Heart of Dixie - Tami Hoag (1) Read Free Page A

patted his arm consolingly. Poor thing. Poor cute thing. She wanted to give him a hug, but thought better of it. Instead, she went to the tow truck to prepare to load the car.

    Jake wobbled on his feet at the thought of a blown engine. Lord, what would Andre say when he got back to L.A.? The mechanic treated all of his client's cars as if they were children. He was an import auto pediatrician, recommended from car owner to car owner by reverent word of mouth. He had purred over Jake's new Porsche. A blown engine. It would probably reduce the Frenchman to tears. Jake shuddered at the thought.

    The sound of hydraulic wheezing broke in on his thoughts and he bolted toward the back of his car. Long iron spear- like things were emerging from the tow truck, the kind of things he'd seen run through junkers in order to lift them onto the scrap heap. His imagination raced ahead to picture the rods impaling his Porsche. Control snapping, he flung himself spread-eagle on the car. "No! Please! Anything but that!"

    Dixie shook her head and sighed, working the levers, lowering the bars that would slide under the car's rear wheels and lift the vehicle off the ground. "You'll have to move, now, honey, else you'll be squashed. You're welcome to sit up in the cab of the truck if it's too painful for you to watch."

    Embarrassed beyond words, Jake stormed up to the wrecker and climbed in on the passenger's side. What was the matter with him? Where was his pride? He'd managed to make a perfect ass of himself. The woman obviously knew what she was doing. He of all people knew mechanical ability had nothing to do with gender. It was just that she looked so...soft. He wouldn't have expected a female wrecker driver to be quite so...female.

    "Jeez, Gannon, what would you expect? Arnold Schwarzenegger with breasts?" he growled, shaking his head in self-reproach, and turned his thoughts to other matters.

    It looked as if he was going to begin his search for Devon Stafford in Mare's Nest. An obscure tidbit of news he had unearthed had mentioned she had once spent a summer on the Carolina coast as a girl. It seemed to him the romantic lure of a childhood memory would appeal to an actress. Mare's Nest may not be the most logical choice to begin with, but he didn't really have any options now.

    A blown engine. His heart sank and a hard lump lodged like a rock in his throat. His beautiful Porsche.

    His rescuer pulled the cab door open and hauled herself up into the driver's seat. "She's all loaded up, honey, and none the worse for wear. You can relax."

    Jake sent her a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry I was such a jerk. It's just that, it's my first Porsche and--"

    She held up a small hand to stem the apology. "You don't have to explain. I know all about men and their cars. Knew a fella once who had a Testarossa that threw a rod on the Ventura Freeway at rush hour. He flung himself flat on the hood and cried like a baby. It was a pitiful thing to see."

    "I can imagine."

    Jake studied her features a little more closely now that the initial crisis had passed. She really had a very pretty mouth, and the faint scent of a soft sweet perfume cut through the aroma of oil and stale cigar smoke that hung in the cab. Lilies of the valley. The scent drifted into the orderly storehouse of his memory to be filed away for future reference. Dixie stared at him, unnerved by the stirring of attraction warming her tummy. Of course, he was an attractive man, big and blond and brawny. It was kind of startling to feel so drawn to him because she hadn't really thought about men in that way for a while; she hadn't had the time or the energy. She had been too busy finding herself, healing and becoming whole. This one had the most gorgeous smile-- winning, dazzling. There was nothing quite like a great smile on a big handsome guy. His teeth were white and straight--perfect, like everything else about him.

    Perfect. That was all the reason she needed to steer clear of him.