Chapter 5
MICHELLE
T he bike’s brakes let out a honking screech as Michelle ground to a halt. Panting, she clambered off the unforgiving saddle and propped the bike against the low wall that ran around the scruffy forecourt of the Dalton Garage.
‘Thank heavens that’s over!’ she sighed, reaching up to remove the slightly too-tight helmet. It hadn’t felt too bad when she’d set off, but about ten minutes into the ride, it had started to feel like her head was inside a vice.
Michelle popped the offending torture device back into one of the panniers before reaching up to finger-comb the flattened circle out of her hair.
Urgh!
It was all hot and damp… and she had a feeling that, for the second day running, she probably looked like something that had been dragged through a hedge backwards.
Michelle wasn’t that surprised, though. What would normally have been an easy ride over from Crumbleton had been surprisingly treacherous. It might not be raining right now, but the roads were muddy, and the puddles were deep. Once again, her mother had been right.
Not that Michelle would ever admit it!
Giving up on trying to get her hair to behave, Michelle started to rummage in her pockets until she came up trumps with one of her ever-present hair bobbles.
Perhaps a perky ponytail would help her look cute instead of catastrophic.
It’d be nice if Danny’s second impression of her wasn’t quite as bad as his first…
not that Michelle cared what Danny Dalton thought.
At all!
After hauling her wayward hair into the bobble, Michelle did her best to brush herself down. Unfortunately, it did nothing to fix the fact that mud splatters dotted her denim-clad legs from ankles to knees.
Ah well, there wasn’t any point worrying about it now, was there?! She didn’t care what Danny Dalton thought…
‘Except, you clearly do!’ she muttered, straightening up. Why else would she have thought the exact same thing twice in as many seconds?!
Michelle was just trying to summon the courage to head across the forecourt in search of her car and the aforementioned bad boy, when a barking blur pelted around the corner, heading straight for her.
If she hadn’t met Elvis just yesterday, she might have been concerned.
Instead, Michelle’s face broke into the first proper smile of the morning - a smile that dissolved into laughter as the dog barrelled into her shins.
Elvis promptly threw himself onto his back and started to wriggle around, clearly begging for a belly rub.
‘Morning, you crazy old sausage!’ she chuckled, bending low to give him a tickle.
Elvis closed his eyes, revelling in a long, blissed-out sigh before bouncing back to his feet to run rings around her.
‘You’re a rubbish guard dog,’ laughed Michelle, watching as his tail wagged nineteen-to-the-dozen. He let out a little woof of agreement. ‘Come on then, let’s go find your dad.’
The word “dad” instantly made Michelle think of the feud between her own dad and Keith Dalton again. Blimey, she hoped she wouldn’t run into Mr Dalton! She’d never actually spoken to the guy, and she didn’t particularly want to start now.
A tug on her trouser leg made Michelle glance down, and her frown turned back into a grin. Elvis had a mouthful of her jeans, and he was clearly intent on taking her for a walk.
‘Sorry boy, I’m coming… just do me a favour and guard me from Grandpa Dalton if he turns up, okay?’
Elvis let go of her, wagged furiously, and hurtled off across the forecourt.
With a quick glance at the bike, Michelle followed the bouncing dog.
She didn’t get very far before her eyes were drawn to an abandoned showroom off to one side.
She wondered if that was the spot Elvis had taken shelter in when he’d first turned up.
A strange tingle ran down her spine, and she came to a complete stop, staring at the empty space.
The large windows were grimy, and weeds had sprouted through the surrounding concrete.
Swathes of scruffy dandelions bobbed in front of the boarded-up entrance.
Something about it was making Michelle’s heart hammer.
It felt… familiar somehow. Not that she’d ever been here before. This felt more like…
‘Love at first sight?’ she muttered, before quickly shaking her head. Maybe that bike ride had addled her brain! Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was looking at a blank canvas and she knew exactly what she wanted to paint on it.
An excitable bark broke the spell and Michelle turned, only to find Elvis waiting for her.
‘Sorry boy, I’m coming!’
The dog waited until he was sure she was following, before trotting on, clearly on a mission.
Less than a minute later, Michelle found herself staring through the open doors of the garage.
There, right in the middle of the floor, was her car, with a pair of ancient, oil-stained work boots sticking out from beneath it.
The faint, mumbling croon of a country song being mistreated drifted up to greet her.
With any luck, that was Danny under there… though she couldn’t be certain. Either way, Michelle wasn’t sure what to do next. The last thing she wanted to do was make the owner of the feet jump and clonk his head on her exhaust pipe!
She glanced around, looking for a solution, but two seconds later, she was saved from having to figure it out when the “singing” stopped abruptly.
‘Hello?’
Michelle let out a sigh of relief. Yep, that was Danny Dalton under there alright!
‘Hey, it’s me… erm… Michelle?’
‘Oh, hey! Give me just a sec…’
The feet scrambled about for a moment, and she wondered if Danny was trying to catch a glimpse of her.
‘Good news,’ he grunted, sounding slightly out of breath. ‘I managed to get it going.’
Shuffle, wriggle, shuffle.
‘That’s brilliant!’ she said, resisting the urge to fist-pump in triumph. Perhaps this was going to be simpler than she’d expected.
‘There’s a “but” attached, I’m afraid.’
This ominous statement was closely followed by a metallic clang and a curse as something dropped onto the concrete floor.
‘You okay?!’ said Michelle.
‘Yeah… yeah, sorry about that.’
She raised an eyebrow and watched as the oily boots scrabbled for purchase again. Then Danny Dalton emerged—inch-by-deliciously-grubby-inch—from beneath her car.
