Better Than the Best

by Amabel Daniels

  “Patients?”

  “Eight years in the ER.”

  “You left a steady career to run a boat stand?”

  She chose not to answer, not having the energy to defend her decision of leaving her job after she had just given the spiel to Junior.

  They waited at the light signal at Main among the tourists and locals. Commotion split through the cluster of people and they parted as Allison rushed up to Kelly. The teen cast a glance over her shoulder.

  “Kelly, I need your help.” The girl’s cheeks shone red from embarrassment and not the sun. After a glance at Will soaking-wet in his clothes, she did a double-take and raised her brows before turning to Kelly.

  Kelly pursed her lips, thinking fast. It had to be one of two things.

  “Uh.” Allison looked between Will and Clay. “Look, I’d get it myself but I’m grounded. My mom flipped out. She thought Junior snuck out with me last night but I went over to my friend’s house. She even went to his house and saw his truck wasn’t there! She’s so paranoid.”

  “I had the truck. My car needs a battery.” Kelly smacked Clay’s arm.

  “I’m picking it up in an hour!” Clay rubbed his arm.

  “Well, she thought he was hiding out with me somewhere so I’m grounded. I’m only allowed to go to work today.”

  “How late are you?” Kelly cut the chase. Clearly the girl couldn’t go to the pharmacy for a pregnancy test while she was grounded.

  “Huh?” Allison’s eyes widened. “Oh, no! Not that. But his birthday is coming up and—”

  Kelly nudged Clay’s arm. “Gimme your wallet.” He handed it over and she pulled out the condoms. Two blues. She ripped one off and gave it to Allison. Hey, at least she was thinking ahead. “On second thought.” She gave the second one to her, too. Smiling a thank-you, the teen took off as quickly as she had come.

  “Hey, I was saving those for you, baby,” Clay teased.

  “They’ll disintegrate in your pocket before anything happens between us.” She tossed his wallet back.

  At the garage, Kelly took off her useless tank top and shook the water from it. She tried not to think of Will changing in his office. On the workbench, she found a shop rag that wasn’t covered in grease and figured she could sit on it to not get the seat wet.

  With a sixth sense telling her she was no longer alone, she whipped around from placing the rag on the seat of the Jeep. Will immediately faced the garage door and rubbed at his neck, avoiding her.

  “Clay,” Will called out, coughing at something stuck in his throat. “Keys are on the bench.” He walked over to the Jeep as Kelly shut the door and put her seatbelt on.

  “Do you know how to drive a clutch?”

  “Baby sister to four boys. Of course I do.”

  “We’re going to the blue house in Point Place,” he said.

  She turned the radio up, head-banging to Nazareth. “The one with the fountain in the front yard?” She started to back up. There wasn’t much time before she had to clock in at the bowling alley. “See you there.”

  “The brakes are kind of stiff,” he yelled out as she sped out in a reverse on Main. It wasn’t a long drive to the house. After Will handed the keys over to the owner, he came back to his bike.

  Kelly buttoned one of his dirty work shirts over her bikini. “You left this in the Jeep,” she said.

  Will’s attention was glued to his nametag stitched over her breast.

  The shirt was huge, dirty and gross, and felt like a dress as the hem tickled her thighs.

  “Thought it might get windy on the bike.” She raised her brows at his rigid grim face. Yet again, he had evolved from pissed-off to uncomfortable, but there wasn’t anyone around this time. Whatever.

  Will mumbled to himself and straddled the bike. She hopped on behind him and held on since it seemed she wasn’t the only one who liked to drive fast.

  Chapter 15

  Slowing his bike on Main, Will wiped his forehead with his wrist. The clutch of her arms around his torso warmed his skin with a foreign heat.

  “Stop!” She fisted his shirt with one hand and pointed to the kayak hut. He sped over.

  The door to the kayak truck hung open as Junior lay on the sand. On his side, he tugged his leg to his chest.

  Kelly slid off the bike before Will came to a stop. She pushed through the few bystanders, running to her coworker’s aid.

  Will flipped his kickstand down and jogged over to the commotion as Eric parked his cruiser.

  “What the hell is this?” He got out of the car, dusting his shirt. “Hey, hey Parker, you can’t park your bike on the beach. You want a tick—”

  “Call life support,” Kelly called out.

