“Oh yeah?” He lifted a brow.
“Totally. He likes drawing them, mainly. And collecting them. You know, the mini cars that come in the box?”
“Oh, Iknowthem, alright. I used to have a million of them.” A laugh got caught in his throat as his mind drifted back. “I probably owned every collection case ever made, and every compartment was fully loaded.”
Ty giggled. “That’s cute. They’d probably be worth a lot of money now.”
“True.” A knot of discomfort formed in his gut. Ty would likely never know Memphis was born into a billionaire family—or the fact that they still had billions even now—but that was a detail he didn’t mind keeping from her. He wanted to be relatable. And a wealthy lifestyle wasn’t something many could relate to. Of course, they weren’t living like billionaires anymore. Memphis sucked in a breath and replayed that final truth in his mind. He was pleased to find that, for the first time since he got put into the relocation program, he was glad to be free of the title and the expectations that came along with big money. In truth, it had been a second source of insecurity on his part—if he wasn’t wondering about the woman in his company being more interested in Maverick than she was him, Memphis often worried that money played a part in her interest. As if he had to come up with some sort of excuse as to why a woman would want him.
“You’re really sweet to do this for me,” Ty said, breaking into his musings.
Yep, that was Memphis—the sweet one. The one women wanted to befriendswith. “I don’t mind at all,” he assured.
“Yeah,” she said, her voice thoughtful. “I can tell that about you.”
Memphis was glad she knew he was genuine at least. But at this point, he hadn’t done much. The problem of the matter—her broken down car—was still at hand.
“What are we going to do about your car?” he asked. “I can help you if you need.”
Ty was quick to shake her head. “Oh, no. This is already more than enough. I’ll figure it out, I’m sure.”
He could guess easily enough that Ty was used to taking care of things on her own, being a single mom and all. But she couldn’t dothison her own. What, did she plan to walk her son to school and then catch a bus to work? There was no way a bus would drive clear out to The Homestead Inn on its route; it was essentially a dead end. There was no place else to go but back into town. And who knew how far they lived from the school?
“When’s your first day of work?” he asked, hoping to help her see reason.
“Tomorrow. Andie says she’s opening guest slots for first thing in the morning. And if the slots don’t get filled, she’ll send in a few people from the kitchen crew.”
Case in point—just how was she supposed to get her kid to school tomorrow and then get to the Homestead? And then back home? Meanwhile, the battery wasn’t going to fix itself.
“Do you have family here?”
“No, they’re in Boston. Well, my parents are, and two of my siblings too. The other one’s in Wisconsin.”
An odd dose of frustration brewed within him at the dilemma. He trapped a big breath of air in his cheeks, then exhaled it in one heavy sigh. “I don’t want to be pushy,” he finally said. “But you need help, and I can give it to you.Ifyou’ll accept it,” he added, tossing a look in her direction.
She bit at her bottom lip.
“I do a lot of odds and ends at the inn right now. It’s easy for me to shuffle those things around, unlike most people who are stuck working a tight schedule.”
Ty nodded.
That was good. Encouraged now, Memphis continued. “That means I can come get you and Lucas in the morning. We can drop him off at school, then head out to the Homestead. Maybe in the meantime we can have someone come out and replace your battery.”
Her eyes grew large at that suggestion. “That’s not normally how it’s done,” she said. A playful smile danced over her face, and though Memphis hadn’t a clue what she was smiling at, he couldn’t help but return it.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, usually you get your car towed to the auto shop. Or buy a battery and install it yourself.”
“Oh, if that’s the case, I’ll pick one up on my way back and…install it sometime tomorrow.”
Ty’s grin was still in place, showing off that little dimple in her cheek. “I think replacing a car battery is fairly simple,” she said. “I mean, it’s something that usually only takes the repair guys a few minutes. Buttheyknow what they’re doing…”
Memphis couldn’t help but chuckle under his breath. “Oh, andIdon’t.”
“You already admitted that you don’t.”
“True. But there’s this thing, I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it, but you can like, type in a how-to question, and all these videos pop up and show you how it’s done, step-by-step.”
