“Fuck off.” Dare pushed away from me and picked up his beer again.
“What, are you going to go to the next town over and find another job where you’re working with a bunch of punk kids who don’t know the difference between a Ford and a Hyundai?”
He finished his beer and shot the bottle into the recycling bin so hard the bottle shattered. “Dammit.”
“Dare, we can do this. I already went to the bank with my business plan.”
“What?” He turned started eyes on me.
“Yeah. I’m serious about this. It’s not just an idea. I’ve been researching machines. For fuck’s sake, I bought a house.” My voice exploded.
“Where?”
“On the lake. A big house that I can grow into with Rylee.”
“Does she know this?”
“I’m trying like hell to convince her, man. Or I will be soon. I’m not sure what I have to do to convince you people that I’m not going any-damn-where. I’m home, man. I want Crescent Cove to be where I raise my kids. I want my li
ttle girl or boy to grow up with his cousins and make friends. I want him safe, here in this small freaking town.”
Dare’s winter blue eyes were wide and for the first time, doubt wasn’t hanging over his damn head. “You’re serious.”
I stalked away from him. “Would you like a kidney? The deed to my new house to prove it? What do you fucking need?”
Dare was silent. He took a bottle of water from the cooler and moved back to the car.
The silence stretched for damn near five minutes before he spoke again.
“I have some conditions.”
I tipped my head back, my throat clogging with emotion. “Yeah, like what?”
“We don’t just do the specialty cars. We gotta take care of the town too.”
I groaned. “So boring.”
“You say you want the small town life. Well, guess what? Small town is affordable cars that need to be serviced too. Once JT’s is closed, people won’t have a place to go. Except for the corporate rip-off places. I won’t stand for that.”
I sighed and nodded. “You’ve got a point.”
“If we’re doing this, we gotta take care of our own.”
Dare’s face was impassive as he stood beside the car. My responsible, stable brother had a point. I was so set on the future, on the fun, that I didn’t think about the responsible side of things. Things I still needed to learn, evidently.
And about the people who owned the cars. People were always most important.
“You have to tell Tish about that part.”
Dare grunted. “You’re still a punk.”
I grinned. “Yeah, well, I didn’t say I’d totally changed.” I crossed to him and dragged him in for a hard hug. “Hot damn, we’re doing this.”
Dare hugged me back with a hearty slap. “I guess we are.”
“Wait till I tell Ry. She’s going to flip.” I dug out my phone to text her that I had big news. I paused. “Maybe a surprise is in order.”
“You sure about that? In my experience, girls really aren’t a big fan of surprises.”