Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Talk about awkward…
MacKenzie sat in silence as they drove through the storm.
Beside her, Devin was soaked to the skin.
And yet she’d never seen a sexier man. He was beyond tall–easily six feet.
Although being only five-three herself, everyone was tall.
With jet black hair and whiskey-colored eyes, he was damn near drool worthy.
And if he looked this good soaking wet, she could only imagine how he’d look when he was dry.
Yum.
By the time he had gotten her car hitched to the pickup, you could barely see your hand in front of your face. She kind of felt bad about that. Hell, she’d even offered to help him, but he was more concerned with her getting out of the rain.
Clearly the man had some manners.
They had only been on the road for about fifteen minutes when she heard him mutter a curse.
“What? What’s the matter?”
“I’m not feeling good about this,” Devin answered. “My visibility is crap, and I can feel the car swaying back there. According to the GPS, there’s a town coming up. I think we need to pull over and wait out the storm.”
In her mind, she knew it made sense, but she was hating this turn of events. Why couldn’t something just go right for her? Was she destined to have bad luck forever?
Devin looked over at her when she didn’t respond. “I’m only doing it to protect your car.” His tone was slightly defensive.
“I know, I know,” she said quickly. “And I appreciate it. Really, if we find a diner or something, you can take the car off the hitch and I’ll hang out here until your truck can come and get it.
Or I’ll ask around and see if there’s a mechanic here.
Believe me, I am so thankful that you stopped and helped, but I don’t expect you to give up any more of your time. ”
He didn’t respond, but he pulled off at the next exit and right there at the end of the ramp was a diner.
Devin parked along the far side of the building–no easy task with the Mustang trailing behind him–and cut the engine.
When he turned and looked at MacKenzie, he looked more than a little pissed.
“I realize you don’t know me,” he began mildly, his voice in complete contrast with the look on his face, “but I am not the type of person who would leave a woman at a rest stop with a broken-down car and no way of knowing if she was going to be okay.”
“Devin…”
He held up a hand to stop her. “Look, I’m sure we could go inside and ask around if there’s a mechanic here in town. Chances are there is. But I don’t know anything about them and neither do you.”
“I don’t know anything about you as a mechanic either,” she argued softly.
That stopped him for a minute. “Okay. Fine. You’re right. But…” He stopped and cursed again. “I know I can fix your car. I know I can not only fix it, but I can have it running better than it ever has.”
She cocked a brow at his arrogance. “You have no idea how my car runs. For all you know…”
“The engine is a mess and hasn’t had real maintenance for a while,” he interrupted.
“Hey!”
“Oil changes don’t count. I have been working on cars for almost my entire life.
People come from miles around to have me work on their cars, trucks, and motorcycles.
” He pulled his phone off the dash and handed it to her.
“Google it. Go on Yelp. You’ll see for yourself that I am one of the best in the business at what I do. ”
MacKenzie looked at the phone in his hand and then back to his face. She wanted to be angry, at the very least annoyed. And yet one look at his strong jaw and those sexy eyes and she’d almost be willing to just give him the damn car.
“That car is a classic,” he went on. “I bet back in the day it was a damn dream to drive. Most guys get a hard-on just thinking about driving a car like that. It’s a shame it’s in such a state of disrepair.”
He let that one hang and MacKenzie had to admit, she kind of felt guilty about not babying the car more. When her father had given it to her, she had promised to love it like he had.
But she hadn’t.
She couldn’t.
Why? Because she had rotten luck. Crappy job. Crappy boyfriend. She stopped herself right there. This was supposed to be the start of her new life, a promising life, and dammit, she wasn’t going to cry or…
“Oh…oh, shit, MacKenzie,” Devin said. “I’m sorry. Don’t cry.” His voice was laced with panic as he began looking around for…something. “I know I have napkins or tissues in here somewhere. Just…don’t cry!”
She couldn’t believe she’d actually started getting emotional in front of a stranger!
And really, how could she possibly have any tears left?
She figured after all the crying in the rain she did before Devin pulled up that she’d be done.
Most of her life, she’d never been a crier.
Just the thought of crying in front of anyone–even her closest friends–was beyond her own comprehension.
She was just about to comment on it when a box of tissues appeared right in front of her face.
