Nothing But Trouble (4 page)

R.J. rubbed a hand across his chin. That gave
him four months to find the parts, strip down and rebuild two cars.
"Okay. That's doable. The sooner you can bring them in, the sooner
I can get started on them."

"My boys and I will be by this afternoon. I
already have a list of things I want done to the cars. But I know
you'll do them justice."

Charlie was one of the clients who wanted to
control every detail of the rebuild, down to the seatbelts. R.J.
didn't usually mind that, but Charlie had a habit of changing his
mind a dozen times before the project was finished. At the end of
the day, as long as the checks cleared, Charlie could control
whatever he wanted.

"Sounds like deal," R.J. said, and he shook
the man's hand again.

Charlie sauntered off, and R.J. went inside
the shop to find Danielle. Donald Underwood's car had already been
wheeled inside, waiting its turn. R.J. wanted to see to the details
of that one personally. Not that he didn't trust his guys; they
were as good as he was. But something of Rebecca's would be left up
to him.

Danielle was in the front office, typing on
the computer. He headed that way, but was intercepted by Alex who
was wearing a white jumpsuit to protect his clothes from the paint
sprayer.

"We've run into a little snag with Walter
Hamilton's Mustang," Alex said.

"What's up?"

"The paint color we ordered for him had been
discontinued. And they don't know if they can send us a replacement
by our deadline."

R.J. rubbed the back of his neck. A headache
this early in the morning was not a good sign of the day ahead.
"And why are they just now telling us this?"

"Apparently there was a mix up in their
computer. He tried to make me feel better by telling us we weren't
the only ones this happened to."

"I doubt that," R.J. muttered. "Okay, find a
suitable replacement so we can get Walter's approval. Then we'll
have to put a rush on it. If not, then we'll have to explain to
Walter what happened and hope he'll understand." He turned to the
office, then stopped himself. "Be sure to get on that ASAP," he
reminded Alex even though R.J. knew the employee wouldn't have to
be told twice.

Things like this popped up all the time. A
part would go on backorder or an engine would be in worse shape
than they anticipated. What separated R.J from other shops was his
ability to ease the client's fears and turn out a spectacular car
despite bumps in the road.

"You're the boss," Alex answered with a
salute.

R.J. refocused his attention to the matter at
hand. Danielle wasn't going to like this, but he didn't really give
a damn. The woman was opinionated to a fault and just as
hard-headed, a combination that could be combustible. When he
entered the office, she was typing at a rapid rate on the keyboard
and muttering to herself. The scene was odd. For one, he'd never
known her to talk to herself. And two, she was twitchy. Both her
knees were bouncing up and down, and she kept pausing to nibble on
her fingernail.

The latch on the door clicked, and she turned
in her chair to face him. Her brow was pinched in tension, but
immediately smoothed when she saw him. Her lips turned up in a
welcoming smile, and she crossed her legs. Probably trying to be
provocative, which would have worked at one time. Not anymore.

"Was that Charlie I saw?" she asked.

"Yeah, he came to talk to me about the Reno
show."

Her eyebrows tugged together in disbelief.
"Already? Isn't that several months away?"

"August." He stepped farther into the office
but made sure to keep his distance from Danielle. If he came too
close she might get the wrong impression. "But the cars he wants
done will take a lot longer. They're both pre-war and could take
some time to locate the parts."

Danielle turned toward the computer and hit a
few keys. "What are they?"

"A 1935 Mercedes 500K and a 1932 Packard
Deluxe."

"No kidding?" Danielle said with wide eyes.
"That Packard might be a challenge, but I think we can do it."

His office manager had always been
resourceful and efficient when locating rare parts. Her ability to
pull this off didn't worry him.

"So, you want me to start finding parts even
though we haven't seen the car yet?" Danielle asked while still
typing.

"Yeah, just start making a list so we can be
prepared. Charlie and his sons will be by later today to drop the
cars off. In the meantime…" His words trailed off when his eyes
landed on a pink invoice sitting on top of some client folders.

