Carolina's Gone A'Courting by Carolyn Zane

Author:Carolyn Zane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

“What a super first day on the job, huh?” Lower lip protruding, Carolina stretched out the neck of her sleeveless T-shirt and blew. She’d long since shrugged out of the top half of her sweltering denim jumpsuit and let it dangle from her waist. “We haven’t picked up one single piece of garbage yet and it’s already afternoon.” Worry wrinkled her brow.

A grunt came from beneath their dented county rig, where Hunt lay on his back on a road sign in the middle of their lane, tinkering with the engine. Carolina acted as his assistant, straddling his feet, which—like the wicked witch of the west after Dorothy had landed—were the only part of him that were visible.

“Luckily,” he said, “Scruggs will be too distracted by the decimation of his pickup to care about litter.”

“Mmm. That’s encouraging.”

“You want encouragement? Let’s see…they can’t fire us.”

“Bummer.” With a quick glance over her shoulder, Carolina leaned in under the hood and peered through the maze of engine parts to Hunt’s face. “You don’t think they’ll be back, do you?”

“Who? Dumb and Dumber? Nah.”

She shivered. “I hope not.”

Hunt scratched his nose with his wrist. “They’re long gone.”

Carolina settled her weight on her sore ankle to test its strength. It was better already. She could run, if she had to, though it didn’t really matter. Hunt was probably right. Old Ted and Willie weren’t coming back.

The way Hunt had come rumbling up in that apartment house of a John Deere, just as Ted and Willie had spotted her, why the two of them had turned tail without a backward glance and sped off. A satisfied smile tugged at her lips. Her view of Hunt was ever changing. Life had sure as heck been anything but boring lately.

From the Kuenzis—who lived a good two miles down the road—Hunt had borrowed a tractor, a tow chain and a complete set of auto mechanic’s tools. Apparently, Wayne Kuenzi had been on Hunt’s football team back in high school and they were still great buddies.

Much to Carolina’s chagrin, while Hunt was at the Kuenzis’ place, he’d put in a call to the Hidden Valley Police Department and reported their “fender-bender” to Selma. Selma had said Scruggs was on a Code 7—which everyone in town knew was a trip to Starbucks—and she didn’t know exactly when he’d return and give them approval to call a tow truck.

Fine with Carolina.

She wasn’t exactly anxious to get a gander at the look on the officer’s face when he saw what she’d done to the new rig. It was pitiful. Once Hunt had dragged the truck back up on the road, they could see that the main damage was to the tailgate and rear bumper. And the entire passenger side.

Everything else was in pretty good shape. Comparatively speaking. Now, if they could only get the engine started. Carolina sighed.

“Hand me that smaller socket, there, will ya? No. The other one. Thanks.”

His little grunts and heavy breathing as he worked were comforting to Carolina. He knew what he was doing, that was for sure.

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