“Nate is holding Gary! Nate is holding Gary!” The little boy jumped around, all but clapping in glee.
Nate eyed the boy with more than a little kinship as he jumped on a creeper, skidded a few feet then jumped off and continued running and shouting.
“Misplace the Ritalin?” Nate adjusted the red-faced baby in the crock of his arm and put his finger in its mouth. The child immediately stopped crying and started sucking, his chubby cheeks working hard.
Kaitlyn’s lips pursed as she bit back a smile. “No. It was my morning coffee that I set down in the little bugger’s reach.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “If you actually keep that kid from crying and get him to drink his bottle, I’ve got to warn you, I’m kidnapping you. And keeping you until his mother gets home.”
“I assumed you were the mom.” Both kids had Kaitlyn’s blue eyes.
“Good heavens! These rug rats aren’t mine! Half-brothers.” She sounded horrified, but Nate hadn’t missed the look of affection she gave them as she said it.
“So where’s their mother?” Nate had learned the finger trick from being fourth of ten children. But it wouldn’t work for long if the baby was used to breastfeeding.
“Um.” Kaitlyn looked pointedly at the little boy who was running circles around her and Nate doing some kind of motions, maybe imitating a helicopter. “H-O-S-P-I-T-A-L,” she spelled.
Mr. Driver had talked about his wife and the doctor yesterday.
Nate dropped the subject for the moment. “She breastfed?” He watched with interest as two bright red spots appeared on Kaitlyn’s cheeks before she straightened her shoulders and met his look with a challenging one of her own.
“Yes.”
Already the chubby body in his arms wiggled and tensed. He wouldn’t be happy with a finger for much longer. Nate bounced him gently and moved the tip of his finger against the roof of the baby’s mouth.
Kaitlyn made a grab for the little boy who was now hopping on and off a small tool chest and making loud truck sounds. “Did you finish your peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Bobby?”
Nate bit back a grin. A PB&J sandwich was kind of unusual for breakfast. Was that the extent of Kaitlyn’s cooking capabilities?
Bobby’s head nodded up and down in time with his jumping. The truck noises continued unabated.
Kaitlyn glanced at her watch. “The bus will be here in five minutes. Get your backpack, and I’ll walk you to the end of the driveway.” She let go, and Bobby hopped away, the truck noises turned into buzzing sounds as he wind-milled his arms.
“You mean the poor kid gets on the bus this early?”
Kaitlyn looked pained. “He woke up in high gear before six. After his brother screamed. All. Night. Long.” She took a deep breath as Bobby handed his backpack to her and turned his back, still jumping and buzzing. “The three swallows of my coffee that he got before I caught him and took the cup away kicked him into overdrive and this is Not. Early. Enough.” She blew a loose hair out of her face as she untangled his backpack strap.
Nate couldn’t help laughing. “I’m sorry your day isn’t getting any easier, but I’ve got a truck that’ll be here any minute that needs a tarp crank fixed.” He jostled the baby. An eruption of frenzied crying was imminent.
Kaitlyn turned on her way out the door. “I’ll fix the tarp crank if you take care of him.” She nodded toward the baby.
“Bring me one of his mother’s dirty shirts.” He looked at the bottle. “And real milk.”
Kaitlyn’s eyes widened. “Cow’s milk?” She said it the same way she might have if Nate had suggested gasoline.
“Warm it up. Closer to the real thing. And it shouldn’t kill him, only make things a little easier on us.”
“There’s a microwave on the workbench in the back. And milk in the fridge. Check the date. It’s for coffee, but it should still be good.” The door closed and Nate was left alone in the cavernous garage, the fancy rig his only company, save the baby, with his last word: us, ringing in his head. What had he done?
~*~
Kaitlyn snapped the torch off and pushed the dark protective mask up with her thumb, squinting at the weld she had just made on the tarp crank. She wasn’t a professional welder, not even close, but she knew the basics well enough to patch something like this. Patch it at least as well as Nate the Nanny.
Immediately she felt bad. Competitiveness was a part of her nature. Nate had shown her up.
