Page 22 of Mechanic’s Christmas Match

“You started working young, didn’t you?” Ana asked, then bit her lip.

She’d heard all about the way he sacrificed his own education to keep a roof over his sister’s head. But it might be something he didn’t want to talk about.

“Our grandfather had a shop in the garage of our row home back in Philly,” Rory said with a fond smile. “He taught me how to fix stuff when I was really little.”

“You liked it?” Ana guessed.

“Oh yeah,” Rory told her. “It was fun to tinker. Plus I liked hanging out with him and his friends when they stopped by.”

Ana nodded, not wanting to ask the thousand other questions about the stories surrounding his upbringing that she’d heard whispered among the folks in town.

“When he passed, I just kind of took over the shop,” Rory said, shrugging.

“Was that hard?” Ana asked him.

“I learned on my feet,” he said, shrugging. “Mostly it was just a lot of time, between that and trying to keep an eye on Buttons.”

“Buttons?” Ana echoed.

“That’s my sister,” Rory chuckled. “I’ve always called her that. Anyway, yeah, I kept busy.”

“Is that why you haven’t dated much?” Ana ventured.

He frowned, thinking.

“I guess so,” he said, nodding slowly. “It’s not like I didn’t have women around. It just… wasn’t the kind of thing where you go out for a nice meal or anything.”

The big man suddenly looked so uncomfortable that Ana almost felt sorry for him.

Was this what he meant the other day when he said that thing about being good to a good woman? Was he ashamed of meaningless relationships he’d had in the past?

“That’s okay,” she told him, willing herself not to get hung up on it. “You’ve got a different kind of life now. You can take time to get to know Maggie, bring her out on romantic dates, and be the kind of gentleman she deserves.”

“I definitely want to be a gentleman,” he said firmly, leaning forward and placing his big hands on the table, as if he felt it was time to get down to business. “What does a romantic date look like, in your opinion?”

“Different women like different things,” Ana said, thinking it over. “A lot of women would like their date to pick them up with flowers or a little candy, and take them to dinner.”

“What kind of flowers?” Rory asked. “What kind of candy?”

“That depends on her,” Ana said, smiling. “And I don’t know what Maggie’s favorite flowers or candy are. But you can’t go wrong with a rose or a small box of chocolate.”

Rory nodded with a dead serious expression, like he was a spy on a mission, committing the information to memory so that he wouldn’t have to write it down.

“What about dinner?” he asked. “Where’s the right place to go if I want it to be the perfect date?”

“That’s up to you,” Ana said carefully. “One thing a gentleman should never do is take a date to a place he can’t really afford just to impress her. It’s better to have a picnic at the park than to overextend yourself trying to buy someone’s attention. The right woman won’t care about the meal—it’s really all about the company.”

“I do love a good picnic,” he said, nodding. “Though it might be a little cold out for that.”

He was looking at Ana as intently, like he was trying to read her mind. She could sense how much he really wanted direction.

“Ask her about her life,” Ana confided. “Ask her about her work, and what she does when she’s not working.”

He nodded.

“And if she asks you a question, try your best to answer it honestly,” she added. “Don’t just joke around.”

He winced like she’d just slapped him.