Hard to Break

“And you’re Tazen.”

He laughs. “Yeah, baby.”

I shake my head. “Your mom wanted to be different then?”

He nods, with a half grin. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“So how old are Retro and Kellian?”

“Retro is thirty-one, and Kell is twenty-five.”

“So you’re the middle child.”

He scrunches his face up. “Yep.”

“Poor baby,” I tease.

“What about you? What’s your family like?”

No.

We’re still discussing him.

“No you don’t, we’re not done talking about you.”

“All right,” he says, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

“Did you study?”

“Nope. Cars was it for me.”

I nod. “Fair enough. What about girlfriends, aside from Sheye

He nods. “Two. One when I was sixteen. I was with her for three years. Then I was with another for a year, when I was around twenty-one. Then there was Sheye

“So how come none of them worked out?”

He doesn’t seem offended by my questions, and is answering them quite openly, which I like.

“The first was because I was far too young. The second, she wanted to go to another state for school and I had just started my building, so it wasn’t going to work. Sheye

“And all the other girls?”

He reaches up and runs a hand through his hair, darting his eyes to the left. He is uncomfortable with this question.

“Well?” I prompt.

“After I got successful, and started going to races and building cars for racing drivers, I got attention. When the TV show was being aired, I got even more. Finding women wasn’t hard, and for a while, it was nice just having the fun and no commitment.”

I swallow but nod. “And there were heaps then?”

“I didn’t count.”

“Right.”

We both fall silent, but it’s me that breaks it. I can’t be angry at him for his women, it’s not like I didn’t know Tazen was a womanizer before he met me.

“Do you ever want to get married?”

He nods. “Yep.”

Wow, that surprises me. He certainly doesn’t seem like the type to want those things.

“You do?” I say with wide eyes.

“I’m not a coldhearted bastard, angel. I have had women, but after a while, I realized just how fucking boring it was only having sex with them. I am all for marrying the right one and building something real.”

Am I the right one?

God, I’d love to be.

“And kids?”

He grins. “Fuck yeah.”

My heart falls a little more in love with him.

“Well, Tazen Watts, you’re proving to be a very interesting topic to discuss.”

His grin gets bigger.

“Okay, let’s go for the hard stuff. What’s your favorite food?”

He laughs and leans forward, grabbing me and sliding me across the tub so I’m between his legs. He turns me around and presses my back to his chest, then he wraps his arms around me. “Definitely pizza.”

“Ugh.”

He pokes my belly button. “You don’t like pizza?”

“Nope. I don’t understand it.”

“You don’t … understand it?”

“Yep,” I say. “It’s a whole heap of ingredients, which separately would be amazing, but together just seems … dumb.”

“It tastes good like that,” he points out.

“No, it doesn’t.”

“Strange woman,” he mumbles.

I laugh. “I never denied it.”

He pinches my breast and I wiggle.

“Do I get questions now?”

“Yep.”

I prepare myself for his questions, because I don’t want to react badly to any of them. Especially when it comes to my dad or the garage.

“Tell me about your family.”

I knew that one would be first. I decide to keep it as simple as possible. I’m not ready for him to know the world I live in just yet. I’m just not prepared to show him what’s deep inside my soul. Because when I do that, it’ll be when I know he’s the one I’ll keep forever. “My dad and mom were childhood sweethearts. They got married, bought the garage and had me. It was awesome until Mom got cancer.”

“Oh baby, I’m sorry.”

I swallow and keep going. “She died and it was just Dad and I after that. It was hard on the both of us, but it was so much worse for him. She was the only thing he breathed for. But we, ah, got through it.”

“It sucks you had to lose someone so special to you.”

“Yeah,” I say softly. “And she was special.”

“You want to tell me about her?”

“She was the best kind of mom. The one who bakes, and sings and acts crazy. She literally was sunshine. So happy and fun. I don’t remember a lot, but I remember that. She was the reason the garage was named Pixie Wheels. She used to call me Pixie when I was a kid, because I was so little.”

Tazen is quiet for a second. “God, I’m sorry we took that down.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I assure him. “I have it now, so that’s all that matters.”

“What about your dad? He obviously kept the garage.”

“Yeah, he did, but he lost interest in it. I spent most of my teenage years working there. I loved it though, so I didn’t mind.”

“Still,” Tazen says carefully. “That must have been hard.”

“It was.”

“So no siblings?”

I shake my head and he wraps an arm around my belly, squeezing me softly. “That sucks.”

“Yeah, I always wanted siblings.”

“Understandable.”

“Aside from that, there really isn’t much to know. I’ve been here my whole life. I had only one boyfriend in my teen years, and the only friends I have are the guys that worked with me. Cars are all I’ve lived and breathed, and I want it to stay that way.”

“One boyfriend?”

I grin, knowing he’d pick that out of what I said. “Just one.”

“Lucky guy.”

I laugh. “Coming from the one sitting behind me.”

“I never said I wasn’t lucky.”

I smile and lean back, putting my head on his shoulder.

“Are we really giving this a shot?” I ask.

“Fuck yeah, we are.”

*   *   *

I stay at Tazen’s that night, and we make love twice more before falling asleep. We also talk for hours. His bed is like heaven, and it’s the nicest thing I’ve ever laid down on. I fall into the soft mattress and plush pillows and drop off in minutes. I don’t move all night. I’m woken the next day with Tazen’s body over mine. He makes love to me for a long, glorious hour and then we shower.

Now I’m sitting in his kitchen, coffee in hand, watching him cook breakfast. While I wait, I glance down at my phone. I have a few missed calls from Le

“Hey, Le

Tazen turns and then smiles when he sees I’m on the phone.

“Listen, I just went past your place. You’re not there.”

“No, I’m out. Dad should be there, though?”

“He didn’t answer. I knocked a few times.”

I glance over to the clock on the wall. It’s well past 10 a.m. Dad never sleeps that long even after a big night. Maybe he was in the shower? I hope so, but worry is clenching inside my belly. “I’ll give him a call, see if I can find out.”

“Okay, love. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Later.”

I hang up from Le

He turns and studies me. He can obviously see the panic in my face, because he stops what he’s doing, turns the heat off and then says, “I’ll throw on a shirt and come with you.”

Shit.

Tazen is possibly about to see my dad at his worst. I wonder if I should warn him, but forget about that when Tazen walks out and waves his keys. “Let’s go.”

We rush out and get into his car. It takes us a couple of minutes to get to my place, and we both jump out. Tazen knows where I live, but he’s never experienced the ugliness of the inside. I don’t have time to worry about trying to find a way to stall him, because my dad could be in trouble. I fling the front door open and the stench of vomit hits me hard.