I waited while he listened to the other part of the conversation. “Well of course I would take her home, rocket scientist, but she’s got an interview in Chandler and I can’t postpone the Tucson thing…. Well alright then. I’ll tell her.”
He hung up and immediately started dialing. I was trying to figure out what was going on, when he started up his next call. “Yeah, buzzard, it’s me. I need you to send one of the sleds out here to 89, ‘bout 20 miles out. Got a friend with a bum Olds we need to take into the shop…. Nah, I’ll leave the keys. Thanks!”
He was wiping his hands on the towel and closing up my hood and I just couldn’t take the waiting any more.
“So, what was that all about?” I sounded sheepish, and desperate.
“Oh, ha! Sorry,” he laughed. “Reed will be here in about 20 minutes. If you can call that appointment of yours and tell them you’ll only be a few minutes late that should do it. I’ll have my guys pull it in. Don’t worry about having to get it, I’ll get one of them to bring it back up from Tucson.”
“Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!” I said, reaching for his hand and shaking it over and over and over. He stopped me and put an arm around me, trying to calm me down with his giant, warm hug.
“Sugar, really, stop your worrying,” he said. “You’re good to my son. That’s enough for me to know you’re good people.”
I dialed the pool while Buck took my keys and readied the car for his crew. I was able to buy myself another 20 minutes or so and was relieved until I was hit with an instant wave of panic. “Buck, I can’t pay for this!” I knew it sounded stupid and ungrateful, but I really couldn’t. My dad would kill me if I came home with a bill for thousands of dollars in car repairs.
“Girl, you worry too much. I said don’t worry about it,” he said, patting me on the back.
“Oh, I don’t know. That’s really nice, I don’t think I can accept that…”
Buck interrupted me. “Nolan, do you know how much money I’m worth?”
I was a bit dumbfounded. I just shook my head no.
“Well, let’s just say that I could spend an entire year picking up stranded motorists and fixing their car for free and it wouldn’t even make a dent in my bottom line,” he grinned and nodded for me to understand.
“Oh,” I said, shrugging.
“OK then, get your stuff ready, Reed should be here any minute,” he said, climbing back into his truck. “You don’t be a stranger this summer, now, you hear?”
“Yes, sir,” I said, saluting him.
I waited only a few minutes before I saw Reed’s Jeep coming closer in my rear view mirror. I hopped out with my purse and small duffle bag of stuff and put a thumb out to the side, pretending to hitchhike. He cruised up to the side of the road slowly and rolled his window down to let out a dragged out whistle. I blushed and laughed a little.
“Where you headed, hot stuff,” he said, pulling his sunglasses down to the tip of his nose. Even feigning to be a backwoods pervert he was still the cutest boy I’d ever seen.
I opened his passenger door and slid in the seat.
“Thanks for coming to get me; I’m so sorry your dad woke you up,” I said, looking him over. His hair was disheveled and twisted in all directions. He had a torn T-shirt on and long basketball shorts and Nike flip flops.
“Nah, no worries. I don’t need to sleep my day away. He’s right,” he said, flipping his sunglasses back on his face. “You wanna wait for the tow to get here for your car?”
“Ohhhh nooo. Trust me, no one is ever going to steal that car. Ever,” I said wryly.
Reed nodded and pulled back on to the road. He flipped his stereo channels a few times settling on some rap song I didn’t recognize. We finished our climb through the mountains and I could see the cityscape off in the distance. I was struggling to find something to say while we rode most of the way in silence. At least a dozen times I opened my mouth and closed it again, staring back out my window. While Reed and I were gelling, we hadn’t really spent much time alone. Truly, we have never been alone for long. And the anxiety of this situation was setting in and my stomach felt like it might soon flip out my throat and land in my lap.
“So, summer job, huh?” he said, looking at me for a second or two. His words startled me I was so lost in my own neurotic head.
“Oh, uh… yeah,” I nodded. Silence was starting to settle in again. I had to fill it. Talk, Nolan. Talk. “I just want some extra cash, you know? I want to be a little more independent. Buy my own gas, maybe get a phone that isn’t some off brand that no one’s ever heard of,” I joked.