Free Extreme Love Makeover by Barbara Witek Page B

here?” He tugged at the wrench in my hand. My eyes returned to his, my heart strangely yearning for what used to be. “I have the late shift tonight and saw you--well, before I knew it was you--on my way in. I can call a tow truck if you need it.”
    I slid the tool out of his grasp and dropped the hood. This was pointless, and I needed to keep things in perspective. “No, that’s all right. Things are fine, yup, I’m good. I mean, Freddie’s good. I mean, there is no Freddie, that’s just the possessed name I gave this piece of shit truck.”
    My face grew hot and my eyes widened. I couldn’t believe I swore in front of him. Not like he hadn’t heard it before, I’m sure, but it didn’t feel right at this moment. Neither did the fact I felt I’d needed to clarify who Freddie was. The least I could have done was let him wonder about my relationship status.
    “Okay, if you say so.” Mitch lifted his slick, wet arm for a better view of his watch before dragging long fingers through his mass of dark waves. Sexy as hell, is what careened through my befuddled brain. He shot me a sideward glance as if he’d read my mind and my body tensed. Relief washed over me when he tossed a look over his shoulder at the hospital and said, “Listen, it was great seeing you, but I’ve got to get inside. Duty calls.”
    “Yeah, sure, you too.” I blinked twice to clear my focus, and wiped the rain off my face for good measure.
    “Hope your friend is doing better.” His brown eyes seemed to study me, and I wondered if I was as transparent as I used to be.
    “Thanks.” Whatever battle waged inside my body needed to cease, and pronto! It didn’t matter how well he’d aged, I didn’t want him to see me melt into a useless puddle with the rain. “Well, you’d better get inside.” I pointed toward the brick hospital, then dodged out of his sight into the safety of my truck. I silently prayed it would start, because I never did get a chance to tinker with it before tall-dark-and-orderly showed up. Lucky for me, he took one more glance at my windshield, waved, and jogged toward the ER doors.
    My body wilted against the worn burgundy vinyl like a daisy in the desert. Mitch and I were like sparks and dynamite. I needed to finish this Helping Homes job and leave Cape Vincent once and for all before I did something stupid. Honestly, I never thought I’d see him again. I mean, what girl leaves a guy at the altar and then returns to the scene of the crime?
    ***
    “Let’s go! I need that sheetrock up like yesterday. We’ll have painters coming in tomorrow, and they’d better have something to do,” I yelled as I walked through what would soon be a recovery center for children and their families after reconstructive surgery. My crew and I had been at this long and hard all week, and were getting down to the wire. Three more days was all we had, and I still hadn’t met the person in charge.
    “Yo, Sid, where’s the stuffed shirt who’s supposed to give us the low down on the equipment?” My electrical guy, Kyle, swiped at his forehead with the back of his chubby hand and pointed to the outlet boxes dangling off plywood.
    “I’ve been wondering the same thing.” I wiped my own brow with a bandana from my back pocket. The rain from the night before had done nothing to cut the humidity. “Apparently his time is more valuable than ours. Must be he can’t tear himself away from his precious work in order to confer on a project that the hospital has put him in charge of.”
    “We’re not going to be done on time if he doesn’t get his ass over here soon.”
    “Don’t worry. I’ll be on the horn to the hospital administrator by the end of the day if he doesn’t show up. Geez, good thing we don’t need his surgical services. We’d probably bleed to death.” I snorted and rolled my eyes.
    Usually the people I dealt with were more than happy to have my services. Sure, I was perfectly capable of doing this from start to