A Touch of Romance

by Kimberly Rae Jordan

  “Yeah, but they said it would be an hour or so before they could get here.”

  “Okay. Let me check something. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

  “What do—” Before she could finish her sentence, the call ended.

  She stared at the phone for a moment before shaking her head. While she waited for Mitch to call back, Belle took a drink from the bottle of water she’d bought at a convenience store earlier. She wished she’d also picked up a chocolate bar or a bag of chips. Right now, junk food seemed like a good way to distract herself from the problems at hand.

  When the phone rang again, she didn’t even check the display before answering it.

  “Okay. I’ve contacted a friend who has a garage, and he’s sending out his tow truck. I’m not sure if it will be Finn who’ll be driving the truck or not, but they’ll take your car back to their garage to repair it.”

  Though Belle usually rebelled against anyone taking over the way Mitch was, in this particular situation, she was relieved. Weddings. Dresses. Venues. She could handle all those. Broken down cars? Not so much.

  “He’s good? You trust him?” Belle asked. She hadn’t dealt with many mechanics in her day, but the few she had interacted with hadn’t left a very good taste in her mouth. She’d gotten to the point where she usually had Jon help her with car troubles if he had the time. Unfortunately, he was out of town at the moment.

  “Yes. He’s the best. We take all our vehicles to him. In addition to being a great mechanic, he’s also a family friend. And he uses his garage as an outreach. If people need work on their vehicle but don’t have the money to pay for it, Finn will do the work for free. We pay to have him work on our vehicles knowing that what he makes off of us enables him to keep the business open.” Mitch paused. “Oh. By the way, I’m headed over to pick you up once the tow truck has loaded your vehicle. I can take you to wherever you need to be.”

  Belle felt a rush of relief. It wasn’t that she couldn’t have found her own way back to the office, but it felt nice to have someone help her out. It was a relief to have a friend who was available to give her a hand.

  While she waited for Mitch and the tow truck, Belle called the CAA and let them know she didn’t need their services anymore. Then she spent the next twenty minutes scrolling through her phone, looking at the social media that she usually didn’t pay too much attention to. Out of curiosity, she checked to see if Mitch had a Facebook account, and when she found that he did, she sent him a friend request. That was what friends did, wasn’t it?

  She didn’t have a lot of friends on her account. Many of them she hadn’t seen in person in a very long time. She mostly had the account so that she could monitor the Facebook page for the business. Every once in a while, she scrolled through her timeline, taking in all the updates and pictures of the lives her friends were building.

  What exactly did she have to post about? She supposed she could have posted something from their time at the ballpark last Saturday, but it hadn’t really occurred to her to take pictures. Not that she hadn’t enjoyed her time there. She’d had fun hanging out with her sisters and the others. Gabe and Mitch had kept up a funny running commentary comparing baseball to hockey and football. It seemed that those were their preferred sports.

  But they’d indulged in the snacks from the concessions and had cheered the home team on to victory. All in all, it had been a fun evening. After the day she’d had on Saturday, the evening out had been a welcome distraction. She hoped that it would be something they could do again.

  A knock on her window made her jump, and Belle turned to see Mitch bent down with his arm resting on the roof of her car. She quickly opened the door so that she could talk to him.

  “Want to get out and come sit in my truck? It might be a bit cooler.”

  Belle nodded. She hadn’t been able to lower the windows on her car once it had died, and it had been getting warm. After grabbing her purse and briefcase, she got out.

  “Anything else you need from the car?” Mitch asked as he stood close to the vehicle, away from the traffic whizzing by them.

  “Just my hard hat,” Belle said. “It’s in the trunk.”

  He gave her a quick smile and held out his hand for her keys. She dropped them in his palm then walked with him to the back of the car. After he opened the trunk, he leaned in and pulled out the hard hat. He tucked it under his arm and nodded his head toward his truck that was parked behind hers, still running.

  When he opened the passenger side door, Belle reached to grab the handle and haul herself up onto the seat. A wave of cool air greeted her, and she sighed in relief.

  “Thanks,” she said as Mitch climbed behind the wheel of the truck. “I appreciate the rescue.”

  “Anytime.” He gave her a quick smile as he glanced at her before looking out the windshield of the truck. “That’s what friends are for.”

  His words unsettled Belle’s stomach for some reason. “I guess so. Still, thank you. I hope I didn’t take you away from anything.”

  “Nothing I can’t do a bit later. I was just leaving your reno heading for another job site. I can go there when I drop you off.” He looked at her again. “Do you know where you want me to take you?”

  “Do I need to go to the garage to talk to them?”

  “No. Finn will figure out what’s wrong with your car and then contact you to let you know the cost of the repair.”

  “In that case, I guess you can just drop me back at Belles & Beaus. I’ll get Jasmine to give me a ride home or to a car rental place after work.”

  Before he could do more than nod, a large tow truck passed them and came to a stop in front of her car.

  “That’ll be them,” Mitch said as he opened his door.

  Belle got out as well and followed him to speak to the tow truck driver. The man held out his hand to Mitch as they neared, a friendly look on his face.

  “Hey, Finn. Good to see you again,” Mitch said as he shook hands with him. “This is Belle Jacobs.”

  “Nice to meet you,” the man said, his words slightly accented. “I’m Finn Kinnaird. I hear you’re having some car problems.”

  Belle nodded. “It just died. Well, it started losing power and then when I pulled over and stopped, it died completely and wouldn’t start up again.”

  “Okay. We’ll see what we can find and let you know.”

  “I really appreciate that,” Belle said, meaning every word of it. Just knowing she didn’t have to worry about trusting the person who would be working on her car was a big relief. If all her problems were as easