by Mia Carson
Two loud voices drew her gaze to the door, and she grimaced inwardly as she forced a smile to her face. “There she is,” Sarah said loudly as she approached Kris’s table. “We were searching all over for you, dear.”
“I’m right here,” she replied lightly, hoping the sarcasm wasn’t detectable. “Letting Edmund have his time with Tommy.”
“That’s sweet of you,” she said, patting her hand sweetly as she sat down across from her. Edward left to grab them some coffees. “So, you and my son—what’s going on between you two?” Her hand tightened on Kris’s before she let go.
Kris smiled at her bluntness and slowly pulled her hands out of the woman’s reach, stomach churning at the glint of anger in her eyes. “If you’re trying to throw me off, you’ll have to do better than that. I was raised by the bluntest woman in the world.”
“Your mother?”
“No, my Grams,” she corrected. “And your son and I are currently dating.”
“Is that right?” Sarah said sharply. “You think because you spend a week with my son that you’ll be with him forever, is that it?” She studied Kris’s face. Her gaze drifted lower to Kris’s fingers, and she cringed. “Do you not know how to clean yourself, dear?”
Kris frowned and glanced at her fingers. They were roughed up from yesterday’s work, boasting several bandages and very dirty nails. Her fingers curled impulsively around her mug. “This happens when you’re a mechanic. Ed likes it.”
“Ed? His name is Edmund,” Sarah snapped.
“Ed to me,” she replied casually. “It’s growing on him, too, I think.” Sarah’s eyes bugged wide, and her mouth worked without making a sound. “Listen, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but you can’t control your son. He’s a grown man who can make grown man decisions all on his own.”
“Did you sleep with him?” she hissed.
Kris’s eyes narrowed at her. “That is none of your business.”
Sarah leaned forward as she lowered her voice. “Yes, it is, because I’m going to tell you exactly what type of woman I’m staring at.”
“Please, enlighten me, though I guarantee you’re wrong about everything,” Kris challenged.
Sarah’s lip twitched as she folded her hands on the table. “You were born and raised in some small town, raised by your Grams, your parents most likely dead or not in the picture due to their addiction of one sort or another,” she started. “You might have had a sibling or two, but I doubt they were in your life much, either. You’re pretty, so you were popular with the boys in your town, but they just weren’t good enough for you.”
Kris swallowed hard, struggling to keep up a wall of strength as the first cracks formed at her life being so harshly broken down by this woman.
“You became a mechanic because it was better than being a waitress. You get to do something useful, and for years, you found an easy rhythm, were content, but wanted more. In steps my son,” she said proudly. “An Eastwood of high birth, wealth, and class. You find out how much money he’s really worth and a lightbulb goes off in that pretty head of yours. If you can seduce him, maybe he’ll be your ticket out of that shitty town you know you’re going to die in one day… alone, or married to a man worse than your father.”
She leaned back in her chair, a satisfied smile on her face as her eyes gleamed, filled with hatred. Kris licked her dry lips, thinking over her choice of words, but none of them seemed significant in the face of such a harsh woman.
“You don’t believe it’s possible that your son and I actually have something?” she asked quietly, weakly.
“A fling,” Sarah said simply. “That’s all this was, a week’s fling. He was rebounding after losing his fiancée.”
Kris nodded. There was nothing she could do. No matter what she said, Sarah would dismiss it as her son playing out a fantasy or a small-town girl looking for her ticket out. She sat back in her chair and laughed bitterly. “Well then, thank you so much for clearing that up for me,” she muttered. She stood and was ready to leave the conversation, but Sarah snatched her wrist and held her at the table. “Please let me go, or I’ll cause a scene.”
“Cause a scene all you want,” Sarah told her, “but know this. You are to stay away from my son. You fix his car, and you send him home to me. If I ever hear of you again, you’ll wish you’d never met my son or me. Understood?”
