Page 8 of Shifting Gears

“Mostly! It’s nice to handle something so fancy for a change.”

Eleanor knows that Dani is referring to the car, but when she says it without breaking eye contact, it’s hard not to feel an answering twitch at the thought of all the very fancy things Dani could handle.

According to Kayla and Ash, this rural venture is supposed to be Eleanor’s summer of rest and relaxation. An easy project with a distant deadline and a chance to decompress in relative isolation. Not, emphatically, a chance to fuck the town mechanic in the tiny village she’s ended up in.

No matter how much Eleanor tells herself that, she can’t stop looking at Dani’s capable hands and imagining all of their practical applications.

In the end, Dani fixes the transmission in less than an hour. There’s no waiting room at the shop, just the open floor and a small office area at the back, so Dani chats away to Eleanor about what she’s doing as she works; she shows Eleanor the tools and parts she’s using and even encourages her topeer through the hood and help with the installation as Dani highlights the broken part with a flashlight.

By the time Eleanor’s payment is being processed, she’s pretty sure she could fix the issue herself next time. Looking down at the receipt Dani hands her, though, Eleanor frowns.

“This doesn’t seem like very much for all the work you did,” Eleanor says, hesitating before signing her name at the bottom of the invoice.

“Oh, I only charged you half for labour.”

Eleanor’s pen veers off the paper at the end of her signature. “What? Why?”

“First-time customers get a discount.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Eleanor insists, trying to give her card to Dani to charge more, but no matter how hard she tries, it still ends up back in her own hand. “I can pay.”

“Don’t worry about it. You did half of it yourself, so consider it wages for your hard work,” Dani says, flashing a quick wink. Her grin is altogether too charming. “See you around, Nora.”

Dani squints at the invoice before she puts it in the cash drawer. As her eyes dart over Eleanor’s signature, over her full name spelled out in black and white, a thread of fear winds its way around Eleanor’s ribs. The girl at the grocery store had been so confrontational—Eleanor doesn’t want to think about what it would be like if Dani looked at her with that kind of disdain.

But Dani doesn’t react. She shoves the paper into the drawer with the same friendly smile she’s had since Eleanor arrived and sends her off with another handshake, making no mention of Eleanor’s last name.

Eleanor leaves the shop relieved, with a car that runs better than ever and a sensation in her stomach like she’s missed a step on the stairs. And in idle moments over the following days, she keeps thinking about Dani Cooper. More than she should.

Eleanor thinks about that friendly grin and Dani’s surprisingly light regional accent. She thinks about the light sheen of sweat that covered Dani’s skin under her thin tank top. She thinks about Dani’s hands, strong and calloused under layers of oil and engine grime. She thinks about wide shoulders and the strength in Dani’s arms as she hefted heavy car parts effortlessly.

She thinks about full lips, a bit chapped but probably still soft, and exactly how they might feel against her own.

It must be because she’s going stir-crazy. It’s been months since her last tryst with Lydia. She’s been on edge ever since she turned the most recent proposition down, and now she’s cooped up in the middle of nowhere. It’s perfectly natural to casually fantasize about the only attractive woman she’s seen in this town.

But even a week later, when Eleanor has run into several other attractive women—the spitfire redhead who runs the local restaurant, for example, or a stern but striking auburn-haired woman at the grocery store who sports oil-stained hands just like Dani’s—she still only thinks about one.

Chapter 3

“You met a hot femalemechanic and you didn’t get her number? Have you gone straight on us?”

Ash’s voice is tinny through the shaky Wi-Fi, but the familiarity of his scolding warms Eleanor all the same. She takes a sip of wine, pulling the blanket up higher over her legs to ward against the chilly evening air.

“Also, why won’t you video chat?” Kayla chimes in.

Eleanor sighs, rubbing her freshly moisturized face. “I look like shit.”

“You probably look better than I do with all that rest you’re getting.”

Eleanor highly doubts that since Kayla consistently looks like she’s ready to walk a runway with her willowy frame and angular face. Still, she appreciates the sentiment.

“The service is bad out here,” Eleanor says instead. She’s three glasses of wine deep and dressed in her pyjamas to watch the sunset from her deck. A long video conference is the last thing she wants, even with her best friends.

“Can we get back to the hot mechanic, please?” Ash says. “And Eleanor’s truly startling lack of game?”

Kayla latches on before Eleanor can protest. “Yeah, what’s with that? You’re there till, what, July probably? Why not try to have a little fun?”

“I doubt she’s interested. I don’t even know if she’s gay. Besides, I didn’t come here to get entangled. It makes things too complicated.” The last of the day’s light fades over the treeline, and Eleanor sighs as the mosquitoes start to descend.

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