Page 10 of Turn Up The Heat

His wince wasn’t lost on her, and he shifted where he stood. “I’d have to look up the cost for the parts, but assuming you need the whole thing replaced, trannies for these things aren’t cheap. We can work something out for labor since it’s going to be a longer job, but it’s still going to be expensive.”

Bellamy exhaled. “Okay, can you elaborate on that a little more?” There was a difference between nice-dinner-expensive and diamond-earrings-expensive, after all. Maybe she could get away with nice-dinner car trouble, just this once.

“Parts and labor? You’re probably looking at close to four grand.”

“Are youserious?” she yelped.

“’Fraid so. I told you they were expensive.”

“Wait.” Bellamy felt like she was on a thirty second delay, with Shane’s words taking their sugar-sweet time to sink in. “Define ‘longer job.’ How long is this going to take, exactly?” She had the sinking feeling that the extended weekend she’d allotted for her relaxing mountain getaway wasn’t what Shane had in mind.

He scrubbed a hand over the stubble on his chin. “Orders on parts have probably shipped for today since it’s already after noon, which puts the next ship date as Monday. My guess is that it’ll take everything three days to get here.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, but stayed silent as Shane continued.

“It’s going to be another day and a half for me and Grady to put the new tranny in once we get it. Good news is I can start yanking the old one this afternoon if you want, but because of the lag time, it’ll be at least next Friday before we can finish.”

“Do I have any other options here?” Bellamy managed in an unsteady voice, pinching the bridge of her nose with freezing fingers.

“Sure.”

Her head sprang up, surprise popping through her veins. “I do?”

Shane nodded, sending his black hair down over his eyes. “You can have it towed to the city, where they’ll quote you a price of about six grand instead of four. You’re welcome to call them to double check me, if you want. And before you ask, it’ll take them just as long to get the parts. Barely anybody stocks those, so I’d bet you’re still looking at about a week that way.”

Bellamy felt like a day-old party balloon. “Any other suggestions?”

“You could get a new car.”

Even better.

“I need to make a few phone calls.” Out of habit, she tapped her cell phone to life. The “no service” message still flashed across the display, and Bellamy resisted the urge to hurl it over the guard rail. “You said I could use the phone back at the garage, right?” Frustration bubbled within her chest, filling her veins with its thick heat.

Shane nodded, and his piercing stare did nothing to make Bellamy feel less vulnerable.

“Yeah, sure.”

“I guess we can head back, then.”

As he dropped the hood back to the frame of the car with a firm bang, it was all Bellamy could do not to cry.

* * *

As soon asthey got back to the garage, Shane knew right then and there he was screwed. His pickup had no sooner rolled to a stop on the gravel than Bellamy had made a beeline for the office, and she hadn’t been subtle about closing the door, either. Fifty bucks said she was on the phone with the Mazda dealership in the city, making plans to have her car towed even though he knew he was right about the mark-up those frickin’ apes would certainly throw at her. Figured a girl like that would want the pros to work on her precious car no matter what the cost.

It would’ve been a royal pain in the ass to drop a new tranny in that Miata anyway, even though the money would have meant at least one more worry-free month on his loan. The business wouldn’t have hurt Grady, either. Well, at least there was the upside of not having to deal with a pretentious rich girl who was too smart for her own good.

Even if she was sexy as hell when she got flustered.

“Excuse me? Shane?”

Speak of the devil. Shane straightened up from where he’d been tinkering with the Mustang and met Bellamy’s bright green stare.

“My friend is on her way to come get me, so I should be out of your way in a couple of minutes.” She bit her lip but didn’t lower her gaze.

Aw, hell. Hehadkind of dropped a bomb in her lap about her car. Even if she could probably afford to have it fixed in the blink of an eye. “No problem. Listen, good luck getting it fixed.”

The confusion on her face was obvious. “Uh, shouldn’t I be saying that to you?”

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