He was the one who’d needed to work. Who’d needed to get back to San Antonio. Who had to put his head down. Fine. But when he lifted his head, he needed to be the one calling her.
And he hadn’t.
“Randi! Someone here for you!” Donny called to her from the doorway to the main waiting area.
Randi looked over at him. “Who is it?”
“Someone who insists on having you look at his car.”
Donny ducked back inside and the door shut behind him. She sighed. Seriously? She was so not in the mood for this. She didn’t need picky customers today. Of course, she hadn’t been in the mood for much over the past three weeks since she’d gotten back from New York. She wiped her hands on her rag.
“See you later?” she asked Annabelle.
“Of course.” Annabelle stood from the bucket. “Want me to take this away with me?”
Randi started to say yes, please. But in the end, she shook her head. “No. Leave it.”
Annabelle gave her a sympathetic look. “Okay.”
Pathetic. She was completely pathetic. Maybe this next customer would take her mind off of everything. Randi headed inside, trying to feel hopeful. But it was tough. She was destined to spend sixty hours a week in her garage for the rest of her life and her garage now reminded her of Nolan. For the rest of her life.
As Randi stepped into the waiting area and she saw who was there for her, she did, however, smile.
“Hey, Coach.”
Coach Carr turned from where he was filling a cup with coffee.“Hey, Randi.”
“How are you?” She crossed the room and lifted onto tiptoe to give him a kiss on the cheek. He was one of her favorite people and in spite of her crappy mood, she was happy to see him.
“Couldn’t be better,” Coach told her.
Randi grinned at that. Coach’s daughter, Lorelie, was in love and Coach was happy about it. That really could have gone either way and Randi had been thrilled when her friend told her that Coach liked Glen.
But, Randi had only been able to handle a few minutes of Lorelie’s glowing. Just like she’d turned down Annabelle and Jackson’s invitations to dinner, and had excused herself from the table with Lela and Charlene when their men showed up at Pitchers. She was just having a hard time not being a jealous bitch. It was better that she just keep her melancholy, lovesick crap to herself.
“So how’s the car?” Randi asked Coach.
“Good.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Donny said you wanted me to look at it.”
“Oh, right. Yep. Need new wiper blades,” Coach said.
Now both her eyebrows went up. “You need me to replace your wiper blades?”
Coach sipped from his cup and nodded.
The man was one of the most intelligent people she knew. He crafted plays that made other coaches weep. He’d run his ranch for umpteen years. He’d raised a daughter all on his own. He’d been a father figure to dozens of young men. There was no way Nicholas Carr needed her to change his wiper blades. Something was up. And it was probably about Nolan.
Randi felt her heart squeeze at the thought of Nolan. He and Coach talked at least a couple times a month even when Nolan wasn’t visiting. She was sure Coach knew that she knew that. He was waiting for her to ask about him. She sighed. If Coach had something to say that he thought she needed to hear, she was going to hear it. But she didn’t have to encourage it.
“Okay,” she said. “Pull the truck into bay three and we’ll get you fixed up.”
“Will do.” Coach tossed his empty cup into the trash and headed for the front of the garage.
She watched him get into the truck and start it up. He was going to pretend he needed her to work on the truck rather than just getting to it?
Fine. She was going to charge him for the stupid blades.
He pulled into the bay and she grabbed the blade replacements from the store room. She climbed up on the running board and had the first one done in two minutes.
She moved to the other side to replace the second blade that was in practically perfect condition.
“Weather’s been good, huh?” Coach asked.
For God’s sake. They were going to talk about the weather? Literally?
Randi nodded. “It really has been.”
“Heard you went to New York.”
Now they were getting to it. She snapped the wiper back into place and jumped to the ground. “Yep.”
She wasn’t going to give him anything. If he wanted to know something specific, he could ask. This was Coach. He was a straight shooter. He told people what they needed to hear, whether they wanted to hear it or not. There was a reason he was working up to this. He was gauging her reactions and expressions. He was trying to read how she felt and what she was thinking. And he’d probably tell Nolan everything.
Well, she wasn’t that easy.
“Cold up there, huh?” Coach asked.
“Yep. Very.”
“Have a good time?”
“Yep. Very.” She had. New York had been great. It was the stuff that came after that. “Okay, two new blades,” she said. “You’re all set.”
“Will you check my wiper fluid while I’m here too?” Coach asked.
Wiper fluid? Really? Was there anyone who didn’t know how to do that themselves? “Of course.” She popped his hood.
“So how are you? Guess I didn’t ask,” he said as she filled up the nearly full fluid and replaced the cap.
“Fine. The same,” she said, playing along. “Why do you ask?” There. She could be straightforward if he couldn’t.
“Just checking on one of my favorite girls.”
She gave him a legitimate smile. “You’re sweet.”
Just say what you have to say.
“How’s the coolant?”
Okay, fine. She checked. “Looks good.”
“And the brake fluid?”
She checked. “Yep, you’re good.”
“How about the tire pressure?”
