I fell back a step and shifted my eyes to the car that I knew was special even before I saw it. “You were the guy I bought the Hudson from? You were the one that cut the price down to nothing?”
“The guy that bought it from the pawnshop had no idea what he had. He ran the car into the ground, trashed it like it was any regular ol’ daily driver. He refused to sell it back to me, no matter what I offered. He claimed it paid for itself in pussy and considering he was a fat slob with a comb-over, I don’t doubt he needed the car to get laid. He ran into some money trouble a while back and called me up offering to sell it. His price was outrageous but I bought it anyways. Little shit didn’t bother to tell me he’d parted the thing out for some quick cash before sending it my way. I was holding on to it, telling myself I would rebuild it when the time was right. I walked onto your lot that first day, saw your Caddy, and knew the car wasn’t mine, it was yours.” He gave me a sheepish grin. “Part of the reason I drove my Hornet across country was because I was hoping you would recognize it, that there would be something there.”
I tossed my head back and let out a laugh. “It’s actually my girlfriend’s. I gave it to her a couple of weeks ago.” I knew the car meant something.
His dark eyebrows scrunched together and the corners of his mouth pulled down. “The pregnant one? My wife nearly lost her mind when I mentioned there was a great-grandbaby on the way.”
“No, my girlfriend isn’t pregnant. My ex-girlfriend is.” It sounded like a Jerry Springer episode when I had to explain it to someone else.
“Oh … well … that is complicated, isn’t it?” He gave me a grin that revealed a dimple in his weathered cheek in the exact same place as mine. “Do you know if you’re having a boy or a girl? My wife will be all over great-grandma duty if you wouldn’t mind. It would be much appreciated if you let her be a part of your life for whatever time she has left, Hudson.”
I placed my hands on my hips and rocked my head from side to side. “Don’t know. We’ve done several ultrasounds but the baby seems fond of mooning us and not much else. Kallie, the baby’s mom, decided she wants it to be a surprise, so I’m rolling with it. Poppy, my girlfriend, decorated the nursery in my house yellow and gray, so those are the colors we’re sticking with.”
I’d been so happy when she asked if she could tackle the project of turning my spare room into an actual room for the baby. She’d been pensive and quiet lately, the events in Texas weighing heavily on her mind. Every time her cell rang she rushed to see if it was her mother calling for help and her face fell when it wasn’t.
I’d taken her as my date to Cora and Rome’s wedding on Valentine’s Day hoping that being surrounded by nothing but family and friends celebrating the love of two wonderful people would shake her out of it … and it had, slightly. She turned her attention away from the woman she couldn’t help and instead focused on the ones she could. She was spending more and more time with her victims’ advocacy group but now she was going in as a counselor and an advocate as well as a survivor. She was serious about helping other women who had been where she was and I was proud of her, but I was also worried that for every one woman she saved there would be another one, like her mother, that she couldn’t. I knew that would weigh on her soul. There was a balance there that she was going to have to figure out and I had no problem holding on to her until she found it.
“Yellow and gray it is, then.”
He looked at me expectantly and all I could do was shrug. “I’ve been on my own a long time. Never had a family that I could call my own. Made a baby with a girl that promised me hers but that didn’t work out because promises are easy to break. I found the girl that was meant to be mine all along. She’s more than family to me. She’s the first person that has ever made me feel like I really, truly belong somewhere. I belong with her.” I lifted an eyebrow at the older man who had my face and my eyes and gave him a slow grin. “Because I know what it feels like to be alone and unwanted, I would never want that for my kid. I want my baby to be loved by as many people in this life as possible. My baby is going to have family through blood but also through choice. I don’t see why you and your wife can’t be both.”
He exhaled a long, relieved sigh and briefly closed his eyes. “You made this a lot easier than I thought you were going to, kid.”
“Mom made shit hard for both of us. I’m not into a repeat of that, lived with enough struggle and sacrifice already. I choose to believe you when you say you tried to help her and I choose to believe that if you had known about me you would have done your best to help me as well.”
He swore under his breath and nodded. “Kills me that you were in the system … fucking kills. I would have given you a home. I could have been the one to teach you about cars, not some underqualified shop teacher. That’s like a knife right in the center of my chest.”
“Can’t focus on what was, only on what is.” I reached out a hand and clapped him on his shoulder. I was going to be one good-looking motherfucker when I was an old man. “I’m sorry about your wife.”
“Don’t be. We had a lot of good years and she isn’t gone yet. She took care of me when all that stuff with your mom was going down. Now it’s my turn to be strong and take care of her.”
“That’s what love should look like.” I was certain of it.
“That is what love looks like, kid. You want to pop the hood on this beauty and show me what you’ve done so far? Everything looks original. I’m impressed.”
I couldn’t help but feel proud. I’d never had anyone to tell me what I did was impressive before, at least never anyone whose approval mattered. “Thanks. I told you I had a guy that could find anything.” My phone started to go off in my back pocket. I recognized Poppy’s ring tone right away, so I held up a finger. “Give me a sec to take this. My girl doesn’t usually call when she knows I’m working.”
I tapped the screen, and before I could get out any kind of greeting, all I heard was a blood-curdling scream and the sound of Happy losing his little puppy mind. “Poppy?” I couldn’t keep the panic out of my voice as I immediately turned away from the man who wanted to be my family and started toward the front of the garage.