“I do appreciate this.” She had trouble finding the right words to express her gratitude. Maybe because so many other emotions were skirmishing for prominence inside her mind and heart.
“My pleasure,” he responded, opening the passenger-side door of the tow truck. “Okay, tough guys. Scoot to the back and buckle up,” he ordered his nephews, whom he introduced as nine-year-old Felix and seven-year-old Nigel. It took a moment for him to rein in the squirrelly boys and make sure they were safely buckled into their seats, but then he turned his attention back to Vee. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought the kids along for the ride. They wanted to see what their uncle Ben does all day.”
Vee didn’t mind. Not at all.
The ride back into town was definitely interesting—and informative. For one thing, the boys’ presence kept her from the awkwardness of having to be alone with Ben. As a side note, it was interesting to watch him interact with his nephews. The boys hung on his every word as he explained in an age-appropriate fashion how the towing process was executed. He genuinely listened to their questions and answered them carefully. Maybe most telling of all, he laughed out loud at their childish attempts at humor, especially when they were aimed directly at him. He was definitely a man who could take—and make—a joke.
It came as a great surprise to her that Ben was such a natural with children, although she didn’t know why he wouldn’t be, now that she saw him with his nephews. Both boys clearly desired to emulate him, even going so far as to mimic his gestures, like the way he brushed the curl off his forehead with the back of his palm, or the way he half shrugged with his left shoulder when he was agreeing with something.
As far as Vee was concerned, he got two thumbs up as a male role model, at least in this setting. If Ben brought the boys along on a date, they’d see a whole different side of him...but that was hardly likely to happen. Besides, it was clear that Ben was careful to moderate his behavior so that he didn’t say anything that might confuse the boys or set a bad example, which meant that he probably wouldn’t let them anywhere near his social life.
A half hour later, they were back at the shop and Ben had unhooked her truck from the towline.
“You want me to see if I can take care of this now?” he asked, popping the hood and leaning in to get a closer look at the engine. “I can’t promise I can make a quick fix. Most engine repairs take at least a couple of hours of labor time. Sometimes more like days, especially if we don’t have the parts on hand.”
She glanced at her watch and shook her head.
“No, that’s okay,” she affirmed. “I’m obviously going to have to change my plans, so there’s no rush.”
Not today, anyway. There was no point in trying to make it to Amarillo and back now, not with the sun already halfway down in the west. She’d have to make her excursion another day, and it would have to be soon. Not that she could count on having another free day between now and Saturday. She might have to come up with a Plan B or else rush into town and back, grabbing the first dress that caught her eye.
That’s if she didn’t completely lose her courage first and nix the whole idea.
At this point, that was a very big
if.
Dear Veronica Jayne,
Today has been a good day. It always is when I get to spend time with family and friends. I don’t ever want to take that for granted. Remind me of that if I start complaining about life, will you? It’s so easy to forget how many blessings God has showered me with.
I’ve got a super busy weekend, so I’ve been spending extra time on our project so I don’t get behind. I’m organizing the final presentation with the software. I was blown over by how well your script and my graphics meshed together—better even than we’d planned. I think you’ll be surprised when you see them. I’ll attach the whole thing to an email once I’m sure I’ve got things the way I want them.
Excellent work on the script, by the way. The photos would be nothing without that great narration. I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating—I’m so happy you’re my partner! Two thumbs up!
Sincerely,
BJ
Ben’s gaze slid across the inner workings of Vee’s truck, his years of working on engines making it easy for him to spot the problem.
“It looks like your timing belt snapped,” he said, his hands gliding expertly over the engine’s surface as he peered here and there to be certain he was making a complete diagnosis of the vehicle. “I’m afraid I’ll have to special order some of the parts in order to fix it, so it may be a day or two before you get your truck back.”
“You can’t just slide on a new timing belt and call it good?” she asked hopefully.
