She frowned hard. “Well, that is a good question. My normal spot is Mexican food, and I have that pact going on with the gym that I’ll try to eat better. I guess we could try Uncle Sam’s. I could have some eggs and bacon.”
I grinned. “I’ll take you somewhere. Follow me.”
After leaning over one more time to make sure that the baby was securely in the car, she closed the door and then said, “I have to make a single stop first and unload all this. It’s at the mechanic’s shop in town. Then we can leave from there?”
“Murphy’s?” I asked.
She nodded.
“I’ll meet you there,” I said.
A flush crept up over Fran’s face. “Sounds good.”
Then she was getting into her car and heading in the direction of Murphy’s Garage. Murphy who happened to be another member of our gym. Though he was strictly a five a.m. class goer. Fran wouldn’t have had the chance to meet him at the gym just yet.
CHAPTER 6
Planks well with others.
-T-shirt
FRAN
I was utterly embarrassed, while also very proud of myself.
I’d asked him out on a lunch date!
I couldn’t believe I’d had the balls to do it, honestly.
I’d never been on a date before. And I’d certainly never invited anyone to do anything, imaginary or otherwise, that looked like him.
The one and only guy I’d been with that’d ‘popped my cherry’ had been… boring. He’d literally looked like the anti-Taos. Nerdy, blond hair, and smiled easily.
When you glanced at Taos at first, he was intimidating, quiet, and grouchy. But the more you got him to talk, the nicer he became.
When we arrived at Murphy’s Garage I left Mavis’ minivan running, seeing as in the five-minute drive Vlad had fallen asleep, and got out.
Murphy met us at the big bay door with a wide grin on his face.
That grin wasn’t for me, though. It was for the man behind me who’d pulled up and gotten out of his own vehicle. A restored older muscle car that I had no clue what the name was.
But it was pretty.
It was sexier even when the man that I really wanted got out of it with a small grin on his face aimed at the mechanic.
“Well I’ll be damned,” Murphy said from behind me. “Who the fuck do I owe this pleasure to?”
Murphy didn’t wait for an answer, only went up to the car and circled it. A car, that I might add, was not my sister’s minivan.
Murphy whistled. “You got the paint job.”
“I got the paint job,” Taos confirmed, looking at me with a small grin. “Two months ago, this thing was a beast, but it was ugly as fuck. Brown and primer as we got it ready to go get prettied up.”
That made sense.
And did the man know everyone? He’d literally waved ‘hi’ to at least eight people throughout Target, knew the cashier personally, and had found two in the parking lot to wave to. Now he knew the dude I was delivering dog food to?
“It looks sweet,” Murphy grinned. “I’m glad it turned out all right. It was my first time doing all that pretty shit.”
Apparently, ‘pretty shit’ was doing the bodywork on the car.
“You mind if I leave it here for a bit while we go have lunch?” Taos asked his friend.
Murphy shrugged. “You were talking about bringing it in next week to get that tune-up we kept talking about. Why don’t you leave it with me now?”
Taos shook his head. “Madden is on this week with the SWAT team, meaning I can’t take his car. And before you offer one of yours, the last time I did that, you had to ride your motorcycle because yours went out on you. I’m not taking your spare. So it’ll have to be next week.”
That was when I opened my mouth and interrupted. “How long is this going to take?”
I pointed at the car, and Murphy’s eyes came to me. “About two days, give or take. I need to get the parts in, then get them on. It shouldn’t take long at all.”
I turned to Taos. “You do know that driving people around is one of my services, right?” I batted my eyelashes at him. “And sometimes, people pay me in food.”
Taos grinned at that. “I think I could manage to feed you.”
I grinned. “And, just sayin’, but I can come get you for the first two classes of the day. You’d have to stay in the middle, then I can take you home that night really easily. No extra feedings required. But if you wanted me to pick you up and take you home during the middle classes you offer, then you’d have to feed me and ride along on my errands with me.”
Murphy fist-pumped. “I can pick you up when it’s done, too.”
I scowled at Murphy, but he didn’t see it.
The man was taking away my Taos time, and didn’t even realize it!
I’d literally just walked right into my dream, and he didn’t realize he was taking away some Taos time by being sweet.
“Perfect.” Taos grinned. “In that case, yes, you can keep my car. But I swear to God, I better not hear you entering it into one of those street contests again.”
Murphy laughed, pocketed the keys, and then started to unload his dog food, two bags at a time.
That was a hundred something pounds on his shoulder, and he looked like he didn’t even struggle.
“Let me guess.” I watched as he disappeared into the building with the food. “You know him from CrossFit?”
“Five in the morning class,” Taos confirmed as he walked in with the rest of the shit that Murphy had requested.
When Murphy came back, I handed him the receipt, and he handed me cash.
I loved cash. Cash meant I didn’t have to claim it.
I mean, sure, I was technically not supposed to do it. But what the government didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.
“Thank you.” I smiled.
I’d seen that he’d given me a rather sizable tip, like always.
I fucking loved Murphy, even if he kind of sort of hated me. Or, more accurately, he didn’t seem to get along with my sister.
