Free I Want to Hold Your Hand by Marie Force

would hold down the fort at the garage, where it seemed like nothing productive was going to happen today—or send ransom if need be. “What do I smell?” Nolan asked of a scent making his mouth water, reminding him he’d skipped breakfast in his haste to get to work—for all the good that had done him.
    “Lunch.”
    “Oh.” He had other questions, but decided it was in his best interest to keep his mouth shut. He’d begun to actively sweat by the time Lincoln pulled up to the home of his father-in-law, Elmer Stillman.
    “Elmer’s still on crutches, so I’ve got lunch duty today. Come on in.”
    Hannah’s grandfather had sprained his ankle on a recent camping trip with Lincoln and Hannah’s brothers, and Nolan had been meaning to stop by to see how Elmer was getting along. But he hadn’t planned the visit to unfold quite this way. Did her grandfather know that Nolan had slept with her on the sofa last night? He hoped not, but he’d been around the Abbotts long enough to know there were few secrets in that family.
    The firing squad feeling returned as he followed Lincoln into Elmer’s cluttered house.
    Sans crutches, Elmer hobbled into the kitchen to meet them and didn’t seem one bit surprised to see Nolan. Great  . . .
    “I see you were able to convince Nolan to join us for lunch,” Elmer said to his son-in-law.
    “ Convince isn’t quite the word,” Nolan said. “I believe premeditated abduction might be a better way to describe it.”
    Elmer’s delighted guffaw made his blue eyes sparkle with mirth. He was absolutely full of the devil, and Nolan had always loved him. That is until he’d teamed up with Lincoln on this abduction—and Nolan had no doubt the two of them were in on this together. Exhibit A: Elmer had clearly been expecting both of them.
    “ Abduction is such a strong word,” Elmer said. “It conjures images of criminals rather than a concerned father and grandfather.”
    “Fair enough,” Nolan conceded as he took a seat at Elmer’s round kitchen table. His mouth watered at the sight of hot pastrami as Lincoln doled out three sandwiches, which Nolan recorded as Exhibit B of their premeditation. He eyed Hannah’s grandfather warily. “What do you know?”
    “I was informed of where you slept last night,” Elmer said, pointing his crooked index finger at Nolan.
    “Of course you were.”
    “You, of all people, know how this family works,” Lincoln said, gesturing with a handful of pastrami.
    “Yes, I do, which is why I shouldn’t be surprised that you two kidnapped me in the middle of a workday to put me under the hot lightbulb.”
    The other two men exchanged slightly guilty glances.
    “We’re sorry about interrupting your workday,” Elmer said.
    “No, you’re not,” Nolan said, laughing as he reached for the soda Lincoln had put in front of him.
    “He’s a tough one,” Elmer said.
    “I take it you two have pulled this crap before?”
    “We may have had a conversation or two about how we might . . . assist one of the kids in a romantic sense,” Lincoln said haltingly.
    “You’re a couple of buttinskies,” Nolan concluded as another thought occurred to him. “You wouldn’t have had anything to do with Hannah’s nearly brand-new battery crapping out on a day when most of the family was conveniently out of town, would you?”
    They took an immediate and intense interest in their sandwiches.
    “You look like a couple of guilty little boys,” Nolan said, charmed by their machinations on his and Hannah’s behalf.
    “We had to do something to help you out,” Lincoln said. “She danced with you at the Grange and then . . . nada .”
    “How do you know that?”
    “Wait, so are you saying that something did happen?” Elmer asked, leaning in to ensure he didn’t miss anything.
    “I’m certainly not telling you guys. I wouldn’t want to encourage your bad behavior.”
    “How is it bad behavior to help things along when it’s clear to everyone