Page 43 of Ice Mechanic

I have no idea. Nothing is making sense.

She kissed me on the cheek and my brain froze.

Every time I touch her, my heart palpitates.

I’m either in need of a cardiologist or something about this woman is messing with me.

I find a parking spot amongst all the news vans and April hops out of the car. “I’ll check if the cost is clear and then hike back to my car. Thanks for the save.”

“April!” I stride after her. “I have something to give you too.”

She reels away like I’m a creep with a van offering candy to children. “That’s not code for ‘you’re going to kiss me’, is it? I just said that earlier because Evan was watching.”

As usual, a grin tugs at my mouth. This woman is so charming that it’spainful.

“Whoa.” April’s attention slips away from me and lands on a bright blue convertible sitting low on the concrete.

“I guess you found it first,” I mutter.

“This is…”

“A ’57 Bel Air. My dad handed me the keys the night I got drafted to the league.” Dipping into my pocket, I let those very keys dangle in front of her nose.

April’s green eyes widen until they take up half of her face. “No.”

“It took a while to arrange someone to drive it out here.”

“No.”

“Dad gave the car to me in name, but it’s still pretty much his baby and he didn’t trust just anyone to drive it down.”

“Noooo.”

I chuckle. “Are you okay?”

“No. I mean yes. I mean… is this really a ’57?” She walks around the vehicle in a slow circle.

The Bel Air sits proudly, blue paint shining and chrome sparkling. Dad kept it in pristine condition.

April’s excited green eyes latch onto me and my chest puffs out like a peacock showing off all its feathers. Seeing her flip over the car makes me ten times happier than scoring a trick shot off the grid.

“Check out the engine.” I point. “And it’s in thehoodthis time. I double-checked.”

“Don’t tell me it’s the original 283 engine. Justdon’t.”

“Okay.” I shrug. “I won’t… because I honestly have no idea what a 283 engine is.”

April pops the hood, leans over and lets loose a high pitched squeal that has every dog in the nearby neighborhood barking.

“This is insane. I never… this is insane!”

“Is it?” I peer at the engine.

It’s nice… I guess. But it’s not ‘lose my mind’ nice.

“Look at that.” She points to the hub of tubes, batteries and metal. “You can tell someone invested a ton here. They took care to restore the original with a custom rebuild. I mean, look at that. All the wiring is brand new. Do you know how long that must have taken?”

“I…” I run my fingers through my hair. “I mean, yeah. If you put it that way… probably a long time.”

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