Dawn Robertson - Finding Willow

“Ana, you should totally go and talk to him.”

“I’m not going to talk to him.”

“He’s at your dad’s shop. What if it’s a life or death situation?” she screeches, and I swear it’s so loud that it causes hot decrepit-bike guy to stop looking at his watch and glance up at us. He shields his eyes and squints into the sun. His head cants to the side just a little when he finds us watching him. Holly, the traitor that she is, pulls the cloth from her apron and pretends as though she’s innocently cleaning the window. I, on the other hand, simply stare as he crosses the street towards us.

“Crap. Now he’s coming over.” I turn and head back to the counter. Holly just keeps wiping at the window with her cloth, but all she’s doing is smudging sticky caramel over the clean glass.

“You’re welcome.” She giggles like a hyena on crack.

“You’re cleaning that window properly before you leave.”

She lifts her fingers to her forehead in some kind of wacked out girl-scout salute. “Yes ma’am.”

The bell above the door jingles and I feel my spine stiffen. The smell of leather, motor oil and boy sweat fills our tiny shop and I start inhaling hard and fast. I’m kinda surprised I don’t hyperventilate.

“Hi, I’m Holly. Holly Harris, what can I get you?”

“Uh, hi.” I turn and see him withdrawing his hand from Holly’s too tight grasp. “The shop across the street, do you know the guy that owns it? I was supposed to meet him there earlier today, but I got held up in traffic.”

“Ana, would you like to field this one?” Holly asks, drawing me into their conversation and forcing hot decrepit-bike guy’s eyes to look me over. Is it my imagination that his hungry gaze glides over me from head to hip? Twice?

“He’s gone for the day. Friday night’s bonfire and booze night down by the river.”

“Shit. I knew I shouldn’t have stopped earlier.”

“Shop opens again at ten am.”

“Nah, that’ll be too late. Any idea where I could find this river?”

“Eight blocks down, second turn on your right, then you wanna follow the cane fields for another five kilometres, you’ll run right into it.”

Holly’s standing behind Hot Guy making lewd hand gestures and snapping her teeth at his bum like she wants to take a bite. I shoot her a warning glare and jerk my head in the direction of the kitchen several times, but it’s Holly, so of course she doesn’t take the hint, which leaves me looking like a stroke victim.

Hot Guy’s brows furrow. They’re killer brows, all tapered in the right places but rugged enough so you can tell they haven’t been trimmed or plucked. Dipping my eyes a little lower, I notice how long his lashes are, thick black lashes that any women would kill for, but the observations don’t stop there. His eyes are such a deep, dark chocolate that they’re almost black and I think I see the first hint of a dimple when he gives me a bemused smile.

Dimples, for crying out loud !

Like he wasn’t already perfect enough with his lashes and his leather and his freaking melty dark chocolate eyes!

He dares a look over his shoulder and Holly smiles innocently. I’m pointing back and forth between her and the kitchen like a crazy person and threatening murder with my eyes when he turns back around, and I have to pretend like I’m adjusting my ponytail in order to appear even halfway normal.

“You okay?” The smile is faint, but definitely there, and that brings me right back to the dimples again.

“Uh-huh.” I mutter. Holly shoots me a warning look, a look that says if I don’t get on with it she’ll make this a million times worse for me. Resisting the urge to jump on Holly and body slam her into the pastry display case, I hear myself saying, “I could show you if you like? The river. I mean. Not show you something else. That didn’t come out right. I meant—”

“What Ana’s trying to say here, is that her shift ends in exactly one hour and since I’ll be sticking around to watch the brat—” Holly inclines her head in Sam’s direction, who is watching our interaction like it’s his favourite episode of SpongeBob Square Pants “—she’d be delighted to take you down to the river and show you her bonfire.”

“Holly!” I chastise.

“You sure … uh, Ana, was it? I wouldn’t wanna put you out.”

“Ana loves putting out,” Holly chirrups.

She is having way too much fun with this.

“Holly!” I say again, much louder this time.

“What? He knows I’m kidding.” She turns to Ole’ Melty Eyes. “Right?”

He runs his hand through his hair. I can practically feel the freak out going on inside his head. Any more from Holly and this guy’s going to Kawasaki out of town, as fast as his wheels can take him. “Yeah, of course.”

I sigh and give both him and my self-esteem an out, “I could just draw you a map, if you like?”

“No. I want you to take me.” His brows knit together and the dimples pop out when he laughs at what he just said, but he doesn’t make any attempt to rectify it. In fact, the smile he gives me is downright cheeky and full of challenge. I smile back, thinking he has no idea what he just walked into.

He thrusts a hand out in front of me and says, “Elijah Cade.”

“Ana.” I take his proffered hand. It’s warm but not sweaty, calloused, and it engulfs mine completely.

“You got a last name, Ana?”

“Nope, just Ana.”

His eyebrow quirks and the smile he pairs with it is as smug as smiles come. “Well, just Ana, you and I will be seeing a lot of each other from now on.”

“Is that so?”

“I’m gonna be working just across the street, and I’m gonna need a place to eat.” I know he’s provoking me, any idiot could see that, and yet the way his voice lowers and his dark eyes seem to hood over when he says the word “eat” makes me want to offer up myself as an all-night buffet.

I hear Holly gasp and I know I’m in trouble. Holly’s very rarely shocked by anything. I don’t know if it’s what Elijah said, or the way I’m so obviously drooling over him, but the fact that she’s gasping is so not good. I look away from Melty Eyes, but I’m afraid I’ll need a cold shower before I can calm down enough to keep my inner hussy at bay. “Really? I wasn’t even aware that Big Bob was looking for another mechanic.”

He looks surprised. Surprised and suddenly wary. “You know him?”

“You could say that.”

“Tell me then, what have I gotta do to impress him? I really need to hold down this job.”

“Okay, here’s the thing. Big Bob’s really big on pretty boys, so make sure you smile. Don’t wear a shirt while you’re working, and he’s partially deaf so you’ll need to talk REALLY LOUD!”

“You’re shitting me, right?”

“Afraid not. Mr Boss Man is a partially deaf, raving homosexual. Still want the job?”

Holly stares at me in horror from across the room and mouths, “What are you doing?”

“Yeah, of course,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. He is clearly uncomfortable. “I mean, it’s not like I’m going to be stripping or anything.”

“Just your shirt. But something tells me you’re used to people staring at your bare chest anyway.”

His lips quirk into a slow smile and there’s a moment when I can tell we’re both thinking the same thing: Elijah without a shirt. Okay, well, I’m thinking of Elijah without a shirt and from the way he’s smirking at me, I’m pretty certain his mind is on missing articles of clothing too.

“Tell you what, Elijah Cade, why don’t you have a seat and I’ll bring you some pie on the house.”

“That’d be great.”