“Here.”
Taking it, she plucked out a tissue and glared at Devin. “Thanks.”
“I know I was being a little condescending, but…I really want to do this. I know it’s crazy, but I know I can do a better job than anyone else.”
Slapping the box of tissues down, she stared at him. Hard. “Why is this so important to you? It’s beyond inconvenient! By now, you could be home in Sweet Bear or wherever the hell it is you’re from!”
“Sweetbriar,” he corrected. “It’s Sweetbriar Ridge.”
“Okay. Fine. Whatever. But you see my point, right? You could be home now. Your wife or whoever is probably waiting for you.”
“I’m not married.”
Ugh…why did I even say that?
“Then…you’d be out of the rain.”
“I’m out of the rain now too,” he countered.
MacKenzie rolled her eyes. “Yes. You’re sitting in your truck in some random diner’s parking lot out of the rain. Yay for you,” she added sarcastically.
It was his turn to give her a dry look. “All I’m saying is that I don’t mind doing this for you. I don’t mind the waiting. I just really want a chance to work on the Mustang.”
“Why?” she cried, although she had a sneaky suspicion she knew.
It was the car. It was a guy magnet. Her ex had begged her constantly to let him drive it or to sell it to him, but she never would, which was probably one of the reasons he started screwing around on her.
But the Mustang was more than just a car to her.
It was a part of her family. It had been her dad’s first car and he restored it–not professionally–but he did it all himself and MacKenzie could still remember sitting in the yard on a Saturday and watching him work.
It was the car she learned to drive in.
It was the car she drove to college in.
It was her last link to her dad.
There was no way she could entrust it to just anyone. She slid a look at Devin and saw the longing on his face and she wanted to tell him no–she really did–but there was something about him she wanted to trust, to believe.
And she seriously hoped she wasn’t making another huge mistake.
“I guess we can talk about it a little more over coffee…”
His entire face lit up like he’d just gotten the best Christmas present in the world. “That’s great! Trust me, this is going to be awesome! You won’t regret it!”
But she already had a feeling she would.
Three hours, two cheeseburgers, four colas, two coffees, and two slices of pie later, Devin looked up to see one of his tow trucks pulling into the parking lot.
Part of him wanted to sag with relief while the other part was damn near giddy that he had finally convinced MacKenzie to give him a chance.
During their long break at the diner, he had managed to find out quite a few things about her. For starters, she didn’t trust easily, and she certainly didn’t trust people with the Mustang.
If he were in her shoes, he’d feel the exact same way.
She was driving west–most likely to Oregon–but had no real end destination in mind.
Apparently her mother lived there, but she hadn’t seen or spoken to her in over ten years.
Even though he wanted to point out that her mother might not live there anymore, it didn’t seem helpful.
Her father passed away several years ago and she had no other family.
Basically, she was just looking to start over.
Behind her was a cheating ex-boyfriend, a crappy, dead-end job, and not much else.
He had a feeling everything she owned was in that Mustang, and it just made him sad for her.
For the life of him, Devin couldn’t imagine packing up and leaving everything he knew behind.
Sweetbriar Ridge was his life–he was born and raised there and he planned on staying there.
He could relate to the cheating ex thing.
Yeah, it was a blow to the ego, but in the end, she was better off.
Which is exactly what he’d told her, and she had quickly changed the subject.
Which brought them back to the topic of the car.
And fixing it.
Sweetbriar Ridge was a great town, but there wasn’t a whole lot there for MacKenzie to do while he worked on the Mustang. She was going to need a place to stay and–depending on what he found when he got the car up on the lift–she might need to stay for more than a day or two.
Possibly a week if he was being realistic.
“Surely there’s a hotel in town,” she said, interrupting his thoughts.
“There’s a B&B. Well, two of them now, actually. But there’s a big high school reunion coming up next weekend, and we’re gearing up for a major festival to celebrate the re-opening of the local ski resort.”
“In June? Seriously?”
That made him laugh because on the surface, it did seem a bit odd to open a ski resort in the summertime.
“Obviously it won’t be for skiing,” he explained.
“Not yet anyway. Summit Ridge closed down like…fifteen years ago, I think. It was in a total state of disrepair and now some big investor came in and fixed it all up and re-opening it.”