Page 7 of Mechanic’s Christmas Match

He didn’t add that the price had likely been so good because the kindhearted older man had known Rory was just getting started.

He also didn’t mention that he’d been stopping by Herb’s house to take him into town every week since, knowing that he didn’t have an easy way to get around anymore.

“That sounds like Herb,” Ana said fondly.

His heart ached, and he wondered, not for the first time, why life had to spool out the way it did.

Last winter, he’d ended up running into Ana at Christmas parties, weddings, and lots of other events around town. Ana was a little shy, but she didn’t seem to mind his silly jokes. And once he got her laughing, she always opened up. Until he tried to bring up how he felt.

He’d always told himself that she probably just wanted someone with his act a whole lot more together than he had his at the time. Ana already ran her own business, and she and her mom were well-respected members of the community. He was just some new mechanic who’d only recently breezed into town without much more to his name than the bike he rode in on.

Rory was doing all he could to become the kind of man that Ana could rely on. But reinvention took time. And there were no guarantees that she would ever be interested in him as more than a friend.

He tried not to let himself think that her hesitation was about his past. But it was hard not to wonder. Rory knew he was rough around the edges. But judging from the interest he got from the other women in town, they didn’t seem to mind it.

Ana’s different, a little voice in the back of his head reminded him. She and her mom are good people. She doesn’t want anything to do with a high-school dropout who used to do repairs for a biker gang, especially now that she’s got her little nephew to look after.

Rory hadn’t worked for the gang because he wanted to. He’d been forced to do it to protect his sister Evangeline and their home. And Rory had only dropped out of high school to keep a roof over their heads after their grandfather passed.

It was the sale of that house he’d fought for that had allowed him to pay for the classes that qualified him to work for Beau, and to pay off the debt the gang claimed he owed them.

Now that he was free and clear, with a skill and an apartment of his own, he spent most days feeling lucky, like he finally had a say in his own life and a bright future.

But he wasn’t sure his situation with Ana would ever change, no matter what he did.

Maybe over time, she’ll see I’m a decent guy…

Beau pulled up in the tow truck and Rory got out to help him load Ana’s car.

“Glad you came in today now, aren’t you?” Beau asked him with a sunny smile as they finished up.

“Yeah,” Rory said. “Thanks for coming out.”

“See you at the shop,” Beau said, and winked at him.

Rory shook his head and strode back to Ana and Theo. Maybe Beau thought he would put the moves on Ana while he had her trapped in his truck, but Rory would never do that to her.

“Okay,” he said as he got back in. “Ready to go, Theo?”

“Yes,” Theo said, his eyes serious.

“All right, then,” Rory said, pulling the truck onto the road again and following the tow truck back toward town.

There were big-box stores a little farther down Route One toward the city. But out here, close to Trinity Falls, it was quiet.

He followed Beau down Ambler Road, past the bigger stone homes with their deep setbacks, toward the community college and the village. Soon, most of the folks living in these houses would be hanging lights and Christmas wreaths. Last year, he hadn’t been able to believe how much the place resembled the set to one of those movies his grandmother used to watch every winter when he was small.

Before long, they were in town, passing Ana and her mom’s dress shop and the apartment on top where the three of them lived.

“Hey,” Theo chirped from his car seat.

“We’re going to the repair shop,” Ana reminded him. “It will be so interesting to see all the tools and the workers.”

Rory frowned, hoping he could get the job done fast enough that the little boy wouldn’t be bored.

They pulled up at the shop on the corner of Harvard Avenue.

“Why don’t you two go on inside?” Rory offered. “There’s hot chocolate in the waiting area for a cold day.”