Kris’s chest tightened, and she sucked in a sharp breath as her heart slowly cracked down the middle. “You can’t keep him away from me.”
“I’ll find a way. I’ll ruin you if I have to. Do you think I won’t? I’ve kept every woman from him except the one I wanted him to marry, and I’ll continue to do so,” she warned. “And if you tell Edmund any of this… Well, use your imagination, dear. You would never fit in with us. You’re not from our world, and you never could be. He is out of your league, regardless of what he thinks.”
Kris yanked her hand free, rubbing her wrist where Sarah had held it so tightly, and glanced towards the doors in time to see Edmund entering. Edward was on his way back to the table, too, where Sarah sat looking like the perfect woman of poise and class. Kris couldn’t compete with her and her ideals. She wasn’t born into a world of wealth and white collars. She worked on people’s cars when they broke down outside her dirt-poor town because that was all she was good for. Edmund reached her as she forced a smile to her face and blinked away the tears threatening to spill over.
“How was Tommy?” she asked him lightly.
“Good. He’s doing really well,” Edmund told her. “You alright? You don’t look so good. You’re pale.”
She waved his worry away. “I just need to use the restroom.”
“Okay, if you’re sure,” he said and glanced at the table where his parents sat. He lowered his voice. “Did my mom say something? You can tell me.”
Kris remembered Sarah’s words, and though she wasn’t sure what the woman would do, Kris didn’t want to find out. Money ruined people, and she knew if the right person pushed, it could ruin her. “No… no, they’re just keeping me company. Really, it’s nothing.”
“Well, when you get back, we’ll head home,” he told her. “Tommy said to get out of town and not come back ‘til I’m driving myself.”
“I’ll text Dennis and let him know,” she said as she walked quickly to the restroom.
When she was inside, she gripped the sink hard and stared at her reflection. Her hair was a mess, and her nails were filthy from the day before. She had a scratch on her cheek from working yesterday and a grease stain on her neck she’d missed last night while she and Edmund made love in the shower. She turned on the faucet and scrubbed it until her skin was red and raw. She dug at her nails, picking at the mess beneath them until a soft hand fell on her shoulder.
“Are you alright, hon?” a gray-haired woman in scrubs asked.
“I’m fine,” Kris assured her with a weak smile.
“Your tears say otherwise,” the woman said and held out a tissue.
Kris looked at her reflection. Tears ran down her cheeks. “Shit. No, I’m fine, just a rough day.”
The old woman studied her. “Something tells me it doesn’t have to do with a current patient.”
“How… how would you know that?”
“I’ve been around a long time, hon.” The old woman laughed sweetly. “That’s the look of a broken heart. Is he worth crying over?”
She nodded and blew out a breath to regain control of herself. “He is, but it can’t happen. I realize that now.”
“Sometimes life seems impossible, but we’re just making things more complicated than they need to be,” she said quietly. “Don’t let someone else tell you how to live your life or love who you love. You only get to go through this crazy mess once.”
The nurse patted her on the shoulder before leaving the bathroom. Her words rang through Kris’s mind, but what proof did she really have that Edmund would follow through with his promises? What if he left and never came
back or called her? What if she was just his rebound girl, the one he told stories about later? Her hands shaking as the uncertainties piled up around her, Kris realized how blind she’d been since Edmund stepped into her tow truck. She’d told herself to keep her distance, and what did she do? She let herself get completely sucked in by a handsome man. He was a novelty, something different, and she’d fallen for it.
“It’ll never work,” she told her reflection. “Move on, fix his car, and let him go before you get in any deeper.” Eventually, he would have to choose between her and his life. How could she ask him to do that?
She wiped her face, and once she could smile without it faltering, she left the bathroom and made ready to fight the hardest battle of her life—letting go of the man she gave her heart to with no chance of ever getting it back.
