Page 8 of Mechanic’s Christmas Match

He was grabbing the keys out of the ignition when Ana placed her hand on his.

“Thank you,” she said softly.

“I’ve got you, Ana,” he said gruffly, his heart pounding. “Always.”

3

ANA

Ana stood in the shop’s waiting area, watching Theo carefully swirl a wooden stirrer around in his hot chocolate.

She’d brought him in here on autopilot, holding his hand and fixing his treat at the little cart while Rory’s words still echoed in her mind.

I’ve got you, Ana, always…

She knew what he was trying to say—he was a good man and a friend. That was all. No matter how much more she dreamed his words might mean, they didn’t. But she couldn’t seem to stop herself from pretending anyway.

She glanced over at the bay, where Rory had the hood of her car up and was already deeply focused on his work.

While he was laidback at social gatherings, with an easy smile and a teasing tone, here in the shop he looked more like a surgeon. His handsome face was taut with concentration as he examined the car, his big hands surprisingly graceful as he coaxed the engine into spilling its secrets.

She felt her cheeks heat thinking about him, and turned her attention back to Theo.

The little fellow was smiling down at his paper cup of hot chocolate, which she had cooled with a generous amount of milk before letting him stir it.

“Do you like fixing hot chocolate?” Ana asked him with a smile.

He nodded his head and smiled at her, his brown eyes sparkling.

“You can have a sip now,” she told him. “It’s not too hot.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because we cooled it off with lots of milk,” she said. “Remember?”

He smiled and took the stick out of the cup. She took it from him and watched as he picked up the cup with two hands, as carefully as if it were full of diamonds, and lifted it to his lips.

In fairness, she still mostly gave him sippy cups at home, partly out of habit, and partly because there wasn’t really room for more cups in the cupboard.

But seeing him drink capably from the paper cup made her smile.

“Good,” Theo declared, smiling with a little chocolate in the corners of his mouth.

“I’m glad,” Ana told him, deciding she could help him wash his face when he was finished. “You did a great job stirring it.”

He smiled up at her proudly and her heart felt like it would burst with love.

She might be struggling in a few areas of her life, but one look at Theo never failed to remind her just how lucky she was. Whatever he needed, she would figure it out. And everything else was unimportant.

“Story,” Theo said, scrambling into one of the plastic chairs.

Ana looked around to see if there was anything to read to him. The waiting area was lovely, bright, and clean. It was already decorated with paper cutouts of Santa and his reindeer, angels, and gingerbread men on the walls, along with paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. There was a nice stack of magazines fanned out on the coffee table, but Ana figured they must have been donated by Beau’s wife, Quinn, who ran a Christmas tree farm. As far as she could see, every one of them was either a Farm Journal or The Agriculture Magazine. They would be appreciated by a lot of the Trinity Falls clientele, but she didn’t think Theo was among that number.

“Should I tell you a story about us?” Ana offered.

Theo nodded, looking delighted.

“Okay,” Ana said. “Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Theo.”