Head Over Wheels - Samantha Chase Page 0,1
sticking with him being clueless.
But if she could be alone with him outside of the garage, maybe things would be different.
It wasn’t like he was completely indifferent to her. He was always bringing her stuff from his trips to deliver their cars–mostly tacky things from souvenir shops because he knew she loved that crap. It was really kind of sweet how he always did that. She had three shelves filled with plastic snow globes, shot glasses, candles, assorted figurines, and gifts from him in her apartment and they always made her go all soft and dreamy.
“You okay, Dani?”
“Uh…yeah. Why?”
He shrugged. “You sort of zoned out there. We were going to go over the checklist?”
“Oh. Right.” Way to go, dork. Looking down at the tablet in her hand, she swiped the screen and pulled up the necessary information. “Is the car completely secured?” Right now it was chained to the flatbed truck she and Malcolm would be driving from the shop in Raleigh, North Carolina, down to Jacksonville, Florida, with a few stops along the way.
Nodding, he said, “Check.”
“Do you have all the final documentation for the car–registration, insurance, title?”
Frowning, Malcolm looked at her. “Wait, isn’t that in your folder along with directions, our reservations, our registration to the show, and all that? Maybe I should be the one going over the checklist and making sure you have everything.”
She knew he was joking, but…
Handing him the tablet, Dani hung her head. “That makes more sense. All you needed to do was secure the car to the flatbed. Everything else was on me so…”
The low snort he let out was his only response.
Sighing dramatically, she said, “Okay, fine, you spent three months and hundreds of hours restoring the car from a broken down, rusted-out piece of junk to a shiny showpiece. There. Happy?”
His slow grin had her practically standing in a puddle of her own drool.
He looked down at the tablet and frowned. “There’s an awful lot of stuff on here.”
“There was an awful lot of stuff to do,” she replied sweetly–secretly enjoying his reaction to all the things she had to handle for him.
Clearing his throat, he said, “Let’s take it from the top. Final documentation?”
“Check.”
“Hotel reservations?”
Doing her best not to smile, she nodded. “Check.”
“Registration packet for the Concourse Classic Car Expo?”
Another nod. “Check.”
“GPS programmed?”
“It’s all done,” she finally said. “Trust me. Plus, I’ve packed up a cooler with drinks, Reese’s Pieces, Cheetos, Oreos, and some grapes. You know, in case you wanted to eat like an adult.”
He laughed softly. “Thanks.”
“My pleasure.” Looking around, she caught a glimpse of the last thing that needed to be done. “All that’s left is for you to put our luggage in the truck and we’ll be ready to go!”
With a curt nod, he handed her the tablet and walked away.
A soft, dreamy sigh was out when he bent over to pick up their bags. Malcolm had a fine butt–especially in faded denim. She was going to have to make sure she didn’t do that while they were on this trip. No need to freak Malcolm out.
Although…she had a feeling it was going to happen no matter what because they had never spent this much time in such close proximity. And she was planning to use that to her full advantage.
For the life of him, Malcolm had no idea how he was supposed to handle being alone with Dani for five days.
Well, five days if everything went according to plan.
And with Danielle, that rarely happened.
She had a knack for taking something simple and making it complicated–usually in the name of making things better–but he was a man who enjoyed having a plan and sticking to it.
“One of us may not survive this,” he muttered.
“Survive what?”
Turning, he saw his father walking toward him, and rather than answer him, Malcolm finished stuffing the luggage behind the seats.
With little more than a groan, he turned around. “Are we sure this is the right thing to do–asking Dani to go on this trip with me?”
“Why? Don’t you?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just don’t want this to drag out and you know how she can be…”
His father snickered. “And you know she gets results. Our business changed for the better when we hired her, and this little project will only help solidify our name. She’s a real people person.”
“I guess.”
“Wait, you’re not nervous about traveling with her, are you?”
“Well…”
“Because if you ask me, it’s going to be a good thing for you.”
“Me?” he cried. “Why?”
“Malcolm, you’re a good man.