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While the line rang, my eyes tracked her movements through my shop.
“Hey, Pat. It’s Decker. I’ve got that part for you if you want to swing by,” I left him a message, not expecting him to answer.
Tucking my phone back into my pocket, I joined Reese over by the Camaro I had pulled apart.
“Been working on this one for a while.” I scratched the back of my head.
“Giving you problems?” She tipped forward and peered into the engine bay.
Before I could catch myself, my eyes strayed to the curve of her ass. Damn, she had a nice ass.A nice, off-limits ass.
Reese turned, and I quickly dropped my gaze. She folded her arms as she straightened, arching her eyebrow.Busted.
“Not problems,” I answered and cleared my throat. “But to do it right, it takes time.”
“Like a surgery.”
I chuckled. “Kind of. But I guess you would know more about that than me.”
She hummed and strolled around the other side of the Camaro, peering into the front seat.
“What kind of doctor are you?”
“Emergency medicine.”
I grunted. No wonder she was in a state of constant reaction. Every moment needed to be filled with something. Even on the drive over here, she’d checked her email on her phone. I was pretty sure she’d checked some patient charts. Her schedule. And then settled on picking at her fingernails until we’d pulled into my lot.
In the span of seconds, her mom’s comment brought Reese Barker into crystal-clear focus. This woman never stopped working—never stopped moving. I wondered when the last time something had been strong enough to hold her still…and what it was.
“So what made you go all the way to the East Coast for an emergency room? Or are you a city mouse?”
It was clear she loved her mom—her home. And that made me wonder why she’d chosen to build her life on the opposite side of the country.
She looked at me from underneath her eyelashes. “Better programs. Better opportunities.”
There was no doubt about that. Wisdom was a small town with only an urgent care center; the closest hospital was in Jackson, but even that wasn’t much compared to a major city.But there were plenty of those between here and New York…
“Ever think about coming back home?”
Her hesitation before she answered was all I needed to know the next word was a lie. “No,” she clipped. “How about you? Texas to Wyoming. Trying out a different breed of cowboy?”
I laughed. “Not quite. Too hot in Texas. Plus I like the mountains.”
Her smile blossomed just for a second, and it felt as bright as the midday sun. “Me, too.” And then it clouded over once more as she reached for her phone. “I’m going to call Mom. This is ridiculous. I never should’ve left.”
I closed the space between us and gently covered her phone with my hand.“She’s going to be fine, Reese.”
“That’s not the point.” Her defeat was obvious. “She’s more concerned about my dating life than she is with me being there to take care of her.”
My gaze pinned hers. “Because she sees that you need more of a break than she does.”
Her head whipped to me, sparks flying in her stare. “I don’t need a break, especially when I could be helping her.”
There was nothing worse than stubbornness validated by altruism.
The door to the shop opened, putting a stop to the conversation as Pat walked in and yelled for me.
“Decker?”
