Mason
I'd worked with a lot of mechanics over the years, but I'd never worked with anyone who moved through an engine the way Zoe did. Like she wasn't just repairing it, like she was having a conversation with it, patient and unhurried even when her hands were covered in grease up to the wrist.
We started on my bike first, since it needed the least structural work, just the timing chain and tensioner she'd diagnosed by ear on the first day. I handed her tools before she asked for them, and more than once she did the same for me, both of us falling into a rhythm that felt easier than it had any right to, given everything hanging over us.
"So explain this championship to me," she said, tightening a bolt with quiet precision. "Because I still don't fully understand why three grown men are
