Bring Me Back

by Jessie Gussman

  Riley nodded. Complete honesty. “A lot more money.”

  Their heads bobbed slowly, but neither seemed interested, and Riley was ready to give up hope that they would help her convince their brother to take the job.

  She gave it another plug. “It’s our company’s biggest terminal, and Ben would have the highest shop position in the company.”

  Eve’s expression grew crafty. “So if that’s such a prestigious place to be, will you ever get promoted to there?”

  Riley grinned. “I actually got promoted too.”

  Eden’s mouth opened in an “o.” “You’re moving to Pennsylvania?”

  “I’m supposed to within the month.”

  The twins looked at each other again. An expression Riley couldn’t read. Despite the cooling air, she didn’t move to walk away. There was something in that look she didn’t understand, but it encouraged her for some reason.

  “Did Ben know that you were going too?” Eden asked casually.

  Riley snorted and looked off at distant mountains. “I think that was one reason he didn’t want to. He’d finally be rid of me.”

  “No. He doesn’t feel that way.”

  Riley’s head snapped back around, and she studied the twins.

  “Yeah, he’s said a lot of times how he wouldn’t be successful in his job if you hadn’t bent or changed the rules to accommodate his changes.”

  Thoughts flew through her head. She’d always had a good relationship with the twins. They’d eaten in her office a few times, and she’d even taken them out for lunch when they’d been around and Ben couldn’t stop working. But she always assumed that Ben had presented her in the worst possible light and they were just being nice.

  It was possible, she supposed, that Ben had never told the twins what she’d done to him. After all these years, it was too late for her to change it or take it back, even if he had told. What’s done was done. “Well, I appreciate that. But I still think that he’ll be happy to see the last of me.”

  Chapter 3

  Ben set a bowl of spaghetti on the table. The little house he’d moved into at fourteen when he’d run away from his dad’s home after finding out his real mother lived in Maine was small but cozy. He’d not changed anything after his mother had died from complications from lupus, and his sisters weren’t interested in redecorating, either. Which meant the kitchen was comfortably outdated and gently worn. Not that he usually paid too much attention to the décor. He made sure everything worked—faucets fixed, cabinet doors screwed tight, and the drawers slid easily on their runners. But if the wallpaper was a faded yellow or if the fixtures were corroded, hey, at least the water came out and the lights came on. That’s all he cared about.

  Except Riley was leaving Maine.

  And she wanted him to go too.

  Aside from Riley, he had a strong pull in Pennsylvania. His gram had been in poor health for years. She wanted him to come home. She wanted to meet the twins who didn’t even know she existed. Major coincidence that the Coleman Trucking and Repair home terminal was in Brickley Springs, his father’s hometown and where his gram still lived.

  Actually, not so coincidental. Brickley Springs was ideally suited for commerce. Directly between the PA Turnpike and I80, one could go anywhere—east, west, north, or south—and fast, from Brickley Springs. It was a smart place to put a terminal. It was a great place for a truck driver, like his dad, to live.

  He glanced around the kitchen again as Eve put parmesan cheese on the table and Eden pulled the garlic bread out of the oven.

  He supposed this wasn’t much of a home. Not to someone who grew up in a mansion with millions. Riley had made it perfectly clear years ago that he wasn’t good enough. That had been enough to keep him from pursuing her but not enough to keep him from noticing her.

  His fingers tingled, and he gripped the plastic cups tighter. He’d touched her today. Hadn’t mean to. Hadn’t touched her in years. Shouldn’t have done it.

  “You’re quiet tonight.” Eve poured sweet tea into the cups he’d set down.

  “Oh, forgot.” He snapped up like he’d just remembered something important. “I’m supposed to drill you about your day.”

  “No,” they said together.

  He ignored the protest. He’d gotten good at ignoring protests over the years. “Did you show up on time and put in a full day’s work?”

  “Ben.” Eve rolled her eyes.

