The Mechanics of Mistletoe

by Liz Isaacson

  She kept telling herself that she’d go on a date when Lincoln started school. Then it was when he could read by himself. Then when he could tie his shoes without help. Then when he knew how to ride a bike.

  The truth was, no one was asking, and Sammy didn’t have time to find someone herself. She felt perpetually surrounded by men—at the shop, at the ranch—but none of them interested her half as much as Bear.

  She looked up again to find he’d moved closer. He ran his fingertips along some of her tools, and she said, “Did you say something? Sorry, I got lost inside this thing for a second.”

  He looked at her, those eyes overpowering her in less than a breath. “I was just going to ask you—” He pulled his hand back from her tools. She kept them in a bag she’d bought online that was made for chefs to carry their knives.

  And it went with Bear’s hand, her tools clattering all over the cement floor in the she-shed. The noise was absolutely astronomical, and she clapped both hands over her ears as the metal bounced on the cement.

  “I’m sorry,” Bear said while her ears were still ringing. He got down on the ground and started picking up the pliers, the wrenches, the screwdrivers.

  “It’s fine,” Sammy said, finally getting her senses back. She reached for a ratchet at the same time Bear did, and they froze, their hands touching.

  “Listen,” Bear said, maybe a little roughly. He turned his hand and slipped his fingers between hers. “Would you go to dinner with me?”

  Sammy’s world turned white for a moment. “What?” she asked, out of instinct and nothing else. A light giggle followed, a sound she’d never made before and would likely never make again.

  Bear released her hand and stood, seemingly in one motion. For a big, tall cowboy, he could move really well. He laid her bag out on the countertop and said, “Forget it.”

  Forget what? her mind asked, and Sammy looked down at her hand. Her skin tingled for some reason, and she could still feel Bear’s fingers between hers.

  Dinner, her brain whispered. He asked you to dinner!

  But Bear had already started walking away.

  Wait, she called to him in her mind.

  He opened the door and walked out, leaving Sammy mute and alone on the floor. Everything that had happened in the last thirty seconds rushed at her, and Sammy groaned as she realized she’d laughed when Bear had asked her out.

  Legit laughed at him. At the idea of going out with him.

  “Why did I do that?” she asked, looking up at the ceiling. “Dear Lord, can’t anything go right for me? Would it have been so hard to make me loquacious for that one moment?” She felt like crying, but the door opened again, and Sammy spun onto her hip and hid her face from whoever came into the shop.

  “Hey,” Simone said. “How’s it going? Did Bear get his pictures?”

  “Pictures?” Sammy asked, glancing over her shoulder. “I have no idea.”

  Simone frowned as she bounced her baby in her arms. “What do you think?”

  “I think you need a new exhaust fan,” Sammy said, deciding on the spot not to try to clean the one inside the kiln. “I’m just getting the serial number and make and model so I can get one ordered for you.”

  “Oh, that sounds easy,” Simone said.

  “It should be,” Sammy said, standing up. Her tools were an absolute mess, but she needed to get out of this shop and away from this ranch. She folded them up to deal with later and practically ran from the she-shed with, “I’ll call you when it comes in, okay?”

  “Oh, okay,” Simone said behind her, and Sammy knew she’d have to answer the woman’s questions later.

  Right now, that didn’t matter. Right now, she needed to get back to the shop, because Clayton would be there with Lincoln in less than thirty minutes. She didn’t like leaving Lincoln alone for any amount of time, though he’d turned eight last fall and could certainly go inside and get a snack by himself.

  She lived next door to the bus driver who brought the kids home from the elementary school, and Clayton had agreed to bring Lincoln to her mechanic shop every afternoon after the regular run. The system had been working for three years now, and Sammy always made sure she was in the shop at three-forty-five.

  Sure, Lincoln could stay with the other mechanics there, and he’d probably prefer it. But Sammy carried a great burden to care for her nephew according to her sister’s wishes, and she was going to do that the best way she knew how.

  Sammy practically flew through the garage, only to find Bear’s big, black truck parked behind hers, blocking her escape. He sat behind the wheel, looking down at something in his hand. Probably his phone.

