"Uh," Steve said, clearly at a loss for words, "I'll tell you when you're older."
This answer was enough to satisfy Denise who happily began to skip around the garage, unaware of the several safety hazards that plagued the room. Steve however was all too aware of the ways she could get hurt.
He grabbed her at the waist and held her at arm's length. He set her in the only chair in the room. "Stay there." He said. Without looking back he picked up his tools and continued to tinker around the engine of the mustang he was working on before Denise and Soda had interrupted.
He didn't hear the pitter patter of feet until she appeared beside him, he didn't notice her until she whispered, "…Steve!"
"Gah! Jesus kid!" Steve nearly fell over backward; the girl cocked her head to the side and blinked her wide eyes at him.
"I told you to stay over there!" Steve snapped.
Denise was unaffected by Steve's gruffness. She'd already come to expect it from him. "I wanna help!" she wailed.
"Well you can't!" Steve said rolling his eyes and looking back to the engine resolutely.
Frowning Denise stepped back and circled the car, looking for something to amuse her. She found nothing. Lifting up her hand she let her fingers trail along the paint job. It felt slick and smooth, unlike the rusty texture of her mothers. Unfortunately Steve noticed and snapped at her, "Hey kid! Hands off the Mustang. This cost more than you'll make your whole life."
An exaggeration? Maybe. But he needed the kid to get out of his way.
"Steve!" she whined, "I'm bored!"
Steve sighed and looked at Denise. He thought for a moment, "Okay kid. C'mere." Denise obeyed.
"Alright, you see this?" He asked, pointing to the engine. "This is broken, we gotta' fix it." Denise nodded, rapt with attention.
"Okay, take this," Steve handed her a tool, "This is called a wrench, you use it to tighten screws. You see that screw there? Tighten it for me. To the right." He instructed her.
Denise nodded eagerly and followed Steve's instructions. Steve smiled, so maybe the kid wasn't so bad. "Okay," he said retrieving the wrench from her, "you see that tool box over there? Got get it for me." Once she left Steve tightened the screw just a bit more, after all a six year old girl could only get it so tight.
Denise used all the muscle the young girl possessed to drag the tool box over to Steve. "Here…ya go." She said, out of breath.
Steve grinned; he would tire her out yet!
With the help of young Denise Steve managed to fix up two cars with time to spare! Denise didn't do any real work, just ran around and grabbed him things and when she was in the way he'd tell her to look for something that he knew she'd never find, just to keep her occupied.
Steve was actually in a pretty good mood, he gave Denis a big high five when they finished with the second car. That's when they heard the voice, "Hello? Hello, is Steve there?" it was coming from around the car they had just finished.
Steve sighed, he'd planned on finishing up early and dropping Denise off with Soda as soon as Soda was done but if he had another car to fix he could be stuck here all day.
"Whadda' ya' want, lady?" Steve asked rudely, hoping to drive the customer off. Denis giggled at Steve's term.
"I'm looking for Steve Randle," said the women and it was then that Steve's noticed the voice was kind of familiar.
"That's me," Steve said rounding the car and running straight into Susan Channing. She was absolutely stunning and she showed no interest in Soda, Steve had been trying to get her to notice him for weeks! Denise glared at the girl.
"Hey, there Steve!" she said brightly, "I was wonderin' if, ah, maybe you'd want to go get some lunch with me?"
"Lunch? Ah, really?" Steve asked, and then kicked himself. He sounded like a damn fool!
She laughed, "Yes, really."
Had Soda put her up to this already? Maybe she'd some in the DX and Soda sent her round back?
Steve immediately scrapped that idea, Soda didn't work that fast, it would've taken months of cajoling to get him to set them up, even though he'd promised. That meant that Susan Channing was here of her own accord! It also meant that Steve had babysat Denise for no good reason.
Oh well, he wouldn't admit it but the girl had sort of helped.
Denise smiled, "I wanna go to lunch!" she cheered.
"Um, oh." said Susan, looking upset at the idea of taking a six year old along on her date.
Steve laughed and sent a glare at Denise, "No, kid, it'll just be Susan and me.
Denise glared at Steve, understanding what he meant, "I can't come?" she asked, angry.
"No." Steve snapped and Susan smiled, relieved.
"Oh yeah I'd love to get lunch with you," he told Susan checked his watch, it was 12:00 and Soda had promised to be here by 12:30, "just give me half an hour and I can go—"
"You mean you can't go now? Please? I have to go now; I've got work later." she sighed dramatically, "Oh well, maybe next time. I can go with Mike Seltz for today if—"
"No!" Steve yelled, "I mean, ah, no I can go now. Just give me one minute! I just gotta' find someone to watch the kid!"
Denise looked extremely upset; he was going to dump her off on someone? She looked at this other girl, Susan was her name, and frowned. Denise thought she was way prettier than Susan. Suddenly she smiled, "Hey Steve?" she asked.
"What?" Steve replied distractedly.
"Is Susan a whore?" Steve nearly choked on his tongue and Susan gasped. Denise didn't know what a whore was but she could tell that you didn't want to be one.
"No! No, no Denise. That…is a very bad thing to say!" to Susan, who looked very offended, he said, "She doesn't even know what that means!"
Steve looked around desperately for some type of savior to dump this loud mouth kid off on. His salvation came in the form of one Dallas Winston.
Sorry this was short. I don't know if this was my favorite chapter…tell me what you think.