"Hey, Annalisa." He nodded toward the steam issuing from the grill. "Overheated."
I pointed to the colorful liquid pooling on the ground. "Spewing coolant."
"Yeah, let's take a look. The mechanic will figure it out for sure." He popped open a panel, exposing a large, hot engine. We stepped back to admire the enormity of it.
Buck wandered out to join us. Big Tim nodded at him then turned back to the engine and sighed. "Gotta open the radiator and let it cool. But I need a rag-that sucker's hot." He started to go back to the bus, but Buck stopped him.
"Here, use my shirt. It's garbage, anyway." He peeled off the torn Fiery Boys T-shirt and tossed it to Big Tim, happy to send Chuck's image to its final resting place.
I'd already been admiring Buck's pumped body, but with the shirt off, I let myself indulge. His muscles looked more than fine in the sunlight. A little of my teenage love for him started to return, and for a brief moment, I forgot about the angry and withdrawn bass player I'd known all week.
Big Tim bunched up the shirt and reached into the steaming engine to loosen the radiator cap. Then, with a yelp, he leapt back as much more steam billowed out. "Gotta let this sucker cool off for a while." He offered the shirt back to Buck but it was filthy now, so Buck waved it away. Big Tim dropped it on the ground and wandered off.
Alone with Buck, I sneaked one last look at his super-fine body then turned to face the engine. I didn't need to get him started again. The steam vented for a while, and soon I could see the massive motor. "Wonder why it overheated?" I picked up Buck's T-shirt so I could poke around.
He squinted at me. "You know what you're doing?"
"A little." I shrugged. "I've worked on plenty of car engines. Don't forget that I sell them for a living." I stepped back and wiped sweat from my forehead. "I'll tell you one thing. All the engines on the showroom floor are much cleaner than your tour bus." Even Zed's old cars had cleaner engines than this monstrosity.
I turned to Buck and took a stab at conversation with Mr. Grumpy-head. "What about you? Know anything about engines?"
"Some." Buck swayed his head from side to side. "Could be a coolant leak. We'll find out when they fill it up."
I nodded toward the coolant on the ground. "If it's a leak, it can't be too bad or else there'd be nothing left to spill out. Must be something else." I approached the engine and poked around some more, gingerly guiding my hand around hot engine parts. I checked the oil level, but it wasn't low and looked relatively clean. The hoses looked good, too. I'd have checked the thermostat if it wasn't still too hot to touch. Besides, there wasn't much I could do without a decent toolkit.