Chapter 4
Chapter 4
B abs heard a loud pop and the car began to shimmy, veering wildly to the right. Though it had never happened to her before, she somehow knew she’d blown a tire. And thanks to one of her exes insisting she take a defensive driving course, she knew what to do. Previously she would have gone with her instinct to pull to the other side and overcorrect, probably spinning into oncoming traffic. Instead she flipped on her hazards, eased off the gas pedal, and calmly and gently glided to a stop on the berm at the side of the road. Then she remained frozen, staring straight ahead as she white-knuckled the steering wheel and imagined all the ways it could have gone wrong.
To her left cars whizzed by at eighty miles an hour. Semis barreled by her, shaking the car with their speed and size. Babs fought the semi-hysterical desire to cry. There were so many ways that could have gone wrong, and now she was going to be late.
She pulled out her phone and fired a text to Maggie.
Blew a tire on the freeway. I’m going to call the auto club to come change it. Tell Ridge I’m sorry.
Ridge wants you to be safe. Want him or Blue or Ethan to come get you?
Babs did, very much. She wasn’t the independent sort who liked to do things for herself. She liked to be taken care of, preferably by the nearest capable man. Unfortunately for her there was never one nearby when she needed him most, and now was no exception. The hotel was an hour away and Ridge, Ethan, and Blue were all too essential to come to her pathetic rescue.
Absolutely no. I just feel bad about being late.
No worries, seriously. It’s a soft op, emphasis on soft. BE SAFE and text if you need anything, we’ll come.
Babs sent her a smiley face in return and called the auto club. She was on hold for ten minutes. With the holiday rush, it was going to be ninety minutes before they could get to her. Ninety minutes of white knuckling it on the side of one of the busiest freeways in the country. Merry Christmas to me, she thought, resting her head on the seat behind her. Why did it seem like things always happened to her? She was always that person who broke a shoe and had to limp, got the flu at pivotal moments, and had car trouble at the start of what was supposed to be a fun working holiday.
A knock on her window startled her so badly she screamed. Surely the auto club hadn’t arrived already, had they? It had only been five minutes. But when she glanced up, a man was peering in at her, a handsome man, tall and well dressed with dark hair and blue eyes. He smiled and motioned for her to roll down her window. She did so, after belatedly remembering to crank the car to power the windows.
“Need some help?” he asked.
“Are you from the auto club?” she asked. She glanced behind her but he wasn’t driving a tow truck. He had a sedan, like her.
“No, but you’re kind of a sitting duck here,” he motioned behind him to the steady flow of traffic. It hadn’t slowed. If anything, it had gotten thicker and faster. He was taking his life in his hands by stopping, to say nothing of the fact that he was standing alongside her car, perilously close to traffic. “Do you have a spare?”
“Yes,” she said, but it came out like a question. She assumed she had one, didn’t everyone? But she had no idea what to do with it.
“May I?” he asked, indicating he wanted to reach into the car.
She nodded, stupefied, as he opened her door, crouched, and popped the trunk. Babs eased out on the non-death side of the road and went to join him at the back of her car. He lifted a flap and, sure enough, a spare stared back at her.
“I have no idea how to change a tire,” she confessed.
“Too bad, because you are on your own here, missy. I’m a tire finder, not a tire changer.”
She blinked up at him, amazed to see he was smiling down at her in what could only be interpreted as flirtatiously.
“I’m joking,” he added when she continued to stare at him in mute surprise. “This will only take a minute.”
“Can I do anything to help?” she asked, finally finding her voice.
“No, but a hundred bucks would go a long way toward hurrying me along,” he said.
She reached for her purse. He put out his hand, stilling her without touching.
“That was me, once again trying to ease the stress of this situation for you and apparently failing greatly. I don’t want money or anything else. Honestly, this will take a second. Sit tight.” He easily lifted the spare out of the trunk, followed by a tire iron she had no idea she possessed, and deftly removed the shredded tire, replacing it with the donut.
Babs leaned close to inspect the process. “That bolt’s not straight.”
He leaned closer, squinting. “What?”
“That was me, trying to joke away the tension and failing greatly.”
“I can only dish it out, never take it,” he said turning to smile up at her over his shoulder. Have mercy he had a nice smile, wide with a double row of pearly teeth. She was sorely tempted to ask for his number, but it was only last week she swore off dating for a while. He finished tightening the last bolt and replaced the tire iron in the back of her car, along with what was left of the shredded tire. His hands were a mess. Babs reached into her glove compartment and removed a travel pack of baby wipes.
“You come prepared,” he said, smiling the heart stopping smile again as he took the wipe and cleaned his hands.
“It’s not my first time being stuck on this expressway. You learn a thing or two,” she said.
“Is it always this busy?” he asked, motioning to the blur of traffic beside them.
“Always,” she said. She tossed a glance at his car and saw it had Florida plates. Good thing she hadn’t asked for his number. He lived a few states away, but that was her luck. Finally meet a nice guy and he’s not a local. “Thank you so incredibly much for this. You win the Good Samaritan of the decade award. I would have been here more than another hour, and I’m late for work already.”
“You are more than welcome.” He gave her another smile and, have mercy, added a little wink. She had a thing about winking. For whatever reason, she found it ridiculously attractive. Maybe because it took a certain amount of confidence to pull it off. Whatever the reason, her mystery rescuer was apparently her ideal man, and how apropos that he was from out of town. Still, what did it hurt to flirt a bit? He was doing it; she might as well join in.
She reached out to squeeze his impressive bicep and gave him a smile in return. “I don’t know how, and I don’t know when, but I’m going to find a way to repay you for this kindness.”
“That sounds more than a little intriguing. You go first. I want to make certain you get on the road safely.”
