Dirty Mechanic (Hard and Ready Book 1) Page 6
She knew who I was as well.
I can’t exactly remember what happened next, but we ended up having coffee together. Yeah, drinking coffee with the woman that abandoned my dad.
There had been times over the years that I wondered what she thought, or if she even cared. After that coffee, I knew I hadn’t missed out on much. She’d been so hurtful.
“Well, if you’re ever hoping to attract a man, Eliza, you’ve got to lose some weight. You’re way too fat.”
“Your father was a waste of space. All he ever wanted was that shitty town, and I wanted bigger things.”
Those were just some of the few things she said to me. If I ever have any doubt about her, I want to remember them.
Tyler read a few more nasty comments that Eliza had written down, and it made him sick to his stomach to think that she’d been carrying that around with her.
He should have been there for her.
Snapping the book closed, he tossed it into his drawer, angry with the woman that he didn’t even remember.
Eliza was perfect, fucking perfect.
He wouldn’t have her any other way.
Running a hand down his face, he checked the time, and saw he had a few hours before he picked Eliza up from the library and they went to visit her father together.
Even though he looked forward to getting the meet and greet out of the way, he was a little nervous.
She cared about her father, and he cared about her. He didn’t want to fuck this up.
The phone on his desk rang, and before he could even get out the company motto, his father answered.
“Hey, Tyler, I just wanted to check in, make sure you’re doing okay.”
He smiled, hearing the happiness in his father’s voice. What he’d told Eliza the other night had been the truth. He’d not wanted to waste another moment of hating his father, so he worked to build a friendship that was strong even to this day.
“I’m doing good. You sound happy,” Tyler said.
“I am. Your mother is totally loving the ocean. We saw a couple of whales the other day, and they are a thing of beauty to see. Totally blew me away. I’ve got pictures. One of the men on board showed me how to email.”
His computer pinged, and Tyler smiled as the document with the pictures opened up. He saw his parents together, the ocean, the views, a couple of the people on the ship, and also the ocean life.
They were stopping by in different ports, and he was just so happy that they were enjoying it.
Between the Europe trip and their cruise, his parents were happy.
“Dad, how did you propose to Mom?” he asked.
Silence fell across the phone. “Dad?”
“I’m here, son. Whenever I wanted to tell you, you never wanted to know.”
Leaning back in his chair, he reached into his pocket, and pulled out the engagement ring that he’d bought. Yep, he’d turned into a pussy-whipped fool.
“Do you have someone in mind that you want to ask?” his father asked.
“Yes.”
Another long silence.
“Who?” he asked.
“Do you remember Eliza Small?” he asked.
“The girl’s picture that you had in your nightstand for a long time, and whenever we asked about it, you said it was nothing?”
Tyler groaned. He’d forgotten about that.
“Yep. That’s the one.”
“Why do I feel like I’ve missed something?” his father asked.
“I’ve been in love with Eliza for a long time, and I don’t want to waste another moment. She makes me feel so alive, and I want a future with her. I want to ask her to marry me because I love her more than anything else in the world.”
“I put a ring on a cupcake, and took your mother lunch, Tyler. She opened the cupcake, and I told her what she meant to me, and I hoped that she could get past my asshole ways because I would love her more than anything else in the world. You really love this woman, Tyler?”
“More than anything. I’ll do anything to keep her.”
“Then you have my blessing. I mean, does she know you exist? I don’t know what she looks like unless it’s book-shaped.”
Tyler burst out laughing. “Yes, she knows who I am, and I love her more than anything. She won’t be walking down the aisle with a book in her face.”
“That’s good to know.”
He talked with his father for another hour, and by the time he’d finished his conversation, it was time to leave the shop. Closing everything up, he made his way toward the library, and saw Eliza already waiting for him.
“Hey, baby,” he said, tugging her into his arms.
“Are you nervous? I’m nervous. I know I shouldn’t be, but I can’t help it.”
“I’m not nervous. Your dad is going to love me.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek. His cock thickened, remembering her against him.
Waking up in the mornings was one of the best parts of his day. Of course, being with Eliza was the best part of his life. He felt the ring in his pocket, and knew he couldn’t waste another moment.
“How can you be so confident?” she asked.
“Your dad is going to love me because he knows I’m going to take care of you.” They began walking toward her car, and it was on the tip of his tongue to tell her that he loved her. He didn’t though.
Eliza was so skittish that he worried if he scared her off, it would be hard to win her over.
The diary niggled him.
He’d have to tell her soon, but not yet.
****
“And he was good?” Jackie asked.
“My dad totally loved him. Raved about him even, and when Tyler left to use the bathroom, he told me I should propose to him,” Eliza said, resting her head on her hand. Tyler meeting her father had been pretty surreal. She didn’t think for a second that her father would like him, but that hadn’t been the case. Her father adored him.