  “What? Was today the class day?” He couldn’t remember. One day a week, Eden had class instruction, and the rest of the time, she was in the shop doing hands-on work, learning to run the different airbrushes and how to get the base coats on. Auto detail painting wasn’t hard, but it was exact. Which was good for Eden. Who knew where her loads of artistic talent came from, but she needed the discipline of forcing herself to do the grunt work, too.

  “Ben, I’m out of high school and almost done with trade school. Your job is over.”

  “You’re never done being a parent.” He said it in a scholarly voice like he was reading it out of a parenting book.

  Eden lifted her brows before chucking him on the shoulder. “Brother. You’re never done being a brother.”

  “Well, I had a good day,” Eve said, running interference with her twin, like he didn’t notice. “And you can grill me on it if you want.”

  Ben paused with his fork midair. “Did that what’s-his-face keep his fingers to himself?”

  “After I set his pants on fire with the hand torch.”

  Ben matched her grin. “Glad you listen to me, girl.”

  She pushed her spaghetti around on her plate. “Mitch said I could start on motors next month if I keep on doing as well as I’ve been doing on brakes and oil changes.”

  “You didn’t tell him you already know how to gut it and rebuild?”

  “No. I’m hoping he’ll help me with the electrical parts. These new motors are all computerized, and you only worked with me on the old stuff.”

  “That’s what the independent guys want. If you don’t work for a big shop, you’ll be seeing a lot of old stuff.”

  “Why did you turn Riley down?” Eden asked.

  After raising his sisters for the last decade and a half, he should be used to these sudden topic changes. His head still spun. Probably more from thinking about Riley than the abrupt change in subject.

  “She told us it was a huge promotion for you.”

  “Yeah. Apparently the shop in Pennsylvania is much bigger than the one you’re at now.”

  He hated it when they ganged up on him like this. As always, he tried not to let them know it bothered him. “You guys know I’ve always said after you’re out of school I was going to open my own place. I’m planning on quitting.” Plus, they didn’t exactly know that they had family in Pennsylvania. If he moved to Brickley Springs, he’d have to tell them. They’d have to meet Gram.

  It wasn’t like the town was so big they’d never hear about someone else with the same last name. His brother’s first names didn’t exactly fade into the woodwork, either.

  He hid his smirk, waiting until Eve was seated before he said, “Let’s pray.”

  It always bothered him when someone decided to use the dinner table blessing to pray for their Great-aunt Mildred and the health and well-being of all their seventeen cousins. Not that there wasn’t a time and place to have a long chat with the Lord. Just not while his food was getting cold.

  It was only a few seconds later that he said “amen,” and Eve started like they’d never been interrupted.

  “I’d like to go south.”

  He should have prayed for Great-aunt Mildred.

  “It would be warmer there,” Eden chimed in.

  Ben dished himself some spaghetti. “No seafood in PA.”

  They weren’t deterred. “But warmth more months of the year than August,” Eden argued, giving him the cheese and taking some garlic bread for herself.

  “True,” he said, shoving food in his mouth, hoping to se
t an example that his sisters would follow. They were sliding into dangerous territory as long as they were talking about Pennsylvania.

  “How do you know?” Both twins’ eyes moved to him and stayed. He hated it when they looked at him like that.

  He swallowed, having avoided this confession their whole lives. “I lived there before I knew about my mom and you guys.” A little pang hit his chest. They had uncles—his half brothers. But if those guys had turned out anything like their dad, he wanted his sisters far away from them. Which is exactly the reason he’d never told them about the family. Gram had mentioned once that the oldest, Torque, was in prison. After that, he’d said he didn’t want to talk about them. No way was he letting his sisters around men like that, even if they were their half brothers.

  When Gram had first reached out to him, he’d told her the twins didn’t know about their Pennsylvania relatives, and it needed to stay that way if she wanted him to pick up the phone when she called. At first, he’d not cared much about Gram—she was part of his old life with his dad, which he’d left. But the woman was stubborn and gritty and truly cared about him and his sisters. She’d wormed her way into his heart, and he loved her fiercely.

