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As she stepped out, the man from the line came out of the store and headed her way studying her as he approached.
“Forget something?” he asked, smiling.
Tildy looked up from her purse where she was searching for her cell phone. “Huh? Oh. No. My car won’t start.”
“Hmm,” he replied, eyeing the Mercedes. “Want me to give it a try?”
Tildy didn’t know what to say and was about to tell him it was fine and she’d just call her Dad when he said, “I work at a garage. Not on foreign cars, but…”
He let the offer hang in the sweltering air between them.
Tildy considered it. If her Dad was playing golf, it would be at least an hour before he could get here. That was even if he agreed to cut his game short to rescue her. Not wanting to wait that long, she nodded and held out the keys to the giant of a man.
“Yes. Please,” she told him. “I…I don’t know what to do.”
His eyes twinkled as he reached toward her. Tildy was pretty sure this man knew what to do at all times.
Chapter 5
Hawk had noticed the cute little thing in line in front of him. Jeans were okay, but not tight enough in his opinion, and her blouse seemed a little warm for the weather. What had really caught his eye was her hair. She had dark chestnut hair that cascaded across her shoulders and halfway down her back. It was incredibly tempting to run his fingers through it. She was a skittish little thing, and while she was cute as hell, Hawk wasn’t really interested in breaking in a new filly. He wasn’t, though, about to leave her stranded at a gas station on a day like this.
As he took her keys from her, she gasped and took a quick step back from him. Hawk frowned. He was a little intimidating; that couldn’t be denied. But it was the middle of the day in a public place, and there certainly wasn’t any reason for her to act as though he was going to hurt her.
He was about to say something to alleviate her anxiety, when her hands flew to her blouse and she started unbuttoning it. Well now. Hawk couldn’t suppress the urge to grin. Maybe the little filly was so grateful for his help she was about to throw herself at him to show him just how much. He was about to tell her that she could at least hold off until they were alone when she opened her shirt a tiny bit, revealing the lacy trim of a white bra and two creamy swells that were more tempting than her hair.
She reached in and pulled out something small. A bit of gold flashed in the morning sunlight. She stared at a small, round medallion in the palm of her hand. She looked at it for so long that Hawk said, “Honey?” attempting to bring her back to Earth. It barely worked though. She tore her gaze away from the necklace and looked up at him as though she’d never seen him before.
“It broke,” she finally declared.
Hawk looked from her dazed face to the necklace and back again. It was only the chain that was broken, as far as he could see, and that was easily fixed. Maybe it had sentimental value.
“You’re having a rough day, honey,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. He shook the car keys in his hand. “Let me check out your car.”
She watched him open the driver’s side door and settle onto the seat with his feet still on the blacktop of the lot. She was so damn small that no man could squeeze in behind the wheel. He cranked the ignition and listened to it try but fail, to catch. He hauled himself back out of the car.
“Don’t know much about foreign cars,” he told her again. “But if I had to guess, I’d say you have a bad sensor. My boss would know better than I would.”
She merely stared at him.
“You can call a tow truck if you’d rather have your regular mechanic look at it.”
“I…I don’t know who our regular mechanic is,” she admitted.
“Want me to have it towed to my garage?”
She fingered the medallion in her hand. “Yes,” she said more firmly.
Hawk nodded and took out his phone. He called the towing service the garage used and disconnected. “He’ll be here in about 10 minutes. Now, you can call someone and have them come pick you up. I’ll wait with you until the car’s loaded and your ride gets here. Or, though you don’t know me, you can ride with me and-”
“Yes!”
Hawk was taken aback by her sudden enthusiasm.
“Yes. I’ll go with you!”
A slow grin spread on his face. He wasn’t sure what had turned her from a frightened filly into a high-spirited mare all of a sudden, but he liked it, even if she was a little strange.