“Now the big question is … do you love him? Tyler?”
“Yes, I do.” She spoke without any hesitation.
She loved him more than anything else in the world.
“Do you have those butterflies I talked about and everything in between?”
“I’ve loved him since high school, Jackie. That’s how he makes me feel.”
“That long?”
“Yes.” She smiled just thinking about it.
“You know, you really should go and tell him. You’ve already wasted enough time talking to me about it.”
“You think so?” Eliza asked.
“I know so. He’s a man with a good head on his shoulders, cute, and your dad likes him. Not only that, you’ve been in love with him for some time. Go and get your man, girl. You need this.”
She stood up, and nodded. “You’re right. It’s time I go and get what I want.”
“And who do you want?”
“Tyler Hard.”
“Go on, sweetie. Go and get your mechanic.”
Walking out of the library, she went through all the kinds of different things she intended to say. She’d never told anyone that she loved them before, so it was kind of freaking her out, but she knew that if she didn’t say it soon, she may never get the chance.
She loved Tyler more than anything else in the world.
The walk didn’t take as long as she hoped, and before she knew what was happening, she was already inside his reception area. Six other people were already there, waiting, and she winced. The moment he saw her, he came toward her.
Holding her face, he pressed his lips against hers. “What’s the matter, baby?”
“Hey, I didn’t realize it would be so busy.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“There was something I wanted to tell you, but I can wait.” She only hoped she had the guts to actually tell him.
“Go and wait in my office. I shouldn’t be much longer.” He led her away from the reception, opening the door and kissing her one final time. “I’ll be back. Hold
whatever thought you’re having.”
Staring at his office, she ran her hands across his desk and took a seat in his chair, which looked really comfortable.
Leaning back, she stared up at the ceiling and coughed.
“I love you, Tyler Hard. I’ve loved you for a long time, and I don’t want to go another moment without saying that I love you.” She blew out a breath. “That’s a lot of love.” Leaning forward onto his desk, she thrust her fingers into her hair. “This is completely useless. I don’t know what I’m going to say to him.”
Maybe if she wrote it down?
Looking over his desk, she saw it was rather neat, which surprise her considering how many times she’d caught it piled high with documents and receipts.
Opening one of his drawers, she reached in, and caught something. Lifting it up, she stared at the diary she’d thought was gone long ago. Well, she thought she’d left it somewhere, and looking at this book now, she knew that Tyler had had this the entire time.
She had to have left it on the counter after rushing through everything because she was nervous.
Her heart began to pound as some of her adult life had been penned in these pages. She didn’t write in the thing every single day, just when the need arose, and they were only ever short paragraphs of words.
Most of the time it was the jumbled mess that was her head.
The pages were earmarked where someone had read the book, and she knew without a doubt, that it had to be Tyler. She’d never earmarked her own pages.
He’d read her diary.
He knew her innermost thoughts.
All of it was open, exposed for anyone to see, and just the knowledge of that, it made her feel a little sick.
Seconds passed, and he finally arrived, closing the door.
“I’m so sorry about that. It’s been a crazy morning.” He turned to look at her. His gaze landed on her, and then the book. “I can explain.”
“You read it?”
“Yes, I read it.”
Thinking about the time they spent together. The lunches, each of her secret yearnings. It had all been here for him to read all this time.
“Was any of this real?”
“Yes, all of this was real, Eliza.”
“You got everything from my diary.”
“Look, I wanted you, Eliza. I’ve wanted you from the first moment I saw you, and I’ve been wanting you for a long time since, but you never seemed to know I existed.”
“What?”
“In high school, your head was always in a book. We’ve never really spoken more than a few words with each other. I wanted that to change, and when you left your diary, I had no intention of opening it.”
“Why did you?”
“Because I was hoping it would give me the clue to the woman that I loved, and help a guy out who didn’t want to go another second without loving you.”
Okay, she was sure she heard him wrong.
“What did you say?”
“I love you, Eliza Small. I’ve loved you for a long time, and I didn’t want you to find out like this. I had every intention of returning your diary to you. I wanted to, but I couldn’t. Each page was like a ticket to knowing the real you. What you want. What you need. It was all there. Even down to the secret meeting with your mother. By the way, I think she’s a total bitch. You are perfect, have always been perfect, and I don’t want you any other way. I want to grow old with you. Make love to you beneath the stars or in front of a roaring fireplace with snow all around us. I know this was fast, but we’ve known each other a lifetime already, and I don’t want to go another moment without you.”