He chuckled. “Not exactly. Let’s just say that it’s a little more complicated than that. I have to take the engine apart just to reach the area where I need to work. That’s going to take some time in and of itself. Plus, with Serendipity being such a small town, off the beaten track and all, we don’t keep a lot of spare parts at the shop. That would be too much of a burden on the shop’s overhead. We’ve found that it’s easier to order parts in when we have specific requests and know just what we need.”
She sighed and smoothed her hair with her palm. “That figures. So what are we looking at? A week? Two weeks?”
“Well, hopefully it won’t be quite that long.” His gaze shifted briefly to where his nephews crouched, looking through a toolbox full of various-sized wrenches. “You need it for your work, right?”
“Exactly. Not to mention the special occasions coming up. Between the Easter banquet and Easter week services, my dance card is full to the brim. If it’s going to be a long time, I may have to try to find some other reliable means of transportation to tide me over.”
She groaned aloud. “And it’ll be expensive, too, I’m guessing. A month’s wages down the drain, right? Do I need to start looking for a third job?” She closed her eyes and raised her hands as if she were being held up by a gun-toting thief. “Just please make it a clean wound. That’s all I can ask after the lovely day I’ve had.”
He laughed. “You sound like a cup-half-empty kind of girl,” he teased. “I don’t want you worrying about time or money. It sounds like you’ve got enough on your plate as it is. I’ll tell you what. How about if I cut you a break? I’ll do the work on my own time and only charge you for the parts I use.”
Her gaze locked on his, her almond-colored eyes narrowing. He’d never realized how beautiful they were until this moment. His stomach did a backflip as she stared him down. His throat bobbed as he tried to swallow.
“What?” he asked when she didn’t speak.
“Why would you do this for me?” she asked suspiciously, her gaze narrowing on him.
Now
that
was a good question.
Why
would
he offer to help Vee? He’d done some really dumb things—like offering to work for free—early on in his dating days. He’d given of himself and gotten nothing back in return, except more dead-end relationships.
But even if he hadn’t learned his lesson in that department—not to give too much of himself for free when he stood the risk of being hurt—there was no overlooking one fact.
He and Vee weren’t dating. She didn’t even like him overmuch.
So what was he doing? And more to the point—why?
Why should he put himself out for her when she was very rarely even nice to him? Wouldn’t he simply be laying himself out like a carpet and asking to be walked on?
When the silence dragged on, she apparently decided that he didn’t have an answer to give, or at least not one that either of them would believe. Instead, she wandered to the other end of the garage and nonchalantly peeked under the vinyl cover of a hooded sports car.
His
sports car, as it happened. Pride welled in his chest. This beauty was a classic Mustang rebuilt with his own two hands over a period of several months. He’d repainted her a deep navy blue with black trim, and she was custom-made from the engine to the wheel rims.
To say he was proud of that car would be an understatement. It was practically his baby. He’d spent countless hours nursing it to health and making her live up to the vision in his mind. But he’d never once, until now, showed her off to anyone other than his uncle. Even then, he’d only given Uncle Derek the merest glimpse of her. This was the first time he had considered showing her off for real, and his nerves crackled with tension.
“You’re welcome to have a look,” he said, carefully removing the cover on the shiny blue vehicle, which had been methodically waxed from stem to stern until it sparkled with a keen luster. The tire rims were gleamed silver and the black leather interior had been polished until it shone.
Vee whistled her appreciation and Ben stood up an inch taller, unable to still the smile growing on his face.
“Wow,” she complimented, walking slowly around the vehicle, stopping to admire it from various vantage points. “Now
that
is a sports car. I’ve never seen anything quite so nice. It’s really beautiful, Ben. Did you do the work yourself?”
Pride chased ego in dizzying circles in his stomach and curled up into his throat. He coughed into the crook of his shoulder.
“Who owns it? I’m so jealous, whoever they are. I’ve never seen anyone driving it around here, that’s for sure. I would have remembered a car as fancy as that.”
For some reason, her comments affected him more than he would have liked. He didn’t know why it mattered what she thought. She probably didn’t know a sports car from a Zamboni, but her smile was so genuine and her approval so apparent that he couldn’t help the pride that welled in his chest.
