“That’s a nice way to wake up,” Yara whispers with a beautiful smile.
“Yeah, I could wake up like that every day,” I reply, stroking her cheek with the back of my hand.
“Didn’t you?” she asks. I can hear the hesitance in her voice.
“You mean with Delilah?” She nods. “No. We didn’t have a super-active sex life. Most of the time I was making up excuses to avoid being with her.”
Yara’s face brightens and she doesn’t even bother hiding it. “Really?”
I run my fingers through her hair and press a kiss to her forehead.
“You know what I think? I think we should get out of Tangerine Forks.”
“Get out?” Yara asks, surprised. “But…I only just got here.”
“Clint is going to come looking for me,” I reply.
“Come on, I saw you handle those four guys in the truck,” she teases, running her fingers along my bicep.
“If it was just him, I wouldn’t be worried about it,” I smile. “But he’s got alotof guys working for him. And I can’t protect you every hour of the day either.”
She thinks about this for a second, then nods her head like she gets my point. “Yeah, I understand. But where would we go?”
“Someplace sunny,” I reply. “I’m tired of these snowy winters. You know I’ve always wanted to see San Diego.”
“San Diego…”
“I could open up my own shop,” I continue. “Bring my buddy Jim with me. It would be a fresh new start away from all of this.”
Yara looks back at me, her eyes filled with a combination of excitement and hesitation. I can understand too. She just got here, and now I’m asking her to leave with me. But as I place my hand on her chest, I get a feeling that where I go, she will follow.
I dropYara off a few blocks from her work to avoid us being seen together, and then drive myself to the garage for one of the most frantic days at work we’ve had in a while. It’s one of those days where the guys are cussing each other out over little things like who stole the other one’s wrench, and where Pete’s shouting at us to hurry up and get one car out of the bay so we can get the next one in because he went and overbooked.
Normally a day like this would get to me. I’d be searching for some kind of upbeat music to keep my spirits up, but today I’m not bothered by any of it. Today I’m just thinking about Yara, last night, and the whole rest of our lives laid out in front of us.
For the first time since I can remember, I feeltrulyhappy. I’m not worried about what kind of mood my supposed girlfriend is going to be in when I get home or whether or not we’re going to get in an argument or not. I just genuinely can’t wait to get out of work so I can see Yara.
San Diego. A fresh start with all that sunshine. How incredible would that be? I reach for a screwdriver, and it’s then that I see the tall, shadowed silhouette of a man behind me on the shop wall. Slowly, I drop the screwdriver and grab a much larger torque wrench before turning around to see Clint standing there in front of his truck, looking at me like he’s angrily confused.
“You’re not living up to your end of the bargain,” he says.
“Bargain? What bargain?” I reply.
“The one where I tell you to do something you do it so I don’t break your legs,” he replies, taking a few steps forward. Some of the guys notice him and give him space. “Thatbargain.”
“I see,” I nod. “Well, Clint, I’m going to have to pull out of thatbargainunfortunately. Sorry to disappoint you.”
Clint steps close, so close that he’s right up in my face. I can smell the beer and cigarettes as he stares into my eyes.
“Me? Disappointme?”He shakes his head. “If you’d have seen my daughter this morning, then you’d have known why I’m here right now, son. Now for whatever reason, she’s got a thing for you, and until she decides she don’t, that means you’re gonna be there for her if she wants you to be. You understand me?”
Only a few days ago before I’d met Yara, I would have nodded and begrudgingly accepted this. But now I have something in my life to fight for, and there’s no way I’m going to stand down to this man. I don’t care who he is or how many men he has at his disposal. My future is with Yara and that’s all there is to it.
“Sorry, Clint,” I say, shaking my head. “Can’t do it. You’re gonna have to break the news to that daughter of yours yourself if she doesn’t understand what I’ve already told her.”
I see the rage flare in Clint’s eyes. He’s not a man used to being talked back to. He goes tense. He wants to hit me, but even for a man as powerful as him, there are too many witnesses here for him to do anything to me. He nods and sucks his upper teeth.
“All right, boy. If that’s how you want to play it.”