Page 56 of Sanctuary

“Nah. I’m good. We’re good.” In stark contrast to the ease with which Lori had read her, Gabe was unable to decide whether Lori was serious or not. She was able to register Shay’s delight at her stuttered behavior though and wanted to throw something at her head. She motioned to the Brewster instead. “Maybe you can film us removing the engine?”

Lori gave her a knowing smile. “Sure. That’d be great,” she said, set her phone on its tripod again, and moved into position.

As she and Shay worked to get the engine loose, Gabe had trouble concentrating on what she was doing and tried to forget that Lori’s lens was focused on her every move. But that didn’t work, and she found herself tensing and over-straining her muscles for effect—not for the thirst trap but for Lori’s benefit. She didn’t rise to Shay’s occasional smart-ass, whispered comments, but she did quietly promise Shay that she’d get her own back soon enough.

Solo operated the winch to lift the engine out once they’d gotten it free, and Gabe guided it safely over the Brewster’s chassis and mounted it onto the engine stand where they’d strip it down and rebuild it piece by piece.

Lori packed her movie kit into her purse, and Gabe was careful not to stare now that Rosie’s attention was no longer focused on Shay, who’d headed to the restroom.

“And I’ll see you tomorrow…when you come to see Max?” Lori asked.

Gabe liked the sound of hopefulness in Lori’s voice, like she was genuinely looking forward to seeing her again. “Absolutely.”

Woodchuck tapped Gabe on the shoulder. “Did you tell her about that?” she asked and jutted her chin upward.

“Damn, I totally forgot. Sorry, bud.” Gabe clapped her on the back and pointed to the camera that Woodchuck had wall-mounted. “Woody set that up so you’d have a time lapse recording of the whole restoration. She’s set up a second one in the back room where she and RB will do the spray job.”

Lori inspected it from where she was and shook her head. “That’s wonderful…Woody?”

“You can call me Woody,” she said. “It’s preferable to my real name.”

“Thank you, and thank you for that.” Lori gestured to the camera. “I didn’t even think about something so clever. What a great idea.”

Woody grinned, clearly pleased with herself. But a cold sweat crept over Gabe’s shoulders—that thing would be recording everything, including what they’d been saying, and then Lori would watch it and listen to it. She glanced at Shay, and if her expression was anything to go by, she seemed to be having the same lightbulb moment. “It’s just video though, right? I think you’ll have to put a voiceover or music on it to make it more interesting.”

Woody looked offended. “Audio and visual. I thought it might be good to give a commentary on some of the work as it was done.”

Shit. Gabe was sure Woody hadn’t mentioned that when she told her about the idea. Or maybe Gabe just hadn’t thought to ask. “We could do that after, couldn’t we? In post-production, or whatever they call it. There’s always a lot of cursing when we work, and TikTok closes down accounts for that sort of thing. I got a community violation notice for captioning a photo of us in the garage with Kick-ass mechanics.”

Lori pressed her lips together and wrinkled her nose. “Ah, that’s right. But the video will be perfect anyway. I can do voiceovers, like Gabe said, and maybe we could do a live TikTok at some point, and you could talk the audience through a particular part of the restoration.”

“We better go if we’re going to catch the salon before it closes,” Rosie said.

Gabe stopped herself from commenting for fear Lori would think she was making moves again.

“What do either of you need? No salon could improve on perfection,” Shay said, ripping the words from Gabe’s mind.

Her brazen comment was met with giggles and blushes from both Lori and Rosie, leaving Gabe wishing that she’d just had the guts to say it. Friends could compliment each other, couldn’t they?

Lori touched Gabe’s bicep, and when she instinctively flexed it, Lori exhaled a short breath. Of desire? Gabe kicked herself; she shouldn’t be trying to elicit that kind of response. She had to keep telling herself Lori was out of bounds. Maybe she should have a new tattoo to that effect etched in her palm. God damn Cynthia Nelson, and God damn herself for the path she chose.

“Tomorrow then,” Lori said and walked away.

She hooked her arm into Rosie’s, and they went out the front entrance. Gabe tried to keep her jaw from hitting the floor as she watched them sashay out with the style of catwalk models, then she turned and grabbed a beer from the bag Solo had brought in.

Shay came to her side and leaned in close. “God help you, Gabe, because I’d be powerless if either one of them set their sights on me. Screw the past.”

Gabe smiled but didn’t feel the emotion she put behind it. She’d love to screw the past, but that’s what had messed everything up, and now the past was screwing her.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“We’re going to delay the opening of the garage while we get the Brewster finished,” Gabe said. “We thought we’d have to do it piecemeal while you gathered the funding, but now that you have the Garrison money in place, there’s no reason to wait.”

Lori pulled the horse trailer into the parking lot of Ellery’s clinic and cut the engine, not quite able to believe what she was hearing. “Are you sure you want to do that? Don’t you need to open so you can start earning money?”

“Honestly, it’s what we all want. Then we can fully concentrate on the grand opening and getting new business through the doors. This is a great way for us to get used to working together again.”

She looked at her phone screen and the sneaky picture of Gabe and Max that she’d taken on Sunday when they were walking together. She wished they were FaceTiming so she could see Gabe’s face to make sure she was telling the truth and that she hadn’t just strong-armed her team into it for Lori’s benefit. She did like that she was somehow able to read Gabe so easily but wasn’t sure how that had developed so quickly. The lawyer had held herself behind shutters of iron, and Lori had never been able to melt them down. She was trying hard not to compare them, but this was another positive difference she couldn’t ignore. “There’s really no rush, Gabe. Mom and I are less than a week into planning the auction. The earliest we could pull that together is two months from now, and that would be pushing it. The calendars of the high society type we want to attract fill up months in advance.”

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