Since Murphy had moved back to Soul’s Chapel before Mavis had Vlad, they have been sniping at each other. Mavis and Murphy seemed to hate each other for no apparent reason.
He called more than twice during the week for me to go pick up a part for him that was out of town because he wasn’t willing to wait. So that always worked out well in my favor tip-wise.
“Thank you.” He shook his head. “You have no idea how much I hate closing this place up to go get the shit. And with the hours I keep, that means that I have to do it in the middle of the day or I can’t get it. You literally save me a lot of hassle.”
I grinned.
That was why I liked doing what I did.
People were nice to me because I was doing them a favor, and I got paid handsomely for it.
Plus, the last time I was there, Murphy offered to give my car a tune-up in exchange for a trip to the store, which I took. And now it ran better, but it was still a beater.
I had no clue how nice it was to know a mechanic until Murphy.
“Damn, those dogs are getting big.” Taos shook his head as he walked out, wiping dog hair off of his pants.
I wondered what kind they were.
I’d never asked.
“Yeah, they sure the fuck aren’t the little puppies that they used to be when they came to the gym with me, are they?” Murphy asked.
After our goodbyes were made, I offered Taos the keys. “I’ll give you a dollar to drive.”
“Deal.” Taos paused as he looked at the minivan. “Though, just sayin’, but I think my man card will get revoked if I drive it.”
I snorted and got into the passenger seat. “I hate driving it. I feel like I’m driving a damn boat. But it’s easier to just take hers and allow her to take mine rather than shuffling the big ass car seat around.”
He chuckled as he put the van in reverse, then paused when he saw the backup screen.
“That’s really
fuckin’ cool,” he mused as he started to back out. Without, might I add, once looking at the screen.
I didn’t have a screen in my car, either, meaning that I rarely glanced at the screen myself.
But I agreed with him, it was really fuckin’ cool.
“I think it’s so big, and surrounds the car so much, because they’re anticipating a shit ton of kids getting in here. And what better way to make sure you don’t run over those shit ton of kids than to have an angle on every single piece of this car?” I teased.
“There was an accident I worked once,” he said as he put the van in drive and then started driving down the road to somewhere I wasn’t privy to. “A grandmother ran over her grandchild. It was awful. Like, well and truly awful. I never thought I would see anything so heartbreaking. The van was partially on the kid’s chest when she realized what she’d done, and when she got out, she didn’t know whether to move the van or not. She was elderly, and crippled to boot, so there was literally nothing that could be done. But the uncle of the kid, hearing the screaming, came running out of the house and fuckin’ lifted the van right off of his nephew. You know they say that there are spurts of superhuman strength when you have adrenaline pumping through your body? The man that did the lifting was like five-foot-six, a hundred and seventy pounds. He shouldn’t have been able to lift that, but he did.”
I swallowed past a lump in my throat, feeling awful for even making that earlier teasing comment.
“Did the kid live?” I whispered.
He looked over at me, seeing the torture in my expression.
“He did,” he confirmed. “The uncle started to come to CrossFit the very next day. Wanted to get into better shape after that.”
“And did he?” I pushed.
Taos grinned. “He did. He’s at the gym all the time now. He’s competing in regionals next month, actually.”
I smiled, happy to hear that the ending was good.
“Vlad isn’t old enough to be doing that yet.” I paused. “But now I’m going to make sure that I look every single freakin’ time.”
Taos winked at me just as he pulled into the parking lot of a small hole-in-the-wall diner that I’d never seen before.
I tilted my head and stared. “I’ve been here for three and a half years now,” I mused. “And I’ve never seen this place before.”
“Cop hangout,” he said. “Not many people know about it, because the people that do frequent it don’t want to have to deal with other people’s shit.”
A laugh shot out of my mouth, and I could do nothing but shake my head as I got out of the car.
Before I could even open the sliding back door, Taos was there, expertly removing my nephew from his car seat and pulling him toward his chest.
I opened the opposite door and snatched Vlad’s diaper bag before looping the strap over my shoulder.
By the time I was situated, Taos was beeping the locks and waiting for me to catch up before he headed into the diner.
When I breached the entrance, it was to find the entire place filled with cops. Not a single one of them had their back to the door.
My mouth formed into a smile that I quickly hid when the waitress glanced at me suspiciously.
“Two today, Taos?” the waitress asked, sounding like she was mad that Taos had brought me.
I instantly stiffened.
“Three,” Taos corrected, bouncing the little boy in his arms and causing him to giggle.
That giggle caught the attention of an older gentleman that was seated at the bar. The bar that was facing out instead of in, forcing the waitress to come around the side that would usually be designated for staff and serve them from the other side.
“What you got there, T?” the older man asked.
“Chief Wilkerson.” Taos jerked his chin toward him and caught my hand, guiding me through all the tables full of cops toward the older man.
I smiled at the older man whose eyes immediately came to me.
His gaze went to the baby in Taos’ arms, then back to me.
He narrowed his eyes, and I wondered if he recognized me.
I recognized him.
