“Good morning. Welcome to Malone and Son’s,” a woman’s voice greets me with false cheer when I enter the mechanic shop my asshole roommate owns with his brother and sister.
“Good morning,” I reply, peering around the woman through the window overlooking the bays, looking for said asshole roommate, Wade.
“You looking for something?” the woman asks, her tone conveying her irritation.
“Yeah, is Wade here?” I ask, finally turning my attention to her. Additional words fail me when I take in the woman standing behind the counter glaring at me. Even with the scowl on her face, she’s stunning, and somewhat familiar.
“Nope,” she pops the ‘p’ and purses her lips, raising her eyebrows at me in expectation.
I swallow thickly before I find my voice. “You know where he might be?”
“It wasn’t my turn to watch him.” Her gaze returned to a computer screen.
I use the moment to look her over. It takes me all of three seconds, catching a glimpse of the greasy coveralls she’s wearing, for me to finally put two and two together. “Rylie?” I ask in surprise. The last time I saw Wade’s little sister was about ten years ago, before I was banned from the garage by her old man.
“Nolan,” she replies with an exasperated sigh. “I told you he’s not here. Is there something I can help you with? Must be important if you’re risking stepping foot in here.”
I shake my head. “You’re going to keep your dad’s mandate then, huh? I’m still not allowed in here?” It wouldn’t surprise me if the family decided to stick with banning me just for the sake of sticking to their father’s wishes. I wouldn’t put it past the old man to have added it into his will. I should never have taken off with that car…
“Naw,” she says with a smirk. “I’m just giving you shit. With all the business your body shop throws our way, I’m not about to tell you not to stop by on occasion.” Her expression changes from playful to concerned. “You really haven’t seen Wade? He never showed up this morning and I haven’t been able to get ahold of him.”
“He hasn’t been answering my calls,” I tell her.
“Mine either.” Rylie sighs. “Anything I can do to help with whatever you need?”
“No, just a roommate thing.”
“Must be a big thing for you to come all the way here. I can’t imagine you’d hike halfway across town just to remind him to throw his clothes in the hamper,” she says, clearly prying for information.
“Huh. He did that as a kid, too?” I chuckle. Fucking Wade will drop his dirty clothes next to the goddamned hamper, but almost never actually places them into the thing.
“What’s going on, Nolan?” She puts her hands on her hips.
Now I know she means business.
There’s no way she’s going to let me walk out of here without spilling the reason for my visit. I glance up at her face, hardly believing this is the woman version of the sixteen-year-old girl who begged for Wade and me to drop her off at the movies with her friends on Friday nights. I always thought she was cute, but at twenty years old, a sixteen-year-old girl is absolutely off limits. I had no desire to go to jail. But now, God damn, she has most definitely grown out of the awkwardness we all get as teenagers.
“Out with it,” she demands, cocking her eyebrow. “I’m worried,” she continues, attempting to appeal to my sense of compassion, seeing that the attitude route isn’t working. “I’ve called him six times and every time, the call’s gone to voicemail.”
“Fine.” I sigh, leaning on the counter. “Rent’s due today and he hasn’t paid his share yet. I just wanted to come by and remind him to transfer me the money so I can write our landlord a check.”
Rylie’s eyebrows scrunch together and for whatever reason I find it adorable. Although, I also want to smooth my finger over the furrow to make it disappear. The last thing I want is for her to worry because her brother’s being a dick.
“Wasn’t he late last month, too?” she asks, that scowl still on her face.
My eyes widen in surprise. I didn’t think she’d know that. I can’t see Wade divulging that kind of information to her or their brother, Jaron. “He told you that?”
She rolls her eyes. “He borrowed money from me.”
Now it’s my turn to scowl.
“Do you think he’s gambling?” Rylie asks, plucking the concern right from my mind.
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “I guess anything’s possible right now. He hasn’t told me about it if he is.”
Narrowing her eyes at me suspiciously, she studies my face.
I hold up my hands in surrender. “I swear I’m telling the truth.”
“Okay,” she grumbles begrudgingly. “I’m not sure what you want me to do here.” She shrugs.
“Nothing,” I tell her, waving away her concern. “I’m not asking for you to cover him. If I can’t get ahold of him by the end of the day, I’ll just pay the full amount and shake him down for his half later.”
She sighs and shakes her head. “What the hell is that asshole doing with all his money, anyway? I know how much he’s taking home. There’s no reason he should have to scrape cash together every month for rent.”
“Not my business. I have no idea what he does with his money, nor do I care.”
“Except when he doesn’t pay his half of the bills,” she points out.
She’s got me there. It’s definitely my business when I’ve got to fork out my money to cover him. I don’t want to think too hard on her question though, because all it will do is piss me off. I don’t know what Wade’s doing with his money, and there really is no reason he should be late on rent, unless he’s making some pretty fucking stupid decisions.
“You know, this whole thing doesn’t inspire much confidence in his abilities to manage the financials here.” Rylie bites on her thumb, her expression distant, no doubt contemplating the ramifications of her brother’s poor monetary management choices in his personal life and how they may spill over into his management of the garage’s money.
At least that’s exactly what I’d be worrying about right now if I were her. This is the reason no one on my staff at Ansel’s Body Shop manages the money but me. “Did that guy with the F150 ever stop by?” I ask, attempting to change the subject and pull Rylie away from her troubling thoughts. “The guy with the flames on the doors?”
“Oh yeah,” she replies with a chuckle, then rolls her eyes, the gesture bringing me back to memories of her as a teenager. “He stopped by. The ‘weird noise’ he heard was his fucking engine low on oil. A couple hundred more miles and that dumbass would have thrown a rod. He’s damn lucky we don’t have to rebuild that fucker.”
I can’t help the grin pulling up the corners of my mouth. I should have known she’d end up crawling around under cars. I would have never guessed it at sixteen though, with the way she was so disgusted by the sight of oil on her dad’s clothes when his coveralls didn’t do the job. Now, I would bet everything I own that this woman knows a hell of a lot more about cars than I do. It wouldn’t even be a fair wager to bet against her.
“What’s that look for?” she asks, cocking her head to the side.
“Nothing.” I shake my head. “I was just thinking I should have known you’d eventually succumb to the family business.”
“Yeah, well, I guess being a grease monkey’s in my blood,” she says with a wink.
“It looks good on you,” I tell her. Without thinking, I wipe at a smudge on her cheek.
Rylie’s eyes go wide and her breath catches as I pull my hand back. She stares at me dumbly for a moment.
I break the silence with an awkward cough and dig out a card from my wallet. “Hey, will you have Wade give me a call when you get ahold of him?” I hold out the card to her.
She glances down at the card, her eyebrows pinched together. “Doesn’t he have your number?”
“That’s for you.” I give her a grin and head toward the door. “It was really good to see you, Rylie.”
“Uh, you too, Nolan,” she mumbles, her gaze still glued to card.
Pushing through the glass doors, I make my way back to my car. I can’t quite figure out where to focus though—on figuring out where the fuck Wade is, or why my stomach is churning at the thought that Rylie might not call me.