She sighed. What was going on? Why not just say what he’d come here to say? She pulled the pressure gauge from her back pocket and squatted next to the passenger side front tire.
The pressure was perfect. As expected. She moved to the back tire. Also fine.
Finally, she caved. “You really going to have me check them all?” she asked.
“Yep. And the oil, the filters, the hoses.”
She got to her feet. “Which will all be perfectly fine.”
“Probably.”
She turned and tucked her hands into her back pockets. “What’s going on?”
“I’ve been waiting for you to come to me for at least two weeks.”
“About?”
“Nolan.”
She gave him a little smile, but her chest hurt just hearing his name out loud. “Why did you think I would come to you about him?”
“Because you’re in love with him and he’s acting like a jackass.”
She gave a short laugh. “You can help with that?”
“Oh, I’m a specialist in dealing with jackasses,” he said. “Lots of practice.”
She smiled, but shook her head. “He had to go back to San Antonio to finish the book.” She swallowed hard. “I distracted him too much.”
Coach gave her a half smile. “Well, that’s as it should be. If a man isn’t distracted by the woman he loves, he’s doing something wrong.”
Her heart kicked at hearing Coach say Nolan was in love with her. She believed it, actually. But hearing someone else acknowledge it felt…awesome.
She shrugged. “He tried working here. The distraction thing ruined the book.”
Coach shook his head. “Not possible.”
“I promise you, that’s exactly what happened. The book he wrote while he was with me isn’t the one his editor wanted.”
“Oh, well, that’s different from ruined,” Coach said. “The things a person does when they’re in love are the best things they ever do. Especially when
it comes to being creative. How do you think romance novels and love songs and poetry happen? Without love, the most beautiful things in the world would have never been created.”
She shook her head, but couldn’t help her smile. She loved this guy. He was one of the toughest men she’d ever met. He could chew ass, yell, and rant better than anyone. She’d seen him yell at a ref, one inch from the other guy’s nose. She’d seen him throw clipboards, water jugs, helmets and a hundred other things halfway across a football field. But he was also one of the sweetest, most loving men she knew. Because he got people. He really got them. And he always believed the best of them.
“He’s in San Antonio, finishing the book, because he’s obligated to do it,” she said. “He has a contract and he’s not the type to back out. He made a promise to them and he’ll honor that. And he has to be there, because when he’s here with me, he wants to write something…different. I understand.”
“You understanding doesn’t mean he shouldn’t apologize to you.”
She swallowed. “Yeah. Maybe.”
“I want you to know, if you realized you didn’t really love him when you saw how he acts under pressure, I get it.”
Randi straightened away from the car. “No. That’s not it. I do love him. He was a jerk, but that doesn’t change the way I feel about him.”
“But he hasn’t said he’s sorry.”
“No. But…” She didn’t have an excuse for him. “No, he hasn’t.”
Coach nodded. “He will.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, cuz I’m gonna chew his ass and tell him to.”
Randi shook her head. “You can’t do that. He has to mean it.”
“Oh, honey,” Coach said, putting his hand on top of her head. “If I didn’t know he’d mean it, I wouldn’t tell him to do it.”
Randi pulled in a deep breath. “Okay.”
“Good.” Coach pulled his keys from his pocket and started around to the driver’s side of the truck.
He opened the door and Randi shook herself. “What? You came over here today and went through all of that just to tell me he was going to be apologizing?”
Coach turned back, his hand gripping the edge of the door. “No. I came over here to let you know that I love you for loving a jackass and that I know that ain’t easy.”
She smiled in spite of herself. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“But you know it anyway, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
He gave her a wink and got into his truck. But before he shut the door she called, “Those wiper blades aren’t free you know.”
“How much?” he asked with a grin.
She ran her gaze over the car. “Three hundred and fifty-two and thirty-one cents.”
He chuckled. “Wow.”
“That’s twelve thirty-one for the blades, forty for labor and three hundred for annoying me.”
He nodded. “Put it on my bill.”
She laughed and he got up into the truck. Just before he started the engine, she said, “Hey, Coach?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“Chewing the jackass’s ass.”
“Like I said, I’m kind of a specialist.”
“And be sure to tell him I love him.”
Coach nodded. “Right after I tell him that if he doesn’t already know that, he’s also a dumbass.”
Then he gave her a wink and drove off, wiping his windshield with his new wipers.
“I can’t believe you haven’t been back here in a month.”
Nolan sighed. “Hi, Mom.”
Teresa set her purse on the kitchen counter. She wasn’t surprised to see him—Nolan had called to tell her he was on his way this morning—but she didn’t look thrilled to see him either.
“And you ate the pie?”
Nolan looked down at the empty pie plate in front of him on his mother’s kitchen table. “I’ve been eating microwave burritos and frozen pizza for the past month. I couldn’t help it.”
Teresa shook her head and moved to the refrigerator, and Nolan knew she was about to make him a sandwich. He didn’t even think about trying to stop her. He was certainly old enough to make his own sandwich, but somehow Teresa’s always tasted better.
He wasn’t sure he could ever look at another burrito as long as he lived.
