The Panther's Rival

by Emilia Hartley

  “I’ll call it in,” Tom said. He eyed Nick a bit before asking, “You alright bro?”

  Nick nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I just felt like putting a rush on things and getting it done as soon as possible. Was kinda digging getting a lazy day, you know?”

  “Sure,” Tom replied, and Nick could tell he was thoroughly unconvinced. They shared a moment of tense eye contact before Tom looked away.

  Shrugging, he stretched and said. “You know, this ain’t gonna be cheap, Nick.” He looked up at Nick with a new gleam in his eye. “You wanna tell her, or you want me to?”

  Narrowing his eyes, Nick frowned. “I’ll do it.”

  “Good,” Tom replied cheekily. “You’ve hardly said anything to her at all since she arrived. I wonder if she thinks you’re rude or just a grouch?”

  “We both know the roles we play,” Nick retorted, defensively. “You don’t trust easy, so you like smooth talk your way into getting information, which is why I let you do all the talking.” Nick shrugged. “But if that’s the way you wanna play it, I’m game. I’ll play friends with the human, alright?”

  Tom shrugged back. “Hey, I was saying quite the opposite. You’re not really the type to chat it up with the customers and you’re quick to leave the people-personing to me.” He gave his brother a skeptical look. “That is, until now.” Before Nick could open his mouth to retort, he shook his head. “Hey, I’m not saying it means anything. I’m just not one to pass all of the hard work over to you for once. But you’re new to this side of the business so… just make sure you get her name at least, okay?”

  Muttering under his breath, Nick strode away from his brother’s smug gaze without a word of retort. He steadied himself before opening the office door, arranging his features into some semblance of a smile. He threw the door wide, and as their eyes met, he wasn’t prepared for the shock of electricity that coursed through him. She truly was striking. Her eyes were bright—with worry, or wit, or kindness he wasn’t sure yet, but they almost sparkled, even in the dim lighting of the drab office space. Her hair bounced with a life of its own when she’d started at his sudden arrival. He’d forgotten for just the slightest moment that she didn’t have his keen senses. He’d have to be more careful about that in the future.

  What? The future? What future?

  Suddenly, a jolt of a different kind hit him, this time of shock and mild embarrassment. He’d been standing in the doorway for heaven knows how long and hadn’t spoken so much as a word to her.

  Say hi, damn you! He smiled again, adopting his best Tom impression. “Good afternoon, miss. I uh, I realize I never actually greeted you when you came in.” He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I’m sorry about that. Just been a busy day. I must’ve lost myself in the work,” he said, shrugging. He kept the smile firm on his lips, but he couldn’t make it reach his eyes as he hid from her—and from himself—the overwhelming attraction that he felt for her. He’d felt it back then, too, as a bear staring down the terrified woman that had been tossed about in her car only moments before daring to slam on her horn to shoo away two fully grown tousling brown bears.

  What a woman, he’d thought then, and he couldn’t help but feel the same way now.

  Jo smiled kindly, and everything looked just a little bit brighter. “Oh, I understand. It’s not a problem.” She looked as if she was struggling to meet his gaze, before steeling herself and holding out her hand. “I’m Jo Barrowman. It’s nice to meet you, Mr…” she trailed off with a smile.

  Nick knew she already knew his name, but his smile grew a little more genuine as he decided to humor her. “Nick. Nick Brewer. No Mister,” he replied, taking her hand in a gentle grasp. There was no denying the tingles and sparks that danced between them as their skin made contact, especially hearing the slight gasp that hissed softly through Jo’s lips, but Nick did his best to ignore them.

  He pulled away a little too quickly, trying and failing to inconspicuously rub the lingering tingles away on the thin fabric of his t-shirt. He could tell Jo noticed his movements, but he felt it best to just keep pressing forward. “It seems you’ve had a rough time of it,” he continued, sitting in one of the scattered office chairs and motioning for her to sit in another. She grabbed a steaming cup behind her before sitting. When had she made coffee? Why hadn’t Nick noticed the pungent smell of the beans or the heat of the water in the air? He shook his confused thoughts free, knowing that pondering things now would only make the situation worse. “So, uh, yeah. We’ll be happy to fix up your car for you,” he finished with a smile.

