I picked my way through the piles of car parts, looking out for signs of movement. Let’s just hope she’s not holding some sort of power tool this time, I thought.

I’d come back to the garage after a long afternoon of thinking. Ryan had disappeared again to the library this morning, and we hadn’t talked since being on the hills above the town. If he’d been in the basement excavating, I hadn’t seen him come and go. On the way here, I’d been turning over in my mind what he’d said.

“Is going anywhere else something you’d do?”

“What about your own happiness?”

If I lost the bar, all this worry about getting the oven fixed, and trying to make a success of the place, was for nothing, anyway. So why was I even bothering? Why didn’t I just give up and move on?

“Hey.” A noise behind me jerked me out of my thoughts. I turned, and saw Bea, stepping out from behind one of the piles. She was holding an angle-grinder in one hand. Uh-oh, I thought. I remember the one with Tina Turner in it, where they had to fight in the big dome, and… I got a hold of myself and with a conscious effort of will arranged my features into a smile.

“Ah. Bea. I, uh, wanted to talk to you.” How the hell do you say this exactly?

“Right.” The smaller woman looked at me, not moving. She didn’t look angry, but on the other hand she didn’t put the angle-grinder down. Holy crap she’s strong, I thought. That thing must weigh twenty pounds and she’s holding it there like it’s no big deal.

“Look, it’s about Andy. I…” Oh well, no way to do it except to come out with it. “I’m sorry about what’s happened to Andy, okay? He needed my advice, and I didn’t want to abandon him. You know the only reason he didn’t tell you was because he knew you’d worry, right?”

“Yeah. So I hear.” A flicker of expression.

“So, I made him promise me that he was going to see a doctor, and that he was going to tell you. I really do think he was going to do both of those things, and he had no way of knowing what was going to happen.” I’d started, so I was determined to finish now, no matter what happened.

“I guess not.” Bea looked around, and to my mild relief, put down the angle-grinder.

“How’s he doing? If…if you don’t mind me asking.”

Bea shrugged. “Sure. You’re a doctor.” She put her hands on her hips; for a moment the lost little-girl expression I’d seen at the market appeared, and then disappeared. “Turns out that my little brother has adult-onset epilepsy. Turns out he might have had it for a while. He might even have had seizures before, but this was the first big one.”

I waited, and eventually she spoke again.

“It’s never going to go away, but they say it’s manageable with medication, and as long as he knows what to do when he’s having a seizure, it won’t affect his life.”

I nodded. “Right. I’m really glad we know what’s going on now.”

“Yeah. Me too.” She looked away across the warehouse for a moment. “I talked to your boyfriend this morning.”

“He’s not my boyfriend. He’s…” I don’t know what the hell he is.

“Do you like him?”

I was surprised by the question, and it took me a moment to answer. “Yes. Yes, I do.” Despite everything, it felt good to say it out loud. “I don’t know how we could last as a couple, but I do like him.”

The dark eyebrows moved. “He has his moments. Look,” Bea sat down on one of the piles of car parts. She seemed to have a miraculous ability to find a comfortable seating position, and for a moment I wondered how she did it. “I was upset the other day, okay? I do appreciate you helping Andy. A lot.”

Phew. “Thanks. I don’t like keeping secrets from people, so this didn’t sit easily with me.”

“Do you like Andy?” Bea’s tone was carefully neutral.

“Yeah, I like him a lot, Bea. But I know what you mean, and the answer is no. He’s just a friend, okay?”

Bea nodded, leaning forward with one hand on her chin like Rodin’s Thinker, if Rodin had been an auto mechanic. “Okay. I thought you were going to string him along, and maybe I was a bit hard on you as a result.”

“It’s okay. I know you guys care about each other a lot. So it makes sense that you were a bit, uh, protective.” What Bea would do to a woman she thought was stringing her little brother along hardly bore thinking about, and I hoped I never found out. Mental note, Farrah: not this guy.

“I guess I am. When we were kids, we had a lot of…we just only had each other, right?” Bea put both hands out in front of her, opening and closing them slowly. “So I had to look after him, and I got in a bit of trouble because of him. A few fights.”

“Right.” I stayed as quiet as I could for a minute.

“But maybe if I’d treated him a bit more like a grown-up lately, this wouldn’t have happened the way it did.”

“Hey, listen.” I took a deep breath. “I promise you, I’ll do everything I can to make sure he does what he’s supposed to. I might not be licensed to practice medicine here, but he did come to me, and I think he might listen to me. At least a bit.”

Bea chuckled, the sound echoing around the warehouse. “Maybe between the two of us, we can get him to take better care of himself, huh?”

“It’s a deal.” I smiled, and felt an inward sense of relief.

“Now, what about this oven of yours?”

My heart sank. “I don’t know. I honestly have no idea how much it’s going to cost.”

The other woman put her hands on her thighs, and stood up. A few car parts clattered off the pile, and she kicked at them with her heel. “Huh.” She was silent for a minute. “Tell you what, okay?”

There was a pause, and it was long enough that I gradually understood I was expected to respond here. “Uh, what?”

“I found some old electrics from an oven out the back. They look like they’re in okay condition. And,” she paused again, and I could tell she was choosing her words with care, “because you helped Andy, I won’t charge you for the work.”

I was temporarily mute. “Are you sure? That’s…that’s really kind of you.”

“Yeah, it’ll be okay. I’ve got some spare time, even with taking over Andy’s jobs while he’s in the hospital. Besides, you didn’t judge me, and I appreciate that.”

“Judge you?”

“Yeah. A lot of people think I’m pretty difficult when they first meet me.”

My face was carefully neutral. “That. Is their big mistake.”

“Yeah.” Bea picked up the angle grinder again. “But you better not tell anyone I’m doing this job for free, okay? Don’t want people thinking I’m some kind of soft touch. If I find out anyone else knows…”

She brandished the angle grinder at me, her face stern. I smiled and cocked my head, holding her gaze. After a few moments, Bea cracked; she smiled back, a little sheepishly.

“I won’t tell a soul.” I said, still smiling. “Come on over whenever you’re ready, okay? And let me know when Andy gets out of hospital.” She turned and looked at the door. “I’d better get back to the bar.”

“Will do. Catch you later.” Another pause. “Buddy.”

I walked out, blinking in the sunshine. For the first time in a while, I felt like things were looking up.