  “Life support? Hell for?” Eric pushed through to them.

  Junior wheezed as he clawed at his knee, seeming to pull his leg up. Rocking in the sand, he gasped for air. People murmured in a circle around them, closing them in. Will tensed at the crowd.

  “His airway’s constricted.” Kelly frowned as she felt his pulse. “His heart’s slow. Junior. Hey, buddy, it’s going to be okay.” She tipped his eyelids up. “Pupils are dilated. He’s anaphylactic.”

  Will took Junior’s hand from his knee. “What’s he allergic to?”

  “Hell if I know,” Kelly whispered. “He’s passing out.” She tipped Junior’s head back, ready for CPR. “Allison, go get my purse out of the hut.”

  “What in the hell is—” Eric leaned over Will’s shoulder to see.

  “Eric, call a squad out here! He’s anaphylactic.” Kelly said. “His heart rate is—”

  “Don’t tell me how to do my job. He’s ana what?”

  Will felt down Junior’s leg. Heat bloomed at the swelling near his ankle. He whistled at Kelly. She turned to him as he pulled Junior’s sock down. Two fang marks glistened with blood.

  “Snake bite.” Will searched the sand around them.

  “Aw, shit. A snake?” Eric backed up for the sidewalk. Bystanders retreated, dancing and checking their steps.

  Allison returned with Kelly’s bag. “Here.”

  Kelly dug through and pulled out a tube. She bit the cap off and jammed the plastic in Junior’s thigh. “Keep his leg down,” she said to Will.

  “Hell you doing to him?” Eric asked as he stood on top of a bench.

  “EpiPen. Did you call a squad yet?”

  “Yeah, yeah. They’ll get here when they get here. Aren’t you supposed to cut his leg and suck the poison out?”

  Kelly stood, scanning the sand. “No. And it’s venom, not poison. Stand back!”

  Will pulled Allison down to the sand. “Hold his leg down, like this. We need to find the snake.” He shot to his feet to help Kelly search.

  “You don’t go hunting for a damn snake. Leave it be, Miss Newland,” Eric called from his perch. “You’re gonna provoke it.”

  “We need it to ID.” Kelly squatted to see under the truck.

  “Bite’s a bite.” Eric waved at the ambulance coming near.

  Will checked in front of the truck as Kelly searched underneath. Passing the open door, he spotted the mound of scaly flesh, partially hidden by the floor mat. “Whoa.” He grabbed the back of Kelly’s shirt—his shirt—yanking her to her feet. “By the brake.”

  She nodded. “Cottonmouth?”

  He squinted for a closer look. “They’re common here. Those and diamondbacks.” He grabbed a shovel from the bed of the truck. “EMT should know.”

  “I administered a 25mg of epinephrine three minutes ago,” Kelly stated to the EMT who tended to Junior. “It seems to be a Cottonmouth. Do you have Confab in your unit?”

  “Yeah, we do.” The EMT turned to Will. Half of the scaly body was scooped into the blade of the shovel. “Whoa, whoa.” The EMT jerked his head at his partner. “Do we have any SAPV?”

  “South African Polyvalent?” Kelly shook her head. “Confab’s for cottonmouth or the diamondback.”

  Will wielded the shovel to pull the snake out
of the truck. Sweat dripped at his brow. A woman screamed at the reptile. In a swift tug, the scales slipped from the shovel as it slithered away onto the sand.

  “Shit!” He backed up, arms up to usher people away. “Get back!”

  Kelly dropped to the ground and grabbed the shovel. Running after the snake, she swung the shovel to the ground. Once. Twice. She lowered to the ground and then ran back to the EMT.

  “Well, what is it? Which antivenin does he need?”

  “Damn, lady.” The EMT pushed Junior’s stretcher into the ambulance as Kelly held up the bloodied half of the snake’s body. The mouth showcased slick fangs as it jerked its head in death.

  “Adder. Puff adder.” The second technician took the snake from her, dropping the carcass in an evidence bag. “We’ve got SAPV at the hospital.”

  Allison was on the phone with Roger as she climbed in to ride with Junior to the hospital. As soon as they left, the crowd dispersed.