  He’d been tempted over the years to at least tell them about Gram, but being a brother and single parent to twins was hard enough. He didn’t need to add any more drama to his life. He didn’t want to go to Pennsylvania. Because Riley was in Maine.

  “You lived there?” Eden asked incredulously.

  He ignored Eden’s question, but Eve was like a dog with a bone, and she fired off, “Why not move to Pennsylvania, work at the big shop, and see if you like it? You could always start your own shop in another year or so if you decide you wanted to.”

  “It’s not like you hate your job or anything,” Eden tag-teamed her.

  He shoved more spaghetti in his mouth and ignored them.

  They were right. He didn’t hate his job. But he did chafe at the restrictions. Something in him wanted to be his own boss. To prove he could do it. No better time than now, when his sisters were no longer dependent on him for everything.

  “Maybe you’d find a girl down there,” Eve said with a sly grin.

  “Yeah.” Eden jabbed her fork in the air to press her point. “Now that you can’t use us as an excuse anymore.”

  He swallowed, tilting his head. “I never used you as an excuse.”

  “You sure did. We’d ask why you didn’t marry, and you’d say you couldn’t find a girl who wanted a ready-made family.”

  “I was kidding.” Although it had been true. Most girls pretended to like his sisters but weren’t really interested in raising kids that weren’t their own. Heck, a lot of women didn’t even want their own kids. Plus, there was only one woman who had ever challenged him to the depths of his soul. Too bad she’d scorched her way there.

  Their looks said they didn’t believe him.

  He held up the hand that held his garlic bread. “Okay, fine. I used you as an excuse.”

  They looked smug.

  Eve said, “And now you don’t have us as an excuse anymore.”

  “So you can take the job in Pennsylvania.”

  He lifted a brow at Eden. “You’re gonna hurt someone with that fork.”

  Surprise flashed across Eden’s face, chased by a sheepish grin. She jabbed her utensil into her spaghetti.

  He relented. “Okay. Say I did take it.” He eyed them over his spaghetti. “And I move to PA. Where are you two going to live?”

  They looked at each other, and he felt a surge of triumph. Ha. They hadn’t thought of that.

  Then Eve shrugged. “We’ll come with you.”

  Chapter 4

  Ben walked into the Coleman shop at five a.m., flipping on the lights and turning up the heat. He started coffee in the cold pot. There was no night shift at this shop.

  There would be in Pennsylvania.

  He pushed that thought out of his head. Maybe a little of him was tempted to go, but if he were being honest with himself, the main temptation for him was because Riley was going. He didn’t even really like her, even if he was attracted to her, but he’d kind of gotten used to having her around. That’s what he told himself anyway.

  He wasn’t going to follow her around like a lovesick puppy. She’d kicked him out of the way with her high-dollar shoes once. No one had ever accused him of being a slow learner.

  He stood on the frame rails of the gutted truck from last night and had just slipped the liner in piston number ten when the door opened with a blast of cold air. Odd, since his guys weren’t scheduled to come in until seven, and none of them ever showed up at six, which was about what time it should be. He couldn’t know for sure since he wasn’t wearing a watch and his phone lay over on the worktable with the pieces of the big diesel engine that he’d torn down yesterday.

  The light click of heels echoed off the high ceiling of the garage, and Ben’s body had the same odd reaction it always did when Riley came near. His heart thundered, while dread pooled in his stomach. His brain began issuing rapid-fire instructions to stay away, keep the walls up, don’t let her in, while his mouth went dry and his whole body ached to draw closer.

  He tapped the liner. This job needed precision and concentration. Maybe she’d leave.

  “Ben.”

  “Riley,” he said without looking up. He needed to go get another liner, but he’d rather stand above her than get down and go fetch it, so he pretended to be busy.

