Hotbox (68 page)

The drive home was unbearable. I didn’t want to be alone with my thoug
hts, but music on the radio drove
me crazy. I don’t know how I managed to make it back to town, but I did. Instead of heading for home to finally shower and change, I went straight to Lou’s garage so I had somethin
g to occupy my mind
.

He talked casually about the weather an
d I was glad I only had to answer simple questions. I did ask him if I could stay late to make up for the morning I
’d
missed. He claimed there wasn’t much to do unless I wanted to help Charlie work on his own car for a while. I was more than willing to do that. I didn’t want to go home.

I deliberately left my phone in the truck so I wouldn’t have to answer Jayden’s calls. That plan failed when Matt came
to me
and said she called him and was worried about me.
I really didn’t know what I was doing anymore, and I realized that I
had
probably just made the situation worse.

“I had no idea you didn’
t tell her you were here
, man. Sorry, but she seemed a little
pissed
.”

I nodded. “Okay. I’ll call her when I’m done with this,” I replied.

“No need. She’s on her way over.”

My heart dropped
and I swallowed hard. Matt went back to work cleaning up, and then he left
the garage a
few minutes later. That’s when Jayden arrived. I saw her from the corner of my eye and she was talking to Matt in the office. They both looked my way so I stuck my head back under the hood. Charlie was having me listen to the engine idle, but then it suddenly shut off. I looked at h
im to see what the problem was and
he motioned his head toward the office door. Jayden was standing
inside the garage,
staring at me. She looked like she was about to cry.

Charlie left us alone as she slowly walked toward me.

“I’ve been really worried about you,” she said quietly.

I rubbed my hands on a towel. “I’m sorry. I left my phone in the truck—”

“And you
didn’t even think to call me? –
A
t
any
point
during the day? On your way home, or when you got here?”

“I’m sorry,” I said again.

I took a deep breath. Just looking at her was painful and I had no idea what I should do or say. Maybe this was the moment that I should just do it. Maybe it was time to break it off.

She shook her head and just put her arms around me. She had on a white button-up blouse, but she didn’t even care as she
pressed against my filthy work clothes and
held me tight.

“I’m
sorry I’m being so needy. I
guess I’m just feeling a little
emotional.”

             
There was no way I could turn her away. I felt horrible. I was so torn over what I should do. But the only thing I
did do was go with what was natural to me. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her head
, enjoying the way she smelled and how she felt in my arms
.

             
“What’s going on? Why are you
emotional?”

             
“Uh, I don’t know,” she murmured against me. “Hormones, I guess.”

I smiled. “Well…I’ll give you a free pass on that one.
Is there something
I can do?”

She shook her head against me. “Just hold me.”

So I did
. And it felt amazing to have her in my arms again. I was suddenly hit with an array of emotions, myself. After all the heartache I went through over the weekend—preparing myself for a life without her—I became angry again. It wasn’t fair, and the more I thought about it, the more I felt we belonged together. There had to be a way out—there just had to be—and I began to rack my brain once
again, trying to come up with any possible way to make it happen
.

She slowly pulled away from me and sighed. “I’ll let you get back to work. I just needed to see you…to hold you. Sorry I interrupted.”

“No, you didn’t interrupt
.
I don’t know how long I’ll be… I told Charlie I’d help him—”

“That’s okay. Do what you need to do. Just…call me okay? Tomorrow or…”

“I’ll finish up here. I want to be with you.”

She almost seemed surprised, and that’s when it hit me. She knew something was up, but she was trying to give me some space. Jayden wasn’t one to pry or interrogate. She was more the type to wait it out, hoping I would share with her when the time was right. I loved that about her
, but this time, I wished it were different. I almost wished she
would
pry—ask questions, interrogate, accuse me of something—
because
I
wanted there to be
a reason
that would push me into telling her the
truth. I was on that edge again,
ready to just blurt it out and hope for the best.

“Well,” she said quietly. “I’m going to head home, then. How ‘bout you give me a call if it’s not too late?”

“Can you just meet me at my house like usual?” I asked.

She eyed me for a moment. “Yeah,
if that’s what you want
. Just let me go home and change,” she smiled, glancing down at her white shirt that was now dusted with a layer of
grime
.

“That will probably stain,” I warned her.

She shrugged. “I don’t care. It was worth it.”

She smiled
again
and slowly backed away before turning around to leave. I waited until she entered the office and disappeared, and then I turned my attention back to Charlie’s car. We were just about to get back to work when the office door opened again and Jayden was standing there with a frown on her face.

“My tires have all been slashed.”

“What?”

I follo
wed her outside and sure enough,
all four of them were toast.

I got a sinking feeling in my stomach.

“Who would slash my tires?” she asked me.

I shook my head. “I uh, don’t think it’s personal,” I lied. “It’s been happening around town. Vandals, I guess. Come inside, I’ll take care of it.”

