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He was riled now, his face losing its blank look and coming alive. The man was one fine specimen; shame he was such a loser. Big and surly, he looked like a bear woken before he was done hibernating.
“Yeah well, that will fade,” Piper said, waving her hand at his face, “and then you’ll have nothing to fall back on, because you suck at communicating.”
“Same goes, because when your looks fade, that pissy, stuck-up attitude you got going on isn’t going to win you any beauty pageants either.”
Piper braced her hands on the table and leaned on them.
“At least I’ll have already made friends and won’t end up living alone with my cats.” Pushing upright, she grabbed her bag and walked toward the door.
“I don’t own cats, you nutjob!”
“Those Prada aviators won’t keep you warm either!” Piper said, raising a finger as she sailed out of the diner.
Jumping into her 4x4, she started the engine and headed out of town.
“Asshole!”
Her anger held for thirty minutes, then started to ease, as the rational side of her nature returned, Piper knew the man in the diner had just paid the price for her bad mood. She’d used him as an outlet when all he’d really wanted was to be left alone... like her.
“You are a class A bitch, Piper Trainer.”
Sighing, she slapped the steering wheel. She’d visited Rummer and spent the last two days with her friend Joanie, and things had not gone well. Worry gnawed at her, because while Joanie said she was clean, Piper had her doubts.
Her car spluttered, and started slowing.
“You have to be kidding me!” She eased it to the side of the road, where it stopped completely. A gust of wind hit her hard as she got out and struggled around to open the hood.
Piper had three cousins, all male, and Jack, the middle one, had taught her the rudiments of car maintenance. Poking around, she couldn’t see anything obvious. She’d have to call one of them to come and get her.
She heard the purr of an engine pull up behind her car. Then the sound of a car door. Getting out from under the hood, she looked at the big, black Range Rover, and the man walking toward her.
“Great, my day just went from bad to hell,” Piper muttered.
His long jean-clad legs ate up the distance between them. His face was once again blank, hands in the pockets of his coat.
“I got it,” Piper said. “But thanks for stopping.”
“If I’d known it was you, I probably would have kept going.”
“Well that’s an excellent idea, why don’t you save us both another argument and do just that.”
“Here’s the thing,” he said, moving to stand beside her and look down at the engine. “Contrary to popular opinion, my mom raised me right, so I can’t just drive by when I see a car broken down, even if the woman driving it has a serious attitude problem.”
“I don’t have an attitude problem!”
“Sure you do.”
He placed a hand on her shoulder and nudged her to the right so he could look under the hood.
“You’re the one with the problem,” Piper gritted out.
“Whatever,” came the muffled reply.
Piper wanted to tell him to get back in his big, flash car and drive away, but she was cold. The thought of sitting here on the side of the road while she waited for someone to come get her was not a happy one. So she shut her mouth, battled down the humiliation, anger, and pride, and waited.
“My guess is your fuel pump is faulty, and needs replacing.”
“So I can’t drive it then?”