  He’ll move, Sammy told herself as she opened the passenger door and tossed in her tools. She walked around the back of her truck so he’d see her, but she didn’t look directly at him. Looking directly at a man like Bear Glover was like looking into the sun, and she’d already made a big enough fool of herself for one day. For a whole month, in fact.

  “Sammy,” Bear said, getting out of the truck.

  “Hmm?” She didn’t turn fully toward him as she put her hand on the door handle of her beat-up pickup. It had been her brother-in-law’s, and it was familiar to Lincoln, so Sammy kept fixing it when it broke down, and she kept driving it to keep something of Lincoln’s father’s in their lives.

  Bear said nothing, forcing Sammy to look at him. He commanded every room he stepped into, and she wondered what it was like to hold that much power in the palm of one’s hand.

  “Look,” he finally said. “I’m a real idiot, and I’ve gone about this all wrong.” He held up his phone. “I’ve got a whole script, and I can’t say it.” He sighed like his ranch had been infested with tens of thousands of grasshoppers, as it had been in the past.

  “I like you,” he said, sort of yelling the words at her. “I like, you know, like you, and I wondered if maybe you’d go to dinner with me, so we can get to know each other on a personal level, not just a ranch level.”

  Sammy’s brain threatened to shut down again, but she steadfastly refused to let it. “I’d have to get a babysitter,” she said.

  “And…you don’t want to?” He looked absolutely miserable, but he was still standing there. Still looking at her, even as a flush colored his neck and stained his cheeks. Oh, that wasn’t fair. Seeing him in a vulnerable state only made him more attractive than he already was.

  “I can ask around,” she said.

  “We’ll take Lincoln,” Simone called from the porch, and Sammy spun that way. She didn’t know they’d had an audience.

  “We’ve got older nieces and nephews,” Micah added. “He’ll love it out here.”

  They both beamed like this was the solution to world peace or something equally as great. Sammy looked at Bear; Bear looked back at Sammy.

  Together, they burst out laughing, and he took another step closer to her. “Just one dinner,” he murmured so Simone and Micah couldn’t overhear. “If it doesn’t go well, at least it’ll be free.”

  “Why wouldn’t it go well?” she asked.

  “Well, I mean, I’ve already thrown your tools all around and stomped out of the room like a grizzly. So dinner can’t be as bad as that, right?” He grinned, one side of his mouth pulling up higher than the other. So adorable, and she never thought she’d use that word to describe a man like Bear Glover.

  Of course, she’d never seen him smile much around the ranch either.

  “All right,” she said. “I’ll go to dinner with you.”

  “Yeehaw!” Micah yelled from the porch, and Sammy’s face heated with embarrassment too.

  She looked at Bear, who had glared Micah into silence. “And I’m expecting to hear about this script at dinner. Tonight?” She looked back to the porch. “Does tonight work for you guys?”

  “Tonight is fine,” Simone said, completely unashamed to be standing there, intruding on this private conversation. Or what Sammy wished was a private conversation.

  “I’ll p
ick you up at seven,” Bear said. “Does that work? We can bring Lincoln out here together, and then go grab something to eat.”

  “Sounds like a date,” Sammy said. She finally opened the door and got in her truck, glad when Bear waved to the porch and did the same. He backed out first, and she expected him to trundle on down the lane. He didn’t but waited for her to leave.

  She did, watching in her rearview mirror as he pulled back into Micah and Simone’s driveway and got back out of his truck. She finally had to look away as the road curved toward the highway, but she acknowledged the jittery feeling in her stomach as she came to a stop and looked both ways.

  She wasn’t sure if it was because of what Micah, Simone, and Bear might be saying about her, or because she’d finally accepted a date and would be leaving Lincoln with someone besides his teacher.

  “Or because the best-looking man in the state asked you out,” Sammy said as she turned onto the highway and pressed on the gas pedal to get the truck going. It shuddered in protest, its acceleration not very good.

