Ruth Reid, and Sarah Hamaker.
I couldn"t have done this without you guys/gals.
Chapter 1.
Annie Wilson"s hands froze over the keyboard as someone yanked open the door of m.u.f.ford Brake and m.u.f.fler. She tried not to cringe. She was having a bad day already, and she had a bad feeling it was about to get worse.
Brent from Like a Prince Car Rentals strode to the counter and looked up at the clock on the wall. "Is the red Ford finished yet? You said it would be ready half an hour ago."
She stood and approached him, glad for the barrier of the counter between them. "I"m sorry, no. As you know, we"re short a mechanic this week, and we"re running a bit behind."
Brent ran his fingers through his hair. "I don"t mean to be snappy, but I"m short someone, too. I don"t have a minute to spare with Luke gone."
Annie swept one hand in the air toward the shop. "The guys are working as hard as they can with Cindy gone. We took your Ford without an appointment, and we"re doing our best." She turned her head to the west, in the direction of the ocean and ultimately Hawaii, where Luke and Cindy were. "Do you think they"re thinking of us and what"s going on while they"re gone?"
"I doubt it. At least they shouldn"t be. I sure wouldn"t be thinking of work on my honeymoon." He turned his head toward Hawaii, too, and his expression softened. "I still can"t believe how quickly this happened. It took him so long to get her attention, and then it felt like the next day they were married."
Annie sighed. "I can"t believe that story Luke told Cindy about getting a great deal on the plane tickets, but only if they used them right away."
Brent nodded. "I know. But it worked."
Annie didn"t believe anyone really fell for that line, yet somehow they"d managed to make a wedding happen in two short weeks. Although with the way her mother had treated Cindy, Annie couldn"t blame Cindy for wanting to get out of the house as fast as possible.
Ever since the night of Brent and Luke"s banquet, Annie"s eyes had been opened to her mother"s behavior toward Cindy, which had shown her the real Cindy. She"d believed all her mother"s lies and wrongly acted just as awfully as her mother. Even though her mother had no remorse, Annie couldn"t shake the guilt. In an attempt to make things right between them, Annie had done her best to pull every string she could to make the wedding happen. And in order for Cindy to actually go on a honeymoon, Annie had volunteered to run things at the brake and m.u.f.fler shop. Now that she was a college graduate, she"d be looking for a job at a public accounting firm, but those plans were put temporarily on hold.
She knew she would be in over her head, but she hadn"t counted on Luke"s partner and his bad att.i.tude.
Brent checked his watch, as if he didn"t trust the clock he"d just looked at only minutes ago. "How much longer will it be? The people who reserved it will be here soon, and I haven"t given it an inspection yet."
"I"ll have to ask Oscar. I"ll be right back."
As she turned to walk into the shop, the hair on the back of her neck bristled. She couldn"t believe Brent had the nerve to follow her.
She spun around, holding up one hand to stop him. "Customers aren"t allowed beyond the yellow line."
He pointed down at the line they were both about to cross. "Neither are you if you"re not wearing safety boots." He stared down at her feet. "Unless those are steel-toed sandals."
Annie couldn"t help but wiggle her exposed toes. She hadn"t thought about going into the shop before; she"d never needed to. "Never mind the sarcasm. Wait here."
She shuffled across the floor, being careful not to trip on any loose nuts or debris. "Oscar, how much longer?"
"Five minutes. Or more if he"s being a pain."
Annie bit back a grin. "Just get it done," she muttered and walked back to the yellow line.
At her return, Brent turned and walked back to where he should have been in the first place.
"Five minutes and it"s all yours."
He checked his watch again. "I"ll be back in four, which should be enough time to start filling out the form." He turned and left the second he finished his sentence.
Annie didn"t know whether to be angry with him or feel sorry for him. Even though she didn"t like his manners, or lack thereof, she could understand his situation. She felt the same without Cindy running things. Luke and Cindy had only been gone four days, and already everything was nearing a disaster. She"d never appreciated Cindy"s organizational skills. Instead of learning from Cindy"s instructions, for the past year she"d listened to her mother and only answered the phones and done a minimal amount of actual work. Most of the time she"d been there, she"d done her homework for college. Now she was trying to run the place, and she was totally unprepared.
Annie watched as Oscar lowered Brent"s fleet car down on the hoist, mentally counting the seconds until his return. She"d been so unfair to Cindy. No matter what it took, for the two weeks Cindy was away on her honeymoon, Annie vowed to do everything she could to make up for her past sins. Even if that meant dealing with Luke"s partner.
Brent Wallace gripped the pencil so hard he didn"t know how it didn"t snap.
