Out of Alignment (Hearts & Horsepower #5) Page 2

  “It really has,” she returned. “You deserve this weekend.”

  “I know I might regret asking this, but is there anything I need to know before I go?” I wondered.

  Trisha let out a laugh. “Even if there were, I would probably just wait until Monday to tell you,” she said. “At this point, I’m not sure there’s much more you could handle.”

  I nodded in agreement. “You’re right about that.”

  “Luckily, there’s nothing to report,” she replied. “At least you can relax on the work front.”

  Tipping my head to the side, I said, “The silver lining.”

  “It’s always there if you look hard enough,” she reminded me.

  After the week I had, I was willing to soak up any good news there was to be had. “I’ll try to keep that in mind this weekend,” I told her. “I’m going to get going. I’ll see you on Monday morning. Have a good weekend, Trisha.”

  “You too!”

  I walked out to the car, folded in behind the wheel, and took off. To add to the week’s inconveniences, I had to make a stop at home before heading to my ultimate destination. In all my disorientation, I completely forgot to bring my dirty clothes with me.

  Yes.

  That’s right.

  My dirty clothes.

  I was going to be spending my Friday evening at the laundromat.

  Late Sunday afternoon, the day all my problems started, just before I started making dinner, I went to put some laundry in the washing machine. I typically liked to get it done on the weekends so that I wouldn’t have to worry about needing to do it during the week. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that my washing machine had broken.

  And while I had no knowledge of washing machines beyond their ability to clean my laundry, I figured I could still research the problem and attempt to fix it. So, after I made myself dinner, I tried to do just that. Sadly, my internet stopped working.

  After spending about twenty minutes trying to reset it in hopes that it would work, I gave up. Of course, I could have used my phone, but at that point, I was so frustrated, I had no patience left to deal with it.

  But after the week I had, the idea of needing to go to the laundromat on my Friday night was just painful. At this point, I was half tempted just to forget trying to diagnose and repair my current machine and buy a new one instead.

  Not surprising, I had nothing left in me to be able to tackle that this weekend.

  So, the laundromat it was.

  I shouldn’t have been surprised when I pulled into my driveway and saw that my landscaping company never showed up to cut the grass given the way my week had gone, but I clearly had been hoping for a miracle.

  Couldn’t one thing go right for me this week?

  Unable to deal with it then, all I could do was shake my head in disbelief. Then I ran inside, grabbed my laundry, and ran back out. The minute I got back in the car, I made a much-needed phone call.

  Two rings later, I heard, “I’ve been calling you for the last three days!”

  Backing out of my driveway, I replied, “I’m sorry, Kaia. I’ve had a hell of a week.”

  “And you couldn’t take a minute to call or text your sister and tell her that you’re going through it?” Kaia countered.

  “Not calling you back was part of my disastrous week,” I assured my younger sister. “Are you okay?”

  There was a brief pause before she noted, “Well I guess it’s a good thing there wasn’t an emergency. If I wasn’t okay, where would I be right now?”

  “You would have found a way to communicate that to me,” I pointed out. “And then I would have done what I needed to do to get to you.”

  “I know,” she murmured.

  I always knew exactly what to say to Kaia when she was getting all riled up. The truth was my sister might have liked to give me a hard time, but she knew she could always count on me.

  A moment later, she asked, “So, what’s happening?”

  “I don’t even know where to start,” I admitted. “But if the fact that I’m driving a loaner car right now is any indication of what I’ve been dealing with, I’ll start there.”

  “Oh boy,” she mumbled. “I’m settling in for this.”

  I let out a sarcastic laugh. She knew I didn’t deal with stuff like this well. Lucky for me, the same way I was always there for my sister, Kaia was there for me.

  “Actually, the bad stuff started on Sunday,” I started. “My washing machine broke. I was going to attempt to fix it when my internet stopped working.”

  “That right there should have been your first clue that things weren’t going to go well for you,” she cut me off. “You don’t know the first thing about repairing a washing machine.”

  “That’s why I was hoping to use Google to figure it out,” I argued. “Anyway, it didn’t matter because after spending so much time trying to deal with the internet, I gave up. When I came home from work on Monday, I planned to make my second attempt at trying to diagnose the problem with my washing machine, but my internet was still being a problem. So, I reached out to the service provider. Once they’d taken me through a list of diagnostics, it magically started working. I was so excited and immediately started researching the issue I was having. Ten minutes later, the internet was back to being slow and spotty.”

  “Let me guess, you lost your mind?” she teased.

  “This isn’t funny,” I scolded her.

  Unfortunately, Kaia was right. I lost my mind. That was the way I’d always been. Things were supposed to work. When they didn’t, I just got frustrated. It caused me tons of anxiety to deal with things that didn’t go right.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry,” she apologized. “Please continue. Why are you in a loaner car? Don’t tell me you got into an accident.”

  “No, thank goodness,” I replied. “By the middle of the week, I dropped my car off to get it inspected. I expected I’d be able to drop it off in the morning and pick it up on Wednesday after work, but I got a call that afternoon telling me that wouldn’t be possible because my car needed new tires. To top it off, as the week continued, I kept thinking about the fact that you called, and I hadn’t returned your call.”

