I almost smiled instead, which pissed me off, so I reached for the socket set and made my face do nothing. “Stay out of the way.”
She took one slow sip of coffee. “There it is.”
“There what is?”
“The charming customer service experience.”
“I’m not customer service.”
“No. Clearly you’re more of a roadside intimidation specialist.”
I glanced at her. She was watching me over the rim of her mug, hair pulled up messy on top of her head, a few dark piecesloose around her face. No makeup except whatever was left from last night, and that somehow made her harder to ignore. Road dust still clung faintly at her neck. The scratch from that demon cat was wrapped in clean gauze. Her mouth looked soft and mean at the same time.
Bad combination.
I bent over the engine. “You always talk this much when you’re nervous?”
Silence.
Good hit.
Too good, maybe.
When she answered, her voice had lost the teasing edge. “You always act like a jackass when you’re uncomfortable?”
I turned a wrench harder than I needed to. “I’m comfortable.”
“Sure.”
The word came out dry enough to start a brush fire.
I looked back at her. “You want my help or not?”
“I want my truck fixed. I’m still undecided on whether that requires you as a person.”
“Truck’s not gonna fix itself because you insult it with affection.”
“I don’t insult Dolores. I encourage her.”
“You drove her across half the country with a coolant leak.”
“I didn’t know it was a coolant leak.”
“You knew the gauge was climbing.”
She shifted her weight, and her chin went up. “I knew I had five and a half hours left, a job waiting, an apartment I haven’t seen in person, a cat who hates me, and exactly not enough money for another disaster. So yes, I made a calculated decision.”
“That wasn’t calculated.”
Her eyes sharpened. “Excuse me?”
“That was desperate.”
The air changed.
Not big. Not loud. Just enough that even the desert seemed to shut up and listen.
Sienna set her coffee on the fender with too much care. “Careful, Mason.”
