Begin to Begin (10 page)

"Good morning, Marin," she happily exclaims as she walks straight past me to the coffee.

"Good morning, Edie," I call as I head over behind the counter.

After Gwenn arrives around nine, I'm in and out of the office the rest of the day. I had a few phone calls to make and take care of a few other things. The morning flies by as we end up being quite busy. A few regulars stop in to chat and a few new customers also stop by to check out the store.

Around one, the store is pretty slow. I pull up a stool beside Gwenn so we can chat. I haven't had a chance to talk to her much lately. She tells me about the apartment she was able to find at an amazing price and about the classes she will be taking at NYU. She talks about her dating life lately. I find it hilarious that she can't seem to find a guy. Her problem, though, is she is too smart for most guys. She needs a booknerd boyfriend or someone who isn’t easily intimidated by her.

"Soo, tell me about Dalton," she swoons.

"What do you mean tell you about Dalton? There isn't anything really to tell."

"Knock it off, Marin. We all know he's a hottie so now you need to tell me what he's like." She waggles her eyes like Groucho Marx.

Do
I
even know what he's like? I get up and start to walk away.

"Ask me on Friday."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, chickadee! Get your hiney back here and explain what that is supposed to mean?" I sigh and turn back around.

"I don't even know why I'm telling you any of this. Please don't repeat it. Seriously. The last thing I need is Joey or Amelia worrying." I take my seat back on my stool and look around the store to make sure we won't be interrupted. "He asked me to go to dinner with him Thursday evening."

Her mouth falls open, and her chin might actually hit the counter. "Holy shit. And you said yes?"

"Well, it took some convincing but it's just as friends. A friendly dinner between new friends. That's all it is. Yeah … friends." Gwenn about falls off her chair she's laughing so hard.

"Who are you trying to convince? Me, or yourself?" I scowl at her.

"It's the truth." She rolls her eyes, and I change the subject before she has a chance to keep going on with this Dalton issue.

The rest of her shift is uneventful and then Cole shows up to take over. I decide that since I haven't been here much lately I will work the rest of the night and close with Cole. I haven't gotten a chance to catch up with him much lately.

We chat on and off throughout the evening in-between customers. He tells me all about James and the drama he has to deal with at work and we talk about the signing coming up this weekend. I'm thankful to close out the night with Cole.

Why? He never once brings up Dalton.

I end up getting home around ten, and by the time, I crawl into bed. I’m exhausted but feeling good. The signing will go well on Friday. I'm happy for Joey and Amelia, and am loving having a front row seat to their relationship.

And lastly, I won't admit it to anyone, but I'm excited about my dinner with Dalton Thursday night.

"Thank you, Dalton. You are such a sweet boy, not to mention the best mechanic around these parts. I don't know what I would do without you," Mrs. Rogers praises me as she takes the keys to her now good-as-new car. I help her into her car and lean into the window once she's all good to go.

"You got it, ma’am, anytime you need anything just give me a call." She waves and backs out, and once she's turned around, she is on her way back down the driveway. As I make my way back into the garage with Liam, to work on a truck that came in this morning, I notice Uncle Mel standing at the door of the garage observing quietly.

"What are you doing, old man? Don't you trust me?" I joke with him.

"Oh, I trust you to take care of the customers. I actually enjoy watching you with them. You have a way with them and they trust you no matter what."

"Well, why wouldn't they?" I ask as I shove the old oil rag into my back pocket. "I tell them like it is."

"I don't know, I just figured with your history in this town people wouldn't be inclined to trust you and I thought we may actually lose customers," he answers skeptically. He walks slowly over to Liam to look over what he’s doing. I see him nod his approval before he walks back to me.

A part of me can understand his concern. I have been trying for months now to get my life under control—cut off all contact with J.R. and Sonny. I have focused only on this garage, and I wonder if it’s him that still doesn't trust me.

"I would never put the garage in jeopardy. I would hope you know me better than that. But do you trust me, Uncle?" I don’t wait for his answer and walk straight back to the office. I don't even glance Liam's way. Uncle Mel follows me inside and shuts the door.

