Mustang Sassy (31 page)

“What the hell, Mary-Lynn? Let Buck do that. He should be home any minute.”

Dropping a branch beside the others at the base of the tree, Mary-Lynn said, “You saying you don’t think I’m capable of a little pruning?”

“No. I just think Buck should do that.”

“Why? Because I’m a girl?”

Sass coughed. “No, that’s not what I’m saying.”

“Because I’ve got news for you, sweets, I’ve been taking care of my own fruit trees back home for twelve years, ever since Eddie died. I reckon I know more about pruning trees than your father does.”

“Yes, but…”

“Frankly, doll, I’m surprised to hear this coming from you.”

“It’s just I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“You don’t?”

“No, I don’t.”

Mary-Lynn swung down out of the tree doing a maneuver that seemed much more youthful than her years. She brushed her hands off on her jeans, patted her scarf-covered hair, and then stepped closer to Sass to give her a hug. “That’s about the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. Thanks.”

Sass stood ramrod still, her arms by her side as Mary-Lynn hugged her. Finally the woman released her and Sass turned around without another word. She grabbed an apple and some still-warm muffins off a plate and hightailed it out of there, telling herself she was rushing off so that she could get to Chesterville to help with mealtime at the lodge.

She made it in plenty of time, just as the residents were strolling and rolling into the dining room. Sass wandered up and down the halls helping some of the less mobile residents by pushing their chairs to their designated tables and once everyone was seated, she joined Millie, Walter and Mrs. Ford at their table.

“You’re here again?” Walter grumbled.

“Good to see you, too, Mr. Hornbeck.” Then Sass turned to Mrs. Ford. “Hi, Mrs. Ford, I’m Sass, I’m going to help you with your dinner tonight.”

“Oh? Is it dinnertime?”

Millie winked at her. She smiled back.

“Would you mind wheeling me down to the rec room?” Millie asked once dinner was all finished.

“Sure,” Sass said. She’d noticed Millie’s hands shaking at suppertime and she wondered if Millie always got this way by the end of the day and Sass had just never noticed before, or if it was something new.

“Hi, Sass.”

Jordan was there already, setting up easels and art supplies. “Hi,” Sass said quietly

“I’m surprised you’re here.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I just thought you’d be at the shop tonight.”

Sass didn’t say anything. Of course she wanted to be at the shop, in fact she was dying to start her new project. But they needed her and it was nice to be needed. Plus…there was Jordan. The shop was too quiet without him.

“Sass has been coming in to help with mealtimes,” Millie said for her.

“You have?”

Sass shrugged. “They’re understaffed.”

“And,” Millie added, “she’s going to stay for class tonight.”

“You are?”

“No—”

With a wobbly hand, Millie squeezed Sass’s. “Yes, she is.”

Jordan’s eyes lit with some unholy light. Sass met his gaze. She was done with running away. She would prove to him, and to herself, that she could handle being around him. She would stay, but she didn’t have to enjoy it.

Except that Sass did enjoy it. Jordan proved to be an even more patient art teacher than boxing instructor. He took his time with each and every resident, showing them tricks about perspective and guiding their hands, Millie’s in particular, when she became too shaky.

“That’s not half-bad, Sass,” he said as he looked over her shoulder.

“Are you kidding? I suck.”

“No. Not at all, but here.” He moved closer to her, reaching over her shoulder and adding some lines to her portrait of Mrs. Schmidt. She could smell him, his freshly laundered clothes, his spicy cologne, his skin. She closed her eyes, trying to swallow down the longing his closeness evoked.

“You see?” he whispered. “Hands and feet are hard. They’re actually bigger than we think they are.”

She sat very still in her chair, doing her best to regulate her breathing.

“Sass?”

“Hmm?” His voice was so low and husky Sass had to press her knees together. She knew that tone. He’d used it before, at the cabin, in bed.

“Open your eyes.”

“Oh!” Her eyes flew open and her cheeks warmed with embarrassment.

“What do you think?”