  “Really?” Jo let out a sigh of relief that made Nick want to lie back and relax. “Do you know how long it will take?” she asked, eyes hopeful.

  Okay, here goes nothing… “Depends,” he replied, non-committal. “You got somewhere to be?”

  Jo nodded emphatically. “Yes, I have a client to meet in San Francisco in a couple of days’ time.”

  “Ah.” Nick couldn’t hide his disappointment for her, and he could see that she’d read his features well, her expression falling immediately. “Unfortunately you might have to rearrange that.”

  “I… I see.” Jo nodded, steeling herself to move forward right before Nick’s eyes. It was truly inspiring. “Do you know how long it will take?”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “Well, we have to send off for a part. It’ll take a couple days to get here, but we can work on the rest of your car while we wait. The best estimate I can give you is…” he steeled himself, knowing that she wasn’t going to like the answer before he even uttered it, “… four days. Five, tops.”

  Jo stared at Nick for one silent heartbeat, and he could almost hear her entire world crashing around her. “Five days?! I have to be in San Francisco, tomorrow. Then I have to spend the remainder of my free time preparing to meet with a once in a lifetime client the next day!” She was babbling now, bubbling over with panic and clenching her coffee so tight, Nick worried she might spill the hot liquid onto her hands at any moment’s notice. “This is the worst possible news you could have given me. My boss is going to freak!”

  “Hey, hey, there’s nothing you can do about it—” Nick began.

  “Yeah well try telling that to my boss. Now I have to beg and grovel for mercy because I’m too incompetent to meet a high profile client on time!”

  “It was the bears,” Nick tried to console. “That’s beyond even your control. Surely your boss will understand that.”

  Jo scoffed, and Nick could smell the tears in her eyes before the first one slid down her cheek. “That’s a pretty thought, but he’s just not that kind of guy. I promise you that.” She shook her head softly. “Sorry, this more than likely doesn’t even make sense to you.”

  “I’m sorry,” Nick murmured.

  Jo shook her head again. “No, it’s okay. You’re a mechanic. You’re just doing your job as best you can. None of this extra stuff is your fault,” she assured, wiping away the stray tears.

  A pang of guilt hit Nick square in the chest with a force that made him gasp. He tried to hide it under a cough in case she’d noticed, but she was already standing.

  “Sorry,” she sniffed, never noticing the war of emotions Nick was going through. “You probably can’t even imagine the kind of time I’ve been having. It’s just been… heavy for me. I didn’t mean to unload on you.” She feigned a smile before turning towards the door. “I best go call my boss.”

  ***

  “She didn’t take it well, I assume?”

  Nick bit back a growl. “What’s it matter?”

  Tom shrugged “I reckon it matters a whole bunch considering she bawled all over you and then left the office to phone her boss.”

  “Wonderful,” Nick grumbled, silently cursing his brother’s keen hearing. He sighed. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Do?” Tom gave his brother a peculiar look. “There’s nothing for you to do other than fix her car. Her personal life is none of our business. What the hell
do you mean?”

  What the hell do I mean? Nick repeated angrily to himself. “Nothing. I’m just not used to all of that—the crying women and stuff.”

  Tom nodded his understanding, giving Nick a solid pat on his wide bicep. “This is why you need to stick with what you know. I’m the people person for a reason, bro.”

  Nick chuckled. “Noted. No more people-personing for me.” Tom gave him one last pat before heading into the back to make a call for the part they’d need. Nick made sure tom closed the door firmly before he started to pace. It wouldn’t take long for Tom to make the call, but Nick only need a short moment to collect himself. He wasn’t thinking straight and he needed to get his thoughts in order before he saw either his brother or the customer, Jo, again.

