Page 39 of The Christmas Catch
Ali shook her head. “Let’s give it a minute. My dad always said cars are like humans, sometimes they just need a little time.”
Ali could see him standing over his car on the side of the M40 pretending everything was okay. Her dad had always been a positive person, right until the end. She sent up a silent prayer just in case he was listening. She could really use his help right now.
Morgan nodded, then tapped her hand on her thigh. The rhythmic beat was all Ali heard until she tried the car again, channelling all her positive energy. It was running fine before they stopped, and nothing had changed in the interim.
She squeezed her eyes tight shut, and pressed.
Nothing.
They had enough fuel, so it wasn’t that. “I’m trying really hard not to feel like this is another setback, but I want you to know I’m struggling.”
Morgan leaned over and put a hand on Ali’s thigh. “You’re doing really well for someone who’s a glass-half-empty person.”
Ali’s leg hummed under Morgan’s touch. Morgan, again, seemed oblivious. She’d clearly swallowed down Ali’s lies about her crush being in the past. Ali’s heart had not. It began to sprint.
However, when Ali replayed Morgan’s words, she frowned.
“Who said I was glass half empty?”
Morgan’s cheeks flushed red, and she pulled back her shoulders. “I deal with many people in my day job, so let’s just say I know the signs.”
“Really?”
Morgan had pressed Ali’s buttons. Unlike the car, they definitely worked. How many times had she heard that in her life? That she just needed to come at life with a positive attitude? Never at work, but always from her exes. She wasn’t ready to put up with it from Morgan, too.
A cow might have flattened Morgan if it wasn’t for Ali.
“It’s not a bad thing,” Morgan said. “But it is learned behaviour. I could give you some tips to flip it around if you like. We could meet for a drink in Glasgow and I could share my secrets.”
This was how Morgan was going to ask her out on a date? By telling her she had faults that needed fixing? Ali may not be the catch of the season, but she was doing okay. Morgan Scott might be her first love, but that was no way for her to treat Ali.
“When did you last ask a woman out for a drink?” Ali’s brain simmered, then popped.
Morgan frowned. “I wasn’t asking you out—”
“Let me tell you, that’s not how you do it, whatever your intention. Women don’t generally respond to the line, ‘You’re miserable. Do you want to meet me and I can show you how to cheer up’?”
Morgan winced. “When you put it like that, it sounds terrible.”
She looked so genuinely contrite, Ali’s anger immediately leaked out. Maybe it was their ridiculous situation. Maybe it was thinking about her dad, or the snow that had just begun again. Perhaps she’d overreacted. Whatever, it was probably best left here.
“I used to think you were smooth when I was little. That you had all the lines.”
Morgan’s laugh was genuine. “I’d never say that. Yes, I know how to communicate, but I still have my floundering moments.”
“I got that loud and clear.”
Ali tried the car again, but nothing. She wrapped her fingers around the steering wheel and sighed. “You’re the problem-solver of the partnership, so you keep telling me. Do you know anything about cars?”
Morgan’s face crinkled, and she shook her head. “I know they’ve got four wheels and a boot?”
“Remind me never to book you for a cross-country survival course.”
“Isn’t that what we’re on already?”
Ali unclicked her seat belt. “I know a little as my dad used to make us learn for just such an occasion. I’ll have a look and see if there’s anything obvious. But it could be electrical or mechanical.” She got out, blew some snow from her face, then grabbed her duffel coat from the backseat. “That is, if I’m not feeling too glass half empty to try.”
Morgan turned and gave Ali a forced smile. “Point taken!”
