The Secretary Gets Her Man by Mindy Neff

Author:Mindy Neff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The thing about a nice car was that you rarely had to worry about it malfunctioning. That’s why Penny nearly went into a panic when the Cadillac started jerking and lurching and finally quit on her no more than ten minutes after she’d left the bookstore.

Fighting the sudden lack of power steering, she muscled the coasting car to the edge of the road, scaring an armadillo back into the bushes. At least she’d saved the ugly creature from becoming roadkill.

This is ridiculous! she thought. Was this town a jinx or something? It seemed she went from one calamity to the next.

Pulling the release, she got out, lifted the hood, and peered into the engine compartment, thoroughly bewildered. She nearly snorted in disgust. Like she’d even know what to do under here. Cars nowadays operated on a bunch of computer chips. Even if the darn thing spoke to her and told her what was wrong, she wouldn’t have a clue how to fix it.

She heard the crunch of gravel beneath tires and peered around the edge of the hood.

Joe Colter, grinning behind the wheel of his squad car came to a stop inches from her back bumper.

She sighed. Wouldn’t you just know it.

Was she doomed to forever look inept in front of this man?

Hat on his head, hips loose, he ambled toward her.

“Are you following me?” she asked, not bothering to keep the annoyance out of her tone.

“Maybe.” His appreciative gaze skimmed over her sundress. “What seems to be the problem?”

“Well, if I knew that, I wouldn’t be standing on the side of the road baking in the sun, now would I? It coughed and jerked a few times and then it just quit.”

“Want me to give it a try, or would that be stepping on your toes?”

Oh, he was so smug. She wanted to stamp her feet. Or slug him.

Instead, not bothering to hide her irritation, she gestured toward the driver’s door. “Be my guest, macho man.”

He slid inside and turned the ignition. The engine cranked over but didn’t catch. Getting back out, tossing the keys up and catching them in his hand, he said blandly, “You’re out of gas.”

“I am not out of gas,” she said, exasperated with this whole sorry mess. “Figures I’d get rescued by somebody who knows even less about cars than I do. I just filled the tank two days ago.”

His smile faded and his eyes sharpened. “That gas gauge is sitting past empty, Penny.”

“Well, maybe the damn thing’s broke. If I was out of gas, one of those idiot lights should have come on.” She snatched the keys from him, checked the gauge herself. Still not satisfied, she got out and tugged a pussy willow from the ditch by the side of the road, unscrewed the gas cap and threaded the reed down into the tank. When she pulled it out, the stem was barely damp at the tip.

Turning, she frowned at Joe. He wasn’t smiling.

“Somebody siphoned the gas out of my car.”

“Where did you park it?”

“Smack-dab on Main Street.

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