  “And you said yes.” A smile curved Sammy’s mouth, and she enjoyed the excitement until she pulled up to the mechanic shop on the south side of town. Then she realized she’d need to pick out something to wear and put on makeup without her sister’s help.

  Chapter Three

  Bear circled the block where Sammy lived, still about fifteen minutes early. He’d said he’d pick her up at seven, but he hadn’t been able to sit around the homestead for another minute. He figured he’d drive really slow on the way from the ranch to the town of Three Rivers.

  He had, but it hadn’t been slow enough.

  “Go get gas, Bear,” he muttered to himself, and he finally left Sammy’s neighborhood so the little old ladies who watched the traffic go by from behind their curtains wouldn’t call the cops. Bear definitely didn’t need that.

  As the truck got filled with gas, Bear went into the convenience store and bought a couple bottles of water. He glanced briefly toward the coolers with all the alcohol, and he was suddenly so, so thirsty.

  But he wasn’t going down that road again. He’d spent six weeks in a detox program, and they had been the hardest six weeks of his life. After that, it had taken Bear an entire year to feel like the Lord was happy with him again. He wasn’t going to have a single sip of beer. He knew one would lead to two, and Bear wouldn’t be able to stop himself.

  Been there, done that, he told himself, taking the water to the counter to check out. Instead of alcohol, he tossed a couple packages of Twinkies on the counter next to his water. He paid and left, got his truck, and headed back to Sammy’s.

  He was only a couple of minutes early now, and thankfully, Sammy and her son sat on their front steps. Bear pulled in a breath and said, “Don’t mess this up, Bear. Be nice. You’re all teddy tonight. Cuddly and soft and full of smiles.”

  He put one on his face as he pulled into her driveway and got out of the truck. She’d stood, and she and Lincoln held hands as he approached. “Hey,” Bear said easily. “You guys ready?”

  “Yeah,” Sammy said, smiling down at Lincoln and then up at Bear. “Lincoln, this is Bear Glover. He’s who I’m going to dinner with.”

  The child lifted his free hand in a wave. “Hi.”

  “Hi,” Bear said.

  “Bear, this is my son, Lincoln Josephs.”

  Lincoln looked up at her, and they had a little conversation that Bear didn’t understand. “Come on,” Bear said. “I’ll lift you up.” He went back to the truck and opened the back door on the king cab. He swept Lincoln up into his arms, and the boy squealed. Bear laughed, glad when Lincoln did too. “In you go, bud.”

  Bear hurried to close his door and open Sammy’s. Their eyes met, but she immediately ducked her head and stepped up onto the runner to get into the truck. He closed her door too and congratulated himself as he went around the hood to the driver’s side. With everyone buckled, Bear backed out of the driveway.

  “This is kind of a strange driveway,” he said, looking at it as he started forward again.

  “It’s not a real piece of land,” Sammy said. “It’s my parents’ property. They just had a house in the corner, and when Heather died, I moved in there to take care of Lincoln.”

  “Oh.” Bear gritted his teeth against the rush of stupidity running through him. “It must be nice to be close to family if you need help.” That was one thing he enjoyed about living so close to his family. He could drive a few minutes in any direction and run into a brother or a cousin, as they’d bought up all the land surrounding the ranch over the years.

  Bear and his five brothers worked the ranch, as did his three cousins. The nine of them kept everything working and going, and Bear liked to think his father would be proud of him. Uncle Bull had passed away five years ago, and Bear knew Ranger worked as hard as he did to honor the memory of his father.

  “Yes,” Sammy said, but she’d turned toward the window, and Bear barely heard her. He couldn’t even remember what he’d asked her. Silence settled over them, and Bear glanced into the rearview mirror to see what Lincoln was doing.

  Just looking out the window.

  Bear shifted in his seat, trying to find something to talk about. Nothing came to mind, so he reached over and turned up the radio a little. Country music piped into the truck, and Sammy turned toward him. “You like country?” she asked.

  “Sure,” Bear said. “I used to play guitar for a band, believe it or not.” He smiled in her general direction, but it was busy in town tonight, and he couldn’t look away from the road for long.

