1
Becca
I felt the blowout more than heard it. I expected a flat tire to have a huge boom or pop, but no. The wheel began to shake and my steering became erratic. Thankfully, I wasn’t going too fast and the road was straight. I was able to pull off to the side without sliding into the ditch. I sat there, heart racing, adrenaline pumping, cars whizzing by.
I wanted to scream my lungs out. A flat! I didn’t need this. I had more than enough on my plate already. I’d just come from lunch with my father, and as usual, it ended up with him telling me how much of a disappointment I was and me walking out of the restaurant. All I’d done was tell him I was taking up pre-med for my major, not that I decided not to go to college to be a carnie with the circus. No matter how uncomfortable the lunch, and his blatant disapproval, I still wasn’t – and never would – go into business.
“Others would die to be in your position!” he’d told me at the restaurant. “While your classmates are scurrying to find an entry-level job or even an unpaid internship in the hopes they can land full-time offers four years from now when college is over, I’ll put you in the fast track. You can be a manager next month. Why don’t you want that?”
“I just graduated high school!” I’d responded, raising my voice. He’d been listening but hadn’t heard me. He never had. “Can’t I just have fun for a while?”
The expression on his face had morphed. The wrinkles on his forehead deepened, and every muscle on his body stiffened. The look wasn’t new. I’d seen it countless times – sadness, disappointment, and hopelessness all mixed together – but it still always bothered me, as if I could never do right by him.
“Life isn’t about ‘having fun’. You’d know that if I didn’t hand everything to you on a gold, diamond-encrusted platter. You never had to work a day in your life, Becca. Of course, all you want to do is ‘have fun’. That’s on me…to have given you everything. I feel like I’ve failed as a father.”
Everything he’d given me came at a price and that was going into the family business. If I joined him, he’d think it all had been worth it. If I didn’t do it, then I was a slacker. A slacker who wanted to be a doctor, but still, to him, a freeloader. Spoiled. I couldn’t have sat there a minute longer, so I walked out of the restaurant.
My dad had always put himself up on a pedestal. It was infuriating. But there was still that little voice in my head, that little voice telling me that I should listen to him, that he just loved me too much and wanted what was best for me. He loved me enough to want me to take over his empire someday. And that was why he’d given me everything I needed and wanted.
There was no denying he and my mom always gave me the best. They sent me to the best private school, they gave me all the gadgets and tools I’d needed and wanted to make studying easier, they hired the best coaches and personal trainers so that I’d become a state-level athlete. Even without my father paying my tuition, I’d had multiple academic and sports scholarships to choose from. Even after my mother died eight years ago and my father remarried, the help didn’t stop. Anything I asked for, I got.
Yeah…maybe he failed as a father because he spoiled me too much, but I hadn’t wasted any of it. I’d excelled at it all. I was going to be a damn doctor.
“Fuck.” The profanity left my mouth when I realized I’d been sitting in my car for too long, and I was starting to sweat.
It was June, the middle of the day with the summer sun was beating down, and here I was with a flat tire. I had a spare in the trunk, but I was definitely not in the mood to change it. I had no choice. Tires didn’t change themselves.
I swung open the driver’s door and shut it with a bang before I went to the trunk and unlocked it. With all the strength I could muster, I did my best to pull the tire out and rolled it as close as I could to the flat. I walked back to the trunk to look for the wrench. I could feel the sun burning my back, the sweat dripping down my face and arms. I wanted to be anywhere but here, do anything but this, except maybe go back to the restaurant with my dad. As I kept complaining in my head, I loosened up the nuts. They were on so tight, I wasn’t sure if I could get them all.
“You need help?”
That voice. All male, deep and rumbly.
I dropped the tool with a clang and stood, tipped my head up, my eyes moving from muscled arms covered in tattoos to a sun-kissed angular jaw, and finally, striking pale blue eyes. I instantly stilled, my heart hammering once again. He was easily one of the most attractive men I’d ever seen, if not the most. And he had tattoos! They were a dangerous—but oh-so sexy—touch I never knew could be so hot.