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“When are you getting your car back?”
“Should be any day now.”
“You’ve been saying that for over a week. I…” Mia’s voice trailed off, and she nodded behind me. I turned, and a huge smile lit up my face as I saw Betty parked on the side of the road with Reed leaning casually against her.
“She’s ready?” I squealed with excitement.
“Thank God.” Mia laughed, but her expression sobered as she glanced over at Reed. She still didn’t seem sure about him. “I’ll catch you inside,” she said before hurrying toward the house.
I didn’t hesitate any longer as I ran to meet Reed. His smile was as broad as mine, as he pushed off the car and tucked his hands into his pockets “Yep, she’s all done,” he said.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We got her finished this morning, and I wanted to surprise you.”
“You didn’t have to drive her here, Reed. I haven’t even paid your dad yet.”
He waved a hand at me. “Don’t worry about it. Dad’s comped you the whole job anyway.”
“What?” I frowned. “Why would he do that?”
“Just a perk of being my girlfriend, I guess.”
“Reed, I don’t expect him to fix my car for free.” I paused as my eyes fell to Betty’s tires. They looked brand-new. Danny had suggested I change the tires, but I’d put that job on the long list of things I was planning to do at a later date, when I had more money saved up. “Reed, I was going to wait to change the tires…”
“Yeah, about that…” Reed started. “There was no way we could let Betty leave the garage without snow tires. Actually, we weren’t comfortable with you saving any of the other problems for later.”
“What do you mean?”
“Betty has a clean bill of health,” he said. “Everything’s fixed.”
“It’s all done?” I tried to swallow my shock and surprise, but the words still came out as squeaked disbelief. “Your dad did all the repairs? For free?”
“Ah, yeah.” Reed rubbed the side of his neck as though my reaction was making him uncomfortable. Maybe his dad wasn’t as happy to fix Betty for free as Reed was making out.
“Please, I insist, just let me pay for the repairs.”
He shook his head though. “You can insist all you want, but like I said, you got the ‘Reed Darling girlfriend’ special. Dad won’t hear of you paying for it.”
“But I’m not even your real girlfriend.” I instinctively lowered my voice as I said it.
“It’s fine, Sunshine. Seriously.”
I folded my arms over my chest. I really wasn’t comfortable with this, but I didn’t want to sound ungrateful. “Well, will you thank him for me?”
“You can do it yourself on Saturday at my game, if you’re free?”
“You’ve got a game on Saturday?”
“In the afternoon. I’m well aware of your opinions on hockey, but it would probably help with this whole fake relationship thing if you were there.”
“Oh,” I murmured. “I guess so, but I don’t think I can come. I’m scheduled to work this Saturday afternoon.”
“Okay, no problem.” His relaxed response was such a stark contrast to the way Jeremy would have replied if I’d told him I couldn’t make a game. I had no doubt he would have suggested I change my shift and then made me feel guilty when I couldn’t.
“How about Sunday night then? Would you like to come over for family dinner?”
“Family dinner?” I struggled to hide my surprise.
