Page 110 of Ice Princess

“Remember,” she smoothes down my collar with a veiny hand, “you’re one of the Ladies now. That means you’re a respected member of Lucky Falls. Don’t let those city slickers intimidate you.”

I open the door of my truck and it creaks loudly. “I’ll call you when the meeting’s over.”

Mom makes a ‘go on’ gesture.

As I drive, I mentally run over my speech. This is my first official meeting on behalf of the Ladies. Though my position in the Society is still shaky, it doesn’t change how important today is. I have to ace this.

April calls a few minutes later.

“Have you left yet?”

“I’m already on the freeway,” I inform her, reaching across the seat to munch on mom’s breakfast.

“You’re early.”

“There’s traffic.”

“You’re nervous,” she says with a laugh. “Breathe.”

“That’s an involuntary action. Give me something I canreallydo.”

“Wait a second, let me think about it,” April murmurs. “How about… breatheslowly.”

I chuckle. “Thanks for allowing me another day off.” Sheepishly, I admit, “I feel like I’m always working on cars after hours to make up for all these other projects.”

“It’s no big deal.”

“I should be doing more to help run the shop.”

“Hey, you still get the job done—even if it’s a little later at night. And besides, you’re not just a mechanic. You’re, like, Joan of Arc if she wore pink jumpsuits and had blonde hair.”

I bark out a laugh. “Thanks… I guess? I’m just glad we have Cordelia to fill in when I’m not there.”

“Yeah, she doesn’t have much experience working in a garage, but she’s got lots of promise.”

That’s true.

Cordelia Davis came to Lucky Falls with something to prove. Every day ,she arrives early to the garage and leaves very, verylate at night. And I know, because I’m right there catching up with work late at night too.

Her approach to diagnosis is totally different than mine or April’s. While April uses scanners and shop manuals with intricate wiring diagrams and I use intuition and eyeballing, Cordelia is the type who systematically fixes one area of the car, takes notes, and then fixes another area until she hits the right path.

It’s amuchlonger route and less effective too. But April plans to teach her a better method for diagnosis. With Cordelia’s dogged determination, she’ll outpace both April and I in no time.

“I really want to do this right.” I adjust my fingers on the steering wheel.

“You will. You’ve been working so hard on this presentation. They’ll be blown away by your brilliance.”

By the time I pull my car into the basement parking lot and take the elevator up to Rodney Howard’s firm, I’m a lot more confident.

A receptionist greets me when I step into the lobby. She dips her chin and gestures for me to follow her down a hallway. I’m impressed that she knows who I am since I didn’t give her my name and I obediently trail her through the corridor.

On the way, I mumble my speech under my breath. “Since the drought last summer, Lucky Falls farmers have been hit the hardest…”

“In here,” the receptionist says.

I nod and push the door open.

“There she is!” Rodney Howard is seated at the head of a long, mahogany table. He pushes to his feet and rounds the desk to approach me, a warm smile on his lips.

---