Chapter 1
For the most part, Veronica Edwards enjoyed her work.
As the only female on staff at Marty’s Motor Repair, she enjoyed her position as lead technician.
Despite how much Veronica loved her career with the company, it did little to help loosen the bolt beneath the oil pan she was trying to drain.
When it suddenly broke free, spewing the warm, thick liquid down her arm, she cursed.
The wrench she was using went flying across the concrete floors, getting to a stop only when it collided with the far wall.
Immediately, she jumped into action, cleaning off her arm as she moved to go pick up the tool.
She didn’t lose her temper often, preferring instead to use her brains over bronze.
With the week coming to an end, though, she was anxious to be done with the day and move on to the evening hours.
The others had already left, their areas cleaned, and the vehicles they were working on parked for the night.
She wasn’t about to let a basic oil change get the best of her.
The customer was waiting. As soon as she was finished, she would get washed up and get out of there.
That wasn’t going to happen by chucking tools across the floor.
Jim Barnes, the shop foreman, must have heard the commotion as he came out of the office and saw her picking up the wrench.
Just as she reached down and picked it up, she noticed the man starting to chuckle.
Veronica hated causing a scene in front of anyone, but sometimes the life of a mechanic could be stressful.
Knowing her boss had witnessed her losing her temper, she smiled to herself.
“I take it things are going just as you planned it,” Jim said.
Veronica grinned. “I didn’t expect it to be such a pain in the ass, but I finally got the bastard loose. If you give me another fifteen minutes or so, I should have the customer on their way.”
“It’s not a problem at all. Going off the estimated time that I gave to the customer, you still have at least thirty minutes left on the job time. I’m not worried in the slightest.”
“With how long I was underneath the car, I definitely felt like I was getting ready to go over my allotted time.”
“As long as you keep it within that fifteen minutes you just said it was going to take, I don’t see there being any issues. I’m more than happy to give you a hand if you’d like.”
She snorted. “There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that I’m going to allow you to help me. You’d never let me live it down.”
The friendly banter was a running joke between the two.
Veronica rarely asked for help on a job unless she couldn’t figure it out on her own.
There was nothing complicated about the oil change.
She was simply battling the bolts. Rolling her eyes at Jim, Veronica returned to the vehicle in question and watched as the oil finished draining into the pan below.
Moving quickly, she finished up the job and brought all of her paperwork to Jim, where he was making small talk with the customer in the office.
The customer looked slightly shocked to see a woman standing there in the mechanic’s uniform and covered in grease, grime, and metal shavings.
It was a look Veronica was accustomed to.
People were always a little shocked when they discovered what her career choice was.
Though she didn’t have the same brawn as some of her coworkers, she had the brains to work around that shortcoming.
Veronica had always enjoyed mechanics, though she dabbled in engineering as well in her free time.
Moving to the wash station, she got cleaned up before clocking out for the evening.
As she finished washing the oil and grease off her arms and hands, she heard the office door swing open and saw Jim come out.
Before he even said a word, her boss had the biggest grin on his face.
Pulling a few paper towels out of the roll hanging on the wall, Veronica started the dry off her hands as her foreman made his way in her direction.
Extending his hand, she looked down to see a twenty-dollar bill with a sticky note attached to it.
“What’s this?”
Jim smiled. “The customer of the car you just worked on wanted me to give you this as a tip.”
“I figured that much, but what is with the note?” Veronica asked.
“He didn’t want me to give you the tip unless it came along with his number. Sounds to me like you made quite the impression.”
Veronica rolled her eyes and took the money. Jim chuckled in a way she knew he was making fun of her. Going with the first thing that crossed her mind, she quickly peeled off the sticky note and stuck it to his chest. As she grinned at the man, he just continued to laugh at her.
“I have no problem taking the man’s money, and I definitely appreciate the offer, but it’s going to be a hard pass for me.”
“So, you’re just going to take his money but not give him the time of day?”
“The money is more important. It’s just another step closer to getting my dream bike.”
“I understand that. I have to tell you, though, you are definitely a hard woman to get a read on.”
“As much as I love to sit around and chat with you, the workday is done, and I’m getting the hell out of here.”
Stepping out into the humid California air, Veronica took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a split-second.
She would never tire of the heat. The vast majority of her family still lived back in her home state of Colorado, But Veronica had left the family and the business behind in search of greener pastures.
Now, four years after having left home on her eighteenth birthday, Veronica had no regrets.
When she thought of her family, of the people she’d left behind, there was a faint glimmer of guilt and loss within her.
It was short-lived, though, as she tucked the emotions back down again.
She had made her decision and them theirs.
There was nothing stopping them from paying her a visit, yet in all the time she’d called California home, only Conner and Bryson, her older and younger brothers, had visited.
Their parents still refuse to leave the family land and make the trip to California, citing their constant need to tend to the property as an excuse.
Veronica knew better, though. She understood just how deeply she had wounded her parents when she had left as a teenager.
It wasn’t the path they had laid out for her whatsoever.
Given her inclination to mathematics and complex problem-solving, she had been groomed to take over the accounting side of their family’s farm.
Yet from an early age, Veronica knew that wasn’t what she wanted to do with her life.
There was so much more of the world to see than their quiet, secluded home in the hills.
As she unlocked her truck and reached for the door, she heard footsteps approaching behind her and quickly spun around.
She was completely shocked to see the person approaching her from behind was the same customer who had been in the lobby.
Her initial thought was that the man was more desperate than she had initially thought he was.
It was never dealing with customers was a problem for her, but she preferred to keep to herself. Still, Veronica smiled politely.
“I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your hard work. I’d like to thank you by offering to take you for a drink.”
“Thank you for the offer, but I’m not much of a drinker.”
He smiled. “That’s fine by me. I just thought, with you being a mechanic and all, at the end of the day that it would be good for you. The offer still stands, but I’d prefer to take you out to dinner.”
“Look, I can’t thank you enough for the kind gesture, but my answer is still no. I hope you have a good day.”
“Come on. I’ll even let you have the pick of anywhere you would like to go for dinner.”
Veronica scowled. “I have a bunch of things I need to do. My answer is no, and that’s final.”
Jumping into her pickup while the man was still trying to talk her into going out, she peeled away from the workshop.
Nothing irritated her more than when people didn’t take “no” for an answer the first time.
Veronica clicked on the radio as the road came into view, and she jumped onto it at high speed.
With the shop fading in her rearview mirror, Veronica let the worries of the day slip away.