Hating the jealousy that burned in her chest over his competence with the baby, which made her incompetence glaringly obvious, she glanced over to the corner where Nate was leaning back on an old dummy seat. His long legs (in dress pants pressed that morning, or she’d eat what was left of the welding rod) were propped on two old steer tires. The middle buttons of his dress shirt were unbuttoned so Gary lay against warm skin, although because of Gary’s blanket, she couldn’t see his skin. Karen’s shirt lay right under Gary’s nose. Gary hadn’t made a peep, the little traitor, the entire time Kaitlyn had been working on the tarp crank.
Kaitlyn took her helmet off and set it on the bench. She felt guilty for the horrible morning the boys, especially Bobby, had. She had almost peed herself when she’d turned and saw him with her coffee. Afraid he’d burn himself with it and annoyed that she would have to make another cup, she’d spoken to him more harshly than necessary. That, plus the fact that his mother wasn’t in the kitchen getting him ready for school, as usual, made her think that taking the boys to the garage would distract Bobby and help him to not worry. She didn’t want him to have a bad day at school. Anyway, Gary was crying no matter what she did.
Kaitlyn looked longingly at her pulling truck. OK. So maybe she went to the garage hoping all her problems would disappear and she could get something accomplished on the fuel lines she’d been working on. Maybe. Maybe she had needed to go out to the garage, which always soothed her nerves, because on top of this odd attraction for a man that was so not her type, she was scared to death knowing that she would have to face Eve’s brother today. What did he know about Tank and her?
Tarp crank in hand, she started toward the trailer to reinstall it. She flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and glanced at Nate. A good imitation of nonchalance. She hoped. “Everything OK?”
“Soon as you quit making all kinds of racket, I’m gonna try to set him down.” Nate nodded at the little play yard in the back of the garage. He continued in the same soft voice. “Otherwise, I’m just admiring the view.”
He knew! He knew, and he thought she was easy, had just hit on her, and that meant he couldn’t care much for his sister! Disappointment spread through her body like wildfire as she kept walking. She hadn’t figured him for that kind of guy. He had seemed so…honorable.
“Yeah, figured you get lots of compliments on that large car,” he said.
Kaitlyn stopped. He hadn’t been talking about her?
“It yours?”
She forgot she was nervous and that she absolutely could not respect a man who was better with babies than he was with tools. “Yep.” Pride spilled into her voice. “Got the thing from the scrapyard and did everything myself. I’m working on getting more fuel to the motor right now.”
“So it’s not a work truck.”
“No. I pull with it.”
Nate nodded at the crank she had forgotten she still held. “Should I text my driver and tell him it’s almost done?”
Shaking her head Kaitlyn walked back toward the trailer. He didn’t know a thing about Tank and her. He couldn’t. Not yet, anyway. “Give me a minute to stick this on.”
Thirty minutes later that truck rolled out of the garage, the patched tarp crank back in its place on the trailer. The deep blue September sky held a warm sun and Kaitlyn left the overhead door up, comfortable in her t-shirt and jeans. She didn’t watch the truck pull out of the driveway but turned back to where Nate had stood and was now gently setting a sleeping Gary down in the play yard. He looked up at her. “Thanks for taking car
e of that.”
“Sure.” She couldn’t help but notice how big his hands looked, especially holding Gary, but she still wondered what he would have done if Gary hadn’t forced her into working on that truck for him. He certainly didn’t look, dress, or even talk like anyone she’d ever met who knew their way around a garage. Of course, she had no idea what she would have done if he hadn’t helped her out with the baby.
“Thank you for taking care of Gary.”
“What’s up with his mom?” Nate tucked the blanket around Gary’s inert, and finally quiet, body.
Kaitlyn pushed some loose hair behind her ear. “Karen’s had pain in her back for a few weeks, a month, maybe. She’s been tired, doing less and less. They’ve had everything checked, couldn’t find anything. Finally, they’ve decided it’s cancer. I guess the doctors will be pretty aggressive with her treatments. Yesterday, they sent her to Pittsburgh and last I talked to Dad, he thought they were putting a chemo port in.”
“Wow.” Nate looked back at the sleeping baby. “You might have your hands full for a while.”
