Read Online Fix You by Lauren Gilley - Free Book Online

turned to the owner for confirmation and got a nod. “This guy’s got a ’65 Malibu,” he said with a tilt of his head in Tam’s direction.
                  The guy pushed his hat back a fraction. “You wanna sell it?”
                  Tam grinned. “No.”
                  Randy launched into a full scale explanation of the Chevelle’s history that Tyler probably didn’t understand – the ’64 and ’65 models with the Malibu SS badges; onto the SS396 series; body style changes in the late sixties and seventies; and the eventual end of the line. Tam shoved his hands in his pockets while the old man talked and walked around the red ’67, setting it up against his own ride in his head.
                  The shout of, “Uncle Tam!” didn’t register until Logan Walker was standing in front of him beside the car.
                  “Hi…” Tam’s head snapped up and he scanned the lot. Walt was here? What the hell had he done to deserve that? “Who’re you here with?”
                  As the question left his lips, he spotted Walt’s big square head over the roof of the neighboring car. His eyes found Tam, he scowled, and then he headed their way. Oh, goody.
                  Chase preceded his dad’s approach and Tyler spotted his cousins. The three of them erupted into little boy chatter.
                  “Little far from home, aren’t you?” Walt asked when he was close enough.
                  “Tyler wanted to come. And your buddy Dylan couldn’t make it,” he said with a sideways non-smile that left Walt frowning.
                  “I could have picked him up. Jess could have - ”
                  “Walt,” Randy greeted, stepping between them. “This is turning into a family reunion, huh?”
                  Walt, and even Mike sometimes, thought Randy was this boisterous, oblivious dad-figure who knew nothing about subtlety. But the glance Randy shot over his shoulder at Tam was full of subtext; their feud wasn’t going to bleed all over the boys in the middle of a public place, not given what Tyler was going through especially. Tam nodded.
    **
                  “Thank you for your time,” Jess heard her sister say as she put her back to the bank’s reception desk and headed for the door, knuckling her sunglasses up on her nose. Then “Jess” was a sigh behind her as Jo hefted her kid higher in her arms and followed. “You have to be polite ,” she said as they pushed through the double glass doors of the airlock and hit the sidewalk.
                  “This from the queen of ‘I don’t give a fuck.’” Two elderly women were making their way up to the bank’s door and both shot Jess startled, disapproving glances. She didn’t care.
                  “I never gave the cold shoulder to someone I wanted to work for,” Jo countered as they stepped off the curb and headed toward the Tahoe.
                  “You heard them. They’re not hiring.”
                  “Not now, but…” Jo sighed. “Whatever. Let’s grab some lunch and regroup.”
                  “Sure.”
                  Jess was driving because it helped her feel in control of something and they rode to Chick-fil-A in silence. Only once they were seated at a window table, Willa in a high chair pawing through her fries like the wild urchin her mother had been at that age, did Jo take a deep breath over the top of her chicken sandwich and revisit the politeness issue.
                  “I know this is hard.”
                  “Really?” Jess fired back. “You’ve filed for divorce?”
                  “Jess, when other people say this, they’re usually wrong. But right now, trust me, you’re being a bitch.”
                  “I…” She