Revving Her Up(4)

“No problem, Austin. Happy to lend a hand.” Cole slapped the other man on the back.

“So you can fix it?” Austin asked.

“Wait a minute,” Sarah said, raising a hand. “What about the Porsche dealership? You said they were on their way.”

Austin made a dismissive motion with his hand. “Those guys are coming all the way from Richmond. They won’t be here for ages. Besides, Cole knows more about cars than all them guys put together.”

Cole spoke before she could deliver the retort that sprang to her lips. “It’ll take the guys from Richmond a while to get here. I might be able to diagnose your problem a bit sooner.” He paused. “If that’s okay with you.”

Austin’s mouth dropped open. “If it’s okay with her? Honey, this man is not just any mechanic. He builds stock car engines for the Cup series! He could fix your vehicle with his eyes closed. Do you have any idea how much—?”

“Okay?” Cole asked.

She took a deep breath. He had a point. The Porsche guys were still miles away. While she had no idea of what stock cars were, if Cole was half as good as Austin promised, he might be able to speed her deliverance from this podunk town.

She looked into his eyes. He could help her. He wanted to help her. And she wanted nothing more than to step into the circle of his arms and lean on that strong chest while he made this whole mess go away…

Where the hell had that come from?

Alarmed at the direction of her thoughts, Sarah took a step back and nodded. She pretended to study the bent front wheel. “Yeah. Sure.”

Austin turned to Cole. “So, what do you think?”

“It looks like a busted tie rod, but I wanna get it up on the lift to be sure. Any word on Frankie’s truck?”

Austin shook his head. “It’ll be a while. Frankie needs that truck to get his vegetables to the farmers’ market on Wednesday. He won’t leave till it’s fixed.”

Sarah looked up. “And that would be…?” The old clunker looked as if it would rust right off the lift if she waited long enough.

Austin scrubbed his hand across his scalp, leaving black streaks on his forehead. “Can’t rightly say. It’ll take at least a couple of hours to—”

“A couple of hours?” Sarah said, her exasperation returning. “That’s not acceptable. I’ve already been here for hours.”

Austin cleared his throat. “See here, honey,” he said slowly as if speaking to a child. “I—”

That was it. “Honey? Honey? I—”

Cole stepped between them. “The lift at my place is empty. I can look at it over there.”

She turned to Cole. “You have a lift?” It was the first good news she’d heard all afternoon.

“You would do that?” Austin asked at the same time, sounding amazed. “With the season opening soon you must be busier than a honeybee in a field of flowers. I don’t want to—”

“Well, I do,” Sarah said, stopping Austin’s protest with a raised hand. “If you have a garage, I want to take it there now.”

Austin’s brows rose and the two men exchanged a look. Sarah bit back a sigh. She knew she wasn’t making any friends here, but didn’t they realize that she had better places to be?

“Fine with me,” Cole said. “Really, it’s no problem.”

What was the big deal? A garage is a garage. Still, she tried to make amends. “I’ll pay extra if I have to.”

Cole shook his head. “That won’t be necessary. I’m happy to give Austin a hand.”

Austin, not her. She should keep that in mind.

“Thanks, man,” Austin said. “That’d be a really big help. I’ll get Mike to hitch it up again.” He turned to Sarah. “Honey, you have no idea of how lucky you are to be in this man’s hands. He’s a legend.”

Sarah ignored the “honey” as her gaze dropped to Cole’s large, oil-stained hands. Legendary for what? The fingers waved and she glanced up to see Cole grinning.

“Ur, thanks,” she said, the heat returning to her cheeks.

“My pleasure,” Cole said with a smile.

Oh, really?





Chapter Three

Sarah supervised the hitching of her car onto the tow truck. When she was confident it was secure, she turned to Cole. “Your garage is nearby, I presume.”

“Little ways down the road. We can take my truck.” He made an after-you gesture toward the blue pickup she’d seen earlier. Daylight was fading and a cool breeze kicked around Sarah’s ankles. She slipped her coat back on, glad that she’d thought to grab it from the car. They approached the truck and Cole stepped forward to open the passenger door. He held the door and Sarah realized he was waiting for her to get in so he could close it after her. She found herself pleased and irritated by the gesture. Irritated because she was pleased.