what an alternator was for. Of course, she knew what her kidneys were for, too, but she didn’t know what they looked like, either. With her luck, it would probably be cheaper to get a new kidney.
As though reading her mind, Aidan said, “The good news is, I can change out both and save you a bundle.” Although he didn’t sound like this was exactly good news for him.
“And the bad news?”
He slammed shut her hood, wiping his hands on an old rag he’d had in his own truck. “What makes you think there’s bad news?”
“Could be that dark cloud always hanging over your head.”
He looked at her steadily for a long moment—tick! tick! tickticktickticktick!—then let out the sigh of a man whose patience is being sorely tried. “If we set out for Santa Fe now, we can pick up the parts and I can have you on your way after lunch.”
“I hate to put you to so much trouble—”
“And we can stand here arguing for the rest of the mornin’, or you can stop being so bloody stubborn and we can get goin’.”
“Can Annabelle come, too?”
And yet another sigh. “Yes, Annabelle can come, too.”
“You really can’t wait until I’m gone, can you?” she said, reluctantly trooping around to the passenger side of his truck and climbing in. After Annabelle.
From behind the wheel, Aidan muttered, “Truer words were never spoken.” And yanked the shift into Reverse.
You have no idea, Aidan thought as they pulled out onto the highway leading to Santa Fe, how much I want you gone. How much damage those big blue eyes, that smart mouth, were doing. He had never thought of himself as the protective type when it came to women, not even before he met June, who’d prided herself on her self-sufficiency. At first Aidan had assumed that June’s being so much older than he accounted for her self-confidence, but the longer he knew her the more he realized that’s simply who she was.
And it wasn’t that Winnie was helpless, her obvious inability to pick a decent mechanic notwithstanding. Far from it. In fact, Aidan surmised that any man fool enough to play the Little Woman card with her would find both him and his card reduced to pulp. Still, there was something about the woman—
“You really know how to install a new battery and alternator?” she asked from the other side of the far-too-short bench seat.
—that would drive him completely ‘round the bend before lunch, if he didn’t keep his guard up.
“I really do.” From the seat behind them, her dog groaned. “My mother’s family’s farmed for generations. By the time I was fourteen I was an old hand at fixing tractors and such. And anyway, when you live out in the sticks you learn to take care of your own t’ings, not count on somebody else to do it for you.”
“Oh,” she said, then fell silent, thinking her own thoughts, and Aidan realized with a punch to his gut that the stillness was much, more worse than her blathering.
Desperate to flatten the silence, he said, “So. What will you do when you get back?”
“Please don’t feel obligated to make polite conversation,” she said, wearily. “I know you’re not really interested.”
Her rebuke stung far more than he would have expected. Even if she was dead-on in her assessment. “I’m sorry if I come across as somewhat…gruff. One of the hazards of keeping to myself so much.” When she didn’t reply, he stole a glance at her profile. “And that’s the best I can do for an apology, so if you’re expectin’ more—”
“I’m not expecting anything, Aidan. I never was.” She paused, then added, “I never do.”
“Have you really had it that bad?” he said, and her head snapped around. After a moment, she shook it.
“No, actually,” she said, suddenly guarded. “There’s just…been a lot of disappointments along the way. A broken promise here, a broken heart there…”
A soft laugh preceded, “But, hey—I’ve got my dog, right? And I’ve got friends back home, and a house and a business…things could be a lot worse.” She hesitated, then said, “For what it’s worth, I think I’m an okay person. Should the subject ever arise with Robbie,” she added when Aidan frowned at her. “I don’t smoke, don’t drink enough to count, don’t cheat, don’t gamble—at least, not with money—and when I say I’ll do something, I do it. Like my degree—took me six years, but I did it.”
“And you don’t strike me as the academic sort.”
Winnie snorted. “We’re talkin’ early childhood education, not a doctorate in advanced physics. Or obscure English authors of the eighteenth century. Not that it was a walk in the park. You have no idea the psychology classes you have to take, just to teach elementary school.” She laughed again. “Little kids are so neat. And while I’m waiting on having my own—”
At her breath catch, Aidan’s head swung around. But she lifted one hand in a clear attempt to ward off his concern.
“Sorry, that kinda took me by surprise. So. Let’s talk about you.”
“You already know everyt’ing y’need to know.”
“If you mean that meeting with the lawyer nine years ago, I’m thinking an update’s probably in order.”
“And if your car hadn’t broken down, you would’ve left without your ‘update.’ And probably none the worse for not getting it.”
“True. But obviously I wasn’t meant to go home this morning.”
“It doesn’t necessarily follow we were meant to bond.”
“Ohmigosh. Was that an attempt at humor?”
“No.”
She laughed. And Aidan sighed, because deep down he wasn’t a bad person, either, just one who preferred his existence as complication-free as possible. So while he took some small pleasure in Winnie’s better mood, he took none whatsoever in…all the rest of it.
“And here we are,” he said, immensely grateful.
He pulled off the highway into the Auto Zone parking lot, fully aware of Winnie’s smirk. They got out of the truck, their doors slamming shut in rapid-fire succession, Winnie striking out across the lot a few feet ahead. Aidan hustled to catch up, barely noticing the flash of red parking lights, the roar of the SUV’s engine, a split second before the driver—clearly not paying attention—gunned the huge black monster backward.
“Jaysus!” he bellowed, hauling Winnie backward against his chest an instant before the tank-size vehicle would’ve flattened her. Bastard didn’t even slow down.
“Are you all right?” he said in Winnie’s ear, her heart pounding against his arm where he still held her fast across her ribs, her scent storming the gates of his self-preservation, and through the rush of adrenaline a memory whispered, over his skin, through his blood.
“Yeah,