“’Kay,” she said, resisting the urge to giggle like a schoolgirl. Whoever he was, he had the chivalrous thing in spades, enough to make her swoon, if she let herself. Which she wouldn’t because he was an out of town stranger and she was—supposedly—a twenty nine year old professional on her way to work.
Thoughts of her job jarred her to action. She tossed her rescuer one more smile, slid behind the wheel, and—after finding a miraculous opening—took off, speeding toward work, hoping she wasn’t too late.
M eanwhile Maggie felt like she was on the cusp of a nervous breakdown. They arrived first at the resort. Ridge said it was because he was in charge and needed to make certain things were in order, but Maggie knew the truth; he was desperate to get away from her brother. Truth be told, she was, too. Thanks to Darren, they now knew an underground water reserve hovered under their house, waiting to cause future havoc. He had been excited and enthused by the prospect.
This is the advantage of having a geologist for a brother. Too bad you didn’t have me take a look before you bought the place.
That was when Ridge took Smoky for another walk, his third of the morning. It was the first time since they owned the dog that he hid under the bed at the sight of his leash.
And now they were at the hotel and there had been a massive mixup with their reservations. Everyone had a place but Darren. The hotel was hinting they could bring a rollaway bed and let him sleep in their room. Maggie couldn’t stop picturing Ridge’s face if that came about.
“Do you have any closets, the laundry chute, ice room, something, ” she pled as the harried clerk resumed typing, frantically searching for a solution. Maggie had never been more tempted to use Blue for ill gain, to have him hack the system and cancel someone else.
“I made it,” Babs announced triumphantly to her right.
“Oh, I’m so glad,” Maggie said, giving her a sideways hug. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You got here fast,” Maggie noted.
“Someone stopped and changed the tire for me,” Babs said, gratitude and a bit of awe heavy in her tone.
“Really? That’s so great. It’s nice to know there are still good people in the world.”
“What’s wrong?” Babs asked, sobering at the sight of Maggie’s stressed features.
Maggie motioned toward the desk, not caring that the clerk was eavesdropping. “They lost Darren’s room.” Maggie gripped Babs’s biceps. “If he has to stay in our room, Cam might actually leave me.”
Babs laughed. “I seriously doubt that, but there has to be some room somewhere.” They both turned toward the clerk who shook her head. Babs let out a breath. “He can stay with me. I have a double.”
“You’d let some strange guy stay in your room?” Maggie said.
“It sounds bad when you put it that way, but he’s your brother. I’m assuming that rules him out as a serial killer.” Based on Maggie’s description of him, he was a hapless, opinionated little nerd. He might annoy her, but she could put up with anything for a few days, especially to help Maggie.
“No, and he has really good manners, he’s not a slob or anything. It’s just such an imposition. You’re not going to have any privacy for days,” Maggie said, but if the way she was still gripping her arms was any indication, she had already mentally latched on to the plan.
“It’s fine, no biggie,” Babs said.
“Oh, my goodness, you win all the Christmas bonus points,” Maggie said, crushing her in a fast, fierce hug. They turned toward the clerk. Babs finished checking in and took her bags to her room to settle in. She should probably stake a claim on which bed she wanted before the brother arrived, but she didn’t actually care which bed he took, so she left her things in a tidy stack in the center of the room.
When she reached the conference room, everyone was already there, but they’d barely begun. Currently Ethan stood at the front of the room giving a lecture on paper volume. Ethan was their go-to guy, the one who physically went into the field and retrieved information. To see him now standing at the front of a conference room giving a lecture on the sustainability of wood pulp was nothing less than hilarious. He’d even added fake glasses to the mix and kept pushing them up using a scrunched nose motion he probably thought looked geek appropriate but in reality was still somehow ridiculously attractive. He was exactly the kind of guy Babs usually went for, and she had been attracted to him at first meeting, but the feeling hadn’t been mutual and she quickly forgot him. And then he and Amelia got married. Now she got to enjoy looking at him with none of the pesky feelings of actual attraction getting in the way; his eye candy status was a win for everybody.
Their cover was pretending to work for the company they actually worked for. Because their agency was secret, it was fronted by an accounting firm that supposedly handled accounting for other government agencies, hence the layers of security needed to get into the building. Only people in the know realized they dealt in secrets and not currency. It was a fun change to do what they supposedly did, and everyone was getting in on the act. Blue had created a thirty minute video detailing the new accounting software he invented to streamline their jobs.
“Did you actually invent new software?” Babs whispered.
He nodded, smiling. “I’m going to charge ridiculous amounts of money for it. Daddy needs a new Jaguar.”
“Daddy needs to stop calling himself Daddy,” Maggie inserted, causing them to snicker. Ridge tossed them a look, and they snickered harder.
“Now seems like a good time to break for lunch,” Ridge said. “Take a few to freshen up. This afternoon we’ll have a guest lecture.”
“Best conference ever,” Blue said, holding his hand aloft. Babs high fived her agreement.
She slicked her tongue over her furry teeth with a grimace. Why had she eaten that cookie? Because it was there, she thought. And it had been delicious. Since Maggie discovered Piedmont Bonvoy’s girlfriend’s baking talents, the office never lacked for baked goods. Not that it had before. Maggie had her own talent of seeking out the best food. Babs decided to slip to her room and brush her teeth before the next round of “meetings.” And because she’d indulged in said cookie, she decided to take the stairs. She sprinted up seven flights of stairs, arriving winded and breathless outside her door.
She pulled out her key and inserted it, momentarily forgetting her impending roommate. When she pushed open the door and saw strange luggage sitting beside hers, she froze, momentarily panicked until she remembered. Maggie’s brother, right.
She could hear him in the bathroom. She gripped the door and pasted on an unconvincing smile. Then he exited the bathroom and her smile fled. “You.”