Blindness(32)

Cody walks slowly around the front of the truck, sliding his hand along the hood as he does. His limp is more pronounced, and I can tell he’s hurting. I must be making a face of concern, because he smiles big, unusually so, when he gets in next to me.

“Everything okay?” he asks.

I nod once and smile.

“Good,” he says, patting his hand once on my knee. Even through my jeans, I can feel the warmth of his touch. While we drive the few miles to his shop, I keep looking at the place where his hand was on my leg, thinking about how high he was on my thigh. Was he above the “friendship” zone? I snicker to myself over my own girlish ridiculousness before Cody catches me and raises an eyebrow. Thankfully, we’re close to his shop, and my embarrassment is short-lived.

I see the old tire sign first, peering out from some trees along a neighborhood road. The place looks straight from the fifties—with hints of neon and glass-paned roll-up garage bays. The building’s weathered, beat-up, and could use a lot of attention—some paint, for sure—but the bones are special. I get why Cody’s fighting so hard to keep this place alive, but even if I didn’t know the backstory, I’d hate to see a place like this close.

The side of the building has painted signage boasting Jake’s Brakes, Oil & Lube. There’s an old, cream-colored car nestled up next to the bathrooms, and it looks like it’s been parked there for a decade, the grass around it almost as tall as the windows.

“Whose is that?” I ask as we pull up in front of one of the bays.

Cody shuts off the engine and closes his hand around his keys before putting both of his arms on top of his steering wheel. Leaning forward, he hesitates before his mouth slides into a smile. It’s a new kind of smile on him—this one is definitely affection.

“That was my dad’s, too. It was his project car. She runs—barely—but I’d like to get her in working condition,” Cody says, looking back at me with a flash of pride in his eyes. I find myself a little taken in by his eyes, so I smile back and just drop my gaze from his before getting out of the truck.

Cody isn’t far behind me. We walk up to the large garage door in front of us, and he pounds on it three times. In a few seconds, it starts to slide open. I recognize Gabe’s dirty boots immediately, and I’m genuinely excited to see him.

“Hey, look who’s here!” Gabe says, turning to Cody, raising his eyebrows before reaching for me and bringing me into an unexpected hug. I wrap my arms around him, while he squeezes me hard, lifting my feet off the ground. Once I’m back down, I move back to look him in the face.

“Hey, Gabe. Thought I’d tag along today. Cody’s going to tutor me later. I hope…I hope that’s okay?” I say, worried now that I might be interrupting their work or other plans.

“Charlie girl, you’re welcome here anytime,” Gabe says, winking at me while he turns to head back into the shop. I notice Cody grab one of the hand towels and snap it at him, grimacing and lowering his brow in warning.

There’s a table near the back with a few stools by it, so I move over there and slide onto one of the seats, dumping my bag and portfolio on top. Gabe follows me and starts looking through my stuff almost immediately. Out of instinct, I reach for my portfolio, but I’m too slow; he grabs it from my reach and starts flipping through my drawings in front of me.

I’m uncomfortable showing these to others—they never feel ready. I know Cody’s seen them, but he’s really the only person other than my professor. Cody looks over his shoulder, and I notice him smile with half his mouth when he sees what Gabe’s looking at.

“Dude, I told you she was good,” Cody says, turning to raise the hood of the only car in the shop. I bite my lip, but can’t hide the smile that sneaks up on my face at the thought of Cody talking about me to Gabe. When I look back at Gabe, he’s smiling at me, too, and then he winks. Realizing I’ve been caught, I quickly look to the side.

Desperate to get the attention away from me, I start looking around the shop for something—anything—to talk about. Then I see Cody’s chair sitting in the corner. I waver back and forth on whether or not to bring it up, but curiosity finally wins out.

“Hey, I noticed you haven’t been using your chair lately?” I let my question linger. Gabe turns to look at Cody, but he’s busy taking the cap off of something and staring at the exposed engine in front of him, clearly not wanting to respond. Then Gabe turns to me with a wide smile.

“Yeah, it’s strange. But for some reason, this last month, my boy here’s been going to rehab every morning,” Gabe says, his voice clearly in tease mode now. “Something…or maybe someone…seems to have him motivated.”

The cap flies from Cody’s hand in a flash and hits Gabe squarely in the forehead without Cody even looking. “Shut your mouth, asshat,” he says, squatting down and sliding himself underneath the car.

Gabe looks at me with a wide smile, almost proud that he got under Cody’s skin. The two of them act like kid brothers, and seeing them together makes me realize how un-brotherly Cody and Trevor are.

Gabe slides my portfolio back to me and joins Cody under the car. I take advantage of this time to check my phone for messages. My message screen is blank, which means Trevor’s either still asleep or got called in to work. I sigh, noticeably, and then look to the side to see Cody’s face. He’s slid partway from under the car and is looking at me, intently.