***
Several days had passed since Edmund and Kris returned to Green Valley, but they returned very different people than when they had left. Kris was elbow-deep, working on his car all day long, and since her parents left town, she was back at the house. Edmund was still at the inn, sleeping alone in his bed for the third night in a row. He tried speaking to her several times, but she gave him a polite smile and told him she had to get back to work or his car would never be ready.
He’d stopped caring about the car long ago and told her that, but she ignored him and said she had to get it finished so she could make more room in the shop for the rest of her customers. He paced around his room, ready to pull his hair out because she was driving him so mad. He replayed everything in his mind about the trip to Louisville, but nothing stuck out as strange. He’d asked her if his parents had said something to her, and her eyes darkened though she’d said they were very nice people and had only kept her company.
She lied. He knew she lied, but he couldn’t figure out why. Today was going to be different. He had a plan to whisk her away to another romantic dinner on Mr. Fitz’s land, going to their spot on the trail. Everything was laid out in his head. He grabbed his wallet and opened the door to head out and found Charlie with his hand raised to knock.
“Oh—hey, man,” Charlie said, sounding less than thrilled. “Kris sent me over with your keys. Your car is finished, and you’re all set to go with a full tank of gas and everything.”
“Where’s Kris?” he asked, not taking the keys.
“She’s working,” Charlie said, but his eye twitched when he said it. “Take your keys, man, and just walk away.”
Edmund stiffened. “What’s going on? And don’t tell me whatever lie she told you to tell me.”
Charlie’s hand fell to his side, the keys jangling. “Look, she’s been pissed all week. I don’t know what happened in Louisville, but she doesn’t want to see you, no matter what I tell her.”
“Nothing happened,” he growled. “Nothing that she’ll tell me, at least.”
“I’ve never seen her this pissed before, man,” he said with a grimace. “She trashed the Judge.”
Edmund’s hands on the door gripped it so tightly it creaked with the strain. “She did what?”
“She got drunk and took a wrench to the car. Beat the hell out of it, but I stopped her before she could hurt anything she couldn’t repla—hey! Ed, I wouldn’t go in there, man. Just take your car and leave.”
Ignoring Charlie’s protests, he charged out of his room, left the inn, and walked across the road without stopping. A few cars honked at him, but he tuned them out as he yanked open the garage door. “Kris! Where the hell are you?”
“What are you doing here?” Kris called from across the garage. “Get the hell out of here. Your car’s parked around back, and you’re all paid up.”
“I’m not leaving, not like this,” he said as he stormed towards her, trapping her in the corner so she couldn’t run from him. “What the hell happened in Louisville that you’re not telling me?”
She gritted her teeth. “Let it go, Edmund, please.”
“Edmund?” he repeated in disbelief. “Edmund? Why are you calling me that?”
“Because it’s the name of my customer,” she shot back. “You’re making this a hell of a lot harder than it needs to be. Move.” She shoved at him, but he stayed where he was. “Don’t make me kick your ass.” She raised the socket wrench in her hand threateningly, but he remained where he was. She blinked, and the wall she had thrown in place the second they’d returned crumbled at the edges. “Please, just go back to where you belong.”
The hurt in her words startled him so badly he took a step back, giving her the opportunity to shove past him. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying this was a dream, nothing but a stupid, ridiculous dream,” she proclaimed loudly and gripped the wrench harder in her hand. “It’d never work. We’re from two completely different worlds, Edmund! I can’t possibly be the woman you want to spend your life with.”
“Says who?” he asked, his voice strained with pain. “Who told you that, Kris?”
“I did,” she snapped. “I told myself that, alright? We had a great week, but it was just a fling, nothing more.”
“You’re so full of shit,” he muttered. “Was it my parents? Did they put you up to this?”
“No one makes me do anything I don’t want to, you know that,” she said quietly. “You came here hurting after your fiancée dumped you at the altar, and I was convenient. Maybe I was looking for an excuse, too.”
“And excuse for what? To fall in love?” he growled desperately, trying to hold onto her as she shoved him away. “Kris, I love you. This is real. It’s all real.”
