Chapter 2
What If You
Bryant
I pulled up to Adam’s shop, Skrillex Customs, and parked behind the building where he had instructed me to. He'd said the front parking spaces were reserved for the desk employees and customers. It made sense, given I was coming to work as a mechanic and my area was at the back of the building.
A hefty sigh escaped my lips, and I cursed beneath my breath as I focused on the building. My life had become nothing but a shit storm. I lost a job that meant everything to me. I lost time with my daughter. And, since my divorce had hit the topic of everyone’s discussion, I lost my dignity. I didn’t even want to talk about it anymore but, everywhere I went, people asked me how I was. I was fucking great. Perfect.
My cell started ringing, and I cursed again when I realized whose name flashed across the screen.
“Hello?” I wiped one of my palms in circles over the leather steering wheel.
“Stacie said she heard you took my name off your life insurance policy. I want you to put it back on there. Now!” Her voice was enough to send my nerves on edge.
“No, Mac, I’m not doing that.” I shook my head in disbelief. There was no ending to this shit. When I married her, I thought it would be for life. No, marriage wasn’t for life, divorce was. Especially if you had a child together. If I could rewind time, I’d have gotten my dick cut off before having sex with her. She had been a rebound, not an intentional start-a-family type of girl.
“Stop. Calling. Me. That!” Her screams were so loud, I had to hold the phone several inches from my ear.
I laughed to myself. “That’s your name, is it not?”
“You need to put my name back on your life insurance policy or else.”
I rolled my eyes and lifted myself out of my truck, making sure to lock the doors. “Or else what?”
“Or else I’ll take you back to court for contempt. The divorce papers say you can't take me off your life insurance.”
I grounded my teeth together, and my jaw twitched as I reminded myself to keep my cool. “Mac, that's the temporary divorce agreement. I only had to leave you on my life insurance until the divorce was finalized. The only names that belong on there now are whoever I’m married to and my daughter’s.”
I heard an agitated sigh escape from her lips, no doubt I had pissed her off. “Oh, so you’re already thinking about marrying someone else? Our divorce was finalized two days ago! You were cheating on me, weren’t you?”
I huffed in annoyance. “I didn’t cheat on you. You were the one guilty of that, remember? It doesn’t matter what I’m thinking of doing. That’s none of your concern anymore.” I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Why in the fuck was I even answering her calls?
“You’re such an asshole. I hate you!”
“Mac, I tried for two years to get you to change your mind about the divorce. Instead of working on it with me you chose to date other people and are now living with my best friend. I begged you to go to counseling with me and fix it. You’ve done nothing but play games with me for the last two years, inviting me to stay over but then making me sleep on the couch, letting me join you and Delia for dinner, and even telling women who hit on me that I was your husband. I’m done. Over it. If you call me again, make sure it’s about Delia.”
With that, I hung up on her as she screamed obscenities. That was the first time I had cut our conversation short, the first time I had hung up on her. It felt damn good.
Mackenzie Jenkins was a master-manipulating narcissist. I shortened her name to Mac because she reminded me of a Mac truck, her build equating that of a lineman on a football team. I shuddered at how in the world I had ever been attracted to her. I had promised to love her through everything, even as her hair started thinning and her weight increased. I even loved her through her despicable attitude and flirty personality, a personality she shared with everyone but me. She hadn’t promised the same. I kept wondering what was wrong with me that made her walk away. What had I done wrong?
It didn’t matter. I had tried, though I still couldn't ease my conscious that I was the cause for her leaving. That there was something I had done and she refused to tell me.
I had tried despite finding incriminating emails she had sent to a roommate of ours. A roommate who also happened to be married himself. The emails displayed naked pictures of Mac and sexually-toned words back and forth. When confronted, Mac said she had been mad at me. I guess every time I got mad at her I should have sent her best friend a picture of my dick.
"For fucks sake, you need to get a grip man." I couldn't count how many times a day I said this to myself. I shook my head at myself and shoved my wallet into my back pocket before heading to the building.
