Chapter Five
Elle so didn’t want to like him. She’d honestly gotten used to the idea of dealing in her new job with a difficult, prickly male. Growing up in a house full of them meant she knew how to act around them as well as how to ignore their testosterone fueled posturing. Men could be like giant toddlers—sometimes you had to know how to divert their attention if they pitched a tantrum.
But this guy…
Harley had given his matter-of-fact explanation for the behavior she’d witnessed earlier without whining. He’d also never argued with anything she’d offered during her cursory assessment of his car, then invited her along to help continue the diagnostics. And oh lordy, she’d expected him to be cute, but he’d turned out to live so far into hot male territory she’d barely been able to hear the Cutlass’s engine over the blood pounding in her ears.
From the jeans that rode easily on his slim hips to the fitted black T-shirt, he was the walking definition of sexual distraction. The only way she was staying cool even now as she sat beside him was to talk to him the way she talked to Dewey. Any question she could come up with about the town, the ball game later that night, the shop she’d be working in, and her soon-to-be co-workers was fair game. Personal questions were definitely not.
Harley answered patiently, with slight amusement as if he sensed her nerves, and he played tour guide with ease, pointing out landmarks in his little town: The local bar, the down home restaurant, the best bakery in town, and the sweet shop an old high school friend owned. He drove her down Main Street, and Elle was charmed by a classic old gazebo in a town square with an impressive amount of green space that made up the heart of Sapphire Falls.
“Six weeks from now is the start of the biggest event this town puts on every year,” Harley said.
“Oh?”
“The Summer Festival. This square will be filled with everything from carnival rides to food to a kissing booth.”
“You sound much too excited about that.” Elle grinned, hiding the thoughts the word ‘kissing’ evoked.
He shrugged. “When you grow up around here it’s kind of a requirement that the single guys put in their time. A few of the ball and chain crew still go for it, too, if their wives don’t mind.”
“It sounds a little like a germ fest to me.”
“Bah, they’re pretty careful. Nobody’s spread typhoid or rabies yet as far as we know.”
“Good to know.” She gazed out the window. “I heard your mother say something about you trying to start a racing event in June. Is that in connection with this festival?
“I’d like it to be. The closest big race track is the other side of Omaha, and smaller ones are sparse. I’ve gotten a lot of interest from some high level, pro drivers, but I need more money. I’m knocking on doors looking for sponsors and have my eye out for a personal sponsor as well. It’s a long shot for this summer, but I’m going to try.”
“So you must have a track?”
“Oddly enough, that was the easy part. The county fairground is only about eight miles away and there’s a half mile oval that’s not in bad shape. They haven’t used it for racing in years, so the stands and grounds need refurbishing over time, but it’s useable for an inaugural year.”
The excitement in his voice mounted as he spoke, telling her how deeply this project served Harley’s passion. Elle looked at him a long moment, almost able to see the ideas and plans rocketing through his brain. She couldn’t help hearing his mother’s earlier words: “I wish that older one would lose his need for speed.”
“Your mother also talked about your love of racing. You know she’s worried about this project.”
He hesitated briefly, his eyes thoughtful, his bottom lip sucked between his teeth as if he calculated his answer.
“I love my mother,” he said finally. “She’s a force of nature. None of us would have survived my middle brother’s death without her strength. We all have confidence in ourselves because of the way she raised us. But she internalizes her worry. She hates that I want to race. She never liked the racing motorcycles. She let me do it, but it ate at her and still does.”
“I didn’t see that much concern.”
“She never has shown the true depth of her panic to the public, but I know it’s there. And I hate that what I love causes her pain. But what she won’t internalize instead of the fear is that I’m different from her uncles and her other son. I don’t take chances, I don’t do foolish things. I’m careful. I’m not going to die in a fiery crashing apocalypse.”
“She’s a mother. She’ll never internalize that.”
“Exactly.”
“You’re certainly a confident guy. Gotta love that.”
Skepticism lifted his brows. She knew he couldn’t tell whether she was serious or sarcastic, and she didn’t enlighten him.
“It’s about knowing your purpose and being sure you’re prepared,” he said. “I’m not blind to danger, and I’m not reckless. My brother was reckless.”
“You’re also not invincible.”
“Nobody is invincible.”
At least he accepted, however carelessly, the most basic truth about mortality. Elle sat back in the passenger seat and tried to focus on what lay outside the car instead of the man beside her. Harley Holt came off as a complex mosaic of a person and, yet, he was deceptively simple: he loved his family, but damned if he was going to let anything sabotage his dream. It seemed selfish on the surface but, in all truth, wasn’t that exactly why she was in Sapphire Falls?
