“You have got to be kidding me.” I cried
out as I kicked my rear driver’s-side tire. The thing was flatter
than a pancake. A slew of cuss words slipped out of my mouth, rivaling
the best sailors.
“Lynn?” came a voice from behind me.
I spun around. “What?” I snapped, realizing I was
spinning around to glare at the one and only Jack Edwards.
Damn my luck. And didn’t it beat all, that a week
after meeting him, I was still getting all gooey inside just looking
at him.
I seriously needed some help. Professional help.
“Uh, need some help?” he asked with a brow raised,
framing his rather amused expression.
“No, thank you,” I snapped, glaring down at the terrible
tire. Anything to keep from looking at Jack. “I am perfectly capable
of changing my own tire.” I opened the trunk, and tried to pull
my tire out. Which really, it wasn’t that heavy. It was a spare…
And it landed with a thud, flat as well.
“Shit.”
Jack hid a smirk behind his hand. “Sure you don’t
need anything?”
“I’m fine,” I said a bit too loudly.
“Sure you are,” Jack replied. He sashayed up next
to me, and yes, it was a sashay, he was far too damn smug for his
good looks. Damn me for getting all girly inside at the sight of
him coming over to rescue my damsel in distress.
Then he became the ultimate man.
He picked up the flat spare, looked at it, and said
“Yep, it’s flat.”
“What are you, a rocket scientist in your spare time?”
“Only on the weekends.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. Yep, I’m mature. Really.
Then Jack started rooting around in my trunk, pulling
out the jack.
“What are you doing? I can’t put that flat spare
on.” I put my hands on my hips and glared at him.
Jack positioned the lift under my car, and started
raising the poor old Mazda that I drove. “But I can take you to
get this tire fixed.” He popped off the hubcap and started on the
bolts.
What an arrogant ass! What am I? Incapable of taking
care of myself? I mean I can very easily change a tire. It’s not
like it’s hard. ’Course, truth be told, I would call my dad, and
have him come do it for me, because, well, he’s my dad, and he lives
for this stuff.
“What if I don’t want you to? I’m perfectly capable,” I started
to argue, but with amazing pit crew speed, Jack had the flat tire
off my car before I could finish my sentence. I threw my arms up
in the air in frustration.
“What?” Jack asked. “You know where there’s a place
that can fix this?”
I shrugged. “There’s a Pep Boys or something like
that around the corner.”
’Course, I really couldn’t help the part of me that
was excited that the new guy was helping me get my tire fixed. He
led me to a huge black Chevy Tahoe, immaculate inside and out. I
couldn’t help whistling at the perfection of it and feeling like
crap that Jack had to see my Mazda that seriously needed to be traded
in for something else.
The stars must have aligned just right, because as
Jack and I were climbing in, Tina Smith and several of her minions
were leaving the building. Instantly her gaze locked on mine, and
she shot daggers at me.
It took all my strength not to stick my tongue out
at her.
***
Pep Boys wasn’t horribly busy, and they managed to get me right
in to fix my tire. While I was waiting, Jack and I roamed the aisles
to see if there was anything that we couldn’t live without.
’Course, they don’t sell whole new cars at Pep Boys, so I was
out of luck there.
I stared at some of the racks of cleaning wipes for the dashboard.
And sprays. And rags. My God, did people really need all this stuff
to keep their car clean?
“It’s no wonder my car’s a mess."
“Why?” Jack asked.
“If I knew I had to buy all this stuff,” I said gesturing to the
shelves, “I might have given up on buying a car in the first place.”
Jack grinned, flashing a bright mouth full of pearly white teeth
at me.
Be still my beating heart.
I spied one of my favorite car accessories. “Oh, look, air fresheners.”
I darted down the aisle.
Nope, not one single one with Buffy on it. Darn it.
Jack smirked and came after me. “So who do you want to be when
you grow up, Lynn?” he asked as we sniffed the different fresheners.
He grimaced at a fruity one and hung it back up.
“I am grown up. I just don’t have to act like it,” I said. “Who
do you want to be?”
“I want to save the world.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Like a superhero or something?”
“Sure,” he said hanging up another one, straightening the row
out as he did. “Why not?”
“Because you’re going to have to be better on the computer to
be Super Jack—the Accountant.”
Jack laughed.
They called my name over the intercom and Jack and I headed up to
the front. The guy behind the counter, smelling of grease rags and
motor oil, stood there waiting for us. A smear of black goo covered
part of his name patch, concealing the “J” in John.
“We got it fixed,” John said. “Looks almost like your tire got
stabbed.”
“Stabbed?” I asked staring at him. “You’ve gotta be kidding.”
“Well, usually, if something’s been driven over, there’s a nail
or what have you stuck in the tire. You didn’t have anything like
that.”
I glanced at Jack. “Has that been going on lately?”
The guy shrugged. “Sometimes kids do it. You live somewhere around
here?”
“I work down the way,” I pointed over my shoulder toward the office.
“Probably just kids. I wouldn’t worry about it much,” said John.
He handed me the bill, and Jack promptly yanked it from my hand.
“Hey,” I said, “I was going to pay for that.”
Jack shrugged. “I’ll pay, and you can buy dinner.”
I crossed my hands over my chest. “Oh, so you just assume that
I’ll buy you dinner now?” Presumptuous ass.
“I’m fixing your tire, you should.”
John couldn’t help adding his thoughts. “Sounds only fair to me.”
I gritted my teeth. Great, now I have to buy dinner for Jack.
Then my brain kicked in. Whoa, this would kinda count as a date,
wouldn’t it? Dinner with Jack? Even if I just get Burger King?
Oh the possibilities.
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