She watched as he got down on one knee, surprising her as she reached into his pants pocket, and pulled out a ring. “I want you to be my wife. To be the love of my life, for now, forever, and always. I know I kept your diary. I know you probably doubt every single part of me, but know I did all of this out of love. I’d never hurt you, baby. No one else knows about that diary, but I’m not going to regret it because I got you, and you can’t deny that we’ve got something.”
Staring into his eyes, she knew that she couldn’t hate him or be angry.
“It was real?”
“It was real. All of it. All I ever wanted was to know that I had a chance, and as soon as I got past your fears, your insecurities, I found you, Eliza. There’s no one else who is going to love you more than me. Marry me. Let me spend the rest of our lives making it up to you, and proving that I love you. That you never made a mistake going out with me.”
Part of her believed she should be outraged, and tell him no.
She couldn’t do it.
“Yes,” she said.
Even as she said the words, she smiled.
They felt right.
Everything felt perfect and right.
Tyler laughed. “Yes?”
“Yes, a million times yes.”
He picked her up, spinning her around and laughing as he did. “I love you, baby. Love you so fucking much.”
He rained kisses down her face, loving every second of it. “I love you more than anything else in the world.”
“We’ve got to tell my dad.”
“Already done. While you were making drinks, I asked him for your hand, and he said that you’d be a fool not to take me, but I had his blessing. I’m going to marry you, and we’re going to have lots of kids, and a huge home, and it’s going to be awesome.”
He kissed her, and Eliza knew that so long as she was with him, nothing else mattered because they would work it out together.
****
“I can’t believe my son is too impatient to wait, Eliza,” Tyler’s father said.
She laughed and gave a little wave. They sat in Tyler’s sitting room. His laptop was open, and both of his parents sat there, staring at them.
“I said you’d like to meet me in person, and he couldn’t wait.” She rested her head on Tyler’s arm.
“Come on, Dad, you wanted to meet her.”
“In the flesh, son. So I could see the two of you together.”
Tyler’s arm wrapped around her, and she smiled up at him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”
“Do you love him?” Tyler’s mother asked.
Eliza couldn’t wipe the grin off her face. When Tyler told her that he had his parents waiting to meet her, she didn’t think it was an online chat. She’d have been too nervous to meet them in person, and he must have realized that. Tyler thought of everything. She loved him so much.
“More than anything in the world.”
“Do you see that? She loves him. You can see it in her eyes.”
She talked with Tyler’s parents for a good half an hour, and already knew she loved them. When the call ended, she snuggled up against him on the sofa.
“See, I told you it wasn’t so bad,” he said.
“It wasn’t. You love them very much.”
“I do.”
“And I think I will as well.” She’d love whoever Tyler did. He was a good man.
Epilogue
Fifteen years later
“Dad, there’s a girl at school.”
Tyler looked up from the car he’d been working on to watch his fifteen-year-old boy try to play it cool. This was his oldest child, Charlie. The moment Eliza fell pregnant, this little guy had caused a few problems.
She’d been so sick that she spent most of the pregnancy in bed. Then there had been panic as she suffered with preeclampsia. Charlie had been born ten weeks premature, and at times it was surreal to see the boy standing before him.
Not only that, they went on to have four more babies, none of which caused any trouble.
“You like this girl?”
“She’s … beautiful. She’s smart, kind, funny, and I love being around her.”
“What’s the problem then?”
He finished cleaning his hands, put down the hood of the car, and leaned against it.
Charlie’s cheeks heated.
“Are you afraid of the other kids picking on you?”
“No, I’ve got no problem with that.”
“Then what is the problem?”
“What if she doesn’t take me seriously?” Charlie said. “Some of the guys tease her. Call her names. I don’t want that.”
“Then you be a man, Charlie. You want this girl, you make sure she knows without a doubt that you mean business. Show her you care, that you love her, and that you’d be willing to do whatever it takes to make her yours.”
Charlie nodded. “I will. Thanks, Dad. Hey, Mom.”
“Don’t keep running everywhere.”
“I will, Mom.”
He smiled as Eliza stepped close, wrapping her arms around him.
“Hello, wife.”
“Hello, husband. How are you?”
“You know, feeling on top of the world. Working the lawn, fixing a car, and giving my son women advice.”
“You look very smug about that,” she said.
“He’s got to learn from the best, seeing as I’ve got the best woman in the world.” Tyler gripped her ass and pulled her close. “And I’ve been happily married for fifteen years, have five beautiful children, and a woman who completely adores me.”
“That she does.” She held the back of his head, and pulled him down for a kiss.
“Now that makes everything worth it.”
“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, Tyler Hard.”
“And you know what else is hard for you.” He gave her a wink as he pressed his aching cock against her.
It didn’t matter how many times he was with her, it never seemed enough.
They had the rest of their lives together, and he didn’t intend to waste a moment.
The End
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