"Listen, Dalton. You’re my nephew, but I think of you as my son. I pretty much raised your scrawny ass up into the man you are right now. I'm not sure why you veered down the wrong path with those idiots when you were younger but you can't blame me for being cautious."

Groaning, I lean back in my chair. "Yeah, I guess."

"I didn't come here to argue anyway."

"Then why did you come here?" I say, making sure he doesn’t see me roll my eyes.

"I wondered if that girl was coming around anymore."

My laughter about knocks me out of my chair.

I calm down and see the annoyed look on his face and ask him, "Why? You wanna ask her out or something. I don't think Aunt Dot would appreciate that."

"Stop it, you buffoon. I liked her. She makes you smile, it's something we rarely get to see around here."

Yeah, he's right, she does make me smile. I haven't decided how I feel about that yet. It doesn't really matter anyway because she made it clear that she didn't want to be anything more than friends. I guess that will have to do for now.

"We are friends. That's it. Hell, I barely know her and she doesn't know a damn thing about me. I'm sure as soon as she found out about my past she would run away screaming and never look back."

I’m actually terrified of her finding out the man I used to be.

The disappointment shows in his eyes. "Dalton, don't give her a reason to run away. Show her the real you, not the you that you pretended to be or tried to be for those damn idiots. That girl is special, don't let her get away." I'm not given a chance to argue with him any further as he turns and leaves. I hear him yell across the garage to Liam and shake my head. He still wants to be the boss.

He's right, though, Marin
is
special. I don't need to know anything else about her to know that. But, from the moment I looked into her eyes, I knew that there was something else there. A sadness she couldn’t shake. The more I get to know her I have realized that there is a hidden joy under all that sorrow. I want to smother the sadness so all that’s left is the joy.

I turn on the computer and start working on the spreadsheet that Marin helped me set up. I don't know what I would have done if she wouldn't have helped me. I still don’t really know what I’m doing but in the past I never cared to learn anything about computers. I guess what she’s given me is a good place to start. I don't have Facebook or any of those ridiculous social media sites. Just give me a phone that I can text and call with and a wrench to fix a car with and I'm a happy man. Hell, I would have never figured this stuff out on my own but now that she has shown me a few things, it's really not that hard to figure out. Maybe I can convince her to show me a few more things.

After messing with the computer for about twenty minutes, I hear some commotion out in the garage. Making my way to the door, I peer out through the opening and what I see makes my blood run cold.

J.R. is holding a gun to Liam’s head as Sonny is demanding to know where I am. Liam isn't budging but he spots me in his peripheral vision and Sonny must notice because he whips around and meets my gaze.

"Just the fucker I've been looking for." He tilts his head toward J.R. "Let this pussy go. I found what I was looking for." J.R. pushes Liam to the ground roughly and they both move quickly to the office. I knew they would catch up with me at some point but I was really hoping they wouldn’t show up here.

"What do you guys want? I thought I made myself clear when I said I was out. I'm focusing on this now. I don’t care what you guys do or who you scam or whatever … just leave me out of it."

"And what exactly is this D? This piss poor excuse for a garage?" Sonny says as he sits down on the old ripped vinyl chair and J.R. leans next to the door and looks at me with a deceptive smirk.

"Yeah, D. You can't possibly be making bank in this shit hole. Your customers are the same old biddies that they have been since your Uncle Mel started it up and they will all be dying off soon with any luck." J.R. finds it necessary to add his opinion.

Leaning back into my chair leisurely, I’m not going to let him get to me. That's what they want after all. "I'll ask again. What. Do. You. Want." J.R. looks from me to Sonny and back to me again, and if I know him like I think I do, he's waiting for fists to fly.

Sonny makes his way around the office, touching anything he can get his hands on as he does. "The thing is, we have a car that needs delivered to a high-profile client in a couple weeks and we think that you would be just the guy for the job."

"No," I respond coldly.

His only reaction to my one-word answer is a slight glance. He gets up and walks slowly around the cramped office.