By the time they reached the grocery store parking lot and Elle’s blue Prius, the Cutlass had backfired “only,” in Harley’s words, half a dozen times.
“I think it’s actually running better,” Harley said. “It’s a Band-aid on an arterial bleed, but it’s holding for now.”
“It’ll get you back to the shop and your mother’s I think?”
“I think so. I thought I saw you throw some magic dust in there while you were looking at it.”
For the first time, the gaze that met hers was fully relaxed and engaged. His smile pierced the thin wall of professional distance that had formed between them and overrode the peculiarly unprofessional way they’d actually met. When he smiled, the angular contours of his cheeks deepened even as his gray-blue eyes softened and filled with light. Elle’s stomach did a slow, cheerful roll of pleasure and heat slid low into her “girlie girl” core.
“I have no magic dust. Those were observations from Combustion Engine 101. Please tell me I’m not coming to work for a man who didn’t know exactly what to do.”
He put the idling Olds into park and sat back, turning a little in the driver’s seat so his long lean body faced her.
“You aren’t,” he said. “But you stepped in immediately and did what needed to be done. I was too pissed off about the day to do more than swear at the engine and kick the tires.”
“I…” She hesitated, rolling her own thoughts irreverently in her head. “Diverted your temper tantrum.”
His laugh, bubbling like a clear mountain brook, flowed over her and washed excitement through her veins.
“And I thank you for that.” He dipped his head in self-deprecating acknowledgment.
One last time their smiles meshed and held. Whatever he was in total, it was wrapped in genuineness—a sense that he was never anyone other than himself.
“You’ll have your chance to reciprocate, I’m sure.” She teased him, but she didn’t have temper tantrums. She could pull a lot of sharp words out as quick weapons, but she’d never had time in her life for fits or sulks.
“I’ll start looking for that chance on Monday morning.”
“Seven-thirty sharp.” She reached for the door handle. “Thanks for driving me back to my car.”
“Unless…do you think you’ll come to the big game tonight?”
Her hand froze. She’d been in this town for a total of two hours and twelve minutes and he was asking her to an all-town function? Not a date, but kind of and intimate inclusion considering he was, actually, her employer.
“I don’t know about that,” she said. “I don’t know anyone yet and I’d love a chance to settle in.”
“I get that. But you know me. You know my mother. You know Hailey. And that means within five minutes you’d know half the town. It would be like…well, like microwaving your settling-in time.”
She laughed. “I’ll think about it then.”
She didn’t want to leave—she really wanted to sit right here in the car and watch his face without a care in the world. He felt like the only thing in Sapphire Falls she needed to know about.
Really?
She shook her head free of the romance novel thoughts and opened the door. A practical idea hit as her foot found the asphalt of the parking lot. She opened her small, sparsely populated purse and found the little notebook she always carried. Quickly she jotted down her cell phone number.
“I’m guessing you have this somewhere on my application or resume, but here you are just in case. If anything happens between here and your mother’s, or you need more magic dust—call. You know, in case I don’t come to the game.”
He took the notebook page and looked at the numbers.
“Thanks. But think about coming. I’ll buy you a concession stand hot dog.”
“It’s a little soon for a dinner date, don’t you think?”
“Why wait?” He grinned. “You’ll be sick of me by this time next week. Enjoy me while you can.”
Okay. It was time to get out of the car. The idea of enjoying him was way, way too appealing.
He. Is. The. Boss.
“Let’s just say, if you happen to get another offer, don’t turn it down on account of me. It’s not personal—it’s jet lag.”
“Jet lag. Lame excuse but got it.” He winked. “Still, I’ll save a spot on the bleachers in case you make it.”
“Suit yourself.”
Why such stupid bantering could leave her so uplifted she didn’t know, but when she’d closed the door and waved, her entire outlook on this new endeavor had spun a hundred and eight degrees. The bounce in her dozen steps to her car came from a happy place her heart hadn’t accessed in quite a long time.
That sounded silly even to her, but before she’d left Kennison Falls, life had been all work, arguments, proving herself, and planning escape. She’d barely trusted herself to make decisions about cars and engines much less dating and men. Plus, as wonderful as her home town was—and it really was a wonderful place—she knew every person in it. There’d been few male persons she’d set sights on.
Not that after two hours in Sapphire Falls and half an hour with Harley Holt she’d suddenly had a Disney moment and discovered what true love felt like. But she had felt the power of lust and attraction, and it had been quite nice. Harley had been right about one thing—she would definitely enjoy a quiet first night in town fantasizing about his potent smile and phenomenal upper body, because come Monday, the flaws in both of them would take care of this temporary infatuation.