Page 47 of Whispers and Wildfire

It wasn’t just any laugh. It had a hint of cartoon villain to it, which was oddly arousing. I hesitated, holding the door ajar with my foot.

“Oh, my friend.” She slowly stood. “What was your name again?”

“Gary.”

“Of course, Gary. You think Luke is lazy and unreliable?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Interesting. Because last I checked, customers are lined up to have him restore their cars. There’s a mile-long waiting list and an even longer list of happy customers. You seem to be the anomaly, Gary. Which makes me think this is ayouproblem.”

“Excuse me?”

“I think I was clear. If Luke owes you an estimate, and it’s actually late, then I apologize for the inconvenience. But I have a feeling you were just looking for something to complain about today, and this happened to come up first on your list. Or maybe you were driving by, saw our sign, and thought, damn it, that Luke Haven.” She dropped into a remarkable impression of Gary. “He didn’t give me what Iwanted exactly when I wanted it. I better go give him a piece of my mind. And while I’m at it, I’ll be unnecessarily rude.”

“Rude?”

“Yes, rude. You didn’t have to waltz in here with insults on your tongue.”

He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at her. I clenched my fists, tension rippling across my back. If he snapped at her, I was going to rearrange his face.

“Fair enough,” he said, chastened. “My apologies.”

Her expression softened into a smile. “Thank you, Gary. Apology accepted. And I’ll find out about your estimate and make sure someone gets back to you as soon as possible.”

“All right. I’ll be expecting a call.”

“Absolutely.”

He nodded once and turned to leave.

“Enjoy the rest of your day,” she said.

“I will. Thank you.”

He left, and Melanie flipped him off as soon as the door closed behind him. “Asshole.” She kept mumbling as she took her seat. “What a jerk. Lazy. Whatever. Unreliable. You’re unreliable, Gary.”

Stepping back, I carefully turned the knob so she wouldn’t notice the door closing. It was hard not to laugh. She’d handled him like a pro, somehow telling him off and getting him to apologize in one fell swoop. I’d never heard Gary Boggs apologize for anything in all the years I’d worked with him.

But the almost-chuckle died on my lips as what she’d just done hit me square in the chest. She’d stood up for me. Not that I’d needed her to. Gary wouldn’t hurt my feelings, no matter what he said about me. And she knew me well enough to know that. But she’d done it anyway.

Granted, maybe he’d just irritated her, and it didn’t have anything to do with me.

But it wouldn’t have been the first time.

A flood of memories came rushing back. The time our science teacher decided to give a surprise test right before finals week. Melanie had campaigned to get the grades removed, citing it as unfair to the students—not because she’d bombed that test but because I had.

Or when Harry Montgomery had accused me of crashing into his fence and letting his goats out. Melanie had mounted a defense every bit as good as a lawyer to prove it hadn’t been me. I cracked a smile at the memory. She’d been incensed at the accusation. She’d even risked getting herself in trouble, considering I’d been with her that night, and we’d been out after her curfew.

Spicy nice. Annika had been right about that. And there’d been a time when Melanie’s version of nice had been appealing. Not that I’d needed my girlfriend to defend me—I could have stood up for myself just fine—but she’d done it anyway. Because that was how she cared.

A very troubling thought crossed my mind. Had she stood up for me to Gary because she cared about me? Or had he just pissed her off? If he’d been complaining about Ollie or Patrick, would she have reacted the same way?

Probably. It couldn’t have been because she cared about me, specifically. He’d just riled her up, which, let’s be honest, wasn’t hard to do. Melanie had a lot of buttons, and it was all too easy to push them.

Still, the thought was there, and I couldn’t shake it. I went back to my office, trying not to think about a version of Melanie Andolini who still cared, and what it meant if she did.

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