  “You can quit pretending you’re busy. I might not know much, but I know the tapper you’re holding isn’t used anywhere near that bolt you’re playing with.”

  Busted. He straightened. “You need something? ’Cause some of us around here actually work. While some of us just sit in our office keeping Daddy happy.” That was low, and he felt bad as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Normally people considered him nice. Riley brought out the bitterness he still harbored.

  If his barbs hit their mark, her face didn’t flinch. Carefully bland. “I just figured I’d ask if you changed your mind.”

  He put his hand on the windshield and looked down at her. “You know, I actually did think about that last night. You can’t do what needs to be done without me.”

  To her credit, she looked him in the eye. Thankfully she couldn’t see his brain going around like the fins of a turbo.

  “I can’t.” Her chin jutted out. “You’re right. The shop needs to be turned around. I know I can handle the office side of things, and I can get things set up so you can work your magic outside.”

  He narrowed his eyes. She was patronizing him.

  She threw a hand up. “I’m serious. I know you don’t like me...” This time, she did look away. She caught her lips between her teeth. He’d almost kissed those lips. A long time ago.

  Squaring her shoulders, she turned back to face him. “I’m sorry.” Her face seemed sincere. Something else flitted across it. Something that looked like regret. He had to have read it wrong. “I know what I did was...rude.”

  He waved his hand, dismissing her words. He wasn’t going to admit, not for anything, that the way she’d dumped him still hurt. He wasn’t carrying a torch for her, and he didn’t really even like her. Other than the dumb attraction he felt every time she was in the room. “Forget it. It’s history. If you’re still thinking about it, you need to let it go.”

  If his heart had eyes, they’d be rolling right now. But he kept his face clear.

  “I wanted you to know—”

  “Forget it.” Maybe his words came out a little more forcefully than they needed to.

  Her mouth hung open before she snapped it shut. Her face lost the vulnerable look, and his stomach tightened because he was the one who’d erased that soft sweetness that sat so beautifully on her.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Fine. When you’re ready to let me explain, I’m ready to tell you.”

  He shook his head.

  Then, because he needed another liner,
he stepped on the steer tire and jumped down. She stepped back.

  “Is that all you wanted?” he asked dismissively. He’d never get anything accomplished if he had to fight the desire to look at her constantly.

  She waited so long to answer he thought she wasn’t going to. “You’re right. I need you. Will you reconsider?”

  “Nope.”

  She pressed her lips together and turned.

  He didn’t watch her walk away.

  Chapter 5

  Riley stepped into her office and shut the door, leaning against it. She had her own office here, at least. It wasn’t a corner office, and this was their smallest terminal. But it was better than being in an open room with flimsy partitions separating her from her coworkers. Which is where she could end up if she didn’t manage to do the impossible thing her dad was demanding of her.

  She blew out a breath. That visit was a fail. Without Ben, she couldn’t do what her dad wanted her to. There was no way. Even if Ben would help her make the changes necessary without actually taking the job, she might have a chance.

  But he didn’t want to have anything to do with her. Maybe if she could have explained why she’d done what she did, but she’d let it go for so long. He probably wouldn’t believe her anyway. And a few sentences of explanation wouldn’t erase years of resentment. She’d never done anything more, but she hadn’t needed to.

  A tap on her door startled her. She straightened her shoulders. She’d just have to do it by herself. Or find someone else like Ben. Like there was anyone else in the world like Ben.

  Brushing her hands down her skirt, she turned and opened the door. “Hey, Audrey. Come on in.”

  Her personal secretary stepped through the doorway gingerly. “He said no?”

  Riley nodded.

  Audrey’s face fell. Even though no one else was in that early, she finished walking in and closed the door behind her. She tilted her head. “Maybe you’re not giving yourself enough credit? Maybe you can do this without Ben.”

  Riley forced her lips to turn up. “Thanks for the support. I’ve learned a lot over the past few years, but Ben is the reason the shop is successful.”