Any Man of Mine Read Free Page B

wasn’t an issue, but being reminded of my own single status was. I knew in this day and age I should be embracing my independence, but truthfully, I’d sooner be embracing a man.
    Next stop was the shoe store to pick up my now fixed boot and endure a lecture on how to polish them so this expensive footwear would last longer. Then, I finally pulled up to the mechanic’s garage where Chip and Neil worked.
    The front door was locked, but I knew from past experience that the side door would be open. I parked beside an unfamiliar truck with an unfamiliar logo, whipped that tire out of the trunk of my car with an expert twist of my hips and kept my skirt clean.
    I was good.
    Tracy’s comment about getting the boys to help made me laugh. They would say they were busy; they would ask me if my arms were broken, I was tough. I’m sure there were times they thought the skirts and dresses I wore were clever disguises to fool them into thinking I might actually be different from them.
    The flat tire was hard to roll, but once I got it going, it went okay. The door was tricky and from the sounds of laughter inside, I guessed the truck belonged to a long lost buddy of one of my brothers.
    Yay. Just what I needed in my current mood. Another guy.
    And wasn’t it simply divine justice that the guy perched on the bumper of Chip’s truck was the same “guy” I had seen in the grocery store still wearing his sunglasses.
    â€œAnd out of nowhere comes the sunshine,” he announced, watching me as I manhandled the tire toward the tire changer, but making no move to help. Did these guys think rolling flat tires qualified as a spectator sport? “Pretty little lady is pretty tough,” he said, angling me another smile.
    He had to be kidding. Sunshine? Pretty little lady? Could this guy get any more guyish? I ignored him this time.
    Chip wiped his hands on a greasy towel and watched me. Neil finally grabbed the tire. Jace leaned against the truck, grinning at their new friend as if he had said something wildly original.
    â€œHey, sis. You’re late,” Jace called out as Neil dropped the tire by the compressor.
    â€œHey, Jace. I don’t care,” I retorted, not bothering to pull out my manners. Even though Tracy and I had made up, I still felt grumbly. This guy’s unsubtle come-on as he watched me struggle, piled on top of Casey’s earlier patronizing attitude, didn’t help to push my mood out of the red zone.
    â€œOkay if I bring this back later on?” Neil asked.
    â€œI can make it home on the spare.”
    â€œJigs, this is our sister Danielle,” Chip said as he tossed the towel into a nearby can. “Jigs likes fishing.”
    I presumed this was Chip’s way of explaining how he had come up with this particular nickname. Chip only re-christened guys he considered good friends. Jigs obviously made a huge impression very quickly. I’d heard vague references to Jigs in the past few days but I’d been too busy to follow through. And definitely not interested.
    I gave him a careful smile accompanied by what my brothers called my office telephone voice. “Welcome to Preston,” I said, pleased that I sounded so civil.
    â€œThanks for that,” he said, tipping his hard hat back on his head and grinning at me again. “Preston seems like a real friendly town.”
    I gave him a vague look.
    â€œI’m thinking of moving here,” he continued, obviously oblivious to my not-interested attitude. “I’ve heard good things about this place and—” he paused and grinned at me “—the people in it.”
    â€œIsn’t that great?” Jace said, looking as if his favorite dog had just come home.
    â€œWonderful,” I murmured, ignoring the vague innuendo in Jigs’s comment. Duty done, I turned back to Chip. “You ready to go?”
    Chip glanced from me to Jigs, then to Jace, his expression clearly