Page 67 of Turn Up The Heat

Brick Wall cracked a wicked smile. “Technically, I don’t either. Not yet, anyway. Look, I’m weeded up to my armpits, so really. If you wanna put your mayo where your mouth is, now’s the time. Otherwise, I’m a ghost.”

Bellamy squeezed her eyes shut and slung her laptop bag over her shoulder, running to catch up. She did her best to block out the chorus of “what the hell are you doing?”coming from the back of her mind.

“I’m Bellamy Blake,” she said, following the guy’s brisk strides to the end of the dingy back hallway.

“Adrian Holt,” Brick Wall replied with a nod, bumping the door in front of them open with an elbow before barging through like he owned the place.

Bellamy’s heart skittered in her chest as the name sank in and did the recognition dance in her brain. “As in, Carly di Matisse’s sous chef, Adrian Holt?”

His wicked grin reappeared. “One and the same, Sunshine. Now go grab some whites from the back room and let’s see what you’re made of, shall we?”

* * *

After the thirdtime Shane checked the same engine valves in Lucky Gunderson’s Cadillac, Grady arched his brow and followed it with a knowing grin.

“You wanna tell me what’s on your mind, or are you gonna keep daydreamin’ and tell me it’s nothing?”

Shane did his best to hide his smile in his sleeve as he pushed his hair back from his face. It was pretty much a no-go.

“Sorry,” he said, bracing himself with both palms against the Caddy. Lucky wasn’t exactly living up to his name as far as the Coupe de Ville was concerned, but that was okay with Shane. It gave him something to do other than watch the clock.

“Nothin’ to be sorry about when you’re wearing a smile like that.” Grady’s laugh echoed through the garage on a rumble. “So, what’s her name?”

Damn, Grady’s sixth sense was just unnatural. “Who said I’m smiling over a woman?” Shane’s attempt to blank his expression fell woefully short, and he ended up grinning like a fool at the Caddy’s engine.

“I might be old, but I ain’t stupid, son.” Grady chuckled as he examined the contents under the Cadillac’s hood, running his hands from the engine to the oil filter. “Only one thing brings out a smile like that on a man’s face, and that is a pretty girl.”

Shane shook his head. He knew when he’d been beaten. “Her name’s Bellamy. She’s here for the week. As a matter of fact”—he paused to jut his chin at the Miata—

“the two-seater is hers. She’s waiting for us to fix it before she can go home.”

“And where would home be?” Grady kept his eyes on the car, but Shane felt his skin prickle at the question.

“She lives in Philly.” He kept his tone purposely neutral, but Grady didn’t follow suit.

“Huh. You do like a hornet’s nest, don’t you?”

Shane exhaled, long and slow. “I know, all right?”

“Do you, now?” There was no accusation in Grady’s tone, and the honesty of the question made Shane realize that he had no good answer for it.

“It all happened kind of fast. I didn’t exactly plan on…you know. Any of it. But it’s no big deal,” Shane tacked on. The lie might as well have left scorch marks on its way out, considering how bad it tasted and how hard it burned. Still, big deal or not, Bellamy was headed home before the weekend was out, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Does she know?” Grady looked up from the Coupe de Ville to pin Shane with a questioning stare before lowering the hood.

Shane folded his arms over his chest. “No.”

“Mmm.” Grady turned his eyes back to the car and got behind the wheel to start it up, but Shane couldn’t tell whether he was just listening to the engine or waiting for a response.

Dammit, the last thing Shane needed was guilt over this. Knowing Bellamy was leaving was hard enough. Baring his innermost secrets to her would only take things from bad to worse.

“It’s pointless to tell her, Grady. She’s going back to the city. It’s where she belongs. Her whole life is there.”

The old man scrubbed a hand down the silvered stubble on his chin and killed the Cadillac’s engine. “Places are places, Shane. You come and you go, but in the end, it ain’t the places that matter. It’s the people you had with you that counts.”

“The places matter to me,” Shane said, his voice cold with finality.

Grady shook his head, and the faintest trail of a smile crossed his jaw, like he was thinking of something familiar. “You’ll learn. Now hand me that wrench, would you? The valves on this lifter are shot, and if we don’t replace it, it ain’t ever gonna run right.”

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