Page 25 of Shifters in the Night

“I got a pontoon boat with a mess of an engine in my shop. Fool owner didn’t bother winterizing,” he said. “It’s the most urgent repair on my roster. Show me what you would do with it and we’ll talk.”

Her sharp grin was downright terrifying. “Deal.”

* * *

Eva Boudreaux moving to Mystic Bayou was the best thing to happen in years and Jon would fight anybody who said otherwise. Watching her fix pontoon boat’s engine only confirmed for Jon how lucky he would be if she came to work for him. She just seemed to have an innate knowledge for boats and what they needed. He had no idea how he was going to pay her what she was worth.

A weight he didn’t even realize was there slipped from his shoulders. His grandfather’s business wasn’t going to sink because of him.

“So can you start immediately?” he asked. “Can you find your way back here tomorrow?”

“Oh, I’ve got an Airstream parked in town,” she said, her expression sinking into a frown. “The problem is, I could only secure a spot at the RV park through the weekend. It’s so crowded that they have a reservation coming in this weekend to take over my spot.”

“Did you want to move it into the yard?” Jon asked. “You wouldn’t have to worry about booking a spot every week and it would cut down on your commute. You can park on the other side of the workshop, so you have a little more privacy. And there’s water and electrical over there for you to tap into.”

Eva looked skeptical for a moment. “You don’t think that’s a little too much togetherness?”

“Well, if you don’t like it and want to move back to town, it won’t hurt my feelings any. But if it works out, consider it a fringe benefit of the job,” he said.

She grinned and reached to shake his hand with that firm grip he wasn’t afraid of dirtying because her hands were just as grease-stained. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

“We’re gonna kick the jet ski dealership’s ass,” Jon said.

She tilted her head to stare at him. “Say what now?”

They both turned towards the noise of tires crunching over gravel. A green SUV with an oversized blue lion logo on the driver side door was pulling into the driveway. He’d seen them parked around the New Ground complex. He thought he saw Lia’s face through the windshield, but he was distracted by the strange stuttering sound from the engine.

It was a big week for the Carmody household, in terms of unexpected visitors.

Waving, Lia stepped out of the car and Jon felt his heart actually flutter. It was almost embarrassing, how he reacted to her as she glided across his lawn with all the grace of a runway model. She was wearing a slate blue designer suit thing that probably cost more than his boat. He wiped self-consciously at his hands, afraid that somehow he could get her clothes dirty from across the lawn.

“Wow,” Eva whispered.

He nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

Lia stared for a moment at Eva’s truck and he saw the hitch in her gait, which seemed to slow even more when she saw them standing at the garage door. It was probably the shock of seeing someone else at his house, he thought. He knew he certainly found it weird to have so many visitors over the course of two days.

“Hey there!” he called, waving to her.

“Hi,” she said. “I had to go out to Dani’s and retrieve my car – because you may recall I was too inebriated to drive home, which is embarrassing. I thought I would drop by and say hi.”

“Aw, don’t be embarrassed. Running home was the responsible thing to do, even if you ended up at my place, instead of yours,” Jon replied.

Eva snorted. “Been there.”

Jon cleared this throat, realizing that his rusty social skills were biting him in the ass. Eva was standing there and he was being a jackass, not introducing her. “Um, this is Eva Boudreaux, by the way.”

“Hello,” Lia said, smiling, even though there seemed to be wariness creasing her eyes. “Nice to meet you. Are you a friend of Jon’s?”

“Oh, no,” Eva laughed. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t say it like that, since he’s technically my boss and that’s not a good way to start. I’m his new mechanic.”

“I don’t think you can call me your boss when you have more qualifications than I do,” Jon muttered. “Also, Lia, I think you dropped your sunglasses out of your backpack last night. I found them in the yard this morning. I’ll go get them.”

Lia frowned and glanced back at her car. “OK.”

It made him nervous, for some reason, to leave Eva and Lia alone together. What if they talked about him? It wasn’t that he thought he was the center of the universe, but he considered Eva someone who could be a friend eventually. And he’d seen the way Zed and Bael and Will teased each other when it came to their partners.

Jon retrieved the black Ray-bans from the kitchen counter, where he’d dropped them this morning. They were fairly classic and he could easily see Lia wearing them. It had shocked him when he found them that morning on the way out to pick up his paper. It had been a long time since there had been evidence of anyone but Jon or Will at the house.

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