Page 13 of Mechanic Daddy's Girl
“I’ll go get dressed, and we can go paint the town red after breakfast.” She spins forty-five degrees on her heels and makes her way to the bed.
“Could always stay like that instead.”
She scoffs and rolls her eyes before swinging open the cupboard door and disappearing behind it. I consider heading over and taking a look more than once, but I’ll be good for now. It’ll make the next time I see her naked so much sweeter.
We eat on the couch, me with a plate on my knees and Callie cross-legged in a sundress I desperately want to look up. She hums between mouthfuls, complimenting every other bite like I made some high-class meal rather than bacon and eggs.
And when we’re done, I wipe down the counter while she washes the dishes. Living in this domestic dream like we’ve known each other forever.
Finishing up the cleaning, Callie jumps onto the balls of her feet and pecks me on the cheek. “Thanks for breakfast,” she says, with arms lazily draped around my shoulders.
“It’s my pleasure.” It takes everything I’ve got to keep my hands on her hips, instead of letting them travel for a repeat of the other night before we leave.
Because today, I have to do everything right.
It has to be perfect.
7
CALLIE
“Not what you expected, huh?” Boone asks, noticing me staring down the street at the handful of buildings making up the town.
He pulls the truck into a curbside parking spot in front of a store that doesn’t have a name above it. Just green lettering on a dirty white background that saysGeneral Goods.
“Not one bit,” I say when he’s already halfway out his door.
Though Meadowview isn’t just houses, as I originally believed, the main square is a far cry from what I was expecting when he said there was more. None of the buildings is taller than two stories, there aren’t many high-end German cars on the road, and no one’s dressed in expensive suits to try to impress anyone else.
Coming from a city and having lived there my whole life, this is crazy to me. But the longer I’m here, the more I realize how much I like it.
He wraps around the hood, stopping at my door and pulling it open. With a charming smile, he offers me a hand to get out. I take it and join him on the curb.
“Shouldn’t be here long, but thought you might like a change of scenery. That reminds me, do you need anything else while we’re out?” We start walking, but before we’ve finished a step, Boone tucks a hand on the small of my back. And it stays there long after I thought he’d remove it.
I like to think it’s his way of telling the world to back off..
That I’mhis.
Maybe it’s silly to think that way so soon into whatever we’ve got going on, but it leaves my heart warm and a fluttering in my belly nonetheless. Two feelings I’d much rather have than anxious wondering about the truth of these gestures.
After some thought to his request, I shake my head.
“No, I’m good,” I say, because what I need can’t be gotten through errands. These wants can only be satisfied with him and me tucked away in the little apartment above his workshop.
We head inside and start shopping, and I’m surprised by just how accurateGeneral Goodsreally is. Food on one end of the store, electronics somewhere in the middle, and we even manage to find the parts Boone needed for the car he’s working on. But the only stop that really catches my attention is in the pet care aisle. Instead of reaching for a big bag of cheaper food, he opts for the ultra-deluxe, premium variation.
And something about it melts my heart.
It just reaffirms what I already knew.
The man sure knows how to treat a lady.
“That should be everything,” he says, eyeing the overflowing mess of goods stacked halfway as tall as him. “Are you sure you don’t need anyth?—”
The sound of my phone starting to ring silences him. His features instantly harden, and his jaw tenses to the point where I can almost hear his teeth grinding against one another.
“Your boss?”
