Help Wanted (5 page)

“I only thought he wanted some help with the books and maybe on a bike or two. I couldn’t and still can’t believe this place is no longer a part of my life.”

“You live right next door to the shop. It will always be a part of your life, but this place is mine now and I want us to be able to get along. However, if you don’t think we can I’ll look for a new location for
Choppers
and you won’t have to see me or it again.

Jim didn’t want to move the location of the motorcycle shop.  It was in the heart of the town and once the word got around at how good he was at fixing motorcycles, this place would be a hot spot for any motorcycle lover. But he wouldn’t be able to do any of this if Keira kept getting in his way.

“Do you want me to leave? I can start searching for a new building today.”

“No, I don’t you to leave the building. I think I can handle you being here instead of my father. It will take getting used to, but I’ll do the best I can,” Keira said as she moved away from him towards the front door.  “I need to take care of some stuff in the house. The bike owner’s information is by the phone. You might want to call him and make sure I have everything that he wanted correctly recorded.”

As Jim watched Keira practically run out of the shop, he felt a little bad for the way he had treated her. She was only trying to reconnect with her father through this shop. He shouldn’t have been so harsh with her.  She did at least try to find some information about motorcycles on the computer.

I’ll apologize later
, he swore
. However, I need to check with the customer to see how soon he wants his bike back.
Jim pushed the incident with Keira to the back of his mind for the moment because he didn’t want any distractions while he was working.

* * * *

Hours later, Jim wiped his hands off on the oily rag before placing it on the counter next to the phone. He couldn’t believe that he had worked right through lunch. It had been a while since he’d been so involved with a job that food never entered his mind. But it had taken longer to find the oil leak on the motorcycle than he had hoped.

The leak wasn’t a hydraulic fluid, gas leak, suspension-fluid leak or coolant leak because he checked all of those spots several times before finding it was an oil leak inside the engine drain plugs. There was no way in hell that Keira would have been able to locate that spot and fix it correctly. She would have done more harm than good.

Finding the leak had taken up most of his day, so he’d finish working on the rest of the motorcycle tomorrow. The guy wanted him to make sure the tires were in good condition, correctly inflated and mounted. If any one of those things were wrong it would lead to trouble because the tires were the most essential connection between the bike and the road.

While looking around the shop he noticed that there wasn’t a pressure gauge to check the tires, so he was going to bring the extra one he had at home to the shop. He really should make a list for any missing tools, so he wouldn’t run into a problem later on.

Walking around
Choppers
, Jim checked it one last time just to make sure everything was in the correct spot.  He wasn’t going around the shop for a third time because it needed it. He knew the real reason he was stalling for time─ Keira. He hated to apologize and especially when he
knew
that he was the wrong party. He’d had no reason to snap at her this morning.  She was only trying to find a way to pass the time since she wasn’t a flight attendant at the moment.

If he really thought hard about it he could probably find her something to do, so she wouldn’t go stir crazy inside that huge house next door.  He’d only seen parts of it when he was there to sign the papers her father wanted, but it seemed too big for an attractive woman to be living in by herself.

Whoa! What in the hell is wrong with me? Keira isn’t the type of woman I need to be looking at. She’s too high society for me. She wouldn’t know how to eat peanuts out of a bowl in a bar at the end of town
, Jim thought.
Plus there is no way in hell Keira Winters would drink a beer out of a bottle. She’s the type to ask for it to be poured inside of a glass and presented on a silver tray
.

A part of him always wondered how men found those types of women exciting because they never appealed to him at all. He was worried about Dave when he first met Charisma because she came across as the high society type too, but after getting to know her, she wasn’t like he first thought. She was head over heels in love with Dave. She even moved her sports agency business to Florida so she wouldn’t have to travel.

He wasn’t about to think he would luck out and find an amazing woman like his friends had. He didn’t mind being alone, but he was starting to feel lonesome. He wasn’t about to admit that to Hayward, Clinton and sure in the hell not Dave.