“Is it? What happens now, then? I just pick up and move with you to Louisville, or you come down here and be bored out of your mind, trapped in this shithole?” she yelled. “No, we can’t do this, and I’m not going to make you choose. I don’t want to live with your resentment.”
Edmund planted his hands on his hips as his heart shattered. “So that’s it then? We’re just going to fade from each other’s lives as if nothing happened?”
“It might be better that way,” she replied without flinching.
Edmund refused to believe this was happening, but when he took a step towards her, she jumped back and held up her hands, warding him off. She chewed her tongue, but he couldn’t bear to look at it, not while her eyes were filled with pain and she swallowed hard against whatever words fought to be heard.
“If this is what you really want,” he told her, “then I guess I’ll go.”
“It is,” she said. Edmund’s heart shattered over two words. “Charlie has your keys. You can get them from him and make it back to Louisville by sundown.”
He ran a hand through his hair, knowing the second he walked out of that door, he’d regret it. “Take care of Judge for me,” he said. “Maybe he’ll let you ride him, too.”
She nodded but her lips stayed firmly closed. Edmund reached the door and paused as he stared back at the woman across the garage, her face smeared with grease, her fingers bandaged, and fighting against what her heart wanted. Edmund thought of pushing her again, but the pleading in her eyes said that would only make things worse.
“Goodbye, Kris,” he whispered and ducked out the door. Charlie was there with his keys in hand. He took them and went to pack up his room at the inn. Once he had everything, he checked out with Billy—Grams wasn’t in that day—and threw his things in the Mustang. The new engine roared to life, and he threw it in drive, peeling out of the gravel lot. He floored it towards home, leaving his love to fade with the dust settling on the road.
Heart cracking right down the middle with each passing mile, he reached the interstate and yelled his loss, banging his hand on the steering wheel. His heart said to turn the car around and go back, but a horrible voice in the back of his mind told him Kris was right about everything. They were from two different worlds. It’d never work.
Chapter 16
The empty bottle joined the others on the floor, and Kris wiped her mouth on her dirty arm before sh
e reached for another from the box at her feet. Charlie and Frank had gone hours ago, leaving her to wallow in her misery. The past few days had been torture, trying to keep her distance from a man she shouldn’t love. She climbed to her feet, wobbling from the beer, and paced around the garage, glaring at the Judge.
Whispers of their voices greeted her, and she shook her head, trying to clear them away as she reached the car. The night of passion spent in this garage flared to life, and she saw them again, making love without holding back, without fear of the future. They just were. She closed her eyes, but that only made it worse. His caresses covered her body again, his lips found her neck and trailed lower. She gripped the beer bottle hard in her hand as she raised her hands to cover her ears and drown out the sounds of Edmund in her life. When they grew too loud, she screamed and flung the bottle at the car. It shattered on impact, and the dam holding all her rage and pain broke.
She grabbed the closest tool she could find and brought it down hard on the hood of the Judge. She’d got in a few swings the other night before Charlie talked her out of it, but she was alone now and no one was going to stop her. As she screamed again, she pounded the hood, denting it. If she erased memories of Edmund, maybe her heart would stop aching. Maybe she could see straight and sleep through the night. She smashed the wrench on the car again and again, each swing unleashing more of her pent-up rage at a woman who judged her based on what she saw.
Kris hated that woman. How could Edmund have come from such a horrible person?
All her life, others had walked on her. Her parents, her brother at times, the men in this town who thought they could own her and control her. All of them tramped into her life and left it messier than before. She’d hoped Edmund would be different, but she’d been wrong. His family was worse than hers. They lied, flat-out lied. Her family was always truthful, no matter how much it hurt. Kris pictured Edmund at home, curled up in his bed with whatever woman his parents picked out for him next, and she lost it. She swung the wrench back like a bat and let loose. It slammed into the windshield the same time the door flew open to the garage.
