The Wolf's Surrender - By Kendra Leigh Castle Page 0,46

times last night in passing, though he’d never really clarified what that was. It made a lot more sense now...though she had to admit, his profession was as much a surprise to her as hers had been to him. He hadn’t struck her at all as a motorhead, and she’d known a few. Though he certainly looked at ease leaning over that gorgeous car.

Her question seemed to snap Jenner out of it. “Yeah. Yes. I am.” He looked down at his grease-stained hands, then back up at her. The innocence in his expression was utterly disarming. “Is it that obvious?”

Mia laughed, and he joined her. Even after the laughter died, the warm feeling it had created lingered.

“I own the garage and body shop in town,” Jenner explained.

Mia regarded him with new interest. “I don’t know what I expected, but that wasn’t it.”

“Oh? Why not?”

She saw the hint of wariness in his expression, wondered if he would think she was looking down her nose at him. She sought to clear that up as quickly as she could.

“You have your video games arranged alphabetically,” she explained. “And your wood floors are spotless. I don’t usually associate that with a guy who likes getting his hands dirty under the hood of a car, but maybe that’s just me.”

Jenner relaxed immediately. “Trust me, there’s plenty to be meticulous about under the hood of a car. And before I came to the Hollow, doing this for a living was the last thing on my radar. Come on. Let’s go on in, and I’ll tell you about it if you’re that curious.”

Mia nodded, and watched as he put a couple of things away and turned off the lights. The Chevelle gleamed softly in the semi-darkness. “It really is pretty,” she said a little wistfully. “Does it run?”

“Sort of. And thanks,” Jenner said, walking toward her. “I’ve been restoring it for a few years now. A little here, a little there. It’s almost done now.”

“I want a ride in it when it’s done,” Mia said. “Whatever else happens, I demand a ride in the car. It’s too cool.”

“We’ll see what we can do about that,” Jenner said. His smile faded a little, and Mia wondered why. But he was quickly at her side, leading her out of the garage and back into the light. He was quiet as he locked the door, and Mia thought he might have used up his daily talking allowance; he did seem to have one, and it wasn’t very large. So she was surprised when Jenner continued their conversation without a word from her.

“So let me see, the mechanic thing. Well, I always liked taking things apart and putting them back together, I guess. Loved the shop class in high school, and I was interested enough to take some auto classes at the tech center in high school. But it was a hobby at best. I figured I should go get the business degree my father was so big on. Actually, if I wanted the degree paid for, I didn’t have much choice. And since I’d been such a pain in the ass as a teenager, I figured I owed him one.”

“So where’d you get the degree?”

“Penn State,” Jenner said as they headed up onto the porch. “Settled on a dual Economics/Business major. Landed a big deal of a job shortly thereafter, which made my bank account happy and me miserable. Sometimes I took little road trips on the weekends to make myself feel better. This turned out to be the eventual destination.”

Mia tried to picture big, rough-around-the-edges Nick Jenner in a suit and tie and smiled. No, somehow it didn’t fit him.

“Should I ask how you settled on Ferry’s Hollow? I mean, it’s pretty, but it’s a little...remote.”

Jenner gave her a lopsided grin. “It was more like the car decided to settle here. An old Camaro I was working on at the time, very cool and not at all reliable. Even then I was more into tinkering than just buying something all shiny and perfect from the get-go. It landed me here one day, in the Hollow, broken down again and at a garage run by the oldest guy I’d ever seen. He worked at his own speed, which could generously be called glacial.”

Mia angled her head, skeptical, passing Jenner as he opened the door for her. “Hmm. He took so long you decided to just live here?”

There was a twinkle in his eye when he glanced at her. “Well. Not