  “You did?” She sounded a little too surprised.

  “In another life,” Bear said, chuckling to himself. “I was very young, in fact.” He got the truck on the highway headed south, and the traffic thinned. He glanced at her. “For a few brief moments in my life, I thought I might actually leave Shiloh Ridge for a career in music.”

  He shook his head at the stupidity of his youth. “I was a decent player, but not good enough to actually earn any money long-term. Thankfully, my father was a forgiving man, and he let me come back to the ranch, my tail tucked between my legs.”

  “How long were you gone?” Sammy asked.

  “Something like six months,” Bear said. “Maybe not even that long.” His memory was a strange thing, because he could distinctly remember the moment he’d driven back onto the ranch. His father had come out on the porch of the homestead and leaned against the pillar there, the toothpick in the corner of his mouth, as usual.

  Bear had gotten out, and Daddy said, “Welcome back, son.” He’d hugged Bear and carried his guitar case inside, and by dinner, Bear had chores on the ranch that needed to be done before he went to bed.

  “Do you wish you’d done something besides ranching?” she asked.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, I love the ranch. Sometimes I just get an idea in my head, and I forget who I am.”

  Sammy watched him, her gaze heavy on the side of his face. Bear wasn’t sure what else he should say, and when he finally swung his head toward her, she looked away from him. The conversation stalled again, and Bear glanced at Lincoln.

  “Do you play an instrument?” he asked him.

  Lincoln looked at him with wide, brown eyes that were similar to Sammy’s. Not identical, but close enough to make him look like hers. Bear knew he wasn’t though, and he was glad she’d introduced him as her son, so he knew what to call him.

  “I’m guessing not,” Bear said with a smile.

  “No,” Sammy said. “He doesn’t play any instruments.” She twisted to look at Lincoln. “He wants to maybe try the piano, but…we haven’t done that yet.” She gave him a soft smile that made Bear’s heart beat shallowly, and she hadn’t even smiled at him.

  He made the turn onto the road to Seven Sons Ranch, and Sammy said, “Look, Lincoln, they have the ATVs out.”

  “Really?” Lincoln sat up straight and looked out his window. “Can I ride them, Sammy?�
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  “If they have a helmet the right size,” she said. “But they should. That little girl looks close to your age.”

  Bear had no idea how old the children at Seven Sons were, but there was a girl that did seem close to Lincoln’s age, and another boy that was obviously a few years older than him too. Micah waved to Bear from the other side of the fence at the main homestead on the ranch, and he caught sight of the twins too, both of whom stood near the two ATVs while they talked.

  Bear eased to a stop along the fence, and Sammy said, “I’ll take him. Come on, Link.”

  Bear let them slip from the truck, and he couldn’t stop himself from watching Sammy walk across the lawn to Tripp and Liam. They smiled and shook her hand, and she put her arm around Lincoln, looking at him every few seconds.

  Tripp took Lincoln from her, and the other little boy went with them too. Sammy stayed for another few seconds, then Bear watched her take a deep breath, her slight shoulders rising and falling in a visible motion.

  She turned toward him and began the trek back. She got back in the truck, and Bear looked at her. “We’re good?”

  “Yes,” she said, focusing on buckling her seatbelt.

  Bear didn’t put the truck in gear, and Sammy finally looked at him. “We don’t have to go,” Bear said. “Or he can come with us.”

  “It’s okay,” Sammy said. “Really, Bear. I just don’t leave him with anyone but my parents, and I’m a little worried about him. But it’s fine. He’ll be fine. He didn’t even look back at me.” She put a soft smile on her face. “Let’s go. Really.”

  “Okay,” Bear said, so many questions piling up in his mind. He didn’t want to ask her if raising Lincoln was hard. Of course it was. He didn’t want to ask her how she felt about having to be his mother. She might not be able to put it into regular words.

  He wanted to talk to her, because he liked the sound of her voice. He usually saw her in jeans or jean shorts, but tonight, she wore a pair of black slacks that made her legs look even trimmer than they were.