Chapter 3
Megan’s car was ready. Janie, the nice woman who’d left the voice mail, called her Mrs. Dempsey.
Her day had flown by and most of it was spent unpacking in her new apartment. She’d walked to Target and bought hangers, sheets, and blankets. Calli said it wasn’t a problem if Megan slept on the couch until her mattress was delivered.
Her tiny closet was jammed full already, and she had no idea what she was going to do with the rest of the clothes and shoes she had stashed away in a rented storage unit. She’d only packed enough in her suitcases to hold her over at the hotel for a few weeks.
Back when she was married, it seemed like she was always shopping for a new dress or an outfit for a corporate event. As Niall’s wife, she was expected to look her best. No one had ever actually told her that, not even Niall. Maybe she was the one who felt the need to always dress the part.
It didn’t start out that way. In college she’d been a typical college student. Only after she’d gotten married and Niall’s success started to mount had she felt a growing need to be the perfect wife.
Apparently, she’d come up short there.
Now that she was getting her car back, she’d be able to move her belongings from the storage unit to her apartment much more easily. And the sooner she could move her stuff out of her storage unit, the sooner she could stop paying its monthly lease.
The little bell over the front door dinged when she walked into the auto shop’s front office. She’d been expecting to see the receptionist who’d left her the message earlier. Instead, the gruff man whom she’d met when she dropped the car off was standing behind the desk.
He looked up at her without lifting his chin, causing wrinkles to form across his brow. He was handsome in a harsh, foreboding sort of way. Megan would bet that most people moved out of his way when he walked down the sidewalk.
His dark brown hair was thick, and long stubble shadowed his square jaw. His nose and his cheekbones were strong and angular, and she could just see the black edges of a tattoo on his chest at his open shirt collar. His lips were fuller than most women’s, and she couldn’t help but stare at them and the toothpick that was dangling from the corner of his sexy mouth.
Megan hadn’t even noticed another man since her separation from Niall six months earlier. Yet this ruggedly handsome stranger was sending tingles up and down her spine. In an auto garage, of all places.
She’d pulled her lower lip in between her teeth without even realizing she’d done it. She quickly released it and smiled at him. He didn’t smile back.
The name Foley was stitched over his left shirt pocket. She presumed he owned the shop.
“Good afternoon. I’m here to pick up my Accord. Janie called me earlier to let me know it was done.”
He pulled the toothpick from his mouth and turned to riffle through some paperwork in a bin hanging from the back wall. “All right, Mrs. Dempsey, we—”
“It’s Megan,” she interrupted.
He stilled and looked at her with narrowed eyes before continuing. “We did a complete inspection of the car, and there were a number of things wrong.” The man took a deep breath and raised his eyebrows. “The engine for the most part was decent. There were some electrical problems involving your automatic door locks and your dashboard lights. The radio doesn’t work, and the driver’s-side window doesn’t go down all the way. The brake rotors are warped, and the internal computer indicated that at one point there was an ABS system failure, although it seems to be working okay right now.”
Oh, Jesus. So many problems, and he still had another page left on his repair report. Megan reached out and held on to the edge of the desk.
“Your fluid levels were low. The O2 sensor went out, and your resonator pipe has a crack in it. The back bumper was being held on with duct tape and bungee cords, and both rear turn signals were burnt out. And when your car is idling it sounds as if someone is rattling a box of rocks. That’s your catalytic converter failing.”
Megan felt as if she wanted to vomit. She took a deep breath in through her nose before quietly asking, “How much?”
“What, the catalytic converter?”
“For what I owe you today.”
“Well, of all the things I just mentioned, the only necessary fixes were the turn signals, your fluid levels, the O2 sensor, and the resonator pipe. You’re just going to have to keep an eye on all the other repairs. You’ll need four new tires before winter, and if you start to smell any sort of exhaust inside the car, you should bring it back in. I wouldn’t be surprised if your exhaust pipe falls apart before the end of winter. Otherwise, I’d say it’s safe to drive now. For today, you just owe two hundred seventy-five dollars.”
She actually sighed aloud. That wasn’t anywhere near what she thought she was going to owe, but it still had to go on her credit card. He processed her payment and handed her the paperwork. She signed her name and slid it across the desk to him. He paused for a moment when he saw her signature but didn’t say anything.
“Thank you for all your help. I appreciate it.”
He glanced up at her and nodded, seeming to study her as if her behavior was odd. He cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t take your car on any cross-country trips. Not sure she can make it.”
Megan smiled. “How do you know it’s a she?”
