Probably without.
7
Kara
Damn, I hated to admit how handy it’d been having Rico around. The past week had gone so smoothly. No men giving me a bunch of shit. I hated that the only reason they were being polite was that I had Rico with me, though. Why couldn’t men just get over the fact that they’d hired someone without a dick to do a job they couldn’t do?
Testosterone was a bitch. It’d been a week and a half since that first day when Cynthia embarrassed me to the point that I’d let Rico go home early. And it’d been the most peaceful week and a half of the whole two years since I’d hung out my shingle.
And it was thanks to Rico.
Peaceful as far as customers went, anyway. Things between Rico and me were decidedly less calm. He was either making me boiling mad or turning me on. Or making me blush. Or laugh. There was never a dull moment was the point.
After looking at the a/c unit at the gym again, Rico and I headed back downstairs. The owner was there this time with a nasty scowl on his face. Someone must have pissed in his cereal this morning. He was normally easier to deal with.
“Vinnie,” I said with a sigh. “If you’d let me replace that compressor, you wouldn’t break down every two weeks. Last week when I was in here, there was a hose leak, but every other time I’ve had to come down here, it’s been the compressor. I can only rig it to work so many times.”
His scowl grew deeper and darker. He grumbled something I didn’t make out.
Rico stiffened beside me. “What did you say?” he hissed.
Uh-oh. The last time I heard him this pissed was when Cynthia said something about me not having a mother. Luckily, I hated her already, but I couldn’t afford for his temper to drive away my clients.
Vinnie swung his glare from me to Rico. “I said, if she had a set of cojones, she would’ve fixed it already.”
Rico stepped forward, but I put a hand on his arm. “Vinnie, come on. At least use a line I haven’t heard before. You know, you can always call Stevenson’s. He can come to take a look at that worn-out piece of crap you’re trying to pass off as an a/c unit.”
Vinnie wiped his forehead on a nasty-looking rag. “I called him already. He’s booked up. You’re lucky you’re the only other game in town, or you’d never get a job.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and raised an eyebrow. “I get jobs because I’m good at what I do, and I don’t need cojones to do it.”
His face deepened into a darker shade of red. “I think I’ll wait for Stevenson’s,” Vinnie retorted.
I shrugged, ready to leave and let the bastard call my competition, but Rico stepped forward again. “Hey,” he said sharply. “When Stevenson says it needs a compressor, and you’ve had to pay him for a service call on top of Kara here, then you still have to buy a compressor.” He seemed to puff up and get bigger, and his voice had a growling note to it I didn’t recognize. Fury took over his features as I watched in amazement.
But before my eyes, he seemed to deflate. “Let’s go.” He stalked toward the door, then turned to wait for me.
Well, all right then. Now that I knew him better, I didn’t mind him defending me a bit. It was kind of nice.
“Fine!” Vinnie called out as I put my hand on the door to leave. His tone was angry but defeated. “Order it. Fix it. Bill me.”
I turned and gave him a sarcastic bow, which may have been over the top, but damn, I deserved that one. “As you wish.”
When I exited the building into the cloudy day, it was with a spring in my step. The part was expensive, sure. But fixing it would mean Vinnie didn’t call me all the time anymore. I would make a bit less money.
Totally worth it to get the gym out of my hair. Not to mention all the assholes inside the gym.
“Thanks for the backup.” I was so happy, I even considered letting Rico drive. He’d offered a few more times, and now that I was getting to know him better, I felt he was trying to be helpful. Not chauvinistic.
“Eh,” he muttered and shrugged. “It was nothing. The guy is a dick. No wonder everyone else there is, too. I was just being honest.”
“Well, lunch is on me. If we don’t see Cynthia’s car in the lot, let’s try the diner again.”
He perked up and grinned at me. “I never turn down a free lunch.”
“You’ve done a great job. Honestly, you’ve learned more skills faster than I ever expected you to.” That was the truth. He’d been a great help, and I felt good about starting to let him work on a few things himself with me observing instead of the other way around.
He puffed up again, this time with pride, not anger. I drove the truck down to the diner, which took all of thirty seconds. We probably should’ve walked, but eh. “I don’t see her car,” I said. To be safe, I circled the lot before parking.
“Let’s eat.” Rico rubbed his hands together. “I’ve heard their pie is excellent.”
This time when we walked in, the only stares were women staring at Rico. The town gossip mill had worked its magic over the time he’d worked for me, and almost everyone knew he was just my assistant, not my lover.
Thus, the women began their salivating over Black Claw’s most eligible bachelor.
Ugh.
He frowned and grumbled something under his breath as we slid into the only empty booth in the place.
“What was that?” I asked.
He just shook his head. “Nothing, sorry. Ignore me.”
A server I didn’t recognize handed us some