  “That is certainly the worst thing that’s happened to you all week,” she declared. “Not seeing me or talking to me is bound to ruin your whole week. You know that.”

  I rolled my eyes as I stopped at a red light. “There are two problems with that,” I began again. “First of all, I couldn’t call you because I’ve spent so much time on hold trying to get my internet fixed that I haven’t had much free time to call. But the bigger issue with what you’re saying is that you’re blaming me for not being able to see you or talk to you. That’s all on you.”

  “What? No, it’s not. I called you!” she argued.

  “Yes, but maybe if my sister hadn’t decided to pack up and move over a thousand miles away from me, we wouldn’t be having only phone conversations with one another,” I noted.

  There was a long stretch of silence before she rasped, “I had to go, Parker.”

  “I know, Kaia,” I returned softly. “I just miss you.”

  “Well, that’s why I was calling,” she said.

  My melancholy mood started to dissipate at her words. Perking up, I asked, “Why were you calling me?”

  “I got some time off work and decided it’s been too long since I’ve seen you,” she started. “I was going to come out to visit for a long weekend in two weeks.”

  I missed my sister so much. The last time I saw her was when I took a trip to California to visit with her at Christmas.

  “You’ve just turned my whole week around, Kaia,” I told her.

  Suddenly, the anxiety that had been building up all week and was growing worse and worse with each thing being piled on top of my shoulders wasn’t so bad. I knew the reprieve wouldn’t last long, but I’d be grateful for it while I had it.

  “I can’t wait to squeeze you,” she declared.


  “Me too. When are you coming in?”

  “That Friday morning,” she answered. “I figure I’ll get in, get a ride to your place, and get myself settled in until you get back from work. I’m not leaving until late Sunday night.”

  That would be perfect. A long weekend with my sister, my best friend, was exactly what I needed.

  “Let’s just hope I get all of this nonsense figured out before you get here,” I muttered. “I can’t imagine you’ll want to get in on Friday and spend the night going to the laundromat with me.”

  Kaia let out a laugh. “This is precisely the reason I tried calling you so early,” she noted. “I know how much you need to be able to plan for things like this. So, please do what you’ve got to do because I’m not coming out there to do chores. We need to have a little bit of fun.”

  “I’ll do my best,” I promised as I pulled into the lot at the laundromat. “I just got here, so my fun-filled Friday night is about to start. I’ll check in with you next week.”

  “Okay. Have fun,” my sister teased.

  “Tons,” I grumbled. “Love you, Kaia.”

  “Love you, too, Parker.”

  With that, I disconnected the call and let out a deep sigh. I felt so conflicted. On the one hand, I knew I had a million things to be grateful for, starting with the news that my sister was coming out in two weeks for a visit. I also had a great career, doing something I loved, and my health. On the other hand, I couldn’t deal with the anxiety I felt over everything else.

  I just wished that getting things straightened out in my personal life was as easy as it was in my professional life. Working as a chiropractor, it was my job to use my hands and make manual adjustments to my patients’ spines. When a patient’s spine was out of alignment, it was often as simple as a couple of visits to get things straightened out for them so they no longer suffered any side effects of the misalignment.

  There was little I wouldn’t give to be able to use my hands to manipulate the situation I was dealing with in my personal life right now. While I knew so many other people were suffering from far worse, the amount of stress I felt with all of these things popping up was unnerving.

  And now that I knew Kaia was coming out to visit, I had no doubt the next two weeks were going to be just as stressful or worse than the previous one had been. I’d want to be able to spend as much time with her, soaking up all I could in the short time she’d be visiting, and if I had all this other stuff to deal with, I wouldn’t even come close to enjoying her visit.

  Sometimes, I wished I had it in me just to be able to go with the flow. Unfortunately, I didn’t. On the bright side, I knew that if I were still out of sorts when she arrived, Kaia would know just what to do to get me through it.

  She always did.

  That had been who we were for each other.

  On that thought, I figured it was best to try to tackle as much as I could as quickly as I could. With any luck, I’d get everything sorted out this weekend and be able to get back to my normal routine on Monday.

  Routine.

  I craved it.

  That’s why the washing machine, the internet, and the car inspection were all messing with me so much. I hated it when anything happened to disrupt my plans. But I’d sacrifice my typical routine for this weekend if it meant I could get my life back to normal before the start of a new week.

  Getting out of the car, I gathered up my laundry and walked through the shopping center parking lot toward the laundromat. Once I’d separated and dumped my clothing into two different washing machines, I walked out.

  I knew I had a good thirty minutes or so before my clothes would be done in the washer and another forty-five minutes or so before they’d be done in the dryer. Even though my dryer wasn’t broken, I didn’t want to bring two separate piles of wet clothes back home.

  I decided it’d be best to get something to eat for dinner with the time I had before I needed to return to the laundromat. Luckily, three doors down from where my clothes were getting cleaned, there was a pizza shop.

  It wasn’t my first choice, but I really was in no position to be picky.

