Legacy Read Online Free Page A

mother, put his arm around her, and gave her a kiss on the top of her head.
    “You might want to think about making yourself some coffee or something,” he said, heading toward his room. “I’m gonna call it a night.”
    And he left her there alone.
    Alone with the memories of her past, and what she believed to be her failures.
    Shaking off the cobwebs of deep sleep, Lucas pulled himself from beneath the sheet and saw that it was after eight.
    The garage was supposed to open at eight.
    He threw on some clothes, grabbed his wallet and his keys, and pulled open the door to his room.
    He half expected to see his mother still sitting at the kitchen table, but from the looks of it, she’d managed to get up and make it out to the diner on time. Lucas half recalled somebody knocking on his door and telling him it was time to get up, but he had decided it was only a dream and had rolled over.
    Locking up the trailer, he went to his truck.
    Mrs. Taylor was outside again, this time watering herplants in a spectacularly colored housecoat and a new, brunette wig. “Late again,” she called out, and began to cackle.
    Lucas shrugged and climbed behind the wheel of his truck. Within seconds, he peeled away from the trailer and was on his way to work.

3
    Lucas breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled into the gas station and saw that Big Lou’s gas-guzzling SUV was not in its usual spot alongside the office.
    But then he noticed the black Ford Mustang parked in front of the garage doors.
    A customer, waiting.
    Lucas parked his truck in the back and quickly ran to the front, searching through his key ring.
    He unlocked the door to the main office first, then flicked the switch to raise the doors to the service bay.
    A man had stepped from the waiting car, watching Lucas with an intense stare.
    “Morning,” Lucas said, walking around the garage and flipping on the lights. “What can I do for you?”
    The older man was dressed in black and walked with a cane. The haircut, clothes, and car all screamed that the guy was from the city, maybe from Texas.
    “It says you open at eight,” he said.
    “Yes, it does,” Lucas agreed with a polite smile.
    The man looked at his fancy watch. “And here it is close to eight-thirty.”
    Lucas looked at an imaginary watch on his own wrist. “Huh,” he said, tapping his wrist. “Must be slow.”
    The man chuckled. “I don’t mean to be rude, it’s just that I’ve been waiting for some time.”
    “Yeah, and I’m really sorry about that,” Lucas said. “Why don’t you tell me what I can do for you?”
    The man looked from Lucas to his car and back. “My car seems to be running a bit rough.”
    Lucas nodded. “Would you mind driving it in?”
    The older man limped back to the car, got behind the wheel, and drove the Mustang inside.
    “Leave it running and pop the hood, please,” Lucas told him.
    The old man silently did as he was told, then limped over to the workstation and leaned on the table to watch Lucas work.
    Lucas stuck his fingers beneath the hood, found the latch, and pushed it up, peering down into the engine. He immediately went to work checking off mental boxes as each item on the list met with his satisfaction.
    “Live around here?” the man asked from behind him.
    “Yeah,” Lucas responded as he checked the various hoses.
    “Lived here your whole life?” the older man continued.
    “My whole life,” Lucas repeated. He listened to the engine. It sounded fine to him.
    “Still in school?” the man asked.
    Lucas answered before he could really think about the question. “Should be, but I dropped out to work full-time.”
    “Hmmm, not too smart, was it?”
    Lucas pulled himself from beneath the hood. “I think it was,” he answered with annoyance.
Who the hell does this guy think he is?
“Wasn’t learning anything that would help me in the future, so I decided to start my career early and make some money.”
    The man looked around at the old garage. “Such a