Page 3 of Scarred Mountain Man
“Just drive it around,” I said, looking at her car to avoid gawking at her. “Don’t turn it off for about thirty minutes. You should be fine.”
I stepped forward and closed her hood. When I turned, she was staring at me. Had I said something weird? I didn’t think so. It was pretty standard—your battery’s dead, you get it jumpstarted, and you drive around to recharge it.
“I can’t do that,” she said. “I’m on my way to work. It’s only five minutes away.”
“Where do you work?”
That was none of my business. The question slipped out before I could stop it. I was just being nosy. She’d have every right to ask me why I needed to know that information, at which point I wouldn’t have an answer.
“Little Pines Daycare,” she said. “My best friend owns it. I moved here to help her get it started. My plan was to leave, but I’ve fallen in love with the place.”
She’d fallen in love—hopefully with just the place, not someone who lived here. I hadn’t seen anyone coming or going from her cottage, and I’d been watching. A little too closely, actually.
“Could you just leave it running in the parking lot?” I asked.
She winced. “Is that safe? Someone could come along and steal it.”
She was right. My understanding was this was the type of town where you didn’t have to lock your doors, but I locked mine, anyway.
“You know what?” I asked. “You’re right. What time do you get off work tonight?”
It was then that I realized her arms were no longer crossed over her chest. They were at her sides, and her expression had softened.
Did that mean she’d decided I was safe? Or, at the very least, not scary?
“Final pickup is six,” she said. “But if a parent calls us, sometimes we have to stay a little later. Never past 6:30, though. My boss can cover for me if I can’t stay that late, but usually, we’re cleared out by 5:30 and doing our closing duties.”
Something in her expression told me she wanted to ask why I needed this information. Maybe it was the slight crease between her eyebrows. Or the fact that her mouth was hanging open, like she wanted to say more.
“I’ll come by and check on you,” I said. “I can even come in and grab the keys and start it and wait with it for a half hour or so while you finish up.”
Her mouth closed, and she tilted her head slightly, her brown eyes narrowing. She was studying me—trying to figure me out. A complete stranger, going out of his way like this? She had every right to question my motives.
The truth was, that was my personality. I’d do it for anyone. But in this case, I was a whole lot happier about it.
“You’d do that for me?” she asked.
“Gladly. So…around 5:30?”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
“I’ll see you then,” I said. “Name’s Ryder, by the way.”
“I’m Summer.”
“See you at 5:30, Summer.”
I climbed in my truck and drove away. As I headed to work, though, it hit me—if something was wrong with her battery, we’d be right back here tomorrow morning.
The good news was, tomorrow was Friday. So if it came down to it, I could take her to work in the morning and get her car situation taken care of on Saturday when I was off work.
It would give me an excuse to keep seeing her. And now that I’d spent time around her, that was my top priority.
3
SUMMER
Iwas nervous. Like a teenager preparing for her first date. The last thing I wanted to do was let it show, though.