She tried to concentrate on her drawing, she really did, but Lord it was hard with Jordan so close. Squinting at her page she saw what Jordan had done. In a few strokes of his pencil, Mrs. Schmidt had gone from looking like a gremlin to a human. The portrait still didn’t resemble Mrs. Schmidt, but at least it looked like a person. “Yeah, that’s better.”

Jordan’s hand lingered on her shoulder for maybe a moment too long. Sass fought the urge to grab it and move it—where?—she didn’t get that far before Jordan walked away to help someone else.

…

The next morning, Sass got to Hogan’s extra early. She had Jordan’s sketch out on the table, filled with small notes she’d made in the margins about the parts she wanted to use, how she’d fit it together, where she’d chop what. Then she started the list of parts she’d need. She was so absorbed by what she was doing, she didn’t hear Al come in.

“Hey there Sass-parilla-by-morning. What’re you working on?”

Sass glanced up. “Nothing.” She folded the paper and stuck it in her back pocket. “How you doing, Al-i-baba?”

Al grinned. “I’m good, kid. I’m good.” He pulled up a chair and sat beside her as he flipped through the few sheets of work orders in the in-box. “You and boy wonder have done a hell of a job cleaning up the crap pile.” Al didn’t glance up.

“Yep.”

“There’s not much left to keep him busy. I can send him off on some errands to pick up parts for the next few days if you want.”

Sass chewed on her thumb for a bit, considering Al’s suggestion. Her immediate reaction was to tell Al not to send Jordan because, strangely, she’d been finding it difficult to concentrate when he wasn’t around. On the other hand, she needed parts for her project.

“That’s not a bad idea,” she said slowly. She jotted down a few items and passed the list to Al. “Add these , will you?”

Al studied the page. Then he regarded her with a small smile on his lips. “What’ve you got cooking, Sassenheim?”

Sass grinned and shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Okay, it’s something. But I can’t tell you. It’s a surprise.”

“A surprise?”

“Mmmhmm.”

“Do you need some help?”

She grinned. “Maybe.”

…

Jordan had given up all pretenses of trying to be helpful around the shop. Everyone ignored him, no one wanted him there, and he didn’t exactly want to be there either. Not to work, anyway. There were only two things Jordan wanted to do. Sketch and watch Sass. He’d neglected to give her the half-dozen sketches he’d done that first day because he didn’t want to scare her off. He had no idea what it was, but there was something about watching Sass that inspired him in a way nothing else did.

When he arrived at Hogan’s on Thursday, he had a couple of new sketches to show her; however, for the first time, she didn’t seem to care. She walked right past him without acknowledging him and disappeared into bay two as if she was never coming out again. An uneasy feeling settled in the bottom of his stomach. This was his last week. His last chance to try to do something about Hogan’s and he seemed further from his goal than ever.

“You looking for something to do?”

Jordan turned to find Al McGregor standing behind him, pouring his morning sludge.

“I was just going to do some more work in the yard.”

“I’ve got some stuff we need picked up. Parts. Here’s the list, here’re the locations.”

Jordan stared at the list. It was two pages long. The locations seemed to be every town within a hundred-and-fifty-mile radius. Completing this list would take him the better part of the week. Dammit!

“Are you sure you don’t want anyone else to go?”

“Any reason you can’t?”

“No.” Jordan shook his head, glancing in the direction of the door to bay two. “No. I can do it.”

“Good.” He handed him the keys to a two-ton truck with a flatbed trailer hitched behind.

Without argument, he climbed into the truck and planned out his route. Maybe getting out of the shop and away from Sass for a few days would be a good thing. Though the woman inspired him, it was also hell because the more he saw her the more he craved her. Every single one of his senses was tuned into her. The sound of her laugh that started high and ended low and throaty. Her personal scent, citrusy like orange blossoms, that was so refreshing amidst the odor of grease and dirt in the shop. The flash of her eyes, when she was trying to convince herself she still hated him.

Jordan started the truck. Sass had many skills; hiding her emotions was not one of them, and there was a war going on inside her. He just hoped the right side won.

