Free Key to Love by Judy Ann Davis Page A

like beacons on a lighthouse. “Sixteen hundred megahertz processors with one terabyte hard drives,” she whispered, still awestruck.
    “You’re losing me, Liz. Is this good or bad?”
    She laughed a low, throaty chuckle. “Lucas, with these machines you can launch a rocket ship.”
    “I don’t want to launch a damn rocket, just a garage with lots of power tools and machines.”
    “How much do you know about computers?” Her pool-blue gaze danced back and forth between the boxes, then found his face.
    “Very little,” he admitted reluctantly. He didn’t want to tell her the extent of his knowledge was to use email, surf the net, and find the car parts he needed from the company’s database. Bryan, his mechanical engineer, had ordered the computers and was planning to set them up. One was to be linked to inventory, another to billing, one for the accountant, one for sales, one in the office, and the last one was to be set up at home so he could have access to both the Atlanta and Scranton sites.
    “I honestly don’t know how they are supposed to be tied together,” he admitted. If the truth were known, he didn’t have a clue.
    “Network, it’s called a network.” Elise moved from box to box, reading the outside of each one with the intensity of someone on a very serious scavenger hunt. “How long have they been sitting here?”
    “Over a week or more.”
    “Over a week? Oh, no, you’re serious, aren’t you?” She gave him a sunny, infectious smile. “Oh, Lucas, let’s take one home, set it up, and put it through the paces, just to see what it can do.”
    He angled his head, considering. It was exactly what he was afraid of when he tried to stop her from seeing them. He had never considered himself a high-tech person. Mechanical, yes, but certainly not high tech. It wasn’t as if he was opposed to learning about computers, but with all he had to accomplish to get the garage and leasing business on its feet, learning computer jargon was not part of his immediate plans. It was the old cars, the reliable ones with powerful engines and sleek lines—and with understandable parts—he loved the most, above everything else in the business. However, seeing Elise so enraptured with a heap of boxes, he knew he was a lost man.
    “I’m agreeable, but I want no part of this. I refuse to spend days tangled in cables, or with my nose in some technical manual that reads like a crash course in Greek. I mean it, Lizzie. I have a shipment of cars arriving. I have to get the garage bays ready and this place up and running as fast as possible. In order to get custody of Todd, I need to prove my permanence and stability to Children and Youth Services and quite possibly to a judge, if our petition goes that far.” Frowning, he reached for the largest box. “Okay, Whiz Kid, let’s put them into the back of the truck.”
    She made a gleeful squeal as she reached for a smaller box, chattering like a frenzied squirrel as she hoisted it in her arms. “We can hook it up in the spare bedroom. Fritz’s old room. There’s a second phone line coming in. Dad had it installed when we were in high school. I’ll call the phone company and get DSL, or maybe I’ll try the cable company and get us the super speed we need. Wait until you see this thing purr. I can have you linked to the whole world in matter of a few hours!”
    “What fun,” Lucas said with a cynical drawl. “Linked to 6.8 billion people on the globe.” Like he needed or even wanted to converse with the whole world. He was having enough trouble with the Scranton area.
    Undeterred, Elise said, “You’ll change your mind, you just wait.” She trotted to the truck with a wide smile on her face.
    Minutes later, they stood in the parking lot, both with keys in hand. The smell of oil, grease, and gasoline, heightened by the unseasonably high temperatures, wafted from the pavement and open bay doors beyond. No matter how long he was away from it, the scent never