I shook my head. “Nope. That’s not what she says.”
His grin spread, and he leaned down to give me a gentle kiss. “If anything happened to you, I…” He didn’t finish his thought, but the expression on his face made it clear how devastated he would be. “Time for your surprise.”
With our hands linked, he walked up to the door of the building and opened it.
I was surprised to find it unlocked. “Do you know who owns this place?”
“It just so happens I do. After you.” He led me inside and shut the door behind us.
The lights were on in a small waiting room. There was a counter directly across from the door as well as a cash register, but it was the sign on the wall that left me speechless.
Carlisle Rivers Auto Shop
I turned to him, my mouth hanging open. “What…?”
The door behind the counter opened, and Witt walked out with an ear-to-ear smile. “Surprise.”
I shook my head. “What’s goin’ on?”
“Can’t you read?” Witt teased. “Jed and I are co-owners of this place.”
“This is your business?” I asked Jed, slightly irritated. “Why on earth would you keep it a secret? I thought you were opening another strip club.”
“Why would you think I was openin’ a strip club?” he asked in disbelief.
“Because…” I shook my head. Then smacked his chest. “Never mind.” Tears sprang to my eyes.
“I thought you’d be happy.”
I swiped a tear from my cheek. “I am happy.”
Witt leaned over the counter and clapped a hand on Jed’s shoulder. “I know, dude. Who can figure out women?”
I pointed my finger in my cousin’s face. “Watch it!”
He laughed. “We haven’t even gotten to the good part. Better get some tissues.” Then Witt went back where he came from, leaving the door open behind him.
“This is really your business?” I asked as I took several steps deeper into the room, spinning around to take it in. Everything looked new and fresh, from the crisply painted beige walls to the metal chairs with red leather padded seats.
“Yeah, I wanted to do something respectable.” He paused. “For you.”
Heat filled my chest and I turned back to stare at him. “Oh, Jed… I don’t want you changin’ your life for me.”
“Don’t you get it, Neely Kate? You make me want more. You make me not want to settle. You make me think I can have the life I always dreamed.”
A lump filled my throat, so my voice sounded strained. “What did you always dream of havin’, Jed Carlisle?”
“A family. A wife. A home.”
My tears flowed down my cheeks. “You’re thirty-three years old. You could have had those things before now.”
He shook his head and came toward me, stopping when we were less than a foot apart. “I could have, but I would have been settlin’. I realized I’d been waitin’ for you.”
He kissed me again, this time more boldly. I wrapped my hands around his neck as he pulled me flush against his body, and I wondered how I could be so happy when my life was going to pot around me. But then I thought about what he’d said he wanted. A wife. A home. A family.
I pulled out of his reach. “You know I can’t have babies, Jed. I can’t give you all the things you want.”
“What are you talkin’ about?” he asked, staring at me with so much love in his eyes it took my breath away. “You’re my family, Neely Kate. You’re my home. We can adopt if we want kids. Or we’ll get a surrogate. Or maybe we won’t have any at all. But I know how much you love babies, and I aim to give you one someday, if that’s what you want. I promise.”
I burst into tears.
“Why are you cryin’?” Jed asked in a worried tone.
“You’ve made me so happy.”
“Hey!” Witt called out from the partially open door to the back. “Come see the rest of the place so I can go meet Barb Nelson.”
“I thought you made that part up,” I said, wiping my tears with the back of my hand.
“I was improvisin’, and you better not tell Granny, or I’ll tell her you threw out that racoon jerky she gave you last Christmas.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Let’s see the rest of it.”
I didn’t know the first thing about mechanic garages, but they both seemed eager to show me, so I eagerly followed.
Jed took my hand, lacing our fingers together, then led me around the counter and through the door into a three-bay garage. A car I didn’t recognize was parked inside.
“Do you have a customer already?”
“Yeah,” Jed said as he led me to a newer dark gray four-door sedan. “What do you think?”
“About having a customer?” I asked. “That’s amazing. You haven’t even opened yet.”
“You’re the customer,” Jed said. “It’s yours.”
I glanced up at him. “What are you talkin’ about?”
“I bought this car, and Witt and I got it running.”
I propped a hand on my hip. “Why wasn’t it runnin’ before?”
“Someone lifted the engine block and wheels,” Witt said with a grin. “We replaced ’em.”
Jed beamed. “We rebuilt it. I was pretty rusty on car repair, and the newer cars are a lot different than the ones I used to work on as a kid, but it’s comin’ back.”
“You two are really running this together?” I asked in awe.
“I hope you can deal with me having dirty fingernails every night,” Jed teased.
A wave of bitter disappointment washed through me, stealing my joy. Ronnie had come home every night with grease under his fingernails, and look how that turned out. But just as quickly, I pushed that thought right out of my head. Ronnie and I had been playing house. We hadn’t truly been in love. I knew I’d never loved him like I should have, and he couldn’t have loved me much to bail after finding out about my past.
“Hey.” Jed rested a hand on my upper arm. “If it bothers you so much, I can find something else.”
I shuddered in horror. “That’s ridiculous, Jed. Don’t say that. I love that you’ve figured out something that makes you happy. I would never let you change that on my account.”
“But something’s wrong.”
“Ronnie,” Witt said. “He was a mechanic. I didn’t even think about it.”
Jed’s eyes slowly widened. “Neely Kate… I never even considered…”
I reached up on my tiptoes and gave him a tender kiss. “Stop. I love your garage, and I couldn’t be more thrilled that you and Witt are doin’ this together. Ronnie doesn’t deserve one more thought in my head. When do you officially open?”
Witt shrugged. “We planned on Monday, but that doesn’t seem like a great idea with Kate on the loose.”
I gave him the side-eye. “Y’all better open, because if you don’t, then we’re letting her win. We’re not lettin’ that woman steal our joy.”
At least not yet. But in the back of my mind, I was working on a plan to protect the people I loved and keep them from getting dragged down with me.
They didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then Jed asked, “Aren’t you gonna sit in your new car?”
“I can’t accept that car.”
“Why the hell not?” Witt spat out.
“I’m not takin’ charity. And takin’ this car without payin’ for it is exactly that. Charity.”
“Oh, for the love of God!” Witt groaned. “How is it that you and I were the only two Rivers kids to get an abundance of pride?”
I gave him a wry grin. He had a point. Our other cousins were pretty much worthless.
“It’s not charity,” Jed said in frustration. “If anything, it’s selfishness on my part because it’s for my own damn peace of mind. I won’t have to worry about you so much, wonderin’ if you’re broke down on the side of the highway. And besides, it was a practice car. I did most of the work while Witt supervised.”
I put my hand on my hip and leveled my gaze. “So you’re sayin’ you’re really doin’ this for you.”
His brow rose in challenge. “Pretty much.”
“It just doesn’t seem right.” I broke our gaze and eyed the car with a bit of longing. I’d never had such a beautiful car and couldn’t help wanting to keep it, despite my protests. “It’s too big of a gift, Jed.”