My Casey

She hated waiting around.

This was why you ordered stuff off the internet, so you didn’t have to wait in long lines.

Humming to herself, she tried to think of everything that could be going right for her, and so far, she had nothing.

Her car was dead.

Her career in the toilet.

Not married.

No kids.

The list just seemed to go on and on.

She heard the sound of a car approaching, and as she looked, she couldn’t help but groan. She remembered the tow truck, owned by none other than the Locke Family. Great, just great.

She and Daniel Locke, or Rusty as a lot of people called him, didn’t exactly get along well.

They didn’t have a problem with each other, just so long as they ignored one another, stayed out of each other’s way, and just pretended not to ever know one another.

With her hands on her hips, she stood away from the car as the tow truck finally came to a stop.

The door opened.

And for the first time in eight years, she saw Daniel.

He had changed a lot. He’d always been a huge guy, large, muscular, sexy, but now, his body had filled out, and he was all man.

Licking her suddenly dry lips, she tried to think of a really good reason as to why she was staring at him as if he was some kind of eye candy.

“Well, well, well, look who it is. Casey Jones is right in front of me,” Rusty said.

“Hey, you,” she said.

“Your dad called. He was on a date with your mom.”

“They were on a date on the day I was due to arrive back home?”

“Yep. You got a problem with that, take it up with them. I’ve got my orders,” he said. “You need a tow truck.”

“I do. Yes, I do.” She rubbed the back of her head, and then hoped he didn’t think she had lice.

What the hell am I doing?

“I don’t know what the damage is. He just died.”

“He?”

“I’m a woman, so my car is a he.”

“Cute.”

She pressed her lips together and refused to even justify anything with a comeback. She didn’t have to tell anyone why she named her car.

“Do you think you can have a look? See what is going on around in there?” she asked.

There was no way the beast would just die on her. There had to be a cause.

“That’s what I do, honey,” he said.

****

When Rusty got the call to come and pick up little Casey Jones, his first thought had been to turn it down. He hadn’t seen her in years, eight to be exact, and well, he didn’t know what to do if he saw her again after all this time.

“Thanks, Daniel, I appreciate it.”

Everyone in town called him Rusty. It was the name given to him as a little boy because he was always playing in the rusty old trucks his dad kept out back. He liked to collect damaged cars and try to put them back together again. However, his father was such a damn fine mechanic, he never got the time, so most of the time, the damaged cars just rusted away to nothing, and that was where he always went to play and hang out.

“For now, I think it’ll be best if I tow this to the shop, and then I’ll take a look at it.”

“Can’t you just take a look at it now?” she asked. “Please?”

He chuckled. “Your car just died. I’d say it’s the engine, and I don’t have anything with me to look underneath. Your parents are waiting for you, and I don’t want to disappoint them, so how about we get this towed, and I can drop you off at your house? How does that sound?”

“It sounds like a plan, obviously. I just don’t want to part ways with my baby.” She stroked the car, and he liked that about her.

She liked cars. “All my stuff is in the back of the car and in the trunk.”

“You packed light. I thought women were supposed to come complete with an entire army of things.”

“I didn’t exactly buy a whole lot of stuff in the city. I have a small apartment, so it doesn’t exactly let you collect a lot of things.”

“Gotcha,” he said. “So how was the big old city? I expected you back within a week of you leaving.”

“It was okay. Loud. Always busy. No matter where you went there was always someone around.”

“Not like home, then?”

“No. When the town is asleep, it’s all asleep,” she said, running fingers through her long brown hair. She looked so incredibly sexy.

He’d promised himself he wouldn’t do this.

“So, what’s been going on with you?” she asked. “There’s not much to know about me. I’m back home, no job, and living with my parents, what about you? Married? Kids?”

“Not married. No kids.”

“Oh.”

“I help my dad. I’m a mechanic and handyman when needed.”