“I mean, I get wanting to be your own boss. I’m my own boss two months out of the year. Well. Angelica is the boss, but at least she listens to what I say. Sometimes. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
Every time he thought he had an opening to ask what she did when she wasn’t chasing tornados, she turned the subject back to him. Did she not want to tell him? Or did she just not think he’d be interested?
“I don’t. Only child. Always wanted siblings, but it’s for the best I didn’t have any, I guess.” He thought about the pain Con had gone through when he lost his sister. Javi couldn’t imagine that pain that had not only scarred Con, but damaged his relationship with his father, who blamed Con for not saving Claudia from the bus. Javi didn’t want his thoughts to go down that path, so he turned the conversation back to her. “So tell me some of your storm chasing adventures.”
“Oh, well, I can do that,” she said, and he settled back to listen to her stories on the drive to San Angelo.
CHAPTER4
He beat the time on the GPS by seven minutes, and had barely parked the truck before Espy hopped out of the truck and bolted toward the doors. The man behind the counter straightened when she charged straight toward him.
“You have a water pump on hold for Esperanza Villegas?” When the man looked perplexed, she turned back to Javi, who was just coming in the door. “For Javier Saldivar?“
“For Tommy from Broken Wheel?” another employee asked, stepping out from the rows and rows of parts. “For a touring van?”
“That’s the one,” Espy said with a nod. “And you have a thermostat?”
The first man still looked blank.
“When you change the water pump, you should replace the thermostat, too. Do you have one on hand?”
“I mean, I guess, but Tommy didn’t ask for that.”
“It’s my van. I’m asking for it. Tommy can replace it at the same time, right?” She knew the answer already, but still waited for the men to nod, and the second man disappeared into the stacks presumably to get her part.
“How did you know that?” Javi asked, folding his arms and leaning on the counter as they waited.
“I told you my dad and I worked on cars when I was younger. He taught me a lot, but no way could I repair it as quickly as a mechanic.”
“Hm,” Javi said, and she made note of the respect in his eyes.
She paid for the parts and they walked out just ahead of the first employee who locked the doors behind them.
“Well,” she said with a laugh. “I guess we’re done there, then. Thanks for getting us here so fast.”
“No problem.”
“Did you…want to get something to eat while we’re here?” She gestured to the chain restaurant at the other end of the shopping center that appeared to still be open.
He shook his head. “I have food back at The Wheel House. Hailey will hold it for me.” Then he hesitated. “Unless you’re hungry.”
She was, but she wasn’t going to take up any more of his time if he wanted to get home.
Which he obviously did.
Once they were back in the truck, she’d text Angelica to pick up something from The Wheel House for her, and take it back to the motel.
“So how long have you been doing the keto thing?” she asked once they were back on the road to Broken Wheel.
He glanced over at her, and she wondered how intrusive her question had been. She’d tried all kinds of diets before, and just didn’t have the discipline to stick to any of them, especially when they were out on the road. And keto—she didn’t think she’d be able to give up potatoes. Sugar would be hard, flour would be hard, but potatoes might be impossible.
“I started losing weight after my junior year. Just cut out a few things here and there. Desserts, between meal snacks, tortillas. My mom could not understand that one, and that was probably harder to give up than all the sugar in the world. My mom makes the best tortillas.” He grinned as he said it. “Once I was able to exercise without breathing hard, I started running. Wasn’t easy, because in the neighborhood where we lived, the roads weren’t kept up very well, and there’s not like a park or anything, and the track at the elementary school is locked up at night, and honestly, back then, it wasn’t kept up very well, either. But I was determined. And then when I went to college, up here in town, most of my friends were gaining weight but I was losing. I had access to the track and to the gym. I worked up here, too, so I’d have time to kill between classes and work before I drove home.”
She goggled at him. “You made this drive every day?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, but for the first few years I stacked my classes so I only had to come up three days a week, well, and one day on the weekend to work, but my bosses were pretty good about scheduling me. Couldn’t afford to live up here then.”
“You must be a pretty determined person to stick with it, though.”
