grinding. With Rev gone on his honeymoon and Deacon off on a Brownies’ camping trip with his daughter, Willow, I was the only Malloy in residence. Though our president and vice president were gone, it didn’t stop the remaining Raiders from having one of our weekend parties.
Even without looking, I could have guessed who was eyeballing me. A month ago, a new mechanic had started at the garage where I was apprenticing. His name was Marley, and he was former army. That alone made me respect the hell out of him, but then that respect grew one day when we were eating lunch and shooting the shit. I discovered he was a motorcycle enthusiast whose knowledge of bikes could put some of the Raiders to shame. Then a week ago he gained my complete and total respect by saving my ass.
I was doing an oil change on a Dodge Challenger when a man came stalking up. He looked vaguely familiar, as though I might’ve seen him at the garage before. “Can I help you?”
“Yeah, you’re the fucker who screwed up my car.”
“Excuse me?”
“The transmission is shot to hell now. I realize you’re new and everything, but I don’t know how the fuck you managed to screw it up so bad.”
“Sir, your car was fine when you left. I don’t know how you could possibly think I did something wrong.”
The man’s face darkened. “I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think. Get me your boss. Now.”
I bit my tongue to tell the man he could go fuck himself, which would have been the way I once handled the situation. But since I was trying to turn over a new leaf, I grumbled, “One second.” I brushed past Marley, who had come out from underneath the car he had been working on. Knocking on my boss’s door, I called, “Rick?”
He glanced up from a pile of invoices. “Yeah?”
“There’s a dude who wants to see you.” When Rick raised his eyebrows questioningly, I sighed. “He thinks I fucked up his car.”
“Did you?”
“Hell no. It was just a standard oil change and tire rotation. When I told him his check-engine light was on, he told me it was because of the oil.”
After grunting in frustration, Rick rose out of his chair. I stepped aside for him to come out the door and then I followed him down the hall. Once the man saw him, he started ranting and raving about how during the oil change I had screwed up his transmission.
He was halfway through his tirade when Marley stepped forward. “You’re full of shit.”
The man’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me?” he demanded.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Marley said, “There’s no way in hell Bishop could have done the damage you’re talking about.”
“Is that so?”
Marley nodded and then looked at Rick. “The guy came in here with a car wheezing like a two-pack-a-day smoker. Anything wrong with his transmission was already there, with the car wheezing like that.”
Rick glanced from Marley to me. “Did you notice the noise, too?”
I grimaced. “No, I didn’t.”
“In Bishop’s defense, he was in the back when the guy pulled up. He wouldn’t have been able to diagnose that,” Marley said.
It was my turn for my jaw to drop at Marley stretching the truth for me. Yeah, I had been doing inventory, but I still should have heard the noise when the guy drove away. I didn’t know where in the hell my head had been that day to miss something like that. When I met Marley’s gaze, he cocked his head at me as if daring me to go against his story. I bobbed my head in agreement.
The man sputtered with indignation. “That doesn’t mean shit. He still fucked up my car!”
Rick narrowed his eyes. “You must think I’m an idiot if you really think you can screw up a transmission that bad through a simple oil change. Get the hell out of here, and don’t ever come around here trying to scam me again.”
After the man left and Rick went back to his office, Marley and I were alone. When he started to go back to work, I stopped him. “Why did you lie for me?”
“I wouldn’t exactly call it lying—it was more like stretching the truth.”
“Then why did you stretch the truth for me?”
Marley smiled. “We’ve all been the new guy once. Yeah, you probably should have noticed the wheezing when he pulled out of here, but maybe you were just having an off day. Maybe your