  As if he’d summoned her himself, there she was pacing impatiently in the cool evening weather, nearly in time with Nick’s own movements. Her cheeks and the tip of her nose were tinted red from the winds that were blowing and she had her phone pressed closely to her ear. She did not look happy.

  Suddenly, it clicked. He knew how he’d help in a way only he could.

  The backroom door opened. “It’s ordered,” Tom declared, stepping back into the office. His eyes followed Nick’s out the front-facing window to where Jo was still pacing and talking quickly into her phone.

  “Good. How long?” Nick asked, playing off how enthralled he’d been by her.

  Nick breathed an inward sigh of relief as Tom chose to ignore his staring. “A couple of days at the earliest. It was the best they could do.”

  Nick nodded in understanding, then steeling his resolve, he said, “This isn’t fair to her, and you know it, Tom. We did that to her car.”

  Tom shrugged. “So? She doesn’t know that.”

  “But I do! And so do you! Don’t you feel at least a little bit responsible?” Tom shrugged again, completely uncaring. Nick frowned at his brother’s non-committal reaction. “We shouldn’t charge her for our time.”

  Tom’s jaw nearly dropped at the proposition. “You mean work for free?”

  “Yeah, I mean work for free. She can pay for parts—even though that’s our fault too—but that’s it. No overpricing, and we don’t charge anything for labor.” He shot a look at his brother. “It’s only fair.”

  Tom grumbled to himself for a moment but eventually relented. Even he could see the fault in their actions that lead to the damaged on the human girl’s car. “Yeah, yeah whatever. Let’s just get this over with.”

  Chapter Four

  “Can’t you for once see my side to things?!” Jo shouted into the phone and immediately regretted it. She knew that yelling at Brian would only earn her yet another lecture on top of the countless others he had queued up for her, but even still the sentence flew out of her with a fervor that she couldn’t control. She was at her wit’s end.

  She heard the loud inhale on the other end of the line, a telltale sign that Brian was about to go off on one of his guilt trip diatribes and make her entire ordeal about him, but she beat him to the punch. “They were bears, Brian. Bears. Remember that before you tell me I had a choice in this,” she advised, keeping her voice at a more appropriate volume.

  The recommendation didn’t help. Brian was soon elbow-deep in a lofty scolding, complete with his fake posh British accent. He whined and complained in his typical high-pitched voice, only furthering her frustration levels.

  He prattled on about how big of a disappointment she was for the umpteenth time before something just snapped. Not saying a word, Jo pulled the phone from her ear, staring at the screen in blank submission before just… hanging up. She’d had enough. Brian knew her situation now and it was his job to sort things out with the client. She didn’t even have enough energy to feel satisfied with her defiance.

  She felt the slow inhale of her breath as a sudden anger built up within her. “I’m fine and alive, by the way, thanks for asking!” she shouted raggedly into the phone, despite having already hung up on Brian.

  The adrenaline began to leak out of her, being replaced by the deep-set cold of the biting wind around her little by little. Worry began to knot her stomach, but she ignored it, tipping her chin up and pinching the bridge of her nose as she slowly breathed in the cool night air. “He can’t fire me for hanging up on him,” she told herself.

  After she’d finally calmed down enough for public display, she allowed herself to walk back into the office. She’s already had an apology queued up for crying all over Nick earlier in the day, but seeing the mildly guilty looks on his face as she entered the warm office pretty much confirmed that he’d also heard or seen her make a total fool of herself on the phone with Brian. “Sorry,” she muttered, finding it hard to make eye contact. “I had to fight tooth and nail for a reschedule that I couldn’t avoid. My boss is a bit of an idiot.”

  Nick almost smiled, but it looked heavy on his lips and didn’t last for more than a fleeting moment. She averted her gaze, instantly self-conscious about how miserable she must look to kill his smile like that. “We’ve all been there,” he consoled, “don’t worry about it.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “For what it’s worth, we’ve ordered the part we need; it’ll be arriving in a couple of days. I’m sorry we can’t make things move any faster for you. It’s obvious you’ve got a lot going on.”