She sighed. “I might.” She loved her step-brothers. Really. But she had thought that this would finally be her year to win the East Coast Pulling Truck series. Her gaze slid to the glass case where the one Driver’s Door Trucking Championship Pulling Trophy sat. Unfortunately, her older brother, Kyle, had died just days after winning it. Kaitlyn might not have killed him, but she could have prevented his death. Her dad hadn’t looked at her the same since.
Winning the championship would be nice, but it went further than just getting a trophy. If she won with a truck that she’d built herself, not only would her dad need to give her credit—she was as good a mechanic as Kyle—but it would open the door to other people asking for her help. She’d generate income for the garage, but more than that, her dad would see people respecting her skills and opinions. It would have to influence him.
She looked back into Nate’s thoughtful gaze. Probably her gaze at the trophy and the truth written all over her face showed him how important winning a second one for the company was to her, but Nate wouldn’t know why. He wasn’t finding out from her, either.
Her phone buzzed. She pulled it out and read the text, worrying her lip. Her bones felt rubbery.
“Bad news?” Nate asked.
Kaitlyn nodded. She took a deep breath. It was never easy to see the “C” word. “Dad says that it’s definitely cancer. They’re doing more tests, and they want her to stay there because once they figure out how to treat it, they’ll start ASAP.” Kaitlyn pulled both lips in and bit down. This could be her chance to show her dad that the daughter he had left was just as good as the son he’d lost. The weight of expectations felt like bricks on her shoulders. She could handle this.
“Who do they usually get to watch the boys?” Nate’s voice was soft.
Kaitlyn shrugged. “Me. Eve.” She kept her gaze firmly on the cement floor. She could not think about Eve right now. “Karen’s a stay-at-home mom. They don’t get too many other people in. Her family comes down once a year from Alaska, but she has brothers in high school there.” Her dad and Karen would flip if she got someone they hadn’t personally vetted to watch the boys.
Her phone buzzed again.
See about the dispatching and whatever else needs done. Take care of the boys.
How would she do all that? She had a truck coming in after lunch for an oil change and to have the brakes replaced. Already feeling overwhelmed, Kaitlyn shook when her ringtone sang out. The ID read Chester County Elementary School. “Oh, great. It’s the school.” She swiped and answered as Nate turned and walked a few feet away to give her privacy.
A formal, pinched voice spoke. “May I speak to Mr. or Mrs. Driver?”
“They’re in Pittsburgh. This is Kaitlyn Driver.”
“Bobby’s…?”
“Sister.”
“Hmm. Well, Bobby punched a little girl. Someone needs to come pick him up. Immediately. Before he’s allowed to come back, we’ll need to have a conference with his parents. Both of them.” She emphasized the “both.” Her tone made the crime seem as if it had been committed by a seventeen-year-old, not a seven-year-old.
“But he’s only seven!”
“We have a zero-tolerance policy on fighting. That’s our rule.”
“I’ll be right in.” This was all her fault. She should never have sent him to school after he drank the coffee. She’d have to explain, but it’d be easier to do it in person.
“See that you are.” Her phone beeped as the connection was severed.
How would she deal with this? Bobby shouldn’t be punished for Kaitlyn’s mistake. Bobby didn’t have a mean bone in his body, but he did border on hyper. Her coffee this morning couldn’t have helped. But the administrator didn’t seem to be understanding. Kaitlyn turned to go. She stopped short as Nate cleared his throat behind her. Nate! She’d forgotten about him. And Gary. How could she forget about Gary?
“I have the building inspector coming at ten.”
She turned.
Nate rested a foot on the step of her truck. He straightened and continued speaking as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was saying. “I can stay here with Gary, and if you’re not back by then, I’ll take him with me.”
“No.” Her head shook automatically as she glanced at the clock on her cell phone. Nine thirty. She had to do everything. “I’ll figure something out.”
“Don’t be stubborn.” Nate put his hands in his pockets with a grace that reminded her of a slouching tiger. “If Tank and Eve were here, you said yourself, they’re the ones who would be stepping in.” He shrugged, and Kaitlyn noticed again the breadth of his shoulders. “I’m here in their place.”