She followed me in just as Lou was answering the phone.

“Ty, for you,” he said.

I almost didn’t take it, but I grabbed it anyway to avoid questions. “This is Ty.”

“You’ve been warned, Ty,” Dean’s voice
cut
through the phone. “Doesn’t look like you’ve made much progress with our new ar
rangement. Time is running out.”

He hung up.

I falsified an ending to the conversation and then dialed another number. I called in a favor to the tire business down the road, told Tony what I needed, and he promised he’d bring them within a half hour.
At the same time, Lou had made a report to the police,
and
there wasn’t anything that I could do about it. After he dealt with that,
I
decided to
sit in the office with Jayden until
Tony
came, but she insisted that I just go help Charlie for the time being. Lou was heading out
, though,
and I didn’t want Jayden in the office by herself, so she sat in the garage and watched us work.

Tony came twenty minutes later and the two of us had her car ready to go in no time. By then it was seven o’clock, I was starving, and my nerves were shot. Jayden left for home, so I helped Charlie for a few more minutes before I headed out as well.

I
wasn’t sure how much more I could take before I completely lost my mind
. The “arrangement
” as Dean called it.
I didn’t care what it took, but I had to find a way out of it.

I was pretty busy at work for the next two days. I hardl
y talked to Jayden on the phone,
even. She had
been busy in her office
as well, and Tuesday and Wednesday evenings she was
working at the music store
for another
teacher that was sick.

Thursday I made it home to shower and change.
She
had invited me over for dinner at her house, and as much as I didn’t want to go, I found myself unable to turn her down. I didn’t even know what I was doing anymore. And talking to my dad on the phone the last two nights didn’t help, either. He insisted that I needed to break it off; maybe once it was done, something would change and I could get her back. But for now, he didn’t want
to
see me tempting my fate.

I didn’t want to admit that he was right. I was still trying to convince myself that there was a way out of
it
, and I finally decided that I really couldn’t go through with breaking
her
heart. I had to just talk to her. We shared everything, and I was sure I could find a way to explain why we couldn’t be together without telling her too much.

I was just about to
get in
to
my truck
to leave for her house
when a dark sedan pulled up at the curb. My first instinct was to avoid getting in the car at all costs. But with much reluctance, I made my
way
to the door
as
it opened. I was even more appalled that
Dax
was the one that
stepped out, forcing me to slide in
between him and
Dean.
I realized that Olevsky must be out of town.

“Hey, Ty,”
Dean
smiled. “Ni
ce to see you. Ready for an
adventure?” The car left the curb and headed down the street. “I’m kind of disappointed in you, really. Waiting for the very last day to break things off with her? Are you hoping I’ll change my mind, or something?” He
looked at me for a while before he glanced around me at
Dax
. “I think he is,” he chuckled.
Dax
returned the laugh and it made my skin crawl.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Oh, just to see your
soon-to-be
ex
-fiancée
.”

My pulse began to race.

“What’s she think of her new tires?
” he continued.
“
You always make sure her car has the best of everything. The tires are no exception; they must cost a pretty penny.” It was quiet for a moment. “How was your visit to your
pops
? Does he enjoy being alive while he’s clean and sober? I’m sure it’s been a shock to his system.”

I was getting impatient with his talking and I was on the brink of just shouting at him and asking what the hell he wanted. But I figured it wouldn’t be worth it based on whatever “adventure” he was taking me on. I didn’t want to set him off any further, just in case there was a chance of changing his mind. He had me in a vice, that’s for sure, and it really pissed me off.

He began talking about this or that, fully knowing that I didn’t give a damn. He said
Olevsky
was out of the country again, taking care of “family stuff.” I didn’t know what that meant, but Dean apparently wanted me to
know
. When I didn’t inquire further, he filled me in himself.

“You know he has a brother?”

I didn’t.

“That’s kind of funny, huh?
Ivan
.
Just found out a few months ago. That’s crazy, isn’t it? Hey
Dax
, maybe one of these days we’ll find out you and me are related,” he chuckled.

Dax
returned the evil laugh.

“And maybe Ty is our little brother,”
Dean
added, patting my face
hard.
“But
Olevsky
…he’ll do whatever it takes to get his brother
out of the trouble he’s in
.
Nothing’s going to stop
the boss
from making it happen—not even you, Ty.”

Once we were in Jayden’s neighborhood I began to
feel
really uneasy. I had no idea what was going on and it made my stomach
tense
. When we got near her home, we
pulled up to the curb across the st
reet,
but
two houses down.

“So let’s talk about our arrangement, Ty. Why haven’t things changed between the two of you?”

“It’s already starting to change,” I mumbled.

“Oh, really?” he chuckled. “Things a little on edge between the two of you?” He glanced across at
Dax
again. “There’s trouble in paradise.”