Chapter Twelve
Rin clicked the end of her pen against her lips as she stared at the computer screen in front of her without actually seeing the data. She had had a horrible night, tossing and turning, and then when she finally did fall asleep, she was plagued with another one of her nightmares of being chased by hunters through the woods. She was tired, cranky, and preoccupied; not a good showing for her second day on the job. Luckily, Ginny was busy with a client so hadn’t noticed.
Was she just being silly? After all, lots of people chose to avoid banks… right? And what did she know about the daily management of a garage, or the wrecker service that Mike ran? It was winter, he was probably pulling cars out of ditches daily for all she knew with grateful motorists tossing cash his way left and right.
Pushing away from her desk, Rin stood up with every intention of getting herself a cup of coffee, but found herself in front of the file cabinets in the storage room instead. Mike’s garage wasn’t one of the files that Ginny had given her, but a quick peek at his previous years might shed some light on the subject and put her fears to rest.
It was a perfectly good plan except, Mike didn’t seem to have a file. Nothing last year, or the year before, or the year before that. She was just about to dig deeper, almost desperate to find at least one record, when she heard Ginny. “Do you need help finding something, Rin?”
What was she doing? This was the busiest time of year for accountants and here she was wasting time trying to disprove fears that her paranoid brain had cooked up based on the flimsiest of evidence. Rin shook her head and let out a self-deprecating laugh. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I think I need coffee.”
Ginny’s expression was almost motherly with concern. “Not sleeping well?”
Rin shrugged and tried for a smile. “It’s nothing.”
Doubt was written all over the older female’s face but she didn’t push. “If you ever want to talk about – well, anything, my door is always open.”
Rin knew what Ginny was really saying: if you ever want to talk about your time with the fur traders. Everyone wanted her to talk about it. What they didn’t seem to understand was that talking about it, only brought the trauma to the forefront of her mind when all she wanted to do was forget. But, since Ginny offered…
“What can you tell me about Mike over at the garage?”
Ginny’s grin was positively wicked as her eyes lit with approval. “I had heard you’d been spending a lot of time over at the garage.” Her tone was rife with gleeful insinuation.
Rin felt her cheeks heat at the thought that she had been the subject of gossip. Would she ever get used to that particular aspect of small town life?
Her boss, noting Rin’s cheeks, chuckled. “Word spreads fast around here. But don’t worry, all the talk seems to be in favor or you and Mike getting together. He’s a great guy; super sweet, funny, loyal. Not to mention easy on the eyes.” Ginny finished with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
While that information confirmed what Rin had initially thought about Mike, it didn’t altogether alleviate her newest fears. Nor was she sure she liked the implication that everyone assumed they were a couple – or worse, humping like bunnies in the back of his garage. She needed to dispel that misconception. After all, she may be attracted to Mike, they may even have come close to kissing, but he was just being a nice guy and helping her out. She wasn’t even sure he was attracted to her in that way – she wasn’t a wolf – she was a flat chested Kitsune who quite possibly reminded him of a lost child. Why did he try to kiss her then?
Okay, so he probably didn’t think of her as a child, but that still didn’t mean he was interested in anything more than friendship. He could have just been swept away by the moment and grateful that they’d been interrupted now that he’d had time to think about things. The kiss didn’t even happen, so she shouldn’t make a big deal about it. No. Big. Deal.
Rin cleared her suddenly dry throat. “He’s just teaching me how to box.”
Ginny’s grin grew impossibly wide. “Nice. All that sweaty male goodness putting his hands on you… showing you how to move, sparring.” She fanned herself as she pretended to swoon against the doorframe. “Woo! I think I need a cold shower.”
Rin couldn’t help but laugh at Ginny’s antics. “Well, I still need a coffee if I’m going to be at all productive today.”
“My client killed the pot I made this morning. I’ll make a fresh one.” Ginny pushed herself off the doorframe and waved for Rin to follow.
Once they were in the little kitchen area that served as a breakroom, Rin attempted to bring the conversation back around to what she really wanted to discuss while Ginny set the coffee to brewing. She needed to be careful in how she worded things. In a town that loved to gossip, the last thing she needed was to start trouble for Mike. “I wanted to do something nice for Mike since he’s giving me these lessons and not asking for any sort of payment, so I thought I would do his taxes, you know, I’d pay the fee so that you’re not losing out on the business, but…” She let the sentence trail off, feeling further elaboration was unnecessary.
Ginny didn’t even bat an eye as she stuck her head in the refrigerator to pull out some flavored coffee creamer. “Mike does his own taxes.” Holding up two bottles she asked “Hazelnut or French vanilla?”
Rin pointed to the hazelnut with a frown of disappointment. Of course he would do his own taxes, criminal elements did not go through proper channels after all.
Berating herself for the unkind, and truly, unwarranted thought, Rin wracked her brain for a way to appease her curiosity and dispel her doubts without coming outright and asking Mike. Seeing the money may have been an accident, but that didn’t mean he’d appreciate, what he may consider, snooping.
“Sometimes I wonder how he keeps the lights on in that garage and still manage to buy those cars he’s fond of fixing up.” Ginny was saying as she poured a healthy amount of cream into her coffee. “A small town garage, oil changes, tire rotations,” she shrugged. “Not exactly big profit margin. But I suppose if he’s getting the cars for a steal, then he’s making the difference up when he sells them.”
Rin’s brain pounced. Was Mike stealing cars, fixing them up and then selling them for cash? Gah! Too many questions and no ready answers without going straight to the source.
“As for doing something nice for him,” Ginny volunteered, “I vote you make him dinner. It may be a cliché, but it’s completely true that males are ruled by their gut.” Rin accepted the cup of coffee Ginny handed her with a strained smile.