“You got it. Side of beans?”
“Pass. Toast, please. And are there any home fries back there that Stu hasn’t burned yet?”
“Tell you what, because it’s you, I’ll flip ’em over on the grill a couple of times. God knows if he gets his hands on ’em, they’ll be charred.”
“You are a queen,” he said.
When Gina took Laine’s empty plate and turned to leave, Laine asked Eric, “You’re here every day?”
He shook his head. “Almost, though. If not for Gina, I’d live on coffee and Pop-Tarts.”
“Is that so?”
“I’m new in town, too. I bought the service station and there was so much to do there, opening it under a new banner after a remodel, I’ve been staying in the Coastline, which makes the Motel 6 look like a five-star luxury resort. One of these days I have to get serious about a house or apartment. It’s so easy, though. And I like walking to work.”
“A car man who likes to walk...”
“I have plenty of other places to drive. Even though we’re operating at full speed, I’m still busy upgrading the station. The previous owner didn’t do any body work, and that takes space. I have a pretty large classic-car clientele.” He took a sip of coffee. “What do you do, Laine?”
“Shoulder exercises,” she said. “I had shoulder surgery about three months ago and it’s a lot better, but I’m not there yet. I decided to take a leave from work and try a new landscape.”
“So you don’t work at all?”
“I’m set up to do computer work, but I’m avoiding it. I just did research—you know, boring stuff. Data, statistics, background checks, tax records, that kind of stuff...”
“For a big company?” he asked.
“Yeah, the biggest company. The Feds.” Then she grinned at him.
“That sounds really...boring.”
She laughed. “I know. I’m sadly good at it. But if anyone from my old department calls me and asks for a hand, they have to clock me in, pay me in comp time. I did a little math—I think I can turn a few months of rehab and vacation into a year off with a view just by doing a little off-site work from home.”
“I dated a woman a while ago who created and managed websites and she hardly ever left the computer....”
“I’m not that girl, I can tell you that. I have no trouble walking away from the computer. And leaving the headquarters meant no more traveling or supervising anyone. I really didn’t love supervising or training computer techies and researchers. I might come up with a new idea for earning a living during the next year.”
With an elbow on the counter, Eric leaned his head into his hand. “How are you with a wrench?”
“Better than you think.”
Gina brought his breakfast.
“I’ll let you eat,” Laine said. “I’ll bring my car over one day this week.”
“Great,” he said. And he watched her walk out the door.
When he turned back, Gina was staring at him. “Did you ask her out?”
“Of course not.”
“Why not?” she asked. “You obviously want to.”
He picked up his fork. “You don’t know that,” he said, then shoveled eggs into his mouth.
“Those pretty green eyes of yours lit up when you saw her sitting at the counter.”
He swallowed. “I can still appreciate a good-looking woman,” he said. “But I’m very busy these days.”
“You should make time for a more interesting social life than catching meals at the diner.”
“Well, I’m not completely comfortable talking to you about that possibility since you and I were...you know what we were. Involved.”
She laughed and her eyes twinkled. “We were involved for about two weeks and I hope you don’t take this too hard, but I’m completely over you. I was over you at least fifteen years ago.”
He ate more eggs. “It was more than two weeks.”
“Not much more.”
“And I’m over you, too.”
“Good to know. So...how about Laine?”
“Bugger off,” he said.
“She seems to be a nice, stable, attractive—”
The door to the diner opened and Gina’s husband came in for his morning coffee break. He was all uniformed up, gun and all, and although Eric was roughly as tall as Mac, law enforcement uniforms always seemed to take about four inches off his height. Mac leaned over the counter to collect a wifely kiss. Then his coffee appeared.
“Good, you’re here,” Eric said. “Your wife is getting into my personal life. She’s giving me dating advice.”
“You’re dating?” Mac asked.
“No, which is why I shouldn’t have to listen to dating advice.”
Mac raised one eyebrow and peered at Eric. Then he lifted his cup. He was a man of few words.
“You should see his eyes when he runs into Laine. Bip, bop, whiz! And smile? Oh, she makes him smile,” Gina said.
“Bugger off,” Eric said again. And Gina laughed while Mac chuckled into his coffee cup.
“You should be on the lookout for the right woman. You’ve never been married or even engaged, you work all the time. You could use a little stability. And the right woman tends to level a man out. Mellow him. Right, Mac?”
“Whatever you say, baby,” he said, bringing his cup to his lips.
“I’ll take that under advisement,” Eric said, scooping up his home fries. “And thanks for keeping these potatoes out of the kiln.”
“My pleasure,” she said. “Business good?”
“Excellent. Now that the station offers more services, we have more business. Norm was winding down, getting ready to sell, looking at retirement, so business was moving out of town. We’re spooling up, adding services, bringing business back. It turns out it wasn’t such a big gamble.”
“Great,” Gina said. “But you’re still living in a motel, not dating. We have to take care of that. You need a decent place to live and a woman.”