…

There was nothing like driving around with nothing to do but think to make a man lose his sanity. If Jordan thought taking a break would help control his obsession with Sass, he was sorely mistaken. The woman played the starring role in nearly every thought that entered his brain. He saw her in pose after pose, sanding an old frame, sitting in the grass with his sketchbook in her lap, sitting on the bench by the deck of the cabin, one knee pulled up, grinning at him…lying on the bed in a classic pose, completely naked, one hand just beneath her breast, the other flung up over her head.

But it wasn’t just thinking about Sass naked that got his juices flowing, it was simply thinking about the woman as a whole. He was reminded of something Libby had said at the Pit that first day they’d met. Something about Sass living her dream.

It was so true. She had the same sort of passion for cars he had for drawing. When he’d been sitting out in the yard, sketching while he watched Sass, the hours flew by. Was every day that way for Sass?

Must be because he hadn’t seen her once since he’d been sent on this parts run. According to Carlos, she’d been closeted in bay two for the last forty-eight hours straight.

It was late by the time he got back to the shop and he wondered if anyone would still be there. When he drove into the lot and saw the Camaro still parked out front, his heart dipped low in his chest. Of course Sass was still there. Good. Because after not seeing her for two days straight, he was determined to talk to her.

After spending so much time fantasizing about her the last couple days, he could no longer distinguish between what he imagined was still between them and what her feelings might really be. However, after unlocking the employee entrance, the main shop was empty and the door to bay two was still firmly shut.

What was she doing in there? Damn, the woman was driven but then, so was he and he wasn’t leaving until he saw her. After a quick trip out to his car to retrieve his sketchpad, Jordan sat down and let the pencil take over.

…

“What are you still doing here?”

“Hmm?” He glanced up from his pad to see Sass standing there, wiping dust and grime off her face with the back of her sleeve.

He tapped his pencil against the sketchpad and said, “I had something I needed to get down on paper before I could leave.”

Glancing at the clock on the wall, she said, “It’s eight o’clock.”

“It is?” Wow. Where had the last two hours gone?

“Yeah.” She swiped at a strand of hair to get it out of her line of vision. Then she just stared at him.

“Do you want to see?” He held up the pad.

“Maybe later.”

Sass stood there with her hand on her hip, studying him, her stance reminding Jordan of the very first day he’d met her, when she’d taken him to her cabin and studied him with that mixture of curiosity and confusion. Then she glanced back at the bay door behind her.

“Before you go…”

“I really want to talk…” The two of them spoke simultaneously.

He took a step toward her. “Sorry, what were you going to say?”

“I, ah, was wondering if you could help me with something?”

“Sure.”

He followed her back out into the yard. It was dark now and chilly outside, but the yard was lit by some powerful lights so that everything was illuminated. All the old shells. It looked like some ghostly car graveyard.

“What do you need?”

“We’re going to tow the Model A up to the door of bay two. Do you think you can handle that?”

“Sure.”

“Oh, and, Jordan?”

“Yeah?”

“If anyone asks, you have no idea what I’m working on, okay?”

“Okay. But, ah, Sass? What are you working on?”

She winked. “It’s none of your business.”

Chapter Twenty-five

As soon as he walked into the shop Friday morning Jordan was greeted by Alice, who gave him her customary wink and waggle and then told him that Buck was expecting him in his office. Jordan wandered through the shop, trying his hardest not to let on that he was looking for Sass. It didn’t matter. She was nowhere to be seen. Probably still ensconced in bay two with her mystery project.

Closing Buck’s door behind him, Jordan stood against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest waiting for Buck to begin.

“I had a call from your father.”

“Yes?”

“He’s offered me shares.”

“Good.” He’d told his father to call Buck after overhearing the conversation about Dex Whelan.

“So Al’s right about you. You are here to spy.”

Jordan laughed. “Come on, Buck. I’m not stupid. You had that conversation in front of me on purpose. You wanted me to know what Dex offered so that Carlyle’s would up their offer.”

Buck propped his massive forearms on the desk. “This is my life’s work. My legacy. I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing.”

“I know.”

“I’m not committed either way.”

“Okay.” He pulled up a chair and sat down. “You’ve known our family for years. You know how our shop runs. All that stuff that happened last month? That was my fault. Mine. Not Carlyle’s.
I
made the mistake.”