“I think all cars are female.”
She chuckled while he ripped the back copy of the work form off and handed it to her. He’d just raised his eyes to hers when the bell over the door chimed. Mr. Foley glanced behind where she stood, and his lips slowly parted.
“Megan?” said a familiar stern voice.
The air left her lungs as she froze. The garage owner’s eyes moved to hers, narrowing ever so slightly. She knew what he saw when he looked at her. It was running sprints up and down her body.
Absolute dread.
“What the hell are you doing here?” the voice came again.
With one hand clutching the desk in front of her for support, she slowly turned and looked at the door.
Niall stood there…with his mistress.
###
James knew Megan was in trouble the moment he saw Dempsey come through the door. The look of horror on her face as she stared back at the cocksucker was painful for him to watch. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a Boeing 747.
“What the hell are you doing here?” the man asked again.
Megan turned back toward James and picked up her credit card from the counter. He didn’t miss the fact that her hands trembled as if it were ten below zero.
“I’ll be with you in one second,” he said evenly to Dempsey.
The pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place. When Megan had signed her credit card receipt, the name she scribbled on the page was not Dempsey. And judging from the woman who was currently clutching Niall’s arm, James would venture a guess that Megan and the prick were no longer married.
After what seemed like five attempts, Megan finally slid her Visa into her wallet. She fumbled to gather the paperwork he’d put in front of her.
“Oh, Niall, honey,” the woman next to Dempsey said, “if we have to leave the SUV, don’t forget to move the new baby seat out of the back.”
A strangled whimper slipped past Megan’s lips as she leaned against the counter. Her next breath hitched as she inhaled. James met her eyes, and he couldn’t help but feel for the woman. She looked like she was in physical pain. His instincts made him want to reach out to her as the bottoms of her eyelids grew wet.
“Megan.” She was looking right at him, but she wasn’t seeing him. “Megan, here’s your key.”
James slid her key across the counter to her. If nothing else, he could help her get out of his shop and away from her ex as quickly as possible.
When his hand touched hers, she blinked rapidly. She took a deep breath and straightened. He had to admire the way she was able to pull herself together from complete devastation to seemingly normal in less than five seconds.
“Is that a Honda key? Don’t tell me that’s your piece-of-shit car out front?” Niall laughed.
James glared over Megan’s shoulder at the man. He’d never wanted to mess up anyone’s face more than he did at that moment. What a fucking asshole.
“The higher you are, the farther you fall. Isn’t that right, Meg?” Niall continued his assault.
“Thank you,” Megan whispered to James before she turned and walked out of the small office.
Niall was still laughing to himself as he stepped to the counter.
“Niall, don’t be so cruel,” the woman next to Dempsey huffed. “It’s bad enough she has to drive that car.”
“Trust me, babe, you weren’t married to her for seven years,” Niall replied. “Driving around that tin can on wheels is more than she deserves.”
James stared at the real estate prince, finding it hard to keep the contempt off his face. After the way Dempsey had just treated his ex-wife or estranged wife or whatever the hell she was, the asshole needed a good lesson in manners.
James didn’t know Megan Dempsey, and sure, he himself had called her an ice princess and assumed the worst of her. But seeing the abject pain in her eyes when she heard her ex was having a baby with another woman turned all his judgmental thoughts into pity.
“Foley, the air conditioner in my Mercedes is making a strange noise,” Dempsey told James “I need you to look at it for me.”
James moved over to his desk calendar and saw a half-hour opening this afternoon due to a last-minute cancellation. “Sorry, but we’re all booked up for the next two weeks. You might want to call over to Maxwell Auto Repair and see if they have any openings.”
He shut the calendar, just in case Dempsey got the idea to look. James would’ve liked to tell the fucker to leave and never come back. But the man was influential, and pissing off one of the biggest real estate development execs in Chicago wasn’t a good business decision.
“Come on, you can’t just take a quick look?”
“Sorry.”
“I’ll pay you double if you can help me out.”
James just shook his head. “All I have is an appointment a week from Tuesday.”
Visibly angry, Niall pulled his lady out of the front office. Feeling satisfied that Dempsey was upset just like he’d upset Megan, James watched the cocksucker storm to his SUV. He didn’t mind turning the other man away. That half-hour spot would be filled by the end of the day, and neither James nor the garage was hurting for money. He might have a blue-collar job, but he still made a decent living.
As Niall Dempsey peeled out of the parking lot right in front of oncoming traffic, James wondered for the millionth time why people with money thought they ruled the world.