Page 3 of Guarded Secrets
“Second? I can’t deal with this tire myself, and need to call a tow truck, otherwise I’ll have to spend the night in my car and it’s cold and I really don’t want to spend the night in my car. Calling a tow truck requires cell service, so yeah, I walked along the turnout.
“And third? I’m not an idiot, and maybe you should remember that.”
“Got it. Give me your keys.”
Got it. Give me your keys? That’s it?
No wonder the man was single. At least she thought he was single, but what did she know? Maybe he had a grumpy girlfriend to complement his grumpy self.
“Keeley, would youpleasegive me your keys?” she muttered as she fished her keys from the back pocket of her jeans and handed them over. She shivered as the wind picked up, flakes of snow beginning to swirl in the wash of the headlights.
“Why aren’t you wearing a coat?” Of course, he wore one of those heavy wool Pendletons that made him look like he could fell tall trees with a few strokes of an axe.
“I have a coat. It’s in my car, but I’m not sure where. I’m fine.” He made her feel like she’d failed an IQ test.
Shaking his head, he rounded the hood of his Bronco to open the front passenger door. Reaching in, he pulled out a heavyweight hoodie and thrust it at her. “Wear this.” He motioned to the seat. “Stay here while I change the tire.”
“Umm—” He was already stalking toward the CRV.
Keeley pulled the sweatshirt over her head and tried to ignore the intoxicating scent of him. She wondered if the sweatshirt had been in front of a heater vent because it felt fabulously warm. The weightand thickness made her feel safe and secure, which was dumb. It was only a freakin’ sweatshirt.
Telling herself to suck it up buttercup, she scrambled after him, catching up as he crouched to examine the tire.
“I told you to stay in the Bronco. The keys are in the center console. Push the start button to turn it on to run the heater.”
He rose to his feet and she had to step back. Usually when she saw him, he was behind the bar at his place, Easy Money. This close up he seemed taller.
She cleared her throat. “You won’t be able to change the tire.”
He sent her a look that made her roll her eyes and moved around her to open the back hatch. She couldn’t blame him for the stunned expression. “What the hell, princess?”
“Keeley, Owen. My name isKeeley.”
“Princess works for me.”
“I’m hardly a princess,” she muttered. It irritated her that he thought of her as spoiled and snobby, but he’d come to her rescue so she’d be nice, even if it killed her. “I’d have changed the tire myself if my car wasn’t packed as tightly as a can of biscuits.”
“A can of biscuits?”
“Yeah, a can of biscuits.” Was he laughing at her? There was a quality to his voice that made her suspicious. She waved her hand at the bins and boxes. “All this is from my classroom. If we unpack it to get to the spare, we’ll never get it back in because we’re not Yousef.”
He stared at her like he was trying to make sense of a foreign language. “Okay, I’ll ask. What the hell does that mean?”
“It means that I had to clear out what had been my classroom because the regular teacher is coming back after spring break from her two-year maternity leave.” She glanced at the back of the car. It really was a lot of stuff.
“Not that, the other thing.”
She replayed what she’d said in her head. “That we’re not Yousef?”
He nodded.
“Yousef is one of my best friends. He teaches, actually it’s now past tense, hetaughtsixth graders in the classroom next to mine. Well, I taught in the classroom next to his because he was there first and he’s still there. He’s a wizard with packing and got everything to fit, but if we pull stuff out, we’ll never get it back in like Yousef did.
“We, as in me and Yousef, also went out tonight with friends. To our favorite cantina for adult beverages and tacos. It was kind of a going away party. For me. But I only had one small margarita and that was at least two hours before I got behind the wheel, in case you were wondering, because I don’t drink and drive.”
Owen looking at her like she was an alien from another planet had her snapping her mouth shut. He made her nervous, and when she was nervous she talked. A lot.
“He your boyfriend?”