  “I hope no one ever calls you for help,” Kelly muttered as Eric stepped off the bench.

  He straightened his pants. “I don’t take unnecessary risks.”

  “I bet you don’t take…” Will said under his breath, rubbing at his knee.

  “What’s that, Parker? Huh?” Eric set his hands on his hips. “And you gonna move your bike, or what?”

  “You okay?” Kelly nodded at Will’s knee.

  He shrugged as he walked off for his bike.

  “Where’d it come from?”

  Both men faced Kelly.

  “The snake,” she said. “Where’d it come from?”

  Will frowned at her. “Adders aren’t native. Maybe it was an exotic pet someone tossed out.”

  “But how did it get there?”

  “Look, Miss Newland, the drunk here just said. Somebody musta tossed out a fancy pet. Being a city girl and all, you ain’t used to the bugs and crawlers, but out here we got all kinds of creatures. It must have come from the wood line by the river and—”

  “No shit. But the last time I checked snakes don’t stand up and walk. How the hell did it get up into the truck?”

  Chapter 16

  Emily picked at her food at Elmer’s. She speared her fork with tense jabs as she tried to mask her fury. The damn snake had backfired. And listening to Clay and the rest of the crowd, she had produced the opposite of her intended effect.

  Instead of Kelly squirming in pain from venom, or Junior tragically dying as her young lover, Kelly the fucking hero had found Junior in the truck and rescued him. What was she, some kind of superwoman? Who carries a goddamn EpiPen around? And how the fuck would she know to save the damn snake?

  “Pretty smart, if you ask me,” Randy said to Clay.

  Smart? Emily tongued the fork tines, wondering as she had many times, how Kelly had screwed up Forty. Kelly had screwed up Thirty-Nine without realizing it. She had been doing her job as a nurse, maybe doing too good of a job for her to bring the daughter into the picture. But how did she manage to keep Forty? Thirty-Nine had taken two long years to win over. Stealing Forty had been almost too easy. Emily had gotten Forty in under a month.

  After eavesdropping on the whiny brat on the sidewalk, Emily learned Junior hadn’t even been with Kelly. She tapped her foot at her own miscalculation. There had only been the kayak truck and Clay’s truck in the drive at night. Feminine moans of delight had sounded loud and clear as she crouched in the darkness outside the townhouse. Why wouldn’t she have put one and two together and figured Junior was paying Kelly a late-night booty call?

  It had been risky enough spying at night. The damn dog had started barking as it frequently did in her nocturnal visits.

  Emily didn’t allow mistakes. She sipped her drink, clenching her incisors on the straw to cut clean through the plastic.

  “I never would have thought to keep the snake,” Randy said with his mouth full of food.

  “He was lucky she found him when she did.” Clay finished his drink.

  Breathing in deeply, Emily focused on the conversation. Kelly was lucky Emily hadn’t lost her temper enough to take the shovel upside her head. Patience. I’ll always be better than her.

  Eyeing Clay, Emily devised another tactic. Maybe those feminine orgasmic squeals had been from Kelly after all. If not from Junior, maybe from Clay? Would Clay be Forty-One? Emily sensed an advantage to getting a closer watch on Kelly than stalking outside the townhouse at night. What better Trojan horse than Kelly’s neighbor? Emily had already fucked him out of boredom.

  Clay told them he wasn’t interested in bowling later. He insisted he didn’t want to go. He had promised Kelly he’d change her transmission fluid. Didn’t want to break his promise.

  Clay was a flirt. Of course he’d been hitting on Kelly on the beach. But was he more than a neighbor to her? He was so adamant on not letting Kelly down. She was waiting for him. Expecting him.

  Emily debated whether or not Clay was a target. Weighing the risks of her strategy, she devised the steps she would need to take. In desperation and impatience, she decided it didn’t matter anymore. She was tired of elaborate plans. She was out for blood. She had to trust her instincts on this one.

  “Come on, Clay, hang out for a bit,” Emily said and squeezed his thigh. She left him no gray area to confuse her motivation. She slid her palm closer to his crotch, to nonverbally clarify her message: ‘Fuck me now.’

  “No.” He chuckled and stood. “Later, baby. We’ll hang out another night.”

