss came out here and told me I was being slow, so I was trying to make sure we got all the new cars done before I left.” I turned and nodded toward Sean, where he was still vacuuming out the car beside the one I had been working on. “We split jobs and so far we’ve been able to get through them faster, but I still have two more to do before we’ve got the shipment done.”
“Boss?” he echoed. “I said nothing about that. I realize they are new cars, but this is something that will definitely take a few hours to do.” He turned to the car I’d been in. He peered into it before backing out. “Never mind, baby. Good job.” He took a breath as he closed the door. “You’re not going to get the entire inventory prepped in one day. Who was putting the vin numbers into the computer?”
“Sean.” I motioned to the guy vacuuming. “I got a rundown today, but we were rushed to get started, so it wasn’t more than that.”
“We’ll get on that tomorrow,” he said, before looking down at his watch. “But I’m pretty positive that’s your shift, kid. You want to go to dinner with me and your mom?”
“I am soaked with sweat,” I admitted to him, “and I feel pretty gross. I need a shower and I’ve got some errands I need to run.”
“All right,” he said reasonably. “But remember, you promised me dinner for giving you this job.” He nodded to Sean. “Doing a good job. Don’t let her make you feel you’ve got to bust your tail too much to keep up.” He turned back to me, not waiting for the other man to respond. “I’ll walk you to the time clock. I told Kyle that he needs to work on his relationship with you. As adults, there’s little reason to hold grudges from when you were children.”
That wasn’t gonna happen. Especially not him walking in on us all in bed. It made me wonder if he’d actually a conversation with Kyle or if he just told my brother that we needed to grow up.
“Sure, Dad,” I said as I followed him into the garage. I let him lead me to the break room. “Dysfunctional families totally get back together once everyone grows up.” I went to the time clock. “Thinking that suddenly every little slight is let go just because we don’t live in the same house is asking a bit much.”
“Don’t try to patch things up with your brother for his sake then,” Dad said from just behind me. “Do it for your mother. You have no idea how much she’s been worrying about you since you moved out.” He released a sigh and put his hands on his hips as he looked down at me. “We can’t make up for perceived slights if you shut us out.”
My shoulders drooped. “The next Sunday night that I have off, I’ll come for dinner.”
“That’s all that I ask,” he said, giving me a weak smile.
Chapter 8
Grace
‘When’s your next day off?’
It was the text message that I had waiting for me when I pulled my phone out. I took that as a hint that Cam was serious about trying to keep everyone involved.
I was on the bus, and I was tempted to drop the chores I needed to do in favor of finding Cameron. The way my hair clung to the back of my neck and the stickiness under my arms was the only thing that kept me from texting him back. I’d take care of the things that had to get done before I messaged him.
I got into the apartment and typed up a response, letting him know I had things to do before I could get caught up with him. It wasn’t until a laugh track from the television went off that I realized the living room wasn’t empty. I halted and spotted Shay on the couch.
I nodded and decided I didn’t want to get into any sort of awkward conversation. There needed to be one, but I wasn’t up for it. “I need a shower,” I said as a way to ward Shay off before I continued to my room.
By the time I had a change of clothes over my arm, though, she stood in my doorway. It was clear she hadn’t been home long. She was still wearing her blouse and slacks from working at the bank. “We need to talk,” she said, making sure there was no room for me to squeeze by her.