They all thought Keira would be a good match for him, but he didn’t think so. She was too interfering for him.  She was probably interested in a man who would jump at her every whim.  She would never date a man who had grease under his nails after a hard day’s work.

Why am I even thinking about Keira like that? All I need to do is apologize for what I did earlier and then head home. I have a frozen dinner with my name on it.
Jim turned off all the lights, locked the shop and then made his way towards the house next door. He hoped that Keira was in a good mood and wouldn’t slam the door in his face.

Walking up the front steps to Keira’s house, he noticed how it had such a homey feel with the furniture on the porch. He liked the potted plants on the banister near the front window. His place was clean and neat, but it was totally a bachelor pad. It was missing a woman’s touch. 

Hell, he was missing a woman’s touch too if he was begin honest with himself. It was getting hard to be around his friends and see how happy they were when he was so unenthusiastic with his life.

Honestly, he was pushing at finding a woman to the back of his mind for now. He had to focus on raising his son since Kathy was too busy dating a variety of guys. At least, Trevor was old enough to know that
he
was his father and not those other men Kathy was determined to shove in and out of his life.

I need to get a grip and get this over so I can go home
. Knocking on the door, Jim waited for someone to answer. He had been standing there for about five minutes before he saw Keira coming towards him through the glass door.

“Mr. Russell, do you need something?” she asked, standing in the open doorway.

Jim eyed the ‘
kiss the cook’
apron Keira was wearing before he looked at her. Against his will, his eyes were drawn to how perfect her blemish free skin looked with a speck of flour on her left cheek. Her black hair was pulled back in a ponytail that was brushing the back of her neck. He had to admit that Keira was a very good-looking woman and if things were different between them he might have asked her out on a date.

“Can I come in?”

Moving back, Keira waved him inside and then shut the door behind them. “Is there something wrong with the shop?” she asked coming to stand in front of him. “Did I not take the guy’s message right?”

“No, I didn’t come to see you about that,” Jim quick corrected. “I want to talk to you about my behavior this morning.”

“Fine, but can we do this in the kitchen?” Keira asked. “I’m cooking supper and I don’t want it to burn.” Pivoting, she didn’t even wait to see if he was going to follow her as she headed for the kitchen at the end of the hallway.

“I guess I don’t mind,” Jim mumbled under his breath as he trailed behind her. He tried not to moan as the scent of fried chicken filled his nose. God, he didn’t know the last time he had a home cooked meal.

Sure, he knew how to toss together a couple of decent meals for him and Trevor, but he couldn’t fix fried chicken. Of course, it was one of Trevor’s favorite meals so usually he took him to the local chicken place anytime he wanted some.

“Have a seat at the table. I need to check on the chicken and then we can talk.” Going over to the stove, Keira removed a couple of perfectly fried pieces of chicken and placed them on a paper towel covered plate before placing a couple of more pieces inside the hot oil.

“Okay, what do want to discuss with me?” Keira wiped her hand on a towel before joining him at the table.

Jim tried not to look at the flour on her cheek, but she just looked so cute with it. “You have something on your face.”

“Where is it?” Keira asked trying to brush the spot off her cheek, but missing it by a few inches. “I always get flour on my face every time I fix chicken.”

“It’s right here.” Leaning across the table, Jim rubbed his thumb across the spot until the flour disappeared. He tried to move back, but he couldn’t look away from her dark eyes. They were beautiful as dark satin.

For a long moment, she looked back at him. She studied his face unhurriedly, feature by feature. “Hmm...Thanks for your help,” Keira whispered as she leaned back from him.

“No problem,” Jim replied as he retook his seat.  What the fuck was wrong with him? He shouldn’t have touched her. He was acting like he had never been around an attractive woman before.

“Mr. Russell, you wanted to talk to me about the shop?  Did something happen today that I should know about?”

“I want to apologize for the way I treated you this morning. I wasn’t in a good mood and I took out my anger on you.” Jim apologized as quickly as possible so he could get out of here and away from Keira. She was starting to bother him in a way that he didn’t want her to.

“Apology accepted and I should give you one too. I shouldn’t have bothered that customer’s motorcycle. I know nothing about bikes and I could have really messed up today.”