  Jo shrugged. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

  A look passed his face too quickly for her to decipher. “We’re also going to try and keep this as cheap for you as we can. Parts only.”

  Wait what? “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” she asked, a bit dumbstruck by his words.

  The corner of Nick’s mouth lifted into a half-smile, and this time it stayed. “We’ll be charging you for parts only.”

  A bit of that smile lifted into his dark eyes, making them sparkle with a kindness she hadn’t thought to look for in the brother mechanics before now. Though happiness and gratitude welled up in her chest almost immediately, she wasn’t entirely sure she liked this stranger’s sudden display of generosity. After all, it had been a long time since anyone had shown her such kindness. Was there an ulterior motive hiding behind his smile?

  “Why?” she asked before she could stop herself. She mentally kicked herself for prying, hoping beyond hope that she hadn’t just screwed her chances at a steal of a discount.

  Relief washed over her as Nick’s smile only grew. It looked good on his face, and she found herself wishing he would smile more. He shrugged his broad shoulders, and she could see the fabric of this thin t-shirt tighten over the strain of his muscles. The attraction she felt for him was electric. She’d felt it in the way he looked at her and the sensations that tingled down her arm when he shook her hand. There was no denying that there was something there between them, but it only made her more wary. Would he try to use her attraction to him against her?

  “It’s what we do around these parts,” he answered, his rich voice pulling her out of her suspicious reverie. “You’ve had what we call a rough day, so we’re just doing what we can to help change that. Call it a good deed or a random act of kindness if you want, but whatever you label it, it’s yours to accept or decline. Just let us know.”

  Jo didn’t know what to say, blinking a couple times to hold back unexpected tears. “Well that’s… that’s incredibly kind of you.”

  Nick waved the compliment away. “Not at all,” he replied. “We’re just glad to help.”

  Tom walked in, wiping his hands on a shop rag. “Has Nick told you the damage?”

  Jo nodded with a bit more enthusiasm in her face. “The important parts. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your generosity!”

  “It’s what we do,” he replied. His voice was kind enough, but it didn’t sound enthused like the Tom that’d met her at the door when she’d first met them earlier in the day. Walking behind the desk, Tom and Nick shared a look that Jo didn’t quite catch. It was like they were sending coded messages that she couldn’t understand.

/>   “Say uh, since it looks like I’ll be staying here a few more days than expected, can you point me in the direction of the nearest motel?” Both brothers looked her way without saying a word, and she had a chilling sense of déjà vu. She averted her gaze. “I mean, the town seems quiet enough. I’m okay with walking if it’s not too far. The cheaper the better.”

  The two bothers exchanged another foreign look and Jo’s stomach tightened in worry.

  “Rawlins doesn’t have any motels,” Nick replied.

  “Nothing?” Jo stared at Nick in disbelief? “Not even a little hole in the wall hovel to sleep for the night?”

  Tom shook his head. “Rawlins’s just a forgotten outskirt of a few larger surrounding towns. All the hotels moved out a long time ago.” He shrugged. “Most people that stick around here have family to stay with. A tiny town like this hasn’t had to plan for strangers in a long time.”

  Jo looked desperately from one brother to the other, and neither of them said anything. “Then where am I going to stay?” she asked hopelessly.

  Nick suddenly glanced at his brother, but even Jo could read the message Tom shot back in his glare. Don’t even think about it.

  Nick frowned at Tom, even though no words had been exchanged yet. He turned his resolved gaze to Jo. “We have a cabin.”

  “Nick!” Tom admonished.

  “You can stay there while your car’s getting fixed, if you want,” Nick continued, ignoring Tom completely. “Free of charge, of course.”

  “A cabin?” Jo frowned. Could she honestly agree to stay overnight with two strange men in their cabin in the woods and still consider herself a smart person? “I… no, thank you. I’m quite sure you two would rather have your space.”

  Nick chuckled good-naturedly. “Oh, no we don’t live there. Remember, most people who stop in at Rawlins have family to board with. The cabin’s our guest quarters incase family stops by to visit for a while.”