Free Take Me There by Carolee Dean Page A

fighting with your boyfriend. I got worried. Wanted to make sure you were okay.”
    “You saw that.” Her face turned three shades of red, and she started pacing back and forth in front of the car. I would have given anything to be able to read her mind, but she just stoped and stood there in silence.
    It was almost impossible finishing my work with Jess watching me, but I managed somehow.
    “Car’s finished,” I told her, after I checked the brake pads.
    “That was quick.” She almost seemed disappointed.
    “I could take longer if you wanted.”
    Her cheeks turned red again. “No, that’s great. I need to get home, anyway.”
    We walked up front and she bought a soda while Gomez filled out her invoice.
    “Did you ask her out?” Gomez whispered.
    “Nope, and I’m not going to.”
    Gomez totaled the bill, and Jess paid him with her father’s credit card. “I think Dylan should follow you home,” he said.
    “Really?” She looked up at me.
    “Make sure the brakes are working okay,” Gomez told her. “We usually like to test-drive cars before we let ’em go, but we’re about to close.”
    “I’ll meet you out front,” she said. I couldn’t read her, and it was making me crazy.
    “What are you trying to do?” I asked Gomez after she had gone outside.
    “Give you a jump start. You need to get your act in gear, son.”
    “She’s out of my league. We don’t even play in the same ballpark.”
    “Have you seen the way she looks at you?”
    “She looks at everybody that way.”
    “You’re a good kid, Dylan.” He patted me on the back. “Not very observant when it comes to girls, but you’ll figure it out.” Gomez walked back to his office, leaving me to wonder what the heck he was talking about.
    I went to the bathroom. Peeled off my grease-stained work shirt and washed my armpits in the sink. Combed my hair. Studied my reflection in the mirror.
    Girls always told me they went crazy over my eyes. The rest of me may have been dark and hard but at least I had nice eyes.
    I went back into the garage to get Baby Face. I worried that I looked like I was trying to show off my arms by wearing the white tank top. Figured my filthy blue work pants and blackboots would counter the effect. Thought about putting my dirty work shirt back on. Sniffed it and decided against it.
    I found Jess outside, sitting in the Beemer, top on, air-conditioning running. I realized that by the time we reached Hermosa Beach I’d be sweating like a pig again, since the air conditioner in the Mustang was busted. I was saving money to put in a new system, but by the time I got what I needed it would probably be winter.
    Jess rolled down the window.
    “My car’s out back.” I said. “I’ll pull it around front and follow you.” Jeez, what was I getting myself into?
    I expected her to tell me she’d changed her mind or to forget about it or to take a hike. Instead she looked up at me with her green eyes and said, “Thank you.” It made me feel proud, and I figured, what the heck. I’ll follow her home. Who knew what might happen.

17
    “C AN YOU EXPLAIN TO ME WHERE IN THE LIVIN’ HELL WE are?”
    I look up to see the morning sun shining on Wade, who is standing outside the Mustang. Baby Face is next to him, on her leash, growling at a cow on the other side of a barbed-wire fence. I get out of the car and look around. Realize that I’ve driven right off the road onto the shoulder. I must have fallen asleep and taken my foot off the gas.
    We’re out in the middle of nowhere. The landscape is so flat that I look in all directions and see nothing but brown grass and sky.
    It’s creepy, like one of those movies where you’re the only person left on Earth or where the mutated locals hack you to pieces and then barbecue your body parts.
    “Ten miles to Plainview,” I say, squinting to make out the name on the road sign.
    “And you complained about me takin’ detours,” he says. “Why don’t you let me