Medically Speaking

Chapter 34

Seeing someone waiting in their car for you after a long day at work shouldn't feel as exhilarating as it does.

Luke's little wave through the drizzling rain was enough to lift some of the weariness from my shoulders. It wasn't a hard day. I wouldn't even say that it was more difficult than any other day that I had at work, but just the little touch of him waiting in the fire lane so I wouldn't have to drag my aching feet across the parking lot through the rain was enough to make me feel a little giddy.

"You didn't have to get out," I argued as he jumped out of the car and ran around to grab my collection of bags from me.

Planting a swift kiss on my lips, he nudged me with his hip. "Quit arguing and get out of the rain." Once he had my stuff settled in the back, he jogged back around to the driver's seat, leaning across the console to give me a better, lingering kiss before he sat back up and put the car in drive. "Did you have a good day at work?"

"It wasn't bad. It was just a day."

He nodded understandingly. "Do you still feel up to visiting North at the shop? He's working late, something about a client needing to do a late pickup, so it's the perfect time for Operation: Tooth Fairy."

Laughing, I asked, "Tooth Fairy? I don't remember agreeing to a code name when we discussed this yesterday."

"Yeah. We're sneaking him money—except instead of it being under his pillow, it's going into the safe at the shop and I'll be the one losing teeth if he catches me doing it." The prospect of his brother punching out his teeth didn't seem to detract from his excitement about our little ploy, and that was a big reason why I'd asked for his help.

Luke might be the best at it, but any of those guys could sneak around if they put the energy into it. Luke just also happened to be the one that fed off the thrill of pulling a fast one on North.

At first, I thought he'd refuse. North wasn't the only one that had a thing against me using my own money on my own car, apparently. Luke had been extremely confused by my request to find a way to slip my payment into the funds for the shop one way or another. But I was determined, and Luke couldn't pass up the opportunity to outsmart North.

"Did you figure out how much I owe?" That had been the biggest thing holding me back. North had refused all of my attempts at finding out how much the part cost and I hadn't been completely confident it was even on the books, but Luke had been confident he'd be able to find it.

"Owen and Kota are sticklers for inventory and keeping the books straight. North wouldn't dream of crossing them. I stole his phone when he came by the diner for lunch and brought it back when I 'found it' half an hour later." He sounded particularly proud of himself. "I poked around the office then. Did you bring cash with you, or do we need to stop first?"

Luke is nothing if not dedicated to his role in this little bit of mischief. "I've got the cash with me," I tell him, motioning towards my bag in the backseat. I always keep a stash at the house, just to be on the safe side.

And now it has a new use. Exerting my financial independence and assuaging my guilt over my brand new, not-quite-a-boyfriend, insisting on covering the cost of an expensive part for my car. When Luke told me how much it cost, I nearly choked. I could afford it without any problems, but it was way too much for North to cover this early in our relationship. I'd let him eat the manual labor costs without issue, but businesses don't survive by giving away things for free.

Especially when your almost-girlfriend has a piece of shit car like mine.

"Is there any particular reason that you don't want it in the cash box?" Luke asked as he hit his turn signal, waiting for a truck to get through the intersection.