During the time that Luke had been pursuing Cindy, it had been their unspoken agreement that Luke would be the one to go over to the brake and m.u.f.fler shop when they needed something. Or even when they didn"t. Brent had found Luke"s besotted behavior amusing. But what hadn"t been amusing were the times when Luke came back frustrated over Cindy"s sisters"-or rather, her stepsisters"-behavior. He"d often grumbled about Annie being the worst slacker he"d ever seen, in addition to being downright disrespectful to Cindy, who, despite the family relationship, was the boss and should have been treated accordingly.
Even without Cindy there, Annie didn"t follow the rules. He could understand her not wearing regulation safety footwear, but sandals with her toes showing...
Cute little toes with bright-red nail polish...
Brent shook his head to clear the image from his mind.
Luke had asked him to make sure Annie could manage the place on short notice in Cindy"s absence, but Brent understood what Luke meant. Luke had meant for him to keep an eye on Annie to make sure she actually worked.
It was going to be a long two weeks.
Chapter 2.
Annie flexed her fingers and rubbed her aching wrist.
It had been the fastest and busiest two weeks of her life, and she"d never been so sore. Halfway through the first week, Jack called in sick, and then the next week Oscar caught the same bug. Instead of turning customers away, Annie had put down her accounting pencil, borrowed Cindy"s coveralls, and with Brent"s words echoing through her head, she"d bought a pair of safety boots.
The mechanics had given her the lackey jobs, calling them easy, but they hadn"t been easy for her. While it didn"t take much skill to change a tire, the tools were big and heavy, and the jarring from the impact wrench had surely loosened her teeth. She"d also never known that tires were so heavy.
She forced herself to keep her eyes open as she locked the front door and flipped the sign to Closed. Now that the staff had gone home, it was time to do the bank deposit, e-mail orders for all the parts they"d used, and double-check they had everything they needed for the next day"s appointments. Every night she hadn"t gotten home until nearly eleven o"clock, and then she had to be back at 6:30 a.m. to open up. By the end of the first week, she"d considered bringing a sleeping bag, except there was no couch and that would have meant sleeping on the dirty floor. Tonight she felt like she could do exactly that, maybe even without a sleeping bag.
Tomorrow was Sat.u.r.day, their busiest day, but at least Zella would be there to answer the phone and handle the walk-ins.
Annie sank into her comfortable office chair, leaned back, and stretched her throbbing feet, wincing when the tops of her toes rubbed against the steel in the front of the boot. The boots were murder on her toenail polish, but she hadn"t had time or the energy to fix the damage.
Cindy often worked six days a week. Now Annie knew why.
Cindy was coming back on Monday, but Annie still wouldn"t be able to slow down. It would take at least a week, but she wasn"t going to leave the computer until all the bankstatement reconciliations and fiscal month-end financials were done.
Before she started with the day"s paperwork, she gave herself a minute to let her head fall back on the top of the chair. Her eyes drifted closed of their own accord, and she didn"t care. For a couple of minutes, she could take a break....
The rattling of the door handle jolted her back to the present. Fear s.n.a.t.c.hed her breath away.
Someone was trying to get in...It was dark out. With the lights on inside, she couldn"t see who was out there, but whoever it was could see that she was alone.
If she called 911 on a Friday night she could be dead by the time the police got there.
The door rattled again. "Annie? It"s Brent. Let me in."
Gasping for a breath, she jumped to her feet. As annoying as Brent was, he was harmless. Automatically she raised her hand to smooth out any wrinkles in her clothing then froze.
The coveralls were smeared with grease and oil and something else black and slimy she couldn"t identify. A few wrinkles were the least of her problems.
Annie sucked in a deep breath, walked to the door, clicked off the dead bolts, and pushed it open.
Brent walked in then pulled the door closed behind him and flicked the lock. "Are you okay? I saw you all sprawled out and the deposit book lying on the floor."
She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. "I"m fine. I must have knocked it down when I dozed off. It"s been a rough week."
"You shouldn"t have the money out like that when you"re alone in the building. You"ve been doing the same thing every day. Cindy stands over there when she"s doing the deposit so no one sees what she"s doing." He pointed to the corner where the counter met the wall, the only place in the front office sheltered from prying eyes.
"At the end of the day I just can"t stay on my feet that long." She looked up at Brent as he looked down at her. "Wait a minute. How do you know what I"ve been doing every night?"
"It"s not hard to see you. I"ve been working late every night, too."
"I didn"t know you were there. I thought you left the lights on for security."
"We have a burglar alarm for security. The lights were on because I was working. I was in Luke"s office, so you probably didn"t see me."
All this time, she"d been nervous because she thought she"d been alone. He"d been across the parking lot all along. Not that he would have been able to do anything besides call the police if an armed robber had come, but it still made her feel a bit better.