I walked in through the back door and Adam came into the shop, holding out his hand. “Hey man, what’s up?” He wrapped his other hand around me, patting me on the back.
I shook his hand. “Not much.”
“Ready?”
I dropped my hand and backed out of his half hug. “Yeah.”
I couldn’t thank Adam enough for giving me a job on short notice. He hadn’t needed another mechanic on his payroll but offered me a job anyway. Getting fired from the police department was a blow to my ego, especially when it had been because I’d been framed.
Adam introduced me to the other mechanics and even the guys who did body work. I learned Skrillex Customs didn’t just specialize in car repair, it specialized in exhaust systems, lift kits, and custom paint jobs. Adam’s shop was the busiest and most popular mechanic shop in town from what I had heard. He paid his employees well, and I dared to say it paid more than my previous job. It wasn't about the money though.
“Come on, we’ll go into the office and get your paperwork filled out. Amber and Cricket showed up a few minutes ago so they should have it ready in a few.”
Adam had talked to me about Amber, specifically informing me that Cricket was off limits. I was okay with that, I wasn’t looking for anything anyway. I couldn’t help but wonder about Amber though. It wasn’t like I opposed any sort of interactions with women, I just hadn’t been in the market to start anything. I didn't need another woman who had an ulterior motive from the moment we hooked up. When Mac made the comment that she'd stay with her new boyfriend long enough to reap the benefits, I knew I'd been a game to her the entire time. A conquest. Her words were written with malicious intent. Even my mom had warned me she was going to get pregnant on purpose when I hadn't been ready to be a father yet.
“Amber, can you hook Bryant up here with his paperwork?”
I immediately knew which one was Cricket, as her eyes stared me down when I entered the lobby. A smirk crept up on her face and she switched her gaze to Amber, the girl at the adjoining desk. Her back was to me so all I could see was the back of her head. A light blond braid trailed over her left shoulder. I stared at her, unable to avert my eyes elsewhere.
“Damnit, Adam, quit calling me Amber. If my mom wanted people to call me Amber she would have named me Amber not…” She turned around and I finished her sentence for her.
“Amberly?”
She stopped in her tracks, a stack of paperwork in her left hand fell to the floor when she gasped and brought a hand to her mouth. We stared at each other for what seemed like eternity before she stammered and bent over to pick up the papers.
I stepped forward, helping her gather them.
Her bluish-green eyes looked at me, peeking through her long eyelashes. Time seemed to stop, allowing me to take in the features of her face. Little freckles dotted across her nose and cheeks, barely noticeable with makeup on. Her left eyebrow hitched up and it was a permanent fixture on her face. It always looked as though she were quizzing you and waiting for an answer. Her mouth was slightly open, revealing the most imperfect but perfect teeth, surrounded by full, pale pink lips. Her nose was petite, the end of it sloping up a little, with nostrils that were also very small. That was the first time I had been able to soak in everything about her physically. She was perfectly imperfect.
“Wait, you two know each other?” Adam asked, a puzzled look crossing his face.
Cricket and Adam’s eyes widened as they realized it.
“What, what are you doing here?” Amberly asked, clearing her throat and shoving the papers in my direction.
I gave her a weak smile. “I work here now.” For whatever reason, my being in front of her was throwing her off.
She blew out a breath, causing a stray piece of hair to lift from her face. “Of, of, of course.” She shook her head as if her original question was ridiculous.
There was absolutely nothing ridiculous about Amberly Hodge. Her daughter, Haylie had played on the softball team I coached. I had watched her at all the practices and games, trying to remove my gaze away from her so I could focus on the team. It had been damned near impossible. I knew she was married but hardly ever saw her husband. It had made me wonder about the validity of their relationship. Even so, I’d never approached her and she made it clear she wasn’t interested in anyone but her husband. Then, she disappeared. I had tried texting her to remind her of the last game of the season and she never answered. I tried again a month after that and found out her number had changed. I still had Haylie’s trophy at my house, collecting dust.
I had to restrain myself from stepping any closer as she backed up. I was drawn to her in a way I couldn't explain. She'd been out of my life for so long, but not a day went by that I didn't think about her.