“Toast and eggs, too?” Jason said, hand poised near the refrigerator door.

“Please.”

The shower turned off and Vincent came out singing, obnoxiously loud and completely naked. His long hair dripped water on the floor as he snatched a sausage from the plate and took a bite before heading up the stairs, shouting, “God, Manson, put a shirt on! You can’t be walking around half naked!”

“Has Lucas texted you yet?” Jason said. He slid a plate of food to me as he took a seat on the opposite side of the table. I shook my head, drenching my eggs with hot sauce before I dug in. “He’s on a good one this morning. Pissy as fuck.”

“I’ll talk to him,” I said. Jojo shoved her nose against my hip with an eager whine, and I slipped her a piece of sausage beneath the table. “We were up late in the shop. That Ford was way worse than we thought it would be. Engine sludge thick as fucking molasses.”

Jason made a face of disgust. He worked as a programmer, but he spent enough of his free time in the auto shop to know his way around, pitching in when Lucas and I got too swamped with repair jobs.

“Just a few more months and things will change,” he said. “No more shitbox cars once you get the next shop set up.”

I nodded in agreement. We were only a few months away from being able to list this old house for sale and get the hell out of Wickeston. Once we moved, Lucas and I planned to set up our next place as a true tuner shop. I took a hell of a lot of pride in my work and I couldn’t settle for being merely another community mechanic. No more fucking around with Granny’s slipping transmission or Uncle Pete’s blown engine. We wanted to be known for what we loved — building fast cars that could smoke the competition without fail.

As difficult as it was to eat, the food did settle my stomach. I cleared my plate by the time Vincent came back downstairs, finally fully clothed. He sat down beside Jason, smirking.

“Missing something this morning, J?” he said.

Jason gave him a long look. “Probably.”

“Something like your lighter, maybe?”

Jason shook his head with a sigh. “Let me guess — it’s behind my ear?”

Vincent opened his mouth in an exaggerated shock as he completed his favorite magic trick and pulled Jason’s lighter from his ear. “Damn, J, why are you keeping your lighter in your ear?” Jason groaned, and I hid my smile behind the last bite of toast.

As I was putting my plate in the sink, the front door creaked open, and Lucas poked his head inside. “Manson. Need to talk to you.”

“Hey, at least get some breakfast!” Jason said, but Lucas stalked off again as quickly as he had appeared. I glanced over at Vincent, who shook his head.