The Mechanics of Mistletoe - Liz Isaacson Page 0,42

he held a massive bouquet of red roses.

He handed them to a dark-haired woman that made Ranger’s breath catch in his chest. “Oakley.” Her name slipped between his lips, and immediate humiliation followed. He glanced around to see if someone had heard him. Again, no one seemed to notice they worked at a car dealership.

She tipped her head back and laughed, took the bouquet that dwarfed her, and tipped up onto her toes as she hugged the man.

Horror snaked its way through Ranger. He couldn’t go in there now.

“Sir?” someone asked, and he turned away from the scene. “Can I help you?”

“Are y’all havin’ a party today?” He clamped his mouth shut, hating his Texan accent in that moment.

The salesman looked toward the showroom. “Yeah,” he said, a frown furrowing between his eyebrows. “Oakley and whoever she’s dating this month just had their one-month anniversary.” He turned back to Ranger, whose eyebrows had lifted at the dismissive and unprofessional tone of her employee. “I’m sorry. That came out wrong.”

“No need to apologize to me.” He glanced at Oakley and her boyfriend, who were now slow dancing in front of everyone, gazing up at one another as if they were alone. Ranger swallowed, wishing the foolishness would go as easily.

He wanted to ask if she dated a lot, but the salesman’s words had stuck in his ears, and it was pretty obvious she did.

“Did you have something you were looking for?” he asked again.

“No,” Ranger said, tearing his eyes from the brunette he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about. “Sorry, I changed my mind.” He turned and started back toward his truck.

“Sir,” the salesman said, hurrying after him. “I hope it’s not because of what I said.”

“Not at all,” Ranger said easily. He tipped his hat at the unhappy salesman, got behind the wheel, and did his best not to peel out of the parking lot in his haste to get out of there.

“Idiot,” he muttered to himself, setting his truck down Main Street. The progress in town was astronomical, as most of these streets were actually clear. The businesses lining Main Street had been repaired already, and now that the power and water had been restored to town, most of the shops were open.

The power restoration hadn’t come a moment too soon. Bear had started to turn Grizzly about using their generator, but Ranger wasn’t about to take a cold shower when they had the battery right there, ready and willing to heat the dang water.

They ran on a well system at Shiloh Ridge too, so not having water wasn’t an issue for them. Thankfully. He knew others in town hadn’t had things as easy.

But services had been restored, and the mayor had called for a special light parade to come together and celebrate. Ranger had been excited about it, because he’d started to think of himself as wandering through the park, his hand in Oakley’s, as they looked for his big, loud family. They’d sit by them and enjoy the complimentary sweet tea and twitter with excitement when the sun finally went down enough for the parade to start.

His throat narrowed, and his mouth was so dry. “Don’t worry,” he told himself. “You can get a bottle of water at the automotive store.”

He did too, and then he found the manual for the make and model of the trucks they had at Shiloh Ridge and started loading any and every part he could find into a cart. He was going to repair those trucks if it was the last thing he did. Oh, yes, he was.

Chapter Fourteen

“Hold it steady there, Link,” Bear said, giving the child a moment to lean into the door. “I’ll latch it.” He reached above the boy’s head and did just that. “Got it.” He smiled down at Link, who had fit right into the culture at Shiloh Ridge Ranch.

Today, they were working at Three Rivers Ranch, and Bear and Link had been given the task of making sure all the doors in the four barns could open and close, latch and unlatch. Any that couldn’t, should be fixed. Bear had already rehung one on its tracks, and he’d given Link a hammer and told him to pry out a few rusty nails that were preventing another from closing.

“This one’s good, right, Bear?” Lincoln looked up at him, so cute in that cowboy hat and those big, wide, brown eyes.

“Sure is,” he said. “We’ve got to rebuild the chicken coop today, and we’re supposed