Texting With the Enemy (Digital Dating #1) - Marika Ray Page 0,22

issues.

“Mom! What are you doing? I said I was on my way.” I held onto her while Boston grabbed the spare tire.

“Well, I wasn’t going to just sit around while I waited on you to rescue me,” Mom responded, out of breath and a little too pale for my liking.

“Why not? That’s what you always do,” I muttered back without my usual sympathy, helping her to Boston’s car. She went willingly until she got to the passenger side door and caught sight of my boss. Who was currently stripping out of his shirt right on Sutter Avenue for all to see.

“Well, hello.” Mom let out a high-pitched wolf whistle while I buried my face in my hands. “Take it off, son!”

I looked over with one eye shut to the horror that was my mother in public. Boston stared at Mom and then broke out into a huge grin, standing there in a white sleeveless undershirt that showed off his muscles.

“I’ll just change the tire real quick and get you on your way,” he said. He did something with the jack and then a bar looking thing. Before I could admire his backside bent over, he had the flat tire off and was fitting on the spare. Thank goodness he’d come with me. It would have taken me an hour just to read the manual on how to change a tire.

“How come you never mentioned this guy?” Mom pointed her thumb at Boston, a devilish grin on her face. “I’d have borrowed your car a lot sooner just to see you blush over him.”

“Mom. He’s my boss. Or soon to be ex-boss. And I’m not blushing, it’s just hot out here.” I fanned my face and looked away from Boston before I combusted into a pile of embarrassed sweat.

“Mhm. Your face says you’re lying, but I’ll go ahead and play along since you did come to my rescue.”

Boston stood back up and tossed the jack and bar thingy back in the trunk of my car, before slamming it shut. Only to have it come back up and almost pop him in the face. He slammed it shut again to the same success, drowning out my groan. I left Mom’s side and helped him.

“You can’t slam it. You have to just lightly place it down and then . . .” I hit the middle of the trunk with my fist and it locked shut with a click.

Boston looked from my trunk to my face a couple of times. What could I say? I needed a new car. But Mom needed her bills paid. Food and electricity came before a new car. Although now that I’d been in his Range Rover and inhaled its fancy new car smell, it was harder to look at my ten-year-old ride without cringing.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Boston said quietly.

I frowned. “Tell you what?”

“That I wasn’t paying you nearly enough.” His face made it look like he had a toothache bothering him.

Mom came up behind him silently, smacking Boston on the back before I could respond. “Good work, young man. Now I’m off to the house to eat some cookies. I always need cookies after they take half my blood.”

My jaw dropped. “You didn’t tell me they were drawing blood today. You said it was a simple doctor’s appointment.”

Mom shrugged and hobbled over to the driver’s side of my car before climbing in at half speed. “If I told you that you wouldn’t have let me drop you off and take the car.”

She slammed the door shut and started the engine. I huffed, wondering if someday I wouldn’t feel like the only responsible party in our relationship. Boston grabbed my hand and tugged me to his car, helping me get in and shutting my door.

After he climbed behind the wheel, he handed me his now-crumpled shirt and took off after my mom. “I think we should follow her home to make sure she gets there safely.”

I shook my head, staring at the back of my own car as Mom gunned it down the road without a single care for the spare tire that wasn’t designed for drag racing. “I’m so sorry. She’s a character.”

Boston smiled and I could feel it all the way to the tips of my toes. “Has she always been this way?”

I lifted an eyebrow sarcastically. “I would have had more parenting being raised by wolves.”

Boston tossed his head back and laughed. The sound eased my anger and made me turn to look at