"But you see, here's the thing that's going to happen if you don't." He stops, turns to me slowly and smiles. "I saw you the other day with that pretty girlfriend of yours. Dark hair, tiny little thing, tits that are …
Fuck.
I would love to get a taste of her."

By now, I’m seething on the inside, how I am still sitting here calmly I have no idea. "She’s not my girl—"

"I can tell you want her." His smile is that of the devil, "I can't blame you. I was tempted to take her away from you that day. But, I'll make you a deal. You do this one last fix and run for me, I leave her alone." He looks to J.R. "I might even make J.R. leave her alone too, but we will see how that goes. You know how much he likes a nice rack, and that girl, my friend, takes the fucking gold." He sits back into the old chair.

"So help me god, Sonny. If either of you good for nothing pieces of shit go anywhere near her, I'll kill you both … with my bare fucking hands." I can’t pretend anymore. They need to know I’ll kill them if they touch her—hell, if they
look
at her.

"Well, the offer’s on the table. It’s your choice whether we touch her or not. "

He stands back up and nods his head toward the door. "I've got shit to take care of, though, so I'll let you think about it. You have until Sunday to decide. If I don't hear from you I know where to find a pretty little thing with perky tits at an uppity bookstore." He winks and follows J.R. out the door. I wait until I hear them leave the garage until the outburst I have been holding in explodes.

I pick up a crankshaft that’s sitting on the desk and throw it against the wall beside the door. "
Fuck
." Just as the part hits the wall, leaving a gaping hole, Liam walks in.

"Dude, what the fuck?"

Looking him over for the first time since J.R. and Sonny were here, I realize that he seems to be ok. "You good, Liam?"

"Yeah, but what the hell did they want? If your Uncle Mel—"

"I know. He can't know they were here." I look him dead in his eyes, if Uncle Mel gets involved in this it will be even worse. "Just … don't worry about it OK. I will take care of it."

"Really, man? Are you kidding me?” He’s pissed. “You have been doing so great here staying away from them and there hasn't been any issues and they show their face and BOOM! You are back in it again."

"It's not like that, Liam," I answer as I roughly rub my hands down my face. "I will figure a way out of this. Marin's life may depend on it."

"What? How did she get pulled into one of these messes of yours?" I motion for him to sit down and I explain everything they told me. I don't tell him that I'm considering it, though. But the problem is that it's a never-ending cycle with Sonny and J.R. They pull me into a job, I do the job, and say I'm done, don't hear from them for a while, and then it's all over again. This is the longest I have gone with not being involved with them. And now I may not have a choice. I'm not going to let them anywhere near Marin.

“How do they even know Marin?” he asks.

"I don't know. Sonny saw us together the other day. He must have followed her or something. I have no idea what the fuck to do." Running my hands through my hair, I contemplate my options. I can ignore Sonny and call his bluff. But, he's not known for not keeping his word so that's out of the question. I do as he says in the hopes that this really will be the last time. Or I say fuck it all and go back to the life that I know how to live. The one that puts everyone in danger. The one that sucks the soul right out of me. The one that cuts Marin out of my life.

Liam watches me with a pity in his eyes.

"Don't."

"Don't what? I didn't say anything."

"You don't have to say anything. I got myself in this mess. I will figure out a way to get out of it. Without involving Marin in any way."

He nods and starts to back out of the office. "I hope you know what you are doing this time."

I watch from my desk as he goes back to work on the old Cutlass that was brought in this morning. This is my life now. At least this is what I want my life to be now. Now more chop shops, no more late night deliveries and payments in back alleys. No more disagreements about price and bullets being exchanged. No more disappointing the family that has always been there for me and is giving me the out that I don't deserve.

No more …

******

The garage was a damn mess and it took me a while to clean it up. I didn't expect to be here this late into the night but my unexpected visit with Sonny and J.R. set me back a bit. Liam left a couple of hours ago—his current state probably consists of a cold beer and a beautiful woman. He always has a different girl on his arm. I have no idea how he keeps up with them, but I guess I used to be the same way.