This was the chief of police of our small town.
I’d gone to him months after my assault, given him a few things that I wanted him to give to the officer who saved me as a thank you, and had given the older man a hug before leaving.
At that point in time, I was still healing. Still had a pink scar on my chin from it being split open, then stitched up.
“Chief, this is my… this is Francine. Fran for short. She’s in one of my CrossFit bootcamps, and has graciously volunteered to drive me around town for the next two days while my car gets a tune-up. This is her nephew, Vlad,” Taos introduced us.
A little wave of disappointment rolled through me at how he’d introduced me.
It wasn’t wrong. I was indeed driving him around, but I almost wished I’d gotten a little… more.
But we weren’t more.
We weren’t anything more than what he’d said. Even if I wished that to be different.
“Ahhh.” The chief smiled. “Well, it’s very nice to meet you.”
He tilted his head slightly to the left, as if he was trying to see me in different lighting to ascertain how he knew me.
I had a feeling it wouldn’t take him long to figure it out.
He looked like a very intuitive guy.
My face might not look the same, but my hair and body, plus a couple of pounds, did look the same.
He finally looked away, and to the man at his side.
“Have you met Wilhelm Schultz?” the chief asked Taos.
Taos looked toward the man beside Chief Wilkerson and shook his head. “No, I have not.”
“He’s your replacement.” The chief’s eyes gleamed.
Schultz, who looked mildly interested before now, jerked in his chair. “You’re Taos?”
Taos nodded as he held his hand out to the other man. “I am.”
I glanced between the two men, curious as to why that comment by the man was said the way it was said.
I eyed the other man intriguingly.
He was tall. Actually quite a bit taller than the older man at his side.
He had curly brown hair, a trim beard, and eyes that looked like they would see straight into my soul.
He also had a scar on his cheek that looked like once upon a time, he’d been sliced open pretty good.
It wasn’t an unattractive look for him, either. It made him look even hotter. And meaner.
For some reason, I liked my men to look mean.
And Wilhelm Schultz, despite his funny name, had that working well for him.
“Did I hear you say CrossFit?” Schultz asked.
I grinned.
I wasn’t looking at Taos, but I was fairly sure that he was grinning, too.
There were two types of people in the world. Those who did CrossFit, and those that thought CrossFit was an abomination.
Obviously, Schultz wasn’t of the abomination variety.
“Taos quit his day job to open a CrossFit gym. Now half the force goes there to get their PT in, and he offers a discount to first responders,” Chief Wilkerson explained.
Schultz jerked his chin in understanding, then switched his view to the child that Taos was holding.
“I’m all about going to the gym as long as you have childcare,” he murmured.
Taos nodded his head. “We have childcare at two classes we hold in the morning and the evening, eight thirty in the morning, and five thirty in the evening.”
“Schultz is the guardian of his nieces,” Chief Wilkerson explained. “How are they doing?”
Schultz leaned forward so that his elbows were resting on the Formica countertop.
“They’re hellions,” he answered. “They attended a kid’s CrossFit class at our old gym. Do you have that here?”
“We do.” Taos nodded. “Though, the woman that runs it is out for about four more week
s since she just had a baby.”
“Would y’all like to pull up a seat?” Chief Wilkerson offered.
I looked at the bar height counter, then at the baby.
“I don’t think they make high chairs that high,” I admitted.
Turns out, they didn’t.
After speaking for a few more minutes with the chief and Schultz, and hearing Schultz say he’d be in this afternoon after his shift, Taos and I finally took the table that was provided to us as we walked inside.
There were two glasses of water sweating on the table, and menus that looked like they’d seen better days.
The moment Taos sat down, he switched Vlad to his other arm and then scooted into the booth.
“There was this one time that I had to hold him when he was a baby,” I mused. “Mavis had to go into the hospital to have something done, and I’d stupidly not taken his baby seat in with me as I waited for her. I had to hold him almost a full four hours, and by the time that we got to go home, I thought that my arms were going to fall off.” I paused. “He now weighs about seventeen times what he weighed when he was born, and you never once switched him to the other arm until just now.”
Taos’ eyes sparkled. “That’s why I CrossFit. Functional fitness.”
I snickered and reached for my water, taking a hefty swallow before placing it way out of reach so Vlad didn’t accidentally spill it all into my lap. Which he’d done quite a few times to Mavis and me before.
We’d definitely learned our lesson.
Taos hadn’t. Which meant that after he took his sip, he placed it down onto the table within reach.
It took Vlad point five seconds to reach for it and spill it everywhere.
I cursed and jumped up, reaching for a stack of towels that were behind me.
Handing half to Taos who was now standing—dear God, I could see his dick imprint through his wet jeans—I went to work on the table while Schultz laughed his ass off across the room.
Chief Wilkerson had a smile on his face, and Vlad was energetically clapping his hands as he too was dried off.
“What a mess you are, Vlad,” I murmured as I stacked a wad of paper towels down into the crease of the booth and dried it off.
“Menace,” Taos agreed.
That’s when I turned to find myself face to dick with Taos.
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