But instead of sandwich ingredients, Teresa took eggs, butter and milk out.
Maybe she was going to make him an omelet. That would work too.
“I’m just saying that a month is a really long time,” Teresa said, pulling the canisters of flour and sugar from the cupboard.
So not an omelet. Maybe more pie. He could be okay with that.
“I know a month is a long time, Mom.” It had been a month since he’d seen Randi too. A horrible month. Thirty days of fighting, on a nearly hourly basis, the urge to drive to Quinn, fall at Randi’s feet and beg her to just let him sit in her shop and watch her work and talk to her.
He knew very well how fucking long that was. He was going crazy. But he had to do this right.
“I can’t believe you let her drive herself back to Quinn. After telling her that she was the reason your book ended up sucking.”
Nolan loved and hated his mother’s hair salon. There wasn’t a single secret about anything in Quinn because of that place. When it came to finding out news about his old friends, and yes, Randi, he’d loved it. But damn, having his own stupid mistakes spread all over town was irritating. Clearly Randi had confided in her friends. Who had confided in other friends, who had told someone else, who had told someone else.
“Mom,” Nolan said firmly. “I did not tell her the book sucked because of her. The book didn’t—doesn’t—suck, for one thing. And it wasn’t her fault. It was me. I was the one that got sidetracked. And I know a month is a long time. Too long. Okay? But I had to do it. I had to finish the book. It was…she was…I didn’t have a choice.”
Teresa broke eggs into a bowl and added the sugar and butter. “You could have forgotten the book. You could have told your editor to shove it. You could have chosen her over your work.”
Nolan opened his mouth, but she turned on the mixer, the whirring of the beaters too loud to be heard.
He waited until she’d stopped it to say, “Are you telling me that you think I should have given up my book deal, paid back my huge advance, turned my back on the career that has made you incredibly proud, that is everything you wanted for me, so that I could come back and stay here with Randi?”
Teresa got the baking soda, salt and other ingredients out of the cupboard and started measuring things into the bowl. But she did answer. “Yes.”
Nolan frowned at her back. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Teresa stirred the contents of her bowl for a few seconds. “I’m talking about…” Teresa took a breath and shook her head. “I’m talking about maybe I was wrong.”
Nolan blinked. He didn’t think he’d ever heard his mother say the words I, was, and wrong, together in a row.
“What’s going on?” He narrowed his eyes. “Are you okay? Are you sick? Do you have a fever?”
Teresa set her spoon down and turned. “No, I’m not okay, Nolan. My son hasn’t returned a call to me in a month. The only contact I’ve had is an email once a week that said “I’m working. I’m fine” and then the email with your book attached. You walked away from a girl who, by all counts, is miserable without you. You walked away from a girl that you’re in love with, presumably making you equally miserable. You became a hermit for a month to write a book that you hate. Then I walk in here to find you looking like hell and that you’ve eaten the pie I need for later this afternoon. So no, I’m not okay.”
Nolan processed all of that. She was right on pretty much every count. “I don’t hate the book,” he said. “It turned out great. And I’m not equally miserable. I’m way more miserable than she could possibly be.”
But the rest was true. He’d become a hermit. He’d walked away from Randi—or at least he’d let her drive away from him. He hadn’t talked to his mom, or anyone else, for a month. And he did look like hell. He felt like hell.
Teresa nodded. “Good.”
“Good?”
“If you weren’t more miserable than she is, I would worry that you’re more like your dad than I thought.”
Being like his dad was the ultimate cut down from Teresa. Nolan frowned at her. “You were thinking I was like dad?”
“I worried for a little while,” she admitted. “He was able to walk away and forget everything here.”
Nolan swallowed. “What made you stop worrying?”
“I remembered how you looked at her at the Valentine’s Day dance,” Teresa said.
Nolan shifted his weight. “How did I look at her?”
“Like you never wanted to be anywhere else.”
That hit Nolan hard in the chest. He knew how his mother felt about this. But it was time to make her understand. He was home. In Quinn. To stay. “You’re right,” he said. “I never want to be anywhere but with Randi.”
Teresa nodded. “Your dad never looked at me like that.”
Nolan felt his heart squeeze. “I…I’m sorry, Mom.”
She shrugged. “That’s harder to find than you think.”
Nolan nodded. “That’s why I want to be sure to hang on to it.”
“Good.” She gave him a sincere smile. “And now it will be okay. You’re finally back and you’re not leaving again.”
Nolan frowned. “You’re glad that I’m back here in Quinn and not leaving?”
Teresa nodded. “Yes.”
“They have great medications now that can help with multiple personalities, you know.”
“Nolan?”
“What?”
“Be nice or I won’t help you win Randi back.”
“You’re going to have to tell me what changed your mind about all of this,” he said. He was happy for her change of heart, of course, but he was also very curious about it. “But first tell me how you’re going to help me win her back.”
Teresa gave him a grin, unlike any he’d ever seen from his mother before. “I have an idea.”
“Great. I’m all ears.”
Full Coverage: Boys of Fall Page 16
