Page 105 of Ice Mechanic

A dazed look enters her eyes and her chewing slows. With a start, April glances away and keeps munching.

“When did you plan this?”

“Since the moment you agreed to the date,” I admit.

I did hours of agonizing research, chatted with May about April’s preferences and scoured internet dating forums, before I settled on what I wanted to do tonight.

“What made you think I’d be into something like this?” April gestures to the string lights.

“It’s more like I thought of what youwouldn’twant. You didn’t strike me as someone who’d like to spend her evening at a stuffy restaurant, or at a movie, or looking across a table at someone for two hours. You like your space. You like the outdoors, and most importantly…”

“I like books?” She fills in.

“Mechanic books, yeah. I spent hours scrolling your social media.” He shakes his head slowly. “You strange, strange woman.”

She laughs and then catches herself. “Is that the surprise? Did you want us to read car manuals at the library?”

Since it seems like the perfect moment, I reach into a nearby basket and pull out a long, heavy box.

“What is it?” April asks when I deposit it into her lap.

“Something I got through the library. Open it.” I gesture.

She undoes the bow, pulls off the top and her eyes glaze over in surprise. “Chance, this is…”

“The original edition ofThe Ultimate Bugatti E-Type. Five years ago, you posted that you wanted to read it. Last year, you reposted the memory saying you still hadn’t gotten a chance.”

“This book is super rare and out of print. There are only a handful of copies in the world and they only lend it to select libraries.”

“I knew someone who knew someone.” I shrug. A perk of dad being such a car head is he has a deep network of connections in the automotive space. “Ms. Glennice was also a big help.”

She’s still blinking up a storm. “Chance, I can’t believe this. It’s too much.” Despite her words, her fingers close tightly around the tome, as if her body can’t bear to part with the book.

“Like I said, it belongs to the library.” I shake my head. “As much as I wanted to keep it so every time you wanted to read, you’d have to see me, that didn’t work out.”

Her lips quirk. “That sounded like the plan of a supervillain.”

“The best villains have a good reason for being bad.”

She tilts her head. “Am I your villain origin story?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“Whether you have permanent damage from that book falling on your head.”

She chuckles and looks down at the rare book again.

Her ice pack has melted by now, so I shake out the non-liquid pieces in the grass and scoop out some more from the ice box.

“I’m okay,” April says, touching my wrist when I try to put the ice pack back on her head.

“Are you sure?”

She nods.

I retreat and shake out my hand to get some warmth back. Holding the ice for so long started to burn my palms.

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