‘Hi!’ Michelle squeaked, resisting the urge to start twirling her hair between her fingers like a love-struck teenager. She couldn’t help it. The grin beaming up at her was practically enough to make her knees wobble.
‘Hey, fancy seeing you here,’ Danny chuckled, just before Elvis jumped on top of him and started to lick his face. ‘Get off, you idiot! Help…!’ he spluttered. ‘I’m going to drown!’
Michelle couldn’t help but laugh as she leaned forward. Taking hold of the excited dog’s collar, she dragged him off his owner with some difficulty.
‘Phew, thanks!’ said Danny, heaving himself to his feet and wiping his face with the back of one broad, decidedly muscly arm.
Michelle watched as he left streaks of grease across his face.
Hubba hubba!
‘What?’ said Danny when he caught her watching him.
‘Erm… you’ve got a bit of something…’ she said quickly, pointing vaguely at her own face. It wasn’t a lie, but “a bit of something” definitely wasn’t the reason she was staring.
‘Oops!’ he laughed. Leaning over, he grabbed a rag from a nearby workbench and gave his face a cursory wipe before starting to rub his hands.
Michelle still couldn’t tear her eyes away.
For some reason, he seemed taller than last night.
The fabric of his grey work shirt stretched across his chest, his muscles flexing and releasing as he scrubbed at the oil stains.
She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry as her eyes raked his mop of dark hair.
She wondered what it would feel like to run her fingers through it.
When Danny looked back up at her, there was a decidedly mischievous grin playing at the corners of his mouth. Had he just caught her staring?
Michelle quickly gave herself a little shake. She needed to say something.
‘But…?’ she said.
‘Huh?’ said Danny, looking confused.
‘Under there,’ she said, pointing at the car and feeling mildly stupid. ‘Before there was that crash. You said the car’s running, but there’s a but …?’
‘Oh, yeah, right,’ said Danny, tossing the rag aside and running his hands through his hair. Michelle followed the movement hungrily before shaking her head again. Focus, she had to focus!
‘ But … it feels like a bit of a miracle the car’s running at all. There are a few bits… erm… missing.’
‘Missing?’ said Michelle in surprise.
‘I found a couple of parts in the glove compartment, actually.’
‘Blame my ex-boyfriend,’ she said quickly, the words tumbling out in a rush. ‘He borrowed my car all the time, and every time he came back, something else had fallen off. Of course, it was never his fault. He only drove it to save himself fuel. He was a nightmare. He…’
Michelle clapped a hand over her mouth. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to get stuck in and have a proper rant about Lawrence’s many failings, and this really wasn’t the place.
‘Your ex?’ said Danny. For some reason, he was looking weirdly cheerful. ‘The one you went to pick your boxes up from yesterday?’
‘Yeah. That one,’ said Michelle, doing her best not to sound like she was growling. It wasn’t Danny’s fault that anything to do with Lawrence turned her into a bear with a sore head.
‘Anyway, the car,’ said Danny. ‘It’s like I said, it’s running. You can drive it away if you want. Thing is, if you do that, I don’t think you’ll get very far.’
‘Oh,’ said Michelle, her heart sinking. ‘Well… that’s not good.’
Danny cocked his head. ‘You’re welcome to leave it here, and we can see what we can do. I can’t promise anything, though.’
‘Right,’ said Michelle.
Damn. Her plan had officially gone sideways.
‘Did you get a lift over?’ he said.
Michelle shook her head. ‘I borrowed Mum’s bike.’
‘Ah. That explains it,’ said Danny. He looked like he was biting back a grin again.
‘Explains what?’ said Michelle, the growl still evident in her voice.
‘The splatter pattern up your… erm… back?’
Nooooo!
Instinctively, Michelle twisted around in an attempt to get a view of her behind. Sure enough, she could just about see a soggy stripe of muddy splatters right up her legs and across her bum.
Clapping her hands to it in an attempt to rub it off, her palms came into contact with sticky, gooey mud.
Gross!
‘Here,’ said Danny, grabbing the rag again and holding it out to her.
‘Thanks,’ she muttered, wishing he’d wipe that grin off his face. She took the rag and scrubbed at her hands, instantly swapping some of the mud for engine oil.
‘So… I’m guessing you’d prefer not to cycle back to town?’ he said. By this point, his shoulders were shaking with suppressed mirth.
‘Not sure I’ve got much of a choice,’ huffed Michelle.
‘Maybe we can lend you a car until we’ve got a better idea what we’re dealing with here?’ said Danny, patting the roof of her old banger. It answered with the faint sound of showering rust.
Michelle winced.
Still… borrow a car? From the Daltons? Her dad would have an absolute fit. Maybe she should just hightail it out of there with her heap of rust and be done with it? She could drive away and pretend last night never happened.
Or… she could leave the car with Danny and accept a temporary replacement. At least that way, she’d have a built-in excuse to see him again.
‘I’m not sure what we have around the back at the moment,’ said Danny, apparently oblivious to her internal conundrum. ‘Our usual loaner’s already out until the end of the week, but I’m sure we’ve got something else you could borrow. You can come and have a look if you want?’
‘Okay… yes please,’ she said with a little nod.
Whatever it was, she could probably hide it from her dad for a few days, couldn’t she? Maybe she could leave it parked in the town carpark… or something. She’d just have to cross that bridge when she came to it.
‘Coming?’ said Danny with a broad grin.
Elvis glanced up at her, his tail swishing from side to side.
‘Lead the way.’