Bellamy’s cheeks flamed as she tested her weight on her throbbing ankle. After a few ginger steps got her through the door and into the parking lot, it looked like her pride had taken a bigger hit than anything else. Not that that was new. She flipped the handle of the battered pickup truck and climbed inside.
“So, what kind of car do you drive?” Shane asked, getting in and starting the truck.
“A Mazda Miata.”
He shifted his weight and looked out the driver’s side window so she couldn’t see his expression as they pulled away from the lot, and her heart sank. Maybe the sporty convertible was out of his area of expertise.
“Is that going to be a problem?” Bellamy asked, rubbing her hands together.
Shane scoffed, flipping the heater on high. “No. They’re just a pain in the ass to fix, that’s all. Pardon my language.” He muttered the last part, like he was actually embarrassed he’d let the curse slip. “Can you tell me what’s wrong with it?”
Bellamy looked at him blankly. “Um, it doesn’t run.”
Shane’s smirk-and-eyeroll maneuver translated to a glaring Hello, Captain Obvious. “Yeah, I got that part. I was thinking more along the lines of what happened to make it that way. Weird noises, dashboard messages, stuff like that.” He gave her a sidelong glance.
Her cheeks flooded with heat. “Oh. Well, come to think of it, it has been acting a little funny lately. Every once in a while it makes this grinding noise. I figured it just needed a tune up or something.”
Again with the well-duh look. So she’d skipped a freaking tune up. Was it really that big a deal?
“Anyway,” she continued after biting her tongue. “Just now, a whole bunch of white smoke started coming out from under the car. It kind of jerked a little, made the grinding noise again.” She broke off, wracking her brain. There had to be technical terms for her botched explanation, but hell if she could come up with a single one. “Then it just kept lurching forward instead of really going anywhere, even when I hit the gas, so I pulled over. That’s pretty much it.”
Shane’s frown was less than encouraging. “You just passing through?”
“Sort of.” God, what a mess this bright idea of hers was turning out to be. “I’m supposed to be meeting friends at the Pine Mountain Resort for a girls’ weekend.”
Wait, did he just roll his eyes again before he looked out the window? Really?
“That’s only about fifteen miles from here. You’ll need to call someone to get a ride.”
Bellamy pulled back, frowning. “Do you think it’s that bad?”
Shane’s black-coffee eyes met hers for an instant. “I don’t think it’s good. At the very least, I’ll have to come back with the tow truck to get it to the garage for a better look.”
She must have done something cosmically terrible to have karma bite her on the ass this hard. First Attila the Boss, then Derek, and now this. “That’s me, right there.” Bellamy pointed through the window to where she’d left her car on the narrow, muddy shoulder by the scenic overlook.
“Yeah, I figured. Not too many two-seater sports cars on the side of the road up here. Especially in January.” Shane pulled over, but not before she caught the cocky smile he tried to hide as he looked over his shoulder to check his blind spot.
Wow, his shoulders were broad.
“You coming, or do you want to wait here? I can leave the truck running if you want,” he offered without much enthusiasm.
“No thanks. I’d like to see what you’re looking at, if that’s okay with you.” Earlier clumsiness notwithstanding, she didn’t want him to think she couldn’t handle herself. Her pride had suffered enough in the last twenty-four hours, thank you very much, and he already seemed to think she was some spoiled city girl. It couldn’t be rocket science to keep up with a quick look-see under the hood, right?
Shane lifted a dark brow. “Suit yourself.” He stood in front of the car and hooked his thumbs through the belt loops on his jeans, waiting.
Bellamy’s heart did a repeat swan dive toward her belly. What was he looking at her for? Didn’t he know where to start?
“I’m, ah, going to need you to pop the hood so I can look at the car.”
She swallowed her full dose of hi-I’m-an-idiot in one hard gulp. “Oh, right. Sorry.”
As soon as the car was unlocked and her butt sank into the driver’s seat, Bellamy’s first order of business was to clutch. Come on, she had an advanced degree in business, for God’s sake. How hard could it be to pop the stupid hood? The lever, or button, or whatever, had to be here somewhere. It had to be…
“A-ha!” Bellamy crowed under her breath, her hand shooting out for the lever marked with the little stick figure lifting the hood. She gave it a triumphant yank, smiling from ear to ear.
“Bellamy?” Shane’s grin wiped the confidence from her face. He put a hand on the doorframe, leaning in. “I might be just spit-balling here, but I don’t think the problem’s in your trunk.”
If his laugh hadn’t been so deep and downright sexy, in that moment she’d have hated his guts. He and the stick figure could kiss her ass.
“Sorry, must have pulled the wrong one,” she glowered, spying the correct lever right next to the trunk release. She gave it a decisive snatch, and the hood lifted up by about an inch.
“Mmm,” Shane answered, closing the trunk before going around to look under the hood. Bellamy got out and stood next to him, watching with awe as he moved his hands over the inner workings of the car with both care and purpose. How the hell all of that stuff came together to create a whole bunch of get up and go was totally beyond her.
Finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore, though barely five minutes had passed. “How bad is it?” she asked, chewing her bottom lip.
“Go ahead and try to start it for me.”
“I don’t think anything’s going to happen,” she offered politely, trying to save him from wasting his time. The car had seemed in pretty bad shape when she’d pulled it over. If the damned thing was going to start up now, after all she’d just been through, she was going to be pissed.
“Yeah, I’ve done this once or twice before. Why don’t you humor me and give it a whirl just for grins, city girl.”
Bellamy bit her tongue to trap the rather unladylike voice in her head threatening to tell him exactly where he could shove his attitude. The reality was that the garage had been the only thing she’d seen for miles, and as much as she wanted to tell Shane off, it looked like the only option that wouldn’t get her left by the side of the road was to humor him.
His expression sure suggested he could use it.
“I was only trying to help,” Bellamy muttered under her breath as she put the key in the ignition. Of course the damn thing purred right to life just to spite her.
“Okay, you can cut the engine,” Shane said, crouching down to look under the car.
“So, is it fine?” Bellamy asked, confused. “I really wasn’t imagining things,” she insisted, sliding out of the car.
Shane’s grim expression suggested that he believed her. Bracing one hand against the fender, he reached down and swiped his fingers through a dark puddle of something seeping out from under her car in a thick, ominous stain.