This widens her eyes and I can see she’s starting to panic. “Sweetheart, I’m easy. Patsy’s food is the best around and I’ve never had anything here I didn’t like.” Her whole body sags in relief and she nods quickly, looking almost like a bobblehead doll. If she wasn’t so damn adorable, I’d laugh. Something tells me that would just fluster her further, so I swallow it down.
Once she’s gone, the comments and raucous laughter start right back up, but this time they’re directed at me.
“So,” Nick starts, “it’s like that, huh?” The glacial look I give him should shut him up, but it doesn’t. “Hey, look, I don’t blame you a bit. I’d tap that ass in a heartbeat--”
Hailey’s reappearance at our table with a tray full of drinks cuts off whatever he was going to say. She’s giving Nick an icy look of her own, but she doesn’t call him out for talking about her. His shoulders slump in embarrassment anyway, and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smirking smugly at his discomfort.
The second she places the last cup on the table, she spins around and walks away quickly, her spine rigid and I don’t know how, but I know she’s upset.
Nick curses under his breath, but I ignore him. I have no idea what I’m going to say to her, but it doesn’t stop me from getting up and going after her anyway.
Chapter Two
Hailey
My cheeks are burning as I walk away from their table. Those guys have come in every day this week so far, and yeah, they’re always rowdy, but this is the first time they’ve talked about me. Nick seemed like such a sweetheart with the way he’s been flirting with me all week, but the comments he was making to the new guy at the table...oh my God. I’m so embarrassed.
I drop my empty tray on the counter and tell Meg I’ll be right back. She gives me a sympathetic look and nods, thankfully not saying anything. She knows all about what I’ve been going through, and right now I’m going to use that sympathy to my advantage.
Pushing through the back door, I walk out into the alley and lean against the wall. I shut my eyes and try to calm my heart. It feels like it’s about to beat out of my chest.
“I’m sorry.” It’s him. His voice sends a shiver down my spine and goosebumps pop up on my arms. It’s deep and sexy, everything a man’s voice should be.
The heat of his body caresses my own and my eyes snap open. He’s standing right in front of me, way too close, but I don’t tell him to back up.
“I’m sorry,” he says again, remorse filling his eyes as he studies my face.
Clearing my throat, I tell him, “I heard you the first time.”
“Well, you didn’t say anything.”
I straighten, standing to my full height, which is still at least five inches shorter than him. I’m a tall girl, so five inches taller than my five-foot-eight makes him at least an inch or two over six feet. “I wasn’t aware it required a response.” I know I sound catty, but I can’t quite bring myself to care. He should be sorry. Actually, Nick should be the one out here apologizing for being an idiot, not him.
His lips tip up on one side, totally unaffected by my attitude. Maybe even amused by it. “I guess it didn’t, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting one anyway.”
He takes a step closer to me and I can smell a hint of his cologne, along with motor oil and grease. It shouldn’t be an attractive smell, but it is. Before I realize I’m doing it, I take a step back in reaction, putting my back up against the wall again with nowhere to go. If he gets any closer, we’ll be touching from chest to groin.
Thinking the word makes me blush harder, but I also look down at the crotch of his jeans for just a second before his chuckle has my eyes flying back up to his face. Humor fills his gaze, but it doesn’t stop my mortification, and for the second or third time, my cheeks turn bright red.
Why do I keep embarrassing the hell out of myself in front of this man? What is it about him that makes me turn into an idiot?
We stand here for longer than I’d like to admit staring into each other’s eyes. I feel my body start to drift towards his, his doing the same, but then he closes his eyes. Remorse fills his features for barely a second, and when he opens them again, he steps away quickly.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be here.”
It’s his third apology in only a few minutes, but the rest of what he said confuses the hell out of me. He shouldn’t be here? Why not? And why do I care?
He spins around, and he’s gone before I can ask any of the questions filling my head. Even worse, when I go back in, his seat is empty.
“He asked me to box his order for one of the other guys to bring to him.” Meg’s voice makes me jump, and when I turn to face her, she shrugs. “Whatever happened out there, you freaked Mitchell the hell out.” Narrowing her eyes, she tilts her head and considers me. “Be careful with him, Hailey.”
Well, that’s not cryptic at all.
Chapter Three
Mitchell
Sitting in my office I watch through the large window as my crew works on different vehicles. I’ve spent so much of my life in this office, first as a boy when my grandpa and then my dad ran the garage, then as a teenager and young man learning how they ran the place so I could eventually take over.
Anderson Automotive Repair has become my home away from home, my escape from a reality I no longer want to live. If I thought I could set up a bed in here without getting weird looks, I’d probably do it. Actually, that’s not true. If I did that, I’d have to explain why I was doing it to my kids and that would just make life at home more intolerable.
It’s been two days and I’m still trying to get Hailey off my mind. I haven’t been successful, but I have managed to keep from going back to the restaurant to see her. Don’t get me wrong, I want to, I just know it would be wrong. Fucked up in more ways than one. Doesn’t mean I haven’t spent every spare moment wondering where she is and what she’s doing.
Rex, my second-in-command and best friend since we were five comes into the room, shutting the door quietly behind him. There’s a look on his face that can be best described as uncertain, and it makes my whole body tense in preparation. All I can do is hope Drew, our newest employee, didn’t hurt himself or someone else doing something stupid. It wouldn’t be the first time, though last time, it was the windshield of a car that took the most damage.
Please don’t make me have to explain to some little old lady why her oil change that should have only taken an hour is going to end up taking two or three days because I have to order replacement parts due to his idiocy.
“What’s up?” Rex grimaces, his eyes looking everywhere but at me. “Come on man, you’re starting to freak me out.”
Shoulders slumping slightly, he sighs. “Okay, look, I don’t know why I’m telling you because it shouldn’t even matter.” Rex pauses like he’s trying to gather his thoughts. Either that, or he really doesn’t want to say whatever it is he’s about to.
“Just spit it out. Get it over with so we can decide how to move on, where to go from here.”