Eric drank the last of his coffee, stood, put a twenty on the counter and said, “Extra big tip, Gina, with thanks for the excellent advice.” Although she was laughing as he left the diner, he was thinking, I’m going to have to learn to like fast food. She’s killing me! She’s nosier than a sister!
But he also thought, I could really use some leveling. Some mellowing.
Three
Laine brought her midsize SUV to Eric on Tuesday, the day after they talked. It was a new model and in excellent condition. If he subtracted the cross-country miles from the odometer, she’d only put a few thousand miles on it in a year. Ordinarily he’d have Norm or Manny service the vehicle, but he did it. He found nothing wrong with the car, so he washed and detailed it. Himself.
Eric had four employees. Norm, who had sold him the station, was trying to avoid going on cruises and Elderhostel trips with his wife, so he kept working. No doubt he told the missus it was absolutely necessary to help out during this ownership transition, but he was more honest with Eric—he wanted to unload the station and put the money in the bank but he wasn’t quite ready to indulge in retirement activities that sounded like sheer torture to him. Nor could he fathom spending day after day with his wife.
Manny had come with Eric from Eugene after Eric sold his body shop there. Manny was a good friend from way back and had a wife and a passel of kids. Howie had worked part-time for Norm, was about the same age, didn’t do much—if any—mechanical repairs and the two of them gossiped, drank a lot of coffee and pumped a lot of gas. From the look of the place when Eric took over, neither one of them ever pushed a broom or applied a rag to windows or other surfaces. Both of them might quit before too long because if there was one thing Eric hated it was a dirty shop. Classic car collectors especially liked the garage to look like an operating room. He pushed both of those old boys hard.
And then there was Justin Russell, a lanky, moody seventeen-year-old, who was either troubled or very shy and reminded Eric of himself at that age. Eric suspected he’d hired Justin out of some desire to groom him. It was almost like some sort of psychological experiment, as though by straightening Justin out he could make up for his own delinquent youth. So far that wasn’t happening. But Eric was, if anything, stubborn.
Justin worked hard, had good hands under the hood and remarkable instincts for a kid who hadn’t tinkered with engines much.
Eric went into the bathroom, scrubbed his hands, swiped water over his face for good measure, rinsed his mouth and gave the mirror over the sink a shot of glass cleaner. He wiped out the sink with the paper towel he’d used to dry his hands. Then he appraised himself in the mirror. He had taken off his coveralls and was wearing a mechanic’s uniform—dark blue pants, light blue shirt, Lucky’s sewn onto the shirt. His name was embroidered on the pocket. He’d opted for the new business name since he’d been feeling pretty lucky. There was a part of him that wished he were dressed as a civilian, but this was who he was—a mechanic, a body man. His uniform was clean—he always donned a jumpsuit over his clothes when he got into or under a car engine. His hands were clean, even under the nails.
And then he found Manny and said, “I’m going to deliver a car. I won’t be gone long.”
“Yeah, boss.”
He drove the few short blocks to Laine’s house. He turned off the car. He had her cell phone number and called it from the driveway. “Is this a convenient time to drop off your car?” he asked.
“You don’t have to drop it off,” she said. “I’ll come and get it in an hour or so.”
“Ah, I’m in your driveway,” he said. “If I can just leave the key fob somewhere, we can settle up when it’s convenient.” She didn’t say anything and he waited. “Laine?” he asked. And then he watched as the front door opened and she walked outside, an astonished look on her face. She was dressed the same way as when he’d seen her other times in the diner—yoga pants, heavy short-sleeved sweatshirt over a long-sleeved T-shirt, tennis shoes, blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. She looked like a young girl. A very pretty young girl.
Eric got out of the car and handed over the key fob. He pulled out a receipt from the inside pocket of his jacket. “We serviced the brakes, changed the oil, gave it a lube, rotated the tires and I checked over everything. You’re in very good shape, no surprises. I’d recommend service checks regularly, which depends on how much driving you do. Your car is well cared for.”
“You should’ve just called me,” she said. “I would have come for it.”
“No problem. I was happy to bring it over.”
“But I was going to use plastic to pay for it.”
He pulled his iPhone out of his pocket. “You can do that now if you want to or you can come by the shop another time.” He popped an attachment for scanning onto his phone. “Whatever works for you.”
“I didn’t expect you to get to it today,” she said, obviously still surprised.
“We weren’t busy. But there’s no rush on—”
“No, I can pay you now. Come inside, Eric.”
“I don’t mind waiting....”
“For Pete’s sake, come inside!” And she turned to precede him into the house.
Eric stood there for a second. He hadn’t meant to disrupt her day, just wanted to make an effort, show he was both a businessman with great customer service and...well...a gentleman. He followed her a bit slowly. She’d left the door standing open and he entered. It was just a few steps past the foyer staircase into the great room.
“Wow,” he said.