Chapter 1
Jules
Monday, November 15th
The grinding noise her Honda made as Jules pulled into their local garage sounded expensive.
No, not just expensive.
Catastrophically, here's my mortgage-money expensive.
"Please," she whispered to the dashboard as she gave it a light pat. "Just be something simple. A belt. A filter. Something that won't have me living in an igloo in a snow bank."
Fred, her dashboard succulent that she'd somehow managed to keep alive since the summer, judged her silently from his sunflower pot.
Snow Ridge's only garage sat at the town's edge, backed by pines so thick they blocked out the late afternoon sun. For such a small mountain town, the garage was surprisingly modern, with digital diagnostic equipment visible through the bay doors, lifts that looked brand new, and lots and lots of noisy tools that probably cost more than her car.
Not that she knew much about tools.
Or cars, for that matter.
Jules parked, grabbed her purse, and carefully lifted Fred from his spot. No way was she leaving him in a cold car overnight. As long as she had someplace warm to go at night, so did he.
The bay doors stood open to the November cold, classic rock drifting from somewhere deep in the interior of open hoods and hydraulic lifts. Not wasting any time, Jules headed for the office to see if they could fit her in, her breath clouding in the frigid air.
And that's when she saw him.
Lex Chapman stood beside a lifted truck, one tattooed arm braced against the hood as he leaned in to examine something. His dark work shirt stretched across muscular shoulders that belonged on a linebacker, not a mechanic, and the sight of them made funny little things happen to her insides.
She'd only spoken to him once before when he was ringing her up for an oil change around this same time last year. However, while she was standing at the counter with her credit card in hand, she'd gotten a text from Margo—the town gossip—telling her that her best friend Faye was engaged. She'd been so shocked that Margo knew about the news before she did that she'd read it out loud.
So that's also how Lex had found out his friend Adam was engaged to her friend Faye. Except they weren't really engaged. Only fake engaged. But that ended up being the best thing that ever happened to them, because now they were together and Jules wouldn't be surprised at all if real wedding bells?—
Lex turned his head, their eyes met, and her thoughts screeched to a halt in a way that sounded a lot like that sound her car was making.
The impact knocked the air from her lungs, and she realized his eyes were amber. Not brown, not hazel, but true amber, like whiskey held up to firelight. Something she hadn't really noticed last time because she'd been too shocked by Faye's fake engagement. They locked onto hers with an intensity that made her completely forget why she was standing in a garage freezing her ass off holding a succulent.
As those eyes traveled over her face, then dropped down her body before wandering back to lock onto hers, simmering heat pooled low in her belly, warming her up from the inside out. Which was insane. She hardly even knew this man. Would even swear that he'd done his best to avoid her since the last time she came in here.
And she was wearing her long winter coat that hid anything he might want to ogle. There was no reason for him to look at her that way because there was nothing to see.
"Help you?"
His voice rolled through her, all gravel and smoke with something wild underneath that raised goosebumps on her arms.
"Car," she choked out, then immediately wanted to die. Clearing her throat, she tried again. "My car. It's making a noise."
One dark eyebrow lifted slightly. He straightened—God, he was tall—and walked toward her with long strides that easily ate up the distance between them, wiping the grease from his hands on a cloth. Jules clutched Fred's pot tighter, needing something to do with her hands.
"What kind of noise?" He stopped just outside of polite distance, but close enough that she caught his scent—motor oil and something else, something like pine forests and snow—and that heat in her belly tightened. Another tattoo ringed his entire neck, and a heavy silver chain peeked out from between the open buttons of his shirt.
His gaze dropped to Fred, and something flickered across his face. Amusement, maybe.
"Um. Like, grinding? It started this morning." She forced herself to maintain eye contact even though looking at him made her feel drunk. "It's the green Honda outside. I know it's late, and I would've waited until tomorrow to bring it in, but I'm working all week at the shop. Retail," she added unnecessarily. "I work in retail. At The Salt Licking Goat. We sell clothes and some other things."
He held out his hand. "Keys."
Jules blinked at him dumbly for a second, then fumbled in her purse one-handed, trying not to drop Fred, finally pressing the keys into Lex's palm. His fingers brushed hers as he took them from her and once again, she forgot how to breathe. It was barely a touch, just the edge of skin against skin, but sparks shot up her arm all the same.