She ran her fingers through her hair, not caring about the additional grease she was adding to what was already there. She"d be washing her hair when she got home anyway. "Thank you for keeping an eye on me. But I think it"s time for both of us to get back to work. How long are you staying tonight?"
"As long as it takes," he muttered then turned and walked toward the door. After opening the door, he paused and called back over his shoulder, "Don"t forget to lock it behind me."
As if she would forget. She was terrified to be alone so late. Her only consolation was that she was wearing steel-toed boots, and a kick would hurt a potential intruder more than if she were wearing her leather pumps. But still, it was a comfort to know that Brent and his surly att.i.tude were close by.
Monday Cindy would be back, and life could get back to normal.
Brent gritted his teeth as he stared at his partner. "What do you mean, you want to bring Annie in to help? We don"t need help. We especially don"t need her help."
Luke shrugged his shoulders. "When Walter calls in sick we"ve always just waited for him to get better, but this time we can"t."
Brent stared at Walter"s empty desk. "Maybe he"ll come in tomorrow?"
"No, not the way he sounded. We have to do the deposit today because we have to pay the rent on Monday. Normally I don"t have a problem, but it won"t balance. I don"t know what I"m doing wrong."
"Maybe I can figure it out."
Without waiting for Luke"s approval, Brent sat at Walter"s desk and thumbed through the pile of balance sheets. "This is a lot of stuff that didn"t get done. I know he only wants to work two days a week, but do you think we should see if he wants to increase his hours?"
"He won"t. I already asked last month end."
Doing the mental math at what they needed to do to get the deposit done, Brent cringed. "This is going to take hours. What"s not adding up?"
"The whole thing."
Brent clicked on the icon to reactivate the computer screen. At a surface skim, it looked like Luke had done everything right. It was actually hard to do something wrong because it was such a user-friendly accounting program. Until now.
Luke pointed to the total on the screen then the total on the adding machine, which was short by hundreds of dollars. "While she"s not a CPA like Walter, Annie is an accountant. I"m pretty sure it won"t take her as long as it would take us to figure this out. Besides, I was thinking of hiring her on to help Walter with our month-end work. I know Walter wants to do it himself, but he"s getting a little more behind every month." He glanced toward the m.u.f.fler shop then back to Brent. "Besides, Annie needs the work. Cindy told me that Annie is still looking for a job. She"s lost a lot of time helping plan our wedding and taking care of Cindy"s shop while we were gone. Now she"s got a couple of weeks to catch up on Cindy"s bookkeeping."
Brent"s hand froze over the adding machine. "I can"t believe you"d consider hiring her after the way she treated Cindy."
"Cindy says she"s changed."
"I wouldn"t be so sure of that." Every night he"d stayed late to watch what she did after the shop closed. The first thing she did after everyone left was spend nearly an hour on the computer, when Cindy only took ten minutes, which made him think that Annie was catching up on her personal e-mail instead of working. She never did the bank deposit the way Cindy did, and the last night he"d watched, instead of doing the bank deposit, she had a nap.
The only thing Annie had changed was her footwear.
However, for now they had a problem that needed fixing, and if Luke couldn"t figure it out, Brent knew he wouldn"t be able to either-after the last two weeks of mayhem, his brain wasn"t working on all cylinders yet. He had to trust Luke and give Annie the benefit of the doubt. With caution.
"Fine," he mumbled. "But just for today."
Instead of phoning, Luke jogged across the parking lot, where the first thing he did was kiss Cindy.
Brent shouldn"t have watched but he did.
At first it was a little peck on the cheek, and then they snuggled closer and wrapped their arms around each other. Luke turned his head and said something to Annie then kissed Cindy again. Only this time it wasn"t just a little peck. It was the fully charged kiss of a man who"d come back from his honeymoon sooner than he wanted to. Annie got up and walked away, but Brent couldn"t stop watching his friend and Cindy.
It was like watching the closing kiss of the leading actor and actress from a movie, except this was real life.
One day he hoped G.o.d would find him a woman like that. She would appear out of nowhere and the moment he saw her, he"d be a goner, just like Luke.
"Brent? Did you want to see me?"
Brent tried not to flinch. "Annie. I didn"t see you come in. Luke and I have a problem with our deposit. We can"t balance, and it"s out by a lot. Our regular accountant phoned in sick, so we were wondering if you could figure it out."
She checked her watch and sat in Walter"s chair. "Of course." With a swipe of the mouse she reactivated the screen and began clicking through the menu.
"Do you need any help with the program?"
"No, I"ve used this one before. I"m okay."
He returned to the lease agreements he had to finish, but as he worked he kept an eye on Annie.