  After walking in and ordering two plain slices and a drink, I sat down. And once I sunk my teeth into the first delicious bite, my phone rang.

  “Hello?” I answered.

  “Hi, Ms. Banks, this is Larry calling to let you know that we got your tires on and your car is ready to be picked up.”

  “Oh, that’s perfect,” I returned. “How late can I come to get it?”

  “We’ll be here for another hour and a half or so.”

  That was even better. I could finish eating, swap my clothes to the dryer, make the call to the landscaping company while I waited, and go pick up my car after my clothes were finished.

  “I’ll see you soon,” I told him.

  “Sounds great.”

  With that, we disconnected and I smiled. Returning my attention to my dinner, I decided to take Larry’s call as a sign. It was my first indication that things were going to turn around.

  If only I hadn’t been so foolish to believe that was the truth.

  The week was winding down, and I was feeling grateful.

  It was the beginning of April, which meant that we were right at the start of the racing season. For LT Motorsports, this was great news because the racing season was busy. And there was no longer any doubt about it. We were beyond busy.

  The end of the workday had arrived, but there was no question that this had been a demanding week.

  I was right in the middle of finishing up my last project for the day when I heard, “Hey Nash!”

  Looking up, I saw Avery standing there with a huge grin on her face. Avery was the LT Motorsports business manager. She was also a hell of a race car driver who was currently engaged to be married to one of my best friends, Knox. Knox was our fabricator. Though everything was now good between them, it had been a bit of a struggle for them initially. There was no denying that the rest of the crew working here had dealt with a few months of highly tense situations last year when they were sorting out their issues. Thankfully, they worked it out and were living in bliss now.

  I was happy for them.

  “Hey, holeshot,” I replied, calling Avery by the nickname I’d given her the very first day she started working here last year. “What’s going on?”

  As a female racer in a male-dominated industry, Avery had proven she had what it took to contend with the best. In fact, she was better than the best. She could cut a light at the drag strip like nobody else and even won her class at the biggest event of the season last year, Rocky Mountain Madness.

  “So, now that we’ve gone out testing, I have a few changes I’m thinking about making on the car,” she shared.

  I cocked an eyebrow. “You’re making changes now?” I asked. “I thought the car ran well last week.”

  Nodding, she insisted, “It did. There’s nothing wrong with it, but you know how it is. We can never be satisfied in this industry.”

  “You’ve got a point there,” I agreed. “What are you planning to do?”

  “Well, ever since I ran that seven-second pass last year, I’ve been worried that it would be just a one-time thing since the air was good, and the track prep was on point,” she started. “I don’t want that to be the case, so I started thinking about how I could see to it that seven-second passes become more of an expectation instead of a surprise. Ultimately, I talked to Logan about what we could do, and he gave me some suggestions. I’m going to change the spring rates to something a little stiffer.”

  That would work. If they weren’t going to touch the actual parts on the car that made the power, one of the things they could do to see improvements was work on the suspension. If Avery put stiffer springs on the car, the hope would be that she’d have more weight transfer, allowing for better grip so Logan could set the tune in the car up to let her launch with full power and accelerate faster.

  “You need me to re-valve the shocks
for you?” I offered.

  Grinning at me, she asked, “Would you mind?”

  I shook my head. “Absolutely not,” I answered. “You get your new parts in, and I’ll get it taken care of for you.”

  Excitement washed over her. “Thanks, Nash. You’re the best,” she declared.

  Just then, someone cleared their throat. Avery and I looked to the side to see Knox had walked up. His eyes were pinned on his fiancée, and his brow was cocked as he shot her a questioning look.

  “I thought I was the best,” he rumbled.

  Avery rolled her eyes as she moved toward him and slid her arms around his waist. “You are, Knox. There are a lot of things I have experience with you being the best at, but I was referring to the best chassis tuner. I think you’ll agree with me that Nash has a bit of an edge over you in that area.”

  Knox wrapped his arm around Avery’s back and curled her in tighter to his body. There was no missing the possessive nature of this act. It was all I could do to stop myself from laughing.

  Not only did we all know that Avery was head over heels for Knox, but none of the guys here would ever cross that line. I thought it was wise to note that.

  “Relax, Knox,” I started. “I’d never steal your girl.”

  “You say that like you think you could if you wanted to,” Knox returned.

  Shaking my head as a smile tugged at the corners of my mouth, I said, “It’s so easy.”

  “What’s so easy?”

  That came from Logan. He’d just walked up and joined the conversation.

  Since neither Avery nor Knox moved to answer, I explained, “I was just telling Knox that he had nothing to worry about when it came to Avery being my friend. I’d never try to steal her away from him. He got a little riled up thinking that it could happen.”

  “I never thought it could happen,” Knox clipped. “I was trying to save you from the heartache you’d experience if you tried and were unsuccessful.”

  I could no longer stop myself from laughing.

  Avery took the opportunity to jump in and save the day before things got too far out of control. “We’re going to get going,” she started. “Thanks again, Nash. I’ll let you know once I’ve got everything here and ready to go.”