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Adam picked up one of the shriveled straw wrappers on the table and fiddled with it. “I told you. I’m good at being a mechanic. So I came to work for my dad.”
Her eyes narrowed and she nibbled on her lower lip. “See? That doesn’t make much sense to me. If you were doing so well—wherever you were living—why did you come back here? This place doesn’t exactly give offthosekinds of vibes.”
Oh no. That small smile he wore was the exact thing that made her resolve crumble.
Adam crossed his arms, his brows furrowing. “What vibes are you talking about?”
“I don’t know. Weren’t you living in the city? I’m sure you get a lot more work out there.”
He snorted. “Is that what you think? That I got a lot of work out there? Well, I’ll have you know that I get a lot more work out here. Do you realize how many cowboys own farming equipment and trucks? And who do they take their stuff to? That’s right. Me.”
“Well, it’s nice to know that you’re not getting full of yourself.” Faye rolled her eyes. “But seriously, you know what I mean. Why did you come back?”
“Does there have to be a reason?” Adam tilted his head, those eyes still drilling into her. “Can’t a guy just want to come back to his roots?”
“Sure.” Faye hesitated. Her gut instincts weren’t usually wrong, but then no one had affected her like Adam had as of late. “But usually, a guy like you who left to find something different wouldn’t come back unless it was for a good reason.”
“And joining my family business isn’t a good reason?”
She flushed. That’s not what she was getting at. She didn’t even know what she was getting at. Faye shook her head and slouched back into her seat. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.” First the conversation about him carrying her in the rain, and now this. Why was it that she couldn’t catch a break? The second she started seeing Adam in a different way, everything just felt uncomfortable.
The sound of their discomfort was the loudest thing in that whole diner. She was just about to shoot out of her seat and demand that he take her back home so she could be embarrassed in private, but then he broke the silence.
“Actually, you’re right.”
Faye lifted her face and stared at him in disbelief.
He chuckled and then scratched his cheek before looking away. “My dad was getting to a point in his life where he was looking at retirement. He was working fewer hours, and Bridget was taking on more than she should have. I heard about it, and I told him I’d come home to take over. I’m sure Bridget wasn’t all that thrilled about that, though.”
“Why not? Doesn’t she care about your father?”
“Oh, she does. I think she sees him as more of a father than either of us realize—more than I’ve been a son to him. I probably should have let him just leave the shop to Bridget and stay put like you said.”
“I never said…”
“No, but you inferred it. I could have stayed in the city and started my own thing. Bridget was handling things here. I guess I might have been triggered in a way. I didn’t want to see the shop go to someone who wasn’t in the family.” Adam offered her a chagrined smile. “Go ahead. Tell me I’m shallow and that I shouldn’t have come just for that reason.”
Faye leaned forward. “I would never tell you that.”
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“Because you still came back for your dad.”
Adam snorted. “I came back so I could take over.”
“To let your father retire.”
The look on his face made it clear he had no idea what she was trying to get at.
Faye fidgeted in her seat. “Think about it. Your father could have retired any time he wanted as soon as Bridget started working for him. Now he’s getting serious about it. He’s working even fewer hours, letting you take over more. He’s finally getting serious about retirement. I don’t think he would have done that if you weren’t here to facilitate that. Sure, you came here thinking it was for you, but in reality, it was for him.”
His tight expression softened. “I never thought of it that way.” Adam shook his head and let out a strained chuckle. “But that doesn’t change one fact.”
Faye tilted her head. “What is that?”
“I came here with one thing in mind. You can’t say a guy is a good person if something admirable also occurred at the same time as their less-than-worthy decision. What if a robber broke into someone’s house to find someone they presumed dead on the kitchen floor so it scared them away. But the person wasn’t dead, and the broken window was the only thing to clear out the carbon dioxide gas that had knocked the person out. Is that robber a good person?”
She scoffed at him. “Are you seriously trying to give me an ethics lesson?”