His body stiffened in shock. He hadn’t expected her to apologize. He thought that she wouldn’t take blame for anything, but she surprised him by doing so. Maybe he had misjudged her a tiny bit.

“No problem. I took care of everything. He’ll be by at the end of the week to pick up his Harley,” Jim said as he got up from the table. “Well,  I better get home. I have a frozen dinner waiting for me.”

Standing up, Keira went back over to the stove to turn over the chicken. “Would you like to stay for dinner? I know that I have enough food here for the both of us.”

Jim stared at Keira with utter disbelief. Had she really invited him to stay for dinner?  When had their relationship taken that kind of turn? Just this morning they had argued with each other and now they would be sharing a meal. Why the sudden change?

“You can tell me no if you want to and I’ll be fine with it,” Keira said interrupting his thoughts. “I just thought we should try to be friends since our best friends are married to each other; however, it doesn’t seem like you want to do the same thing.”

Jim hated to admit that Keira was right. They couldn’t be at each other’s throats all the time since all of their friends were married to each other. If she was trying to extend an olive branch, he would take it.

“Thank you for the dinner invitation. I would love to stay for dinner. My son is having a sleep over at one of his friend’s houses, so I don’t have to worry about him tonight and I haven’t had a home cooked meal in months,” Jim confessed.

“Wonderful, it will be nice to have someone to eat with instead of eating by myself.” Taking the rest of the chicken out of the skillet, Keira turned off the stove. “You can wash up in the bathroom at the end of the hallway and then join me at the table.”

“Give me a few minutes and I’ll be back.” Leaving the kitchen, Jim made his way towards the bathroom.  In the back of his mind, he wondered what the guys would think if they knew he was having dinner with Keira.

Chapter Eight

“How did last night go? Did you have a lot of fun? I know that it’s been forever since you’ve done something like that.”

Jim stopped packing up his tools and glanced over at Dave who was sitting in a chair by his office door holding his son. His best friend had decided to come with him to CCD while he picked up the last of his items.

“What are you talking about? Did I have a nice time doing what?” He was totally blank about what Dave was referring to. As far as he knew he hadn’t done anything special in the last couple of days except try to get all of his work supplies placed at
Choppers
.

“Are you going to deny that you had dinner with Keira last night?” Dave asked. “I’m only asking how it went since you swore you weren’t attracted to her.”

Jim placed the screwdriver in his toolbox and closed the lid. He didn’t know how to answer this question because Dave would only take his respond the way he wanted to. Instead, he decided to go a different route. “How did you find out about that?”

“Charisma called Keira to invite her over for a late dinner because we had a hard time getting Dave Jr. down for the night, but she turned us down saying that she already had dinner plans with you. Imagine our surprise at hearing that little piece of information.”

“It’s not how you’re making it out to be. I was on my way out the door to go home and eat a frozen dinner. Keira asked if I wanted to stay for dinner since she cooked so much food. It had been a while since I’d eaten a home cooked meal, so I said yes. Nothing else happened or is going to happen for that fact. Keira and I are only trying to be cordial to each other.”

“Are you sure that you didn’t want it to? We all still think that Keira would be the perfect woman to help you get over Kathy and fall in love again. The two of you are so right for each other. I thought I would never see a couple meant to be together more than Hayward and True until I saw you with Keira at the airport that time. The sparks were so hot and heavy. I felt like I was the third wheel.”

Jim wasn’t going to let Dave know that he had sensed the same thing. He wasn’t ready for a relationship and not with a woman like Keira. No, she was just too much for him to handle even with her toned down personality at the moment.

“You’re wrong. Keira would drive me up the wall each and every day.  I can’t stand that type of outspoken female.” He hoped that Dave would drop the topic of Keira because after he went home last night she dominated his dreams way more than he wanted her to. Did she know how those dark eyes of hers could seduce a man? He didn’t have the time or energy to get involved with Keira Winters. She had something about her that made him want to save her from whatever demons seemed to be chasing her now.