“Parts came in, huh?” he asks.
“That’s the word around town,” I confirm with a nod, still a little breathless from the sight of him.
“Hot gossip for this place,” he says with way too much gravitas. “I think news had spread to downtown by the time I left the flower shop. Ernie was telling everyone who would listen down by the hardware store. It’s probably all over the HeightsFacebook group, and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the paparazzi came looking for you to get a piece of the story.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“When you become a local celebrity, will you sign one of the paparazzi photos for me before you go?”
The tilt of his plush mouth, the dimple that breaks out when he grins like that, the glint in his eye, they’re all so fucking dangerous. Worse than most predators, because he could trap me where others have failed. That charm of his is more lethal than weapons.
“Afraid I have some bad news for you on that front,” I say with a sigh.
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“I might have to charge an awful lot for that photo. Enough to help me cover the cost of the repairs.”
He catches on immediately. “Boss not giving you extra work?” I filled him in on that situation the other night when we discussed damn near every topic under the moon and stars that didn’t involve my life before Van Gogh.
“He’s barely giving me work, period,” I respond, arms flapping at my sides in distress. “If anything, since I asked for a bigger workload, I’m pretty sure he’s cutting back on what he gives me. At this rate, I can barely afford my normal expenses, much less that huge bill Wyatt will be demanding payment on in a couple weeks.”
His mouth pulls to one side, but his eyes stay on me, deep in thought.
“Have you talked to Rory?”
“Plenty.”
“About work?”
“Does she need help with a coding project?”
He shakes his head. “Doubt it, but she does run the grant program. There’s loads of places hiring, maybe she could hookyou up with a job somewhere here? She might try to pitch you on staying longer, taking a grant payout to settle down here or something like that, but just pretend it’s a timeshare seminar you have to sit through to get the cheap tickets to Disney World. Smile and nod, then walk away at the end with what you came for. That’s what I did.”
Take a normal job? Have regular hours, with a real, live, in-person boss, and somewhere I have to show up every day?
Forget the fact I’d rather peel my own fingernails off than submit my ID willingly to a stranger to have them dig around into my identity. A nine-to-five would mean—excuse me while I gag—waking up early enough to be somewhere by nine. It’s literally in the title.
I rarely wake before the sun is winding down for the day. Maybe it’s all the darkness hiding within me, but I tend to do my best work at night.
He must read the look on my face and discern the answer without the need for words, because he puts his hand to his chin and keeps thinking.
“Okay, what if…” Weston lets the mystery build as he steps around the car that’s separating us and walks closer. I find myself turning to face him as he moves, like a daisy staying in the rays of his light.
“What if you spit out whatever idea you had?” I ask with a little more sass than I’m really feeling, because a girl can’t give away all her secrets, or look too soft, the way I probably do when I’m under his spell.
“Easy, darlin’. I’m gettin’ there.”
He settles in, ass against the door of the muscle car behind him, thick arms crossed over his broad chest, and stares me down as rain starts to pour outside the open bays at the entrance of the garage, filling the shop with the fresh scent.
“What if I talk to Wyatt about helping out on your rebuild. I’m already here at night working on my car anyway. Might as well do a good deed and work on yours. The Charger has been waiting all these years for me, it can hang tight a little longer.”
My jaw practically unhinges. “You would do that?”
He lifts a shoulder casually. “I’m sure I’d need his help on some of it, his oversight probably on most of it. But I’d come cheaper than Wyatt. Free ninety-nine for my labor, if he agrees to it. And he’s got so much to do anyway, he’d probably welcome the load off his plate.”
I’m nodding vigorously before I’ve even thought it over, the ends of my hair bouncing across my shoulders with the movement. “That would beamazing, Weston. Seriously.”
“I’d need you to realize I’m not exactly in my element with this. It’s been a while since I’ve done a project like this, and you’ll have to bear with me if it takes a little longer than he would.”
