Page 18 of Tandem

“Dad’s about to close the meet, so we need to head out. Come on, Rosalie. Thanks, man, for making sure she didn’t get hurt, but I got it from here.” Jayden stared AJ down, waiting for him to move.

AJ chuckled again but released his grip, letting his fingertips trace along my shoulders and touch the back of my neck before dropping his hand altogether.

“Better go before you get in more trouble, baby girl. I’ll catch you around.” AJ winked at me and turned, throwing his hoodie up onto his cap and tucking his hands into the front pocket. Then he walked off into the shadows.

I turned and started to walk back toward our cars with Jayden. His voice flowed back to me, clearly annoyed by what had just happened. “You shouldn’t hang around guys like that, Rosalie. He’s bad news.”

I peered back behind me one last time to see if I could see him at all, but he had faded into the darkness so easily. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, he was fine. You didn’t have to be so rude to him.”

Jayden stopped and grabbed my arm firmly as I tried to walk past him. “Rosalie, don’t try to make friends with him. He’s got a reputation for not doing the best things, and we don’t need that around us.”

I looked down at where Jayden was holding on to me and then back at him. He had such a serious look on his face, especially in his eyes. But anytime I showed interest in anotherguy when we were in school, Jayden would go talk to him, and the guy would glance over. They would laugh together before he walked off. I didn’t know exactly what he told people, but it always resulted in not dating anyone, really.

“Look, I didn’t! I fell, and he helped me. That’s all, Jayden. You’re looking too much into this.” Pulling my arm from his hand, I jogged off to my car, where Dad and Hank Sr. were talking with Hank Jr.

“Hey, Dad!” I called, then threw my arms around him in a big hug, squeezing him tight.

“Hey, hun, we’re about to leave for the night. Are you sticking around here or heading home as well?” Dad asked as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder and rocked me back and forth, hugging me back.

“I know! Don’t worry, I’ll be heading home too. We’ve got work tomorrow.” Dad laughed at my enthusiasm, and we all walked to our cars, starting them up and hearing all of their cars roar to life, their engine sounds echoing around the meet along with mine.

“Gosh, I love this so much. Everything is perfect right now,” I whispered as I put my car in drive. We drove home, doing mini pulls on the streets along the way—well, Dad and I did anyway. Jayden just cruised behind us as usual. How my brother didn’t love cars and car stuff like Dad and I did, I’d never know.

“Rosalie! Last client of the day just needs a rim respray!” Dad’s voice carried across the shop the next day to where I was getting some things in order in the paint lab.

“Okaaaay!” I yelled back and set my brushes down, walking out to him. He had a stack of rims sitting on a dolly. I leaned it back and carefully rolled it into the paint lab, hooking them onto their holders and looking at the ticket, which told me the color they were supposed to become. “Ewww… Hot pink, really?” I whispered to myself. Then I went and got the colors mixed and ready to coat.

Spraying cars had become my life. Other girls my age were going off to college and partying, but not me. Hearing the compressor air release as I fired it up and watching the first bursts of colors hit the piece I was working on from the sprayer nozzle made my heart pound. It was euphoric to my mind as I got lost in the movements with each stroke. Seeing something go from dull and normal to making people’s dreams come to life was always worth the work put into creating it. After I was satisfied with the coating, I hit the dry setting in the paint lab and walked out. Seeing Reece cleaning and organizing the shop at the end of the night, I handed it off to him and waved as I walked out of the shop, ready to go home and take a hot shower.

“Hey there, pretty girl, what’s your hurry?”

I froze just feet from my car.It's him.

I quickly turned again, but this time, he wasn’t right behind me. I took him in, his hoodie up onto his ball cap, arms tucked in his hoodie pocket, legs crossed at the ankles. He looked like he could have relaxed so much standing up that he could’ve fallen asleep there as he leaned against the wall of Kayden’s Customs. Except for his eyes, those were anything but relaxed as they raked up and down my body again.Holy crap, what do I say?! What should I do?!My mind was racing again as he pushed himself off the wall with his muscular shoulders and walked over, stopping a foot in front of me.

“U-uh, hi!” I stuttered out. He smirked at me.

“We got interrupted last night before I could get your number, girl, so I asked around and got told you worked here, so here I am.” His eyes raked over my body slowly before coming to a stop on my face, and my breath caught in my throat. He wanted to ask about me?

I tucked my hair behind my left ear, looking down. “I-I’m sorry, my brother can be so lame sometimes. But… you really wanted my number?” This couldn’t be happening, like, no one had ever asked me for my number like this before. I looked back up at him, and my heart fluttered in my chest.

He held his hand out with an open palm toward me. “Phone.”

Not a question. Got it. I fumbled in my pockets to pull it out and handed it to him, making sure to put my password in before I did. He swiped to the contacts and put in his number, then sent himself a text, pulled his phone out, and chuckled while handing me back mine. I glanced at the message and saw the eggplant emoji sent from my phone to his and his reply with the little smirking emoji.

“Now I got yours as well. So what do you say, let me take you out tonight?”

Blushing, I shook my head no. “I’m sorry, I have other plans tonight already.”Liessss.He raised an eyebrow but didn’t push it.

“The weekend, then. Saturday, 3 p.m. I’ll pick you up. Send me your address.” He turned and walked smoothly over to this beautiful Lincoln Continental lowrider and slid in. His eyes locked with mine again and he let out a soft chuckle before driving away down the alleyway. I just stood there in shock. I’d never had a guy be so direct before. Pretty sure my mouth hadn’t fully closed in the past ten minutes since my throat felt dry and scratchy now.

“Did that just happen?” I pinched myself and felt a slight pain. “Ouch, yup, not dreaming.” Opening my car door, I hoppedinside. The entire drive home, and even the warm shower, was a blur, my thoughts replaying every detail of him asking for my number over and over again. I sat on my bed before staring at my phone again, at the message from him, for probably the fiftieth time to make sure it was still there. I should probably try to sleep, but I felt wide awake. I clicked the number to edit the info and changed the contact to his name. “AJ,” I whispered softly. His name was sexy, too. Staring at it again, I giggled as I fell backward onto the pillows piled up behind me and dropped it onto my chest, covering my eyes with my hands.

Knock knock!I peered over at my door. “Oh, come in!” I sat up and pushed my phone to the side, locking the screen on it.

My door slowly opened, and Dad poked his head around the side with a smile. “Hey, hun, just letting you know your mom and I will be taking a little last-minute vacation this weekend up to Morro Bay, so I’ll be closing the customs at noon on Friday, and we won’t reopen until Monday afternoon.”

The smile that was already on my face got a little bigger, and I nodded excitedly. “Okay, that works. I have plans on Saturday and was going to ask to leave early that day anyway.”