I rolled my eyes. "No, I meant, sexy."
A dreamy expression crept into her eyes while her mouth curved upward, and a light flush appeared on her cheeks.
Call me crazy, but I didn't think it was from rum.
I laughed. "That bad, huh?"
She blinked. "What? Oh." She cleared her throat. "Yeah, I guess some might call him sexy."
Might?
Judging from her expression, he was smoking hot. And of course, this made me think of – yup, you guessed it – Ryder Vaughn.
He was smoking hot and then some.
Everything faded to the background as I recalled how good he'd looked in that souvenir shop, standing there holding that peanut butter fudge. Somehow, the guy had managed to make fudge-shopping look surprisingly sexy.
How was that even possible?
I was still lost in my own daydream when Maisie added, "But it's just not his looks. He wasreallygreat at the shop today – with the mechanics in particular."
So a master mechanic was working for free?This, like so many other things, defied all logic. "But if he's so great, why would he work so cheap?"
Annoyance flashed across her face, but her voice was perfectly polite as she explained, "He said he's here for a month, and he wants to kill some time – so he's doing some work at the shop, that's all."
I gave her a skeptical look. "For free."
She sighed. "Not free. For sandwiches and transportation." Her eyes narrowed. "And how didFrannyknow I wasn't paying him with actual money?"
"Oh, that? She heard it from her nephew." I paused to think. "Somebody named Jason?"
Maisie groaned. "Damn it. It was because of the sandwich." She went on to explain how, as she'd called in the sandwich order, Griff had balked at using her credit card. But Maisie had insisted because he was working for free. And Jason – who'd taken the order – must've overheard.
I gave a sympathetic wince. "Well, I guess that explains it."
"I guess," she muttered. "I'll need to be more careful."
"So…?" I said, fishing for more. "Did he like the sandwich?"
Maisie grimaced. "Actually, I don't think so."
Was the guy nuts?"Why not?"
"Well, he hadmepick, saying that I'm a local and would know what's best, so of course, I pick my favorite."
I nodded. "The turkey melt."
"Right. And you know how it is, all cheesy and delicious with tomatoes and dried cranberries."
Did I ever.I'd been short of money since my arrival, so I'd splurged at the deli exactly once. Still, the sandwich had made quite an impression. "Yeah?"
"Well, I swear to God, he takes one bite, stops, swallows it hard, and then he opens the sandwich right there in the back room."
"And?"
"And he goes through and picks off every single cranberry, like he's allergic or something."
Weird."Is he? Did you ask?"
