1. Brayden

Chapter 1

Brayden

Wednesdays were the worst. Mondays and Tuesdays were always busy with all the cars that broke down over the weekend. Thursdays and Fridays were full of cars that needed to be tuned up for road trips over the weekend.

But Wednesdays were generally slow. Just a few oil changes or random maintenance jobs ever came in.

Today was no exception.

There was one car waiting for me when I got in. And then Max asked me to help him install a windshield on a car he was rebuilding. But now, I was basically organizing tools and taking inventory of supplies we needed to either grab from the back or order from our suppliers.

All of which were my least favorite things to do. I wasn’t really the “organizing stuff” type.

I was more of a play with toys, leave them scattered all over the place, and hope some kind soul behind me would clean them all up. At work, that kind soul was usually Max. He wasn’t the organizing type either, but he did like to have everything in its place at the end of the day. And after a couple days of me leaving a mess at my station, it usually drove him to the point that he had to take care of my station too.

I loved that boy.

I was about to go ask the boss if anything needed to be done in the office when the rumble of an old muscle car caught my attention. Like any car guy worth his salt, I stopped what I was doing and stared at the driveway until a bright orange ‘69 Plymouth Road Runner rolled in.

Fuck, she looks good.

Max slid out from under the car he had been working on and stood next to me. As the engine turned off, he let out a low whistle and shook his head. “Let me know if you need any help on that one. I wouldn’t mind taking her out for a test drive later.”

We just watched in awe as Jordan came out from the office to meet up with the new customer.

A silver fox with a nice build and dark sunglasses got out of the car and walked into the lobby with Jordan.

Max and I tried to be subtle, but our attention was torn between the sexy car and the even sexier driver. Max sighed and took a step back. “Good luck with that one. And don’t leave a smudge of grease on the paint like you did on that Nova last week.”

I smacked at his arm and chuckled as he walked away. In my defense, that smudge was from my knee after rubbing on the tire, and it was barely noticable. More of a speck, really.

A few minutes later, Jordan and the customer walked into the garage with a work order. “All right, Brayden. You get the pleasure of working on Mr. Rosemont’s baby out there.”

The man slipped off his sunglasses and cocked his head as he got a better look at me. “Brayden?”

My jaw dropped as I recognized the woodshop teacher from my senior year of high school. “Mr. Rosemont? Wow, that’s your car?”

He grinned with pride. “Yeah, been working on her for a while. She’s mostly done, but I’m hearing some knocking and can’t figure out why. I’m guessing her timing’s off, but I’m not working at the school anymore, so I don’t have access to all the auto shop equipment there.”

That was a surprise. “Oh, I thought you’d be there forever.”

Before we could get too far down memory lane, Jordan shoved the paperwork at my chest. “Well, don’t you worry, Mr. Rosemont. She’s in excellent hands with Brayden. We’ll get the diagnostic done within the hour, and Brayden will call you with the estimate.”

Mr. Rosemont held my stare for a long moment before he cleared his throat and looked away. “Yeah, no rush. I’ve got a car coming to pick me up, and I have an old commuter car I can drive for a few days if I need to leave it.”

“Okay, I’ll call you as soon as I know what needs to be done.” I tried to come off as casual, but I wasn’t sure I sold it as I continued to stare at him.

“Thanks, Brayden.” He grinned and dropped his glasses back into place. “I’ll be waiting for your call.”

My eyes didn’t stray from his ass as he walked to the corner to meet his rideshare.

At least not until Jordan interrupted my little fantasy. “All right then, kid.” Jordan gave my shoulder a nudge. “Roll up that tongue and get to work.” He handed me the keys and turned back toward his office.

I was practically giddy. “Sure thing, boss. This is gonna be fun.”

And it was. I hadn’t driven a manual transmission in a while, and I was surprised Mr. Rosemont hadn’t switched it to automatic during the rebuild. Then again, I shouldn’t have been surprised at all. I wouldn’t have done that conversion if it were my car.

Over the next hour, I ran all the standard diagnostics and a few extras. He did a great job restoring it, but it had obviously taken a while from start to finish because some parts that looked to be brand-new were already starting to crack from age and exposure, so I made a note to get all those replaced.

Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it—we had all the parts in stock. After a very brief call to get his approval for the repairs, I finished up Mr. Rosemont’s car by the end of the day.

At least I had a new fantasy to add to my spank bank.

Ethan Rosemont wasn’t some kid just out of school when he was my teacher. He was probably in his mid-thirties at the time, which probably put him in his early forties now.

Although, the streaks of silver in his hair hinted at maybe a few years older than that. Then again, some people just grayed earlier than others. Whatever age he was, he was fucking hot.

I looked down at the work order in my hand as I waited for him to get dropped off by his rideshare and sighed. Maybe I should have dragged out the project a few more days just to keep the dream of seeing him again going a little longer.

In a moment of weakness, I hinted to Jordan that I’d be willing to drive the car to Mr. Rosemont’s house to drop it off for him, hoping maybe he would offer me a ride home after that. But Jordan just rolled his eyes and made it clear that was not an option.

He was no fun at all—at least not when it came to letting me stalk our customers.

Max finished up everything in his station and came to my side. “Are you waiting for your new Daddy?”

I smiled and wanted to laugh as if it were a joke, but instead, what came out of me was more like a whimper. “I wish. I had the biggest crush on Mr. Rosemont in high school. If he had hinted in any possible way that he was gay and interested in me, I would’ve begged for him to kiss me on the day I turned eighteen.” I blew a raspberry with my lips and crossed my arms dramatically over my chest. “But he wasn’t… And isn’t. Clearly.” I turned to Max and waggled my eyebrows. “But I got to drive his car.”

He looked at her with green in his eyes. “Yeah, I should’ve taken you up on the offer earlier. Now I’ll never know what a ‘69 Road Runner feels like.”

Before we could lament any further, a compact car stopped at the end of the driveway and Mr. Rosemont stepped out.

Max pulled his keys out of his pocket and started walking away. “See you tomorrow.”

“Tell Daddy James I said hi.”

He waved over his shoulder and kept going.

“Daddy James?”

I jumped, startled that Mr. Rosemont was right beside me and heard what I just said. “Oh, um. That’s just a nickname we use for Max’s boyfriend.”

“Is it?” He cocked his head and looked at me for a moment before he blew out a breath. “Thank you for working on my car, Brayden.”

“Yeah, of course.” The way he said my name vibrated through me, shooting down my spine and pinging my dick until it was inappropriately hard. I dug his key out of my pocket and took the opportunity to casually adjust myself. “Jordan took care of the payment, so you’re all set. If you have any other problems or any questions, you know where to find me.”

He nodded as he accepted the key and summary paperwork.

It was on the tip of my tongue to offer him my number, but that would’ve been over the line. Not to mention embarrassing when he declined to take it. He had the number for the shop, and that was good enough. “Thank you, Brayden. It was good to see you.”

“It was good to see you too, Mr. Rosemont. And your car really is beautiful.”

He turned to his baby and smiled. “Thank you. And…it’s Ethan. You can call me that now.”

I swallowed hard as if that meant more than it actually did. “Okay, Ethan. Have a good night.”