It smells like oil and metal when I walk in through the front door. I always liked to work with engines, but I don’t get the chance to play around with much of anything anymore.
“Hello?” I call out, leaning against the front counter.
There’s a grunt and the slide of wheels across concrete. A few moments later, a middle-aged man rounds the corner, covered in grease up to his elbows. There’s a smear of oil across his cheek, and he’s holding a wrench that looks older than he is. All good signs.
“Can I help you?” he asks, tucking the wrench in one of his pockets.
“Do you have a tow around here?” I ask. “Broke down just off Exit 4. Computer failed.”
The man looks me up and down before nodding slowly.
“Yeah, I can pick it up and take a look. What kind of car?”
He snags a pen off the desk and wipes his other hand on the leg of his coveralls before pulling a notepad closer to him.
“A Nissan?” I’m pretty sure it’s a Nissan. I didn’t really look. “It’s one of those little electric things. Silver.”
The man scowls, but scrawls a note on the pad about the location and the type of car.
“I ain’t got computer stuff in the shop,” he tells me. “Have to order them.”
“Yeah, I figured.” I sigh, scrubbing my palm over my beard. “How much for the tow?”
He hesitates before he answers, and I brace myself for a ridiculous figure.
“Ninety bucks,” he says with a shrug. “Cash only.”
It’s probably more than he’d charge anyone in town, but ninety bucks isn’t bad. I'm sure Mary’s company will reimburse her. “I’ll find an ATM and get cash for you,” I say. “When can you get it here?”
“A few hours, probably. I’m finishing up a project right now, but I’ll be able to go get it when I’m done.”
“I’ll bring the money over before you leave.”
He nods uneasily, and I head back out to the diner. I’m not particularly excited about the idea of staying longer, but we don’t have much of a choice. We might be able to call someone to come pick us up, but it’d be more reasonable to have someone get us in the morning.
When I step into the diner, my eyes immediately find Mary.
She’s sitting in a booth in the far back corner, sliding her phone back and forth across the table. Her face is turned down, a pout pulling at her lips. Some of the hair she’d left free is dangling down in front of her brow, and she looks absolutely breathtaking.
It’s annoying that I can’t stop finding her so beautiful.
She looks up when I slide into the booth opposite her, and hope lights up her eyes. Her gaze flicks across the street for a second before she meets my eyes again.
“Can he fix it?” she asks, tapping her neatly manicured nails on the tabletop.
“Yeah,” I say.
I don’t get to explain further, because she leans back and exhales a loud sigh of relief. She raises her hand to smooth over her ponytail and lets out an exhausted chuckle. When she opens her eyes to meet my gaze again, she looks more relaxed than I’ve seen her in the entire time I’ve known her. It makes her soft around the edges.
It makes me want to feel just how soft she is.
“Thank God,” she says. “I got the Wi-Fi password from the waitress and emailed the client we were supposed to be meeting with. I can see if he can reschedule for later today instead of next week. When do you think the car will be ready?”
She’s already swiping her phone open and tapping away at the start of an email as she speaks. A bark of laughter slips from my lips, and she glances up at me, excitement souring to confusion.
“What?” she asks tersely.
“Did you see that place?” I ask, looking across the street. I can feel the sass oozing from her pores before she even opens her mouth.