  Emily clenched her jaw in the dark bar. He rejected her. Clay rejected her to go for Kelly. Brilliant fucking Kelly.

  Clay elbowed his buddy. “Yo, Randy, I’ve got to take a leak. Tell them I want my tab, will you?”

  As soon as Clay turned for the bathroom, Emily eased her way to the parking lot. It was the last time Clay would reject her for Kelly.

  ***

  Kelly swore as she lay under her SUV and wondered for the nth time where Clay was. He’d said he was going to help. Help. She shot out an inpatient huff. She was reluctant to ever admit she needed his help, anyone’s help. But she did need the transmission fluid and filter he was supposed to bring her. And his help wouldn’t hurt because she couldn’t get the damn nuts loose. It seemed her routine yoga wasn’t good enough for manual labor.

  “Dammit.” She puffed out another breath of frustration. He was two hours late. She’d been surprised he had even gotten the battery earlier. Probably jinxed it. With a growl, she stuck the wrench back on the nut and pried. Shook at it. At the sight of dirty boots at her side, she turned her head.

  “About time, Clay.”

  Will got down on his good knee and faced her under the SUV.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “What are you doing here?”

  “It’s my property. What are you doing under there?”

  “Playing hide and seek.” She wished he wasn’t so damn masculine. It screwed with her head. At the lack of a response, she hated how he waited her out and won. “I’m changing the tranny fluid.”

  “You mean Clay was supposed to and you’re impatient enough to think you’ll do it without him?”

  She let her arms fall to the ground. “I think I might be the first woman you’ve ever met who isn’t helpless. Just because we don’t have dicks doesn’t mean we can’t figure out dirty work.”

  He deadpanned.

  “He was supposed to bring the stuff two hours ago,” she said.

  Will checked the tools she had strewn on the ground. “So what do you think you’re doing now?”

  “I thought I could take the pan off until he gets here. Be ready to put the new stuff in.”

  “But?”

  She bit her lower lip. “Look, my dad showed me how to do this before. I’m not stupid.”

  “But?”

  He won again and she hated it. “I can’t get the nuts off.”

  He gave a small shake of his head and what could have passed as a smile. “Move over.”

  “What? I didn’t ask for your h
elp.” But she had to move over as he slid under the car next to her.

  “No, you didn’t.”

  She couldn’t believe his body would fit in the small space. The little quirk of his lip had her melting. Will? Smile? Impossible. It was much easier to accept the ready impression he was an unlikeable asshole. Much easier than analyzing her visceral reaction to him.

  “Then go away. Clay’s going to help me.” She pushed at his shoulder as he settled next to her, reaching up to fiddle with stuff. Her hand stilled on his arm. Like the instinctive reaction to palming a stovetop, she yanked her hand back.

  “He probably forgot about you. Seeing as you don’t put out for him, he’s probably getting it somewhere else.” Will fit the wrench to the nuts.

  She had come to the same conclusion. Musky smells scented the close air they shared. Mmm, Old Spice. She warmed and doubted it was a fever of medical reasons. It was ridiculous. “Well. I’m not that impatient. He can do this when he’s got it out of his system for the night.”

  Will faced her for a brief study. He started to screw everything back together. “Bring it to the garage when you’re done working sometime. It’d be easier to do it there.”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  “Why’d you move to Churchston?” he asked.

  Instead of regretting the need to explain herself to another nosy local, she appreciated he had actually asked a question, had actually initiated communication. He didn’t seem like a gossip. She absently traced the lines of the metal above her and let him work. “Change of scenery.”

  “From?”

  “Atlanta. I grew up there.”

  “You left a prosperous city and a career for this little hellhole?” He let out a hybrid of a snort and laugh.

  “I got divorced over the winter. I sucked at my job—hated my job.” She lifted a shoulder. “I wanted a fresh start.” Communication ceased again, and this time, Kelly couldn’t stand it. “Why a mechanic?” she asked, figuring work was a safe enough topic.

  “I like working with my hands.” He finished and let his arms drop, studying the engine while he answered. “The old man who owned the garage in town sold it to me when I got out of high school. Clay’s been here since day one. When I went to tech college, I had someone part time ‘til I got back. Same for the war.” His shoulders jerked. “It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. I like fixing things.”