Chapter Eleven

Axel

It was good to have extra work in the shop. Spike had been nagging me for quite some time now. He’d found someone to help in on the odd days, but we did need someone a bit more permanent. Savannah had argued when I’d first suggested the post to her. I wasn’t even sure why she was resistant to it. She clearly needed a job. She’d said so herself, and here I was offering one right up to her. But I knew she wanted to prove something to me and to herself. She wanted to show me that she could do it on her own. I finally convinced her though. Either that, or Pop managed to get through to her. We assured her that we’d give her a trial run so that we could make sure that everyone was happy and on board with it all. Within a day, we all knew that we wanted her to stay.

Savannah was hard working. The moment she sat down at the desk she began working, and she didn’t stop until someone told her she had to. She’d done more for the shop than I had done in months and I felt grateful to have her there. I got her to work on some of the general admin and also to help out with the books. No matter what work I threw her way, she seemed to know exactly what to do. She didn’t really get into what she had been doing before this, but I knew it had something to do with working for her father. That’s what Bobby had told me at least. That was the nice thing about having Bobby around. Savannah might not be willing to tell me things, but Bobby had no idea how to keep his mouth closed.

It was strange how quickly we had fallen into a routine together. Savannah just felt like she had always been there. And everyone at the shop felt comfortable around her. The guys were always going on at me when it came to women, always teasing, poking and prodding. It was the way the guys had always been with one another. But, for some reason, they didn’t say anything to me about Savannah. I could tell by the way they all looked at her and the way that they interacted with her, that they liked her a great deal. I could tell they thought she was beautiful. But nobody said a word to me. I knew it was because of Bobby. She wasn’t just any woman. She was the mother of my child. They probably understood what a big and scary deal that was for me. And if there was one thing none of us liked to talk about with one another, it was anything serious.

Having Savannah at the shop was great. It gave me more time to work on the bikes with Spike, and more time to prepare for races. I often didn’t get much time with the bikes themselves because I was always running around trying to sort one problem out after another. I’d opened the shop because I had such a love for it, so it was good to finally get my hands dirty again.

“Nice to have you back in the shop so much,” Spike said to me that day.

I grinned up at him. “Oh yeah? You like having the boss around? I thought you’d hate it.”

“I don’t mind having the boss around. As long as he pays me on time.”

“Ha! I’ve always paid you on time,” I said.

He shook his head. “Not last month.”

“I was a week late. But I sorted that out.”

“Yeah, but only because I complained. I think it’s good that we finally have someone else dealing with the books. Let’s be honest; numbers were never your strong point.”

I laughed. “That’s true. They drive me crazy. And Savannah is so good with them. Hell, she’s good at everything,” I mused and ignored the look that Spike had given me. I looked up at him and groaned. “Not like that.”

“Sure. Sure,” he said and chuckled to himself before continuing with the bike he was working on.

He was right, of course. Savannah really was good at everything. Even though I had told her that what happened in the bathroom would never happen again, it hadn’t stopped me from thinking about it. Hell, I’d thought about it every single day since it happened. Six years had not lessened my desire for her. Over the past six years, I had often wondered if I had just dreamed that night with her. I knew it had happened, of course, but I wasn’t sure if it had been as good as I thought it to be. I kept telling myself that I had over exaggerated it in my mind. Nobody could be that good, surely?

I probably should never have gone into the shower with her the other night. Because all it did was prove to me that she really was that good and that I hadn’t imagined it. I had slept with many women over the years. I’d never found it particularly hard to get women. It helped when you were in the line of work that I was in, and that I kept winning races. But, even though the sex could sometimes be great, it was nothing like this. I had never connected with anyone the way that I connected with her. When we had sex, I’d forget about everything and everyone in the world around me. The only thing I could concentrate on was her. It pained me to think about it now. I’d told her I didn’t want it to happen again, but who was I kidding? It was the only thing I wanted. I was just far too scared to go down that road again with her. There wasn’t just us to think about now. There was Bobby too.

