Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“Slow down, I don’t want you to choke.”
I shove bits of burger and fries into my mouth and suck it all down with Diet Coke. “Driving makes me hungry.”
“I can see that.” He looks amused as he watches me go to town. “You really love it, don’t you?”
“I really, really do.” I clear my plate, barely taking a break to breathe or speak. When I’m done, I sit back with a deep, contented sigh. “Fuck, that’s good.”
“You’re a simple girl to please, Fio.”
“Take that back. I’m complex and full of mystery.”
“All you need is a burger and an expensive car to keep you happy.”
I tilt my head from side to side with a frown. “Well, yeah, when you put it that way.”
He laughs, eyes shining and happy, and I can’t help but grin back. I can’t remember the last time he looked like this. Like he was having fun without any hesitations or reservations. No worries, no problems, no murder weighing him down.
I have to admit, I like it.
He looks good, smiling at me like I’m the greatest thing he’s ever seen before.
It makes my belly feel warm.
“I have to ask, how’d you get into all this stuff?”
I shrug a little and lean back into the booth. “You know my family’s main thing is cars.”
“Right, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to love them the way you do. My family’s main thing is drugs. I don’t lose my shit over heroin.”
“Fair point.” I glance away toward the window and consider telling him everything. But that would involve reliving those awful few days, and I don’t want to ruin what’s been an incredibly good afternoon. “Something bad happened to me when I was younger. It was pretty terrible, and for a while after that, I was all kinds of messed up.”
His smile fades slightly. “You want to tell me what happened?”
I shake my head. “Doesn’t matter. That’s not really important. But like six months after it happened, my brother brought me to one of my family’s garages, and he showed me this car.” I smile again, almost smelling the interior all over again.
Leather, dirt, sweat, old flooring.
Perfection.
“What’d it look like?”
“Red, like the Spider. But it was something else. I don’t even remember the make and model anymore. That was back before I knew anything about cars. It was red and little though, probably a Jaguar or maybe a Mercedes. Raf gave me the keys and was like, ‘Want to drive it?’”
Luca’s smile is back. “How old were you?”
“Fourteen. Never driven a car before. I had no clue how. But I was so fucked up and depressed, and I just figured, why the hell not? I got behind the wheel, Raf showed me how to start it up, he explained the pedals, the steering, all that stuff, and then…” I mime the action in the air. “I put it in gear and went.”
“How’d that feel?” he asks, leaning forward.
“Terrifying. I nearly hit a fire hydrant in the first ten seconds. I went around and around in a parking lot, and after a few minutes, I started to relax. I wasn’t thinking about what happened to me. I wasn’t focusing on all the bad stuff anymore. I had something better.”
I run my hands over the linoleum tabletop, feeling that first steering wheel all over again.
“How long did you drive?”
“Hours. Seriously. Raf let me go, he didn’t say a word, just sat there and let me drive. I left the parking lot after like thirty minutes, and from there, it was like slipping my hand into a glove. I was locked in. I could go anywhere. Nobody could stop me. Nothing could get in my way. I’m always chasing that first drive. The feeling of pure freedom going straight into my veins.” I sigh, tilting my head back with a psycho grin. “It was bliss.”
“What happened after that?”
“I crashed the fucking thing.”
He barks a laugh, looking astonished. “You’re kidding me.”
“Nope, I’m serious. It was like two minutes from the garage too. I made a stupid decision and went when I should have waited, and I ended up smashing through a fence and straight into a tree. Luckily, we were going like twelve miles an hour at most, but the front end was trashed, and Raf was pissed.”
“Bet you’re still living that one down.”
“Oh, absolutely. But the best part is he forced me to learn how to fix it.”
Luca nods slowly and sits back, crossing his arms over his chest. “And that’s how you got the bug.”
“That’s how I got the bug,” I echo, nodding along. “Raf didn’t do it on purpose. I think he just wanted to punish me for being an idiot. But the second I stepped foot in that garage and started taking something broken and making it whole again, I was straight up hooked. I’ve been rebuilding cars ever since.”