As Brett’s gaze lowered back to the road, he noticed a dark smudge on the side of his hand attached to the steering wheel. He had washed up before leaving the shop, but he always seemed to miss a spot. Sighing, he rubbed the offending mark against the thigh of his jeans to remove it. That was just something that came with the territory of working in a dirty environment.

And with as many hours as he’d put in lately? God, he’d never be able to get all the oil stains off his hands and black grease out from under his nails. Unless, of course, he scrubbed them until they were raw…which always hurt like hell.

Didn’t matter though. It would all be worth it when he finally had a garage of his own. That was the only thing he’d ever wanted. Well, maybe not the only thing. There had been something—or rather someone—else. Unfortunately, that relationship hadn’t panned out as he’d hoped, and the two of them had parted ways last year.

No, idiot. She dumped you. There was nothing mutual about it.

Brett cringed at the familiar stab of regret slicing into his chest. The same one he’d felt many times before. But the last thing he needed right now was to think about the woman he lost and wonder what could’ve been. So he let out an exasperated breath and shoved the guilt and pain into a mental storage locker and kicked it to the back of the closet in his brain to be dealt with later. He didn’t have time for that shit right now.

After spending almost an entire year being miserable, he was finally close to getting the only other thing that had ever truly mattered to him. He needed to keep his focus on the here and now. He’d worked hard for months to make his dreams come true, and he was proud of how far he’d come. He wasn’t going to allow anything to stand in the way of that. Especially when it came to his past.

Brett motored down the window, allowing the cool evening breeze to whip through the interior of his oversized truck. Though it was the beginning of January, winters in South Texas were considerably different than in northern regions. Unless a frontal system blew in, it wasn’t actually all that cold. Especially during the day. If anything, this kind of weather was what most people referred to as “nice fall weather.” But once the sun fell below the horizon, the temperature would usually drop considerably.

Glancing down at his cargo jeans and stained white T-shirt, Brett shrugged. He didn’t have a jacket with him, but he wasn’t planning on standing outside in the night air very long anyway. He’d be fine.