The Lost and Found (17 page)

Good Friends

Crimson Sage

BILLY TRACKED JOSIAH DOWN
, told him he was needed in the old garage. Josiah arrived a little breathless, not sure what to expect. To his shame, the first thing he’d noticed was the car, then me, then my tear-streaked face. I couldn’t help but grin and hiccup over his obvious admiration of the Firebird. His eyes roved quickly over the frame, taking in every little detail; as he came around to the driver’s door he knelt down beside me, took my hand in his, and asked what was wrong.

Josiah’s concern started a fresh round of crying. He pulled me up, lifted me into his arms, and then sat down, me on his lap. He let me cry, let me get it out of my system, let me use his shirt to wipe my tears. After a few minutes, he gently brushed the pads of his thumbs across my eyes and asked again what was wrong.

“This was my mom’s car,” I whispered thickly through more tears. “Billy just gave it to me.”

“Bit overwhelmed, huh?”

“Yeah, it was just so unexpected. And generous. Did you know he had this?”

“No, I’ve never been in here before. He’s always kept this place locked up nice and tight.”

“I don’t even know how to feel about it. I mean, I’m
so
thankful. But, it’s painful, too, ya know?”

“I do, and that’s what I’m here for. I’ll take the pain. He’s not trying to hurt you, you know that, right?”

“Of course.”

We sat together in silence; Josiah rubbed slow soothing circles on my back. My emotional level began to recede and in its place I felt a sliver of excitement flicker to life inside me.
I have my mom’s car!
She’d have driven this when she was my age. Billy’d had it all this time.

As I thought about my mom, I remembered a picture she’d had. She kept it in the top drawer of her dresser. She’d been sitting on the hood of
this
car, wearing denim shorts, a bikini top, hair pulled back in a ponytail. Sunglasses on. Her smile had been infectious. I remembered that I’d asked her about it. Mom had looked at the picture, studied it for a moment, and then brushed it off, said it had just been her first car; she wasn’t sure just why she’d kept the picture.

“Billy give any indication if this thing runs?”

“No. He just told me what kind it was, said it had been Mom’s”

“I can take a look at it if you want. See what she’ll need.”

“Would you? Josiah, thank you.”

“Crimson… kiss me.”

Josiah pulled my head around to meet his. His mouth was soft, gentle. Tender.

“I’d do anything for you. I hope you know that.”

He kissed me again, let his mouth linger over mine in an agonizingly slow dance, before pulling back. He ran a finger down my nose and then tapped my needy lips and grinned.

Then he held up a set of keys, kissed my nose, and said, “Billy just told me to make sure I locked up after we were done. I’ll pop the hood, see how she looks, see what I might need, then we’ll get to work on her tomorrow.”

“We can’t tomorrow. It’s Halloween.”

“Right… the day after then. Let’s take a look. Go ahead and pop the hood,” he said as he stood up and set me on my feet.

I reached up and pulled his face down to mine and kissed him hard. “Thank you. For being here. For being strong.”

“I’ll always be here, always be strong, for you.”

BILLY DIDN’T ALLOW THE
boys to go trick-or-treating, but he did take them every year to the school Halloween/Harvest party. Ethan dressed as a vampire, and I dressed as an elf from the Lord of the Rings. Josiah flat-out refused to dress up, but he did go with us. Even though he was there as chaperone, we managed a few quiet minutes to ourselves away from the boisterous crowd, either in a darkened corner or outside when Josiah walked around the gymnasium to make sure no one was messing around. He enjoyed my legs encased as they were in the dark, stretch material, and played with the ties on my shirt, grazing my collarbone and neck, driving me insane.

Josiah and I cheered Ethan and Kelly on as they competed in a pie-eating contest, and then again as they played a couple rounds of bowling with pumpkins. The atmosphere at the school was electrifying, the excitement palpable. I’m sure the boys had too much candy, punch, caramel apples, and pumpkin pie, but they only got to do this once a year, so I was glad Billy made a point to take them.

Throughout the night, my mind kept straying back to Mom’s car. I was eager to get busy on it, to start her up, to hear her run. I woke up early the next morning and went out to the garage. After unlocking the door, I turned the light on and went to sit behind the wheel. I didn’t need to adjust the seat — our legs were the same length. I gripped the steering wheel and stared through the windshield. Everything was dusty; I’d have to do a thorough cleaning on it, inside and out. I reached over and opened the glove box. Several papers and pictures fell out. Quickly gathering them, I shuffled them back together in a neat stack and began going through them.

Josiah found me there about an hour later; he’d brought coffee and a toolbox.

“Thought I’d find you here, and I doubted you’d stopped for coffee.” He leaned down to kiss me as he handed me the steaming mug.

