Smoke (The Carelli Family Saga #1) - Eden Butler Page 0,12

I suspected he knew it.

“This one’s open.” He nodded toward the checkout, smiling at the older cashier waving off a teenage boy, his arms full of two canvas bags.

“Mr. Carelli!” she called, her round cheeks dimpling as she stared at Smoke. The woman’s graying, curled hair fell around her face, small tendrils obscuring her eyes, and she brushed it back before she wiped down the scanner at her side. “Good afternoon. How are you on this gorgeous summer day?”

“Good, Ms. Ada. We’re good,” he said, glancing at me, helping me place the items for my oil change onto the belt. “How’s your sister?” Smoke’s smile was warm, and like always when he spoke, particularly to older folk, his attention was focused directly on their eyes. “She get her daughter’s situation taken care of?”

Ms. Ada’s smile lowered a fraction, her gaze moving to the side, but she kept the same welcoming expression on her face. “She did, thanks to you. I can’t tell you how grateful…” The woman went quiet when Smoke cleared his throat, giving me a glance that didn’t make it to my face before he dipped his hand to his pocket, motioning to the stuff we’d put onto the belt for her to ring up. “Right,” she said, hurrying with our items. “Let’s get this taken care of.”

It wasn’t the first time someone gushed to him in my presence. It wouldn’t be the last, but like every other time I’d heard a great heap of gratitude for something he’d handled, some secret business that the Carelli’s had “taken care of,” Smoke dismissed the praise. It was his way.

“Car trouble?” Ms. Ada asked, putting the blue oil filter into a canvas bag, her smile bouncing between the two of us.

“Maggie here wants to learn how to change her own oil.” Smoke’s expression was amused, a little expectant, as though he could predict what would come next and my reaction as if he’d written it in a script.

I started to get the feeling the man knew me a little too well.

“Oh, why on earth would you want to do that, honey?” Ada grabbed the wrench, wrapped in cellophane that I insisted purchasing myself instead of borrowing the one Smoke said he had at his garage, and waved it in my direction. “You’ve got yourself a strong, capable man right here who clearly can take care of you.” The wink she gave me was obvious. “Mr. Carelli always seems to smile a bit more anytime you’re around, the whole town talks about it. It’s sweet. You make a fine couple. You should let him fix your car, sugar. Every girl needs a man to look after such things for her.”

Another wink coupled with a wide grin that reminded me of all the waggling eyes and exaggerated looks I got from Smoke’s siblings and parents anytime he and I stood too close to each other. They weren’t stupid. And we could be a little obvious. But nothing was out in the open. We never pawed at each other. We weren’t all moony and sweet-eyed in public.

But we had spent the past six months going at each other like two teenagers with a fresh round of pubescent hormones and parents who told them they were forbidden to do a damn thing with one another.

Still, us being at the same store, at the same time, buying car things together, and him being the sort of man who liked to fix things whenever they needed fixing, absolutely didn’t mean I needed to be taken care of, no matter what this sweet old lady thought.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted Smoke covering his mouth. Then, he took to shaking his head before I inhaled, pushing the cans of oil down the belt. “Well,” I said, folding my arms, “I am all the capable man I need right now, Ms. Ada.” Smoke glanced at me, his grin a little annoying, then insufferable when I slapped his hand as he tried paying for the purchases. “And that,” I said, pointing to the total on the register, “I can take care of too.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said, tucking his wallet back in his pocket, not bothering to hide his laughter.

Ms. Ada’s smile fell completely, and a fresh wave of guilt filled my chest. I was being a rude bitch, something the old woman didn’t deserve. There was no call for my attitude, not when the woman was just speaking what was likely on the mind of most of