Bobby was the reason Savannah and I felt so comfortable around each other. With him around, we all felt like one big happy family. It was strange how easy he made things feel. Of course, the moment he wasn’t around Savannah and I would begin to stumble over our words and make sure that we were busy with something so that we didn’t look each other in the eyes. Then Bobby would walk in, and everything would be back to normal again. He had no idea what an impact he had on us and how good he made us all feel with him around. I’d tell him one day. Right now, I still had no idea what was going on.

The strangest thing that had started to happen to me was that I was now no longer upset with Savannah anymore. The anger that I had first felt for her when she’d knocked on my door to tell me she had my child, had vanished. I just couldn’t be mad with her. And, because of the easy routine we had fallen into, life just didn’t seem so bad anymore. I lay in bed the other night, thinking about what it would be like to have sex with only one woman again for the rest of my life, and I realized I didn’t mind. As long as that woman was Savannah. The thought scared me.

I spent the rest of the day working harder than usual. When I worked, I didn’t get a chance to think about her as much. The distraction was just what I needed.

“Wow, you’ve already finished on that bike?” Spike said to me later that day.

I smiled and looked at what I had done. He was right, something that would have taken me two days had only taken me one. “Yeah, I guess it just feels good to finally be working on the bikes again. I’ve always loved it, you know.”

“Good to have you back. And a big thank you to the tall beauty out there,” he said and indicated to the office where Savannah was sitting. He winked at me, but I just shook my head and looked away.

Even though I had never told anyone about my true feelings from six years ago, or even my true feelings at the moment, I had a feeling that Spike knew. He’d seen her race me all those years ago. He knew what an impact she’d had on me. I tried to ignore his gaze as I went to wash my hands and pack up for the day.

As I walked into the office, I froze as I saw Savannah by her desk. She was leaning over the filing cabinet, and I had to resist the urge to walk up to her and grab her. I wanted my way with her again, and it was very hard to ignore like that. She turned around and smiled and I felt the heat rise to my face as if I had been caught.

“Uh, hi,” I said. “Good day?”

“Great day. I’m way ahead of schedule, and I have a whole bunch of ideas I want to talk to you about sometime. I have a whole list of things that I wrote down today, and the ideas just keep coming and coming. I can’t seem to stop them,” she said excitedly. Then she stopped and shook her head as if she had said something wrong. “I mean, if you want to of course. I don’t want you to think I’m taking over or anything.”

“Are you kidding me? It’s great having someone like you around. You’re the only person to have ever worked in the office to actually have some initiative like this. And I include myself when I say that.”

She laughed. “Well, that’s good to know. I like it here. I like putting things in order.”

“Are you saying my shop was a mess before?”

“Yes,” she said firmly, and we both laughed.

“You’re absolutely right.”

“I mean, this filing cabinet was in no order at all. I have no idea how you even got things done around here.”

“I know. I’m not exactly an office sort of guy you. I’m a racer; this whole shop thing has been an adjustment for me. I never thought I’d actually own a shop. I’m good with some elements of it, but clearly not all of it.”

She smiled. “I’m sure it has been. But you’ve done a great job. I’m just kidding you, you know. It might have been a mess, but it’s still impressive what you’ve done. Not many people choose the route you did.”

“Thank you. So, you hungry? I was thinking of taking you and Bobby out to that burger place that I’ve been promising to take him too.”

“Are you kidding me? I’m always hungry. And yeah, that would be great. I wonder how Bobby is getting along today? It’s so strange not having him by my side all the time.”

“He’s with Pop. I have a feeling he’s having a great day. You know what the two of them are like when they are together. You would swear Pop is his grandfather or something. Those two are so sweet together. He has Pop wrapped around his little finger, you know.”

She giggled. “Yeah, he has me wrapped around that little finger too.”

“Well, count me in on that too. That boy is a charmer.”

“Just like his father,” she said, and I could see she immediately regretted her choice of words. A deep blush formed on her cheek as she looked down and quickly hurried with her paperwork.

I chuckled inwardly but didn’t say anything. Bobby wasn’t there, so it was only natural that the two of us were going to be awkward around each other.

“Well, I’ll be leaving in five minutes. We can pick Bobby up and go out to eat. I’ll invite Pop along too.”

“Looking forward to it.”

I gulped as I walked away. I was looking forward to it too. Probably way more than I wanted to.