Stuck On You by Christine Wenger Read Free Book Online Page B

I won't be picking it up. Not now. Not ever. Call and order something yourself."
    "Gee, Kate. I just thought that–"
    "I'll be leaving now." She sighed deeply, and Mack was sorry that he’d had to deceive her.
    He followed Kate out the kitchen door to the garage. She sniffed the air. He smelled it, too. Exhaust fumes. Motor oil. And he could hear the pinging noise of a car cooling.
    She walked over to the rust bucket and put her palm on the hood.
    "It's warm," she said. "You drove it."
    "I started it up and let it run for a while. It's been idle for about a week, and I wanted to make sure it would run."
    She eyed him suspiciously.
    "It's true." He didn't add that he drove the thing while it was running.
    "I don't believe you, Mack. And I don't trust you." Indignant, she started to walk toward her car. "Just thought you should know that."
    Even though he was the last person in the world she should trust, her words still bothered him. "I heard you, loud and clear."
    She looked like she was going to say something else, but then changed her mind. He watched as she took something from the front seat of her Blazer. A newspaper. Walking back to the garage, she handed it to him.
    "Oh, by the way, we made the front page," she said.
    Skimming the article, his eyes zeroed in on the quote from his father. Dammit. Wouldn't the old man ever believe in him? Couldn't he stick up for him just once?
    "You just take that scholarship, Johnny,” his father had ordered. “You should be a corporate lawyer like Mike. Your brother is doing well for himself. You could be someone.”
    "But I am going to be someone. I’m going to be a cop.” Mack insisted.
    “A cop? That’s no kind of job."
    He'd been eclipsed by Mike his entire life, so he'd wanted to do his own thing. He had always wanted to be a cop ever since Captain Crawley, who was Officer Crawley back then, came and spoke during Career Day in his freshman year of high school.
    Being a cop wasn't a glamorous job like his brother's and it didn't pay well, but he needed to be a cop more than he needed to breathe. It was his whole identity. It made him feel good when he caught a criminal. It was his way of protecting the community, making the streets safer, making Rose Lake a better place to raise his kids–if kids were in the cards for him.
    After all these years, even though it was senseless, Mack continued to try to prove himself to the old man.
    He’d tried to become the best cop he could.
    But now everyone thought he was a criminal.
    "Do you mind if I keep the paper?" he asked Kate. He wanted to read the article again when she wasn't around. When he could savor every word of his father's unfailing support–not.
    "Go right ahead." She turned to leave, then looked back at him and forced a smile. "I can't prove it, but I know you've been out driving. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt on this one. It's been a long day, and I'm tired."
    "Thanks." Well, he might have gotten away with one, but it didn't make him proud of himself.
    She nodded, then went over to the rust bucket. Damned if she didn't stick her head in the window and check the mileage.
    "Six thousand and twelve miles?"
    "This is the third time it's been around."
    "I see."
    "It gets me where I want to go," he said, defending the beast.
    "Not anymore it won't. Can I have the keys, please?" She held out her hand.
    If this didn't beat all. "No way. It's my car, I'm still licensed to drive it, and I don't appreciate being treated like a criminal or a little kid." His blood pressure was rising in increments of ten.
    "Then don't act like one." Her gaze didn't waiver in spite of his best glare. "Your choice, Mack. The keys—or back to jail."
    Swearing under his breath, he fished out the keys to the rust bucket from his pocket and tossed them to her.
    She caught them in mid-air.
    "Interesting that you had them right on you."
    "I told you, I’d started it up."
    Kate put the keys in her pocket book. "Yes, that's what you told