It was an odd feeling. While there was no question that he was proud of his work on the car, there was something about the fact that it was specifically Vee Bishop’s admiration that stroked his ego even more. That, he knew, ought to be cause for concern in itself, but he had to admit he liked the feeling.
“It’s mine and I rebuilt her myself,” he confirmed. “All the way from the ground up. She’s my pet project. Between the auto shop and the fire station I haven’t had much time to put into any kind of a hobby, so it’s taken me several months to get her this far.”
“She’s definitely a beauty. You do good work.”
“Thanks,” he said, choking up again. He settled his weight on the balls of his feet. He was wound up like a top, waiting for her to spin him.
“So why haven’t I seen you driving her around?”
“I suppose I was waiting until she was finished to show her off, until she was just perfect. I only drive her late at night when no one is around to see her while I get the engine in tip-top shape. I think she’s close to making her debut now.”
“I should say so. I’m impressed. I didn’t know you rebuilt cars.”
“Only this one.” If she didn’t stop escalating his ego, his chest was going to pop like an overinflated balloon. As it was, his adrenaline was running overtime, making his pulse buzz in his ears. “I suppose you could call rebuilding her my hobby, of sorts.”
“Well, it definitely puts
my
hobby to shame.”
“Really? What do you do for fun?” He was genuinely curious, although he couldn’t have explained why. Maybe it was that she’d shown so much interest in what he’d done that he felt he ought to reciprocate.
She laughed, looking a little self-conscious, which wasn’t like Vee at all. At least, not the Vee Ben knew—the woman who was always in control, who always knew what to do or say in any given situation. The woman who was generally as strung up as tight as a bow.
And the woman who didn’t like
him
at
all.
Or at least he didn’t think she did. She didn’t usually treat him with the respect she was showing him now, and that put her in a new light for him.
Maybe he was judging her too harshly, based mostly on her outward appearance and attitude. Yes, she sported a tight bun and an even tighter expression, but he supposed that was understandable given her circumstances. She worked in a tough, nearly exclusively male environment at the fire station. Maybe she wasn’t as rigid as he’d been given to believe she was.
“Candles. I make candles,” she said, shattering whatever preconceived notions Ben had had of her. “You know the ones on the end cap in the craft section of Emerson’s? Those would be mine.” She snorted. “Pathetic, I know.”
Now it was Ben’s turn to whistle his surprise.
Landscaping. Candle making. Firefighting. What else did he not know about her?
Vee was a complete enigma. She surprised him at every turn. Whatever else he thought of her, he didn’t consider her pathetic in any way, shape or form.
“Not at all,” he said aloud. “I bought some of those candles for my mama last Christmas. She loves them. She lights them whenever she takes a bubble bath, and she won’t even consider using any others.”
Vee murmured something Ben didn’t quite pick up, but before he could figure it out, his attention was drawn to his two antsy nephews. They’d been cooped up in the truck too long and they were raring to do something physical.
“Uncle Ben!” Felix shouted from the far corner of the shop. “Can you put us up on the lift?”
“Please?” little Nigel pleaded.
Ben laughed. “Okay, guys, but just this once. We need to get Miss Bishop back to her house. I’m sure she doesn’t want to hang around this greasy old garage all day.”
“Oh, no, I—” Vee started to protest but then dropped silent, watching as Ben situated the boys on the hydraulic lift, which was generally used to raise cars off the ground so he could work underneath them.
After making sure the boys’ feet were safely away from the edges, he moved to the electrical box and flipped a switch. The lift ground to life and the boys squealed in glee.
“Ben!” Vee exclaimed in dismay. She rushed to his side and reached for his elbow before she’d even finished saying his name. “Surely you’re not going to—”
“Let the boys take a little ride up the lift? Why not? My uncle used to allow me to take a jaunt up there all the time, and no harm ever came to me. Don’t worry. It’s fun. Nothing to be concerned about. Besides, my nephews have done this before. Plenty of times.”