“Thank you.” I smiled at him through our kiss.

“Whatcha got there?” He nodded at the papers on my lap, the passenger seat, the dash.

“I found these in the glove box. They’re letters, pictures of Mom’s. A couple are phone numbers, written on a napkin. I guess she was popular.”

“If she looked like you then I can see that.”

I blushed under his gaze. I held one of the pictures out to him. “Look at the date on this one. This was taken the year before I was born.”

Josiah took the photo, studied it. There were three girls in it. Mom was in the center, one friend on either side of her. The car was parked in the background. Mom was blowing a kiss at someone.

“She was cute, but you’re hotter.” He handed the picture back to me, and then turned to open the big garage door. “Let’s get busy.”

Josiah worked for several hours on the Firebird. He changed the oil, the filters, sparkplugs, checked all the wires for corrosion, and changed the battery. While he worked, I got Windex and leather cleaner and began cleaning the inside. I gathered all the papers, the pictures, even any leftover trash, and put them aside to take in later. I wanted to ask Billy about the pictures — get names, dates, and locations from him — and share them with Ethan.

I was in the backseat, wiping the seats down, rubbing the cleaner in, giving the red leather a shiny, healthy glow, when my cell phone rang. Suddenly One Direction’s
What Makes You Beautiful
was blaring at me, alerting me to Gracie’s call. I saw Josiah’s head pop up, his eyebrow lift in curiosity.

“Hey, Gracie!” I grinned at him as I answered.

“You’re sounding awful chipper. What’s new?”

“Hold on a sec,” I said as I snapped a quick selfie of me in the car and sent it to her.

Her reply back was, “Has that hot boy
finally
got you in the backseat of his car?”

“Dork. No, this is
my
car. He’s under the hood. I’m in the backseat, cleaning.”

“Too bad he wasn’t under
your
hood in that backseat. That’d be something to get excited about.”

“Psht. You’re such a
pervert
. Listen! Get this — Billy gave me Mom’s old car. From when she lived here. It was her first car, and it’s mine! Can you believe it?”

“Whoa. That’s pretty awesome.”

“Right?”

“Well… now the reason I called won’t be all that cool. Dang.”

I chuckled at her now dejected sounding voice. “What’re you talking about?”

“Well… I told Mom and Dad I wanted to come see you. So, if you’d be so kind as to swing into Boise to pick me up, I’ll be there on the 22
nd
.”

“
No way!!
Are you freaking kidding me?? You’re coming here? Gah!! I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see you.”

“Me, too. Then I can get a firsthand look at your hottie bad boy.”

“How long can you stay?” I asked, ignoring her comment about Josiah.

“I gotta be back on the thirtieth. But, I’ll be there through Thanksgiving. We can make pies again, like we always do. Can’t break tradition just because you live in another world now.”

I laughed at her description of Salmon. She’d looked it up online and was dismayed it was so small. Knowing how she felt about small towns, I was beyond thrilled she was coming out to visit me. I reminded myself to tell Billy about her impending visit when Josiah and I went in for lunch. Billy had no problem with it, said it’d be nice to have her.

Josiah worked extra hard and got the car ready before Gracie was due to arrive; he made sure the tires were safe, the brakes in good shape. He said she had a nice, healthy sound.

IT WAS COLD; I
could see my breath in the air as he rolled the Firebird out of the garage. Everyone was gathered around. Billy and Ethan stood, one on either side of me, eager to see and hear. Josiah stepped forward and handed me the keys.

“It’s all you now, Crimson.”

Cautiously, I slid behind the wheel, closed the driver’s door. Josiah climbed in next to me on the passenger side. I took a deep breath and then turned the key. The Firebird rumbled to life, sputtered a little then caught, her engine roaring loudly for a minute before idling quietly. I let my breath out in a rush. I looked out the window and saw Billy wiping a tear from his eye. Everyone was cheering.

“Put her in gear. Let’s take her down the road a bit. See how she goes,” Josiah told me.

Moving the gearshift, I turned the wheel and drove the car slowly around the house and down the driveway.

“We’ll need to get the plates renewed, but I think you’ll be set. She’s a nice car, Crimson. She suits you.”

“I think so, too.” I smiled. “Thank you so much for getting her running, Josiah. Just, thank you.”

JOSIAH BROUGHT ME INTO
town the next morning and I was able to get new tags for the car. Thanksgiving was just two weeks away. The boys were all anxious to be out of school for break. Gracie would be arriving soon. I was counting down the days, not realizing before just how much I’d been missing her. Josiah and I left early in the morning on the 22
nd
. He drove us to Boise in his car; I didn’t know how mine would do, and didn’t want to risk breaking down and leaving Gracie stranded at the airport.