clapped both hands over her ears as the metal bounced on the cement.
“I’m sorry,” Bear said while her ears were still ringing. He got down on the ground and started picking up the pliers, the wrenches, the screwdrivers.
“It’s fine,” Sammy said, finally getting her senses back. She reached for a ratchet at the same time Bear did, and they froze, their hands touching.
“Listen,” Bear said, maybe a little roughly. He turned his hand and slipped his fingers between hers. “Would you go to dinner with me?”
Sammy’s world turned white for a moment. “What?” she asked, out of instinct and nothing else. A light giggle followed, a sound she’d never made before and would likely never make again.
Bear released her hand and stood, seemingly in one motion. For a big, tall cowboy, he could move really well. He laid her bag out on the countertop and said, “Forget it.”
Forget what? her mind asked, and Sammy looked down at her hand. Her skin tingled for some reason, and she could still feel Bear’s fingers between hers.
Dinner, her brain whispered. He asked you to dinner!
But Bear had already started walking away.
Wait, she called to him in her mind.
He opened the door and walked out, leaving Sammy mute and alone on the floor. Everything that had happened in the last thirty seconds rushed at her, and Sammy groaned as she realized she’d laughed when Bear had asked her out.
Legit laughed at him. At the idea of going out with him.
“Why did I do that?” she asked, looking up at the ceiling. “Dear Lord, can’t anything go right for me? Would it have been so hard to make me loquacious for that one moment?” She felt like crying, but the door opened again, and Sammy spun onto her hip and hid her face from whoever came into the shop.
“Hey,” Simone said. “How’s it going? Did Bear get his pictures?”
“Pictures?” Sammy asked, glancing over her shoulder. “I have no idea.”
Simone frowned as she bounced her baby in her arms. “What do you think?”
“I think you need a new exhaust fan,” Sammy said, deciding on the spot not to try to clean the one inside the kiln. “I’m just getting the serial number and make and model so I can get one ordered for you.”
“Oh, that sounds easy,” Simone said.
“It should be,” Sammy said, standing up. Her tools were an absolute mess, but she needed to get out of this shop and away from this ranch. She folded them up to deal with later and practically ran from the she-shed with, “I’ll call you when it comes in, okay?”
“Oh, okay,” Simone said behind her, and Sammy knew she’d have to answer the woman’s questions later.
Right now, that didn’t matter. Right now, she needed to get back to the shop, because Clayton would be there with Lincoln in less than thirty minutes. She didn’t like leaving Lincoln alone for any amount of time, though he’d turned eight last fall and could certainly go inside and get a snack by himself.
She lived next door to the bus driver who brought the kids home from the elementary school, and Clayton had agreed to bring Lincoln to her mechanic shop every afternoon after the regular run. The system had been working for three years now, and Sammy always made sure she was in the shop at three-forty-five.
Sure, Lincoln could stay with the other mechanics there, and he’d probably prefer it. But Sammy carried a great burden to care for her nephew according to her sister’s wishes, and she was going to do that the best way she knew how.
Sammy practically flew through the garage, only to find Bear’s big, black truck parked behind hers, blocking her escape. He sat behind the wheel, looking down at something in his hand. Probably his phone.
He’ll move, Sammy told herself as she opened the passenger door and tossed in her tools. She walked around the back of her truck so he’d see her, but she didn’t look directly at him. Looking directly at a man like Bear Glover was like looking into the sun, and she’d already made a big enough fool of herself for one day. For a whole month, in fact.
“Sammy,” Bear said, getting out of the truck.
“Hmm?” She didn’t turn fully toward him as she put her hand on the door handle of her beat-up pickup. It had been her brother-in-law’s, and it was familiar to Lincoln, so Sammy kept fixing it when it broke down, and she kept driving it to