LITMIR.BIZ

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      Over the grease and hint of gasoline in the shop, he caught a whiff of something that had been there in the truck. A fragrance from somewhere in his past, but he had no memory to pin it on.

      “Boy, I’m glad you came back,” Carl was saying, and Mac forced his gaze from the woman to the man. “I don’t have chains to fit her car. Not one set,” Carl said.

      All Mac wanted to do was get out of there and go home. “I guess you’ll have to order them,” he said, then looked at Katherine. “Have a safe trip.”

      She frowned at him. “Have a safe trip? You…you’re the one who told me I can’t drive anywhere without chains, so I guess a trip is out, isn’t it, safe or otherwise.”

      For some reason she seemed angry at him, as if he controlled the weather or Carl’s chain supply. He should have driven right past her car in the first place. And he wasn’t going to argue with her now. “That was just a pleasantry, not a command.”

      Her frown deepened. “Easy for you to joke about this,” she muttered.

      When had this shifted to an argument with a woman he didn’t even know? He was leaving. But before he could turn and walk away, Carl was speaking. “Without chains, she’s stuck, Kenny. She ain’t going farther then right here.”

      Now Carl was acting as if he should have answers for this. What was he supposed to do? She had someone named James who could work this out for her, and neither Carl nor Katherine needed his input. “Use Carl’s phone and call James.” The words were too abrupt, too harsh, but he didn’t try to soften them. “Let him figure it out for you.”

      That logic didn’t seem to help at all. “What can he do?” She shook her head as she pushed her phone and cord into her purse. “He couldn’t get here.”

      “Maybe he can send a rescue party.”

      “A rescue party?” Any anger was gone, blotted out by a sudden smile that put light in her green eyes and curved her pale lips upward. “What’s he going to send out?” she asked, her voice slightly husky now. “A St. Bernard with a keg of brandy around his neck? I need chains, not brandy.”

      He could have used a drink right then.

      “I can get your chains tomorrow or the next day,” Carl said from behind the counter. “Depends on the delivery service. But definitely not tonight.”

      She shrugged, and the smile was gone. “Oh, my,” she breathed. “What a mess. I didn’t expect this to happen.” The woman changed her emotions with a speed that left Mac slightly off balance. “I don’t know what to do,” she said, her finely defined eyebrows lifting slightly as she looked at Mac. “I’m at a loss.”

      She was looking at him as if he had the answer. He hadn’t had answers for anyone for a very long time. “You’re in a mess,” he murmured.

      “You’ll have to stay around here for tonight,” Carl interjected.

      Her eyes widened. “Oh, sure, a hotel.”

      Mac wished it was that simple. “There’s no hotel here.”

      “A motel?” she asked, still sounding hopeful.

      “Nope,” Carl chimed in.

      “The diner?” she asked Mac. “I could stay there if it’s open all night?”

      “Nothing stays open all night around here,” Carl said.

      She turned to Carl then, and the air stirred again, bringing that scent with it. Soft and provocative. You, that was what it was called. You. He didn’t inhale too deeply as she spoke. “You don’t have a room with a cot that I could rent for the night?”

      “Sorry, miss, I don’t even have a real back room. Just shelves and storage for automotive supplies.”

      “But not chains,” she said.

      “But not chains,” he agreed with a frown.

      She looked back at Mac and drew him into the mess again with another smile that exposed a dimple. “Don’t you have any ideas?” she asked.

      Any idea he had at that moment wouldn’t help in this situation at all. Not when it centered on wondering why that James guy didn’t have this woman with him in Shadow Ridge in front of a roaring fire. Heat and pleasure. The man was obviously a fool. “No, no, I don’t have any ideas,” he lied.

      “Hey, how about Joanine?” Carl asked.

      That drew her attention away from him again, and as he took a deep breath, the perfume tangled with the air that went into his lungs. “Joanine?” she asked.

      “She runs a boardinghouse, well, what they call a bed-and-breakfast. I can call and see if she’s got a room.”

      “Good idea,” Mac said. “I’ve got to get going. I’m late as it is.”

      “You drive carefully, Kenny,” Carl said, then reached for the phone.

      Katherine touched him the way she had before, and he realized why his nerves were so raw at the moment. A pretty blonde. A needy woman. A touch. A look. This woman was bringing back a past he’d buried. That was enough of a reason to get the hell out of there.

      “What?” he asked, not even bothering to be polite about how he pulled his arm away from her touch.

      “I’ve still got a problem,” she said, not reacting to his abrupt severing of the contact.

      He didn’t want to hear about any problems from her. He had enough of his own. “What now?”

      “How do I get to her place?”

      Carl cut in right then. “Good news, people. Joanine’s got space. She’s opened up for someone coming around seven, and she figures that a second guest wouldn’t be too much trouble.”

      “Terrific,” Katherine said without looking at Carl. “So how do I get there?” she asked Mac again.

      “I’ll leave it to you and Carl to work out the finer points,” he said, glancing at Carl. “Your truck’s a four-by-four, so I think you’re all set.”

      “Well, I can’t leave for at least an hour or so. Dave’s not working tonight. Why can’t you drop her off on your way?”

      Why not indeed? he thought. Anything he could come up with not to take her with him wasn’t worth saying out loud. He knew he’d hesitated beyond a polite period to consider Carl’s suggestion when he saw color rise in her cheeks, emphasizing the delicate bone structure. “Forget it,” she said in a low voice. “I can’t ask you to take me any farther.” There was no smile now and he missed it. “I…I can just call a cab.”

      “Never has been a cab service in Bliss,” Carl said.

      Mac looked at her, and he knew when he’d been backed into a corner, neatly and tightly. All he had to do was take her to Joanine’s, drop her off and keep going. Simple. So why didn’t it feel simple? “I think you’re out of options,” he said, but meant he was out of options too.

      “Is that an offer of a ride?” she asked, the frown shifting to what might have been a hint of that smile again.

      “I guess so,” he murmured.

      The smile was back. “Then I accept.”

      He nodded, then headed to the door with a wave to Carl. “Take care, Carl,” he said as he reached the door.

      “You, too, Kenny,” Carl replied.

      The cold cut into the office like a knife as he pulled open the door. “I’ll call Joanine’s when I find the chains,” Carl called after them.

      “Okay, thanks,” Katherine said. Mac could feel her presence behind him as he trudged toward the truck. By the time he got to the passenger door and opened it, she was there.

      She

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