How to Save a Life(75)

Evan’s pulse was steady. He was cautious, but not wound up. I decided to use his intuition as my barometer: if he were worried, I’d get worried. Until then, I’d enjoy being with him. Touching him whenever I wanted. Feeling his body next to mine.

The salvage yard was an acre-and-a-half of dented metal. Row after row of beat-up junkers sprawled under the overcast, humid sky. The smell of gasoline from a burn pit reminded me of Lee, setting my teeth on edge. A shadow of last night’s dream passed my eyes and was gone again.

Evan took my hand and we walked to the front office—a trailer near the fenced entrance. A young, twitchy-looking guy with the name Travis on his shirt rubbed his greasy, stubbly cheek in thought after Evan made his request.

“How much you say you looking to spend again?”

“As little as possible,” Evan said. “I can fix something up too. If you got the car, I can get the parts and put something together myself.”

Travis scratched behind his neck. He eyed me up and down in a way I didn’t like as he haggled with Evan. At last he offered a twenty-five-year-old hatchback. It was missing a timing belt, needed new spark plugs, a new alternator, plus a bunch of other issues that made it sound like a corpse and Evan would have to be Dr. Frankenstein to get it off the slab.

“I can let it go for four hundred bucks,” Travis said. “Parts would be another hundred or so from Mike’s place up the road. But tell him I sent you and he’ll give you a deal. You can do the repairs here.”

Five hundred dollars sounded like too much to me, but Evan shook hands with Travis, deal done. An hour later, I was sitting on an overturned bucket in the salvage yard, watching Evan try to work a miracle on the car. It must have gleamed white once. Now it sulked a yellowish pale grey. I showed it some mercy and dubbed it Snowball.

I watched Evan work on the car, admiring how the muscles in his arms worked to lift, twist, and screw in bolts. He reached back to wipe his hands on the grease rag he kept tucked into his back pocket, which drew my attention to his ass.

Evan Salinger had a seriously fine ass.

“See something you like?” he said, grinning, without looking up from his work.

“Several things,” I said. “Are we almost done here? I feel like we’ve spent too much time in one place.”

“Almost done.”

I squinted at the skies, trying to guess the time. Two o’clock or so. I had no way to confirm since I’d dropped Evan’s watch in a river. Evan seemed to be in no particular hurry. Nor was he concerned that our escape fund was down to three hundred bucks.

“Where to next?” I asked. “We’ve got Snowball, a beautiful piece of automotive engineering, but now we’ve got a cash flow problem.”

“I think we’ll be okay,” Evan said, and grunted as some bolt or screw gave him a hard time.

“Less than three hundred bucks.” I chewed my thumbnail. “How many days can we make it on that? Are we going to Thelma and Louise it? Start holding up liquor stores?”

“I’m not a thief and neither are you.”

“That’s a non-answer if I ever heard one.”

He emerged from under the hood. “We’ll be okay,” he said again. “And if not, we can always make a few bucks freelancing at a strip club.”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m a terrible pole dancer.”

He slammed the hood down. “I beg to differ.”

I groaned. “Cute.”

Evan chuckled and tossed me the car key. “Give her a try.”

The hatchback smelled like cigarette butts and dog hair. I turned the key and the engine sputtered to life.

“It’s alive!”

Evan leaned on the window frame with a satisfied smile.

“You’re pretty handy,” I said, getting out so he could take the wheel. I was honestly impressed this piece of shit car was jugging away. “I think you have a future as an auto mechanic.”

“I’m a mechanic in this life. A firefighter in the next.”

“What does that mean?”

Evan hooked an arm around my shoulders. “You’re calling her Snowball?” He studied the little white car. “Ironic. I’ll be shocked if she can hit fifty without overheating.”

“Damn, you got it running,” Travis said from behind us. I untucked my hair from behind my ear and let it cover my cheek before I turned around.

“She’s running,” Evan said.

“Maybe I gave it to you too cheap.” Travis wore a fixed smile. His expression reminded me of a weasel or an opossum. I itched to get out of there as fast as possible.

Evan extended his hand. “Thanks again. And for the use of your yard. I appreciate it, man.”

“Sure, sure, no problem,” Travis said keeping his hands jammed in front of his pockets. “You’re on your way then? Where you headed?”

“Here and there,” Evan said flatly. He nodded his head at me and flicked it toward the passenger door. I was halfway there. “Take care, now.”

We drove off the lot with Evan watching the rearview mirror almost as much as he did the windshield.

I kept an eye on my side mirror. “Do you think he knows?”

“I don’t know. I think he’s mostly pissed he sold the car for cheap. But he got a little curious at the end.”