Kaitlyn stood with her mouth open.
Nate put his palms up. “If you’re worried that I’m some kind of child predator or thief, call Tank. Or the police. I’ll give you my social security number, and you can check me out however you want.”
She wasn’t worried about that at all. It was just so hard to accept help. Picturing herself standing before the administrator’s disapproving chastisement, Bobby zipping around the office, papers and pencils flying in his wake, and Gary screaming the entire time, Kaitlyn shifted on her feet. “No, it’s OK.” She unclenched her jaw. “You’re right. Thank you.”
4
Nate walked back into Driver’s Door garage carrying the infant seat in which Gary still slept. Gary had barely whimpered when Nate slipped him into the seat. He’d remained asleep the entire time Nate had stood while the building inspector wrapped yellow CAUTION tape around Tank’s garage and warned in no uncertain terms that no one was to go into it for any reason. The baby had slept for the ride home and he was sleeping now. Kaitlyn hadn’t been lying when she’d said he’d not slept all night. The kid was worn out.
No, Gary was not his problem. His problem had long, chestnut hair and looked way too good with her slim hips in faded blue jeans and grease streaks on her face. He could have set Gary down much earlier this morning, but Kaitlyn had the welding under control. And she looked impossibly feminine holding the hissing rod, repairing that crank handle as if she was born to do it. Even after she got the devastating text, and as problem after problem landed on her, she kept her shoulders back and faced it all head-on. It was hard not to admire her. It was even harder to remember that she could have seduced his sister’s husband. He just couldn’t believe it. But the thought was there.
What good was he as a protective, older brother? He wasn’t avenging his sister. He might even be aiding and abetting the enemy. It was just so hard to see Kaitlyn as the enemy.
Even if Clint had lied, and Nate really wanted to believe that he had, Kaitlyn was not the kind of sweet, gentle woman whom he needed. Admiring her, helping her, feeling compassion for her and thinking about her were all extremely bad ideas. He needed to set this car seat down in the garage and leave. Fast.
“Nate! Kaitlyn said you were coming back! I get t
o be home the rest of today!” Bobby was still jumping, but his energy didn’t seem as frantic. Still a Golden Retriever, but the espresso main-line had been taken out. “I’m hungry!”
The clock on the wall read noon. “Me, too.” He hadn’t realized how late it was.
Bobby glanced in the car seat at Gary. His shoulders hunched as though making himself smaller would also make him quieter. “Shh! Gary’s sleeping.” Bobby put one finger over his lips and spoke in a whisper that was slightly louder than his speaking voice.
Kaitlyn’s legs were sticking out from under her pulling truck.
Don’t do it, mister. “How about you, Gary, and I go to Tank’s house and make lunch?”
“Gary can’t make lunch.” Bobby’s grin showed a big gap between two adult teeth that seemed too large for his face.
“You can go up to the house and grab something. There’s stuff in the fridge.” Kaitlyn rolled out and looked at him from the creeper. Her hands were solid black and her face wasn’t much better. “I’ve got a truck coming in any time, and I’ve got the fuel lines done but haven’t been able to get these wires figured out.” She pushed a strand of hair back with her wrist, which left a black streak across her forehead. Her nose scrunched up. “Is that OK?”
Bobby skipped in a circle around Nate and Gary. “We can cook lunch. Me and Nate’ll do it.”
Nate met Kaitlyn’s blue eyes, even more brilliant with the black on her face. He should be annoyed. He should put the car seat down and leave her with her responsibilities. He should be plotting revenge.
“Come on, Nate.” Bobby grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the door.
“We’ll bring you something back.” Nate spoke over his shoulder as he allowed Bobby to lead him out, carrying Gary in the infant seat.
~*~
“Is it OK to fight?” Bobby stood on a chair and carefully placed one slice of bread over the sandwich filling Nate had put on another slice.
Nate looked down at Bobby’s bent head. A cold chill of nervousness went through him. He was the least qualified person in a hundred-mile radius to lecture a seven-year-old on fighting. “Well, the Bible says to turn the other cheek.”
Turbocharged Page 3
