Page 13 of Shifting Gears

Eleanor has made Dani laugh exactly three times by the time they pull into the garage, and Eleanor’s sense of accomplishment rivals the time she managed to convince Renée that increasing Christmas bonuses for all staff, and not just executives, was a good idea.

Dani is out of the truck and sprinting around the hood to open the door for Eleanor as soon as she’s put the vehicle in park. She offers Eleanor a hand as she climbs down from the seat, a picture of grease-stained gallantry.

“Thank you,” Eleanor says once her feet have touched the ground again. She’s still caught up in trying to find something cleverer to say when Dani raises her other hand, waving suddenly at someone across the shop.

“Sarah! Come meet Nora!”

Sarah turns out to be the same auburn-haired woman with oil-stained hands that Eleanor saw at the grocery store not long ago. She’s near Eleanor’s height, and perhaps a few years older. Her stern expression melts at the sight of Dani, but she hardly spares Eleanor a glance as she walks through the shop at a quick clip, headed for the door.

“I’m late for my doctor’s appointment,” Sarah calls back, still moving. “Nice to meet you, Nora!”

She’s gone a few seconds later, the door swinging shut behind her and leaving them alone in the space. Owen is nowhere to be seen, and Eleanor’s car is the only one on the shop floor.

Dani shakes her head, smiling with some exasperation. “That’s my cousin. We co-own the shop. She’s started going for much more regular checkups since a hot doctor joined the practice.”

The slight worry that had been building in the back of Eleanor’s mind over the clear closeness between the two is eased, even as Eleanor knows it’s silly. She has no confirmation that Dani is anything but a card-carrying heterosexual. She’dlike to think she’s been picking up an energy, but she’s been wrong before.

From the brief glimpses Eleanor has gotten of Sarah, there isn’t much family resemblance—she’s much slighter in build, more lithe than muscular, with short choppy hair and a more serious demeanour, but Dani’s fondness for her is obvious.

“She has a crush on her doctor?” Eleanor says. “I feel like there are rules about that.”

Dani laughs, shaking her head while she works on getting Eleanor’s car detached from the truck. “No, there’s two doctors there. Sarah goes to the other one. But she’s had a thing for Naomi since high school. When Naomi moved back to town to join the practice and help Owen take care of their folks, Sarah was pretty excited.”

Eleanor’s eyebrows raise. She can’t say she’s surprised to hear that Sarah is into women, but Dani’s nonchalance about it is refreshing. Unexpected in a place like this. It’s a good sign. “So Naomi is Owen’s sister?”

The Porsche’s wheels hit the cement, and Dani dusts off her hands. “Older sister, yeah. Sarah likes to book appointments she doesn’t need so she can sit in the waiting room and hope her crush walks by.”

Painfully aware of how close to Sarah’s situation she is at this very moment, Eleanor says nothing.

“This is actually a pretty easy fix. We have a tire in stock that would work,” Dani says, flipping through a few pieces of paper on a nearby clipboard. “I could even show you how to fix it yourself next time?”

“I’m perfectly happy just calling you when I get a flat.”

“Everyone should know how to change a tire!” Dani protests. She slides into Eleanor’s passenger seat, opening up the dash and rooting around to grab a silver wrench that Eleanor had no idea existed. “I’m happy to teach you, if you want to learn.”

Eleanor agrees not because she’s at all interested in learning to change her own tire but because she’s hoping the lesson will prolong their conversation. Dani seems thrilled, prying the hubcap off and handing it to Eleanor, who tries to touch as little of the dirty metal as possible. It dangles from two of her fingers, but Dani doesn’t seem to notice—she’s too busy loosening the bolts and preparing to jack up the car.

“Shouldn’t you be putting the car on those hydraulic lifts?” Eleanor asks, setting the hubcap gingerly on the workbench beside her.

“Usually I would, but you won’t have one if you’re stuck on the side of the road,” Dani reasons. She nestles the jack under the car—which apparently was stored in Eleanor’s trunk all along—and starts to crank the handle while Eleanor tries not to ogle too obviously.

Dani’s jumpsuit is navy blue today but still unfastened and hanging tied around her waist. It dips lower when she bends, the tied arms brushing the ground, and Eleanor can see a hint of denim underneath. Light-blue Levi’s, by the looks of it, and peeking out just above the low waistline is what might be the thick band of a pair of boxer briefs.

“So you have to make sure the tire is off the ground,” Dani is saying. Eleanor blinks rapidly, raising her eyes to safer territory and trying to wipe the steam from the figurative windows of her mind. “And then you can unscrew the lug nuts.”

“I could google this if I ever have a problem, you know,” Eleanor says. It’s getting hotter and hotter in the shop, and Dani seems to not notice at all.

“You could! But what if you have no service?” Dani challenges, wiping her hands on her jumpsuit and grabbing the wrench. “Cell towers up here are patchy.”

Eleanor sighs. At the very least, she’s about to get a nice show. “Fine. Continue.”

Eleanor has experienced desire before. She’s felt her heartbeat speed up looking at a woman in a tight dress or a tailored suit, felt the longing to run her fingers through someone’s hair or her lips over their neck. But never in her life has she experienced the kind of unadulterated craving that she feels watching Dani Cooper singlehandedly wrench the bolts off a tire.

She’s known from the minute they met that Dani is strong, with the kind of build that means she could probably bench-press double Eleanor’s weight. But the way her muscles tighten and shift as she pulls the tire off and lifts the new one into place makes her feel genuinely, pathetically light-headed.

“Okay, your turn!”

That gets Eleanor’s attention.

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