Page 4 of Love Is Brewing

She pushed her foot to the floor. It didn’t matter. Her car was sliding. “Stop, please stop,” she was chanting and cranking the wheel at the same time.

She stopped. After she tapped the bumper of the truck in front of her at the light.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit!” she yelled.

Two weeks here and she couldn’t even get to work without some mishap.

She put the car in park and got out.

The driver of the truck did the same.

A big dude. Just wonderful.

“Hey,” he said. “Are you okay?”

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “When I hit the brake I thought I’d stop and I didn’t. Let me get my insurance information for you.”

He had a black knit hat on his head. Something with the number five on it. His eyes were bright blue though. Hard to miss.

There was concern mixed in with amusement.

“No need,” he said. “No damage to my truck. You barely touched it. I almost didn’t feel it. I think if I didn’t look in therear-view mirror and see your car sideways I would have thought I imagined it.”

“I wish I imagined it too,” she said dryly. “Then maybe my heart wouldn’t be racing enough that I’d worry I was having a heart attack.”

“It’s all good,” he said. “You’ve got a scratch on your car though.”

She moved closer to look. “I can live with it,” she said. “Really, I’m so sorry. Let me give you my card just in case you find some damage or something. Please, call me.”

He laughed. “I wouldn’t mind calling you, but it won’t be for the damage to my truck.”

Was he flirting with her?

No. No one flirted with her.

Half the time they were put off by her take-no-bullshit attitude and inability to commit to conversations, let alone relationships.

Not that this guy knew that about her.

She’d never been the warm and fuzzy type of person. She’d been raised to hold her own and was going to continue to do it in life.

Even if she felt like a fish out of water.

More like a frog in the snow. Yeah, that was better right now with her brown boots covered in snow once again.

“I’ll give you my card just the same,” she said. She wouldn’t back down regardless.

She returned to her car, pulled a card out quickly that she kept in the side console, and walked back.

He reached for it. “Phoebe Kelly, attorney at law.” He was looking at it and then her. “You snagged that quickly. Hope you’re not an ambulance chaser.”

She laughed. “If I were, the last thing I’d do is give you my card so that you could sue me.”

He smiled. A slow one that made his eyes almost brighter. Considering it was still a little dark out and the streetlights were on, she was surprised she noticed as much about him as she had.

“You make a good point,” he said, tucking the card into his jacket pocket.

Boy, he had some large hands on him. Why hadn’t she noticed that before either?

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