“Really?” She looked alarmed. “I don’t want you—”
“It might take minutes,” I cut her off, shrugging.
She tossed me a flirty smile, one hand on her narrow hip. “Are you sure you’re up for the challenge?”
“Ah, sweetheart. You have no idea.”
Biting her bottom lip, her eyes sparkling, she ran a hand down the side of her neck. She knew exactly what she was doing to me. “Fair enough. What’s it going to cost me?”
“It’s going to cost you two things.” I tapped my fingers against the hood of the car and waited for her response.
“Two things?” She sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes for effect. “Well, my options seem pretty limited, so let’s hear it.”
“The first thing is your name. Only seems fair that I know whose car I’m fixin.’”
The gorgeous girl in front of me cocked her head to the side. She was smarter than I gave her credit for. I knew she was attracted to me and I knew she’d give me her name, but she was smart enough to consider it first.
“Kari Stanley,” she said finally.
“Alright, Kari Stanley. The second thing you need to do before I fix your car is say yes.”
“Say yes?”
“Say yes to having dinner with me tonight. I think that’s totally fair. If I get this fixed, the least you can do is share a meal with me.”
She pretended to consider my proposal, her tongue darting out to lick her bottom lip.
“How do I know you’re not a serial killer?” she asked playfully.
I grinned mischievously. “I never said I didn’t bite.”
Her jaw dropped. She started to speak but nothing came out but another laugh.
“But I promise you’d like it if I did.” I narrowed my eyes, fighting the grin on my face, too.
She looked shocked for a split second and then regained her composure, trying to play it cool. “Okay. If you can get this started, I’ll go to dinner with you. But I have to say—I’m a little disappointed in your creativity. For some reason, I expected you to want more than a meal.”
I tossed her the keys and a wink. “Don’t be. You don’t know what all dinner entails.”
She caught her key ring with a grin. “Fair enough.”
“It’ll be better than fair, I promise. Now quit wastin’ time and use those,” I said, nodding to the keys in the palm of her hand.
“What do you want me to do with them?”
“I want you to start the car.”
She stared at me blankly. “What part of ‘this car doesn’t start’ don’t you understand?”
“What part of ‘start the damn car’ don’t you understand?”
She eyed me curiously before climbing into the driver’s seat. A look of disbelief crossed her face as the engine roared to life. “What the . . .”
I shut the hood of her car.
“Meet me at Maisano’s on Scottsdale Road at six, sweetheart.”
“Wait. How did you . . .”
I laughed, starting towards my truck. “Maisano’s at six—be there.”
KARI
Approximately one and a half years later
The box Jada handed me felt light in my hands. It jingled as I turned it over, the contents clamoring inside. It was the size of a shoebox but held enough memories to fill a Mack truck.
A sharp pain tore through my chest at the realization that my secrets had been in someone else’s hands.
I looked up at my sister. Jada’s long brown hair was in a knot at the top of her head, her round cheeks pink. She looked a lot like me, only my hair was a lighter shade of brown and falling across my shoulders. Our noses were identical, our eyes a bright shade of green. We had our mother’s dark complexion, although Jada was much more like her than me.
My eyes settled on her growing belly.
And, right now, she’s a lot more like Mom than I’ll ever be.
“Did you look inside?” I tried to keep my voice even. The thought of her possibly knowing the items buried at the bottom of the box made me queasy.
At one time in our lives, I would have told her my secrets. I needed to tell her. But she was dealing with her then-husband Decker at that point and didn’t need any more stress. When I called her that day to tell her what was going on and she was already crying, I choked. I masked the pain from my voice and worked her through her problem.
Sadly, even to me, that was something I was pretty good at. It was a coping mechanism I’d learned at a young age. Things were sometimes easier to deal with if you just kept them to yourself.