He picked the paper up and scanned the
information. "Didn't we close this account out several months
ago?"

Danielle snatched the invoice out of his
hands and placed it in an empty space on the other side of the
computer. "Don't worry about that. It must have accidentally been
placed with the to-be-closed accounts."

"And how did that happen, Danielle?"

She spun around in her chair to face him and
pinned him with an irate look. "I don't know, R.J. Maybe because I
do everything around here, and sometimes things get
overlooked?"

Whoa, what the hell? Since when did Danielle
get all snappy with him? And when did she take to biting her nails?
Nails that she spent a lot of time and money to keep up?

The narrowed look on his face must have
conveyed his displeasure with her outburst. Her shoulders slumped
over. "I'm sorry. I didn't sleep much last night so I feel out of
sorts today. I promise this will get taken care of."

"Well, according to that, the guy still owes
us two hundred dollars, so see that you make it your first
priority." Normally R.J. didn't bust his employee's asses like some
drill sergeant, unless the situation called for it, and this one
definitely did. Two hundred dollars was a drop in the bucket
compared to how much the shop brought in every month. What he was
more concerned with was potentially losing a client because they'd
failed to collect the entire bill. But Danielle should be able to
charm the guy into forgiving them. If she could get her act
together.

"I was going to tell you to open a file for
the Underwood car, but that needs to be put on hold until you take
care of this other account."

Danielle shook her head. "I still can't
believe you let her walk out of here without getting a deposit from
her. Don't you remember the last time that happened?"

Hell, yeah he remembered. The man who'd
brought his car in said he hadn't had the money to pay ten percent
up front. So R.J. had started on the car anyway and ended up
finishing the whole thing without being paid a dime from the owner.
In order to be collect, they'd had to take the guy to small claims
court. A year later, R.J. had finally received the money owed him,
but the process had hardly been worth it. Since then he'd made the
shop's policy to collect money up front before he started the
restoration process.

Knowing Danielle, her consternation had more
to do with Rebecca herself than the shop's rules.

R.J. leveled her serious look. "Trust me,
Rebecca won't stiff us for the bill. She's good for it."

Those icy blue eyes of hers stared back at
him as though trying to figure out whether or not there was more to
the story. There was, but he wasn't about to share that with
Danielle.

"You know her that well?" she finally
asked.

Should he clue her in on how well he knew
Rebecca? Knowing Danielle, she wouldn't take it well, especially
given her weird behavior today. "Well enough," was all he said.

Danielle leaned back in her chair and crossed
her legs. He knew that look. Gone was the bundle of nerves and in
its place was the bold vixen who'd practically ripped his clothes
off a week after hiring her.

"Let me take you out to dinner." Danielle
always slipped into that tone of voice when she was trying to make
him melt at her feet. The kind of tone one would dub a "bedroom
voice." It had always amazed him how she could transform herself
that fast.

"Not a good idea, Danielle. Besides I'm going
to be working late tonight." He would only work late if he needed
to, but he really didn't. Going out to dinner with Danielle was out
of the question. Setting aside that line he didn't want to cross
again, he had no interest in her anymore. No, these days his
thoughts were more on red-haired women with green eyes and a spunky
attitude. A woman who still elicited reactions from him even though
those reactions were bad for his sanity. Because he was supposed to
have exorcised her from his brain nine years ago, but that had only
had the opposite effect. Rebecca still lingered in his mind and
crowded his thoughts with how she'd felt ― underneath him.

Danielle waved a hand in the air and turned
back to her computer. "Yeah, you and your
no dating
rule. It
would only be a problem if you allow it to."

Which was exactly why he couldn't allow that
anymore. It had almost gotten out of hand one time, and he could
never go there again. He'd built this business from the ground up,
and he wouldn't destroy it for anyone.

"We've talked about this and things haven't
changed." He turned to walk out of the office and said over his
shoulder, "Get that account straightened up, then start finding
parts for Charlie's cars."

With that, he left her alone in the office
and walked back into the main shop. There were a few things that
needed his attention, and he'd already gotten a late start. From
his back pocket his cell phone vibrated. R.J. withdrew it and
glanced at the screen.

Just so you know, walking in heels can tone
your calves more than walking in flats.

Rebecca had probably been waiting all morning
to say that to him, because she couldn't stand letting him have the
last word. With an ear to ear grin, he responded to her text
message with one of his own,

What textbook did you get that out of?

In that moment Alex approached him about some
issue with after-market gauges. R.J. was only half listening to his
tech, which he waited for Rebecca to respond, because he knew she
would. No way would she let that question slide. A few seconds
later she shot him a return text message.

Bite me.

R.J. laughed the whole way to the GTO that
had been giving Alex fits.

Turns out he'd
had to
work a lot longer than anticipated. The longer hours were due to
little problems that kept popping up throughout the day. Some of
them had been nothing more than a nuisance that he'd been able to
fix with little effort. Others had been more troubling because
they'd been caused by Danielle's mistakes. Mistakes she hardly ever
made. One had set them back quite a bit on the Pontiac and would
cause R.J. to miss his deadline for completion. The incorrect
ignition coil she'd ordered hadn't even come close to fitting.
Luckily the client was a family friend and would likely not mind
the extension on finishing the car.

Frankly, R.J. hadn't really been worried
about that. Yes, the car would have to be put on hold for the time
being. What concerned him was Danielle and the little slip ups
she'd been making. Normally, he'd been able to trust her with
anything. But over the past few weeks, his confidence in her and
been shaken a bit. At first, he hadn't really noticed that a bill
had been filed in the wrong place or double-booking an appointment.
After all, no one was perfect. A few mistakes he could overlook,
but Danielle's recent behavior was out of character for her. She
blamed lack of sleep, which was entirely conceivable.

Unfortunately he'd been too busy to question
her about it. Just as he'd had a moment of down time, Charlie and
his two sons had come in with their cars. The consultation alone
had taken two hours, then R.J. had spent the rest of the day on the
computer software with Rodney, one of his techs, starting the
design process. The cars were going to be difficult, to say the
least. But R.J. had never backed down from a challenge, and he
wasn't about to start now. His only worry was Danielle. She'd
assured him she was already on locating the rare parts, but after
her recent unsteady performance, his confidence was slim.

Now all he wanted to do was hit his weight
machine then settle on his leather couch with an ice cold beer.
Maybe if he drank enough he wouldn't go to bed thinking about
Rebecca. Then again, that wouldn't be any different from any other
night.

As he pulled into his driveway, he let out a
groan at the sight of his sister's compact car. Normally he loved
spending time with his little sister. But tonight he wanted to be
alone. Courtney could be exhausting on her best day. Shortly after
recovering from her car accident, she'd lost her way a little.
She'd put her design degree in the back of her mind and took up
cleaning houses, a decision that left his whole family scratching
their heads. And he really wasn't up to hearing a story about how
some homeowner's weird cat had left a trail of fur balls for her to
clean up. God love her, but the girl could talk. Luckily she'd
pulled herself out of her weird depression and landed a job with
Wright on Design, where she now worked as an interior designer.

He turned off the Chevelle and exited the
car. Lord only knew what Courtney wanted. She had a habit of
appearing at the oddest times. Just last week, she'd showed up and
was eating a bowl of cereal by the time he'd gotten out of bed. And
he was an early riser, so there was no telling how long she'd been
awake. Possibly, she'd never gone to bed.

Three years ago, Courtney had been in a
devastating car accident and she'd never been the same. For months
she'd suffered from temporary memory loss, not to mention the
physical damage done to her body. Even with time to heal and
physical therapy, she still suffered from memory problems. The
simplest things, like a conversation she'd had a day before were
fragmented in her mind. It was as though the wires in her brain
were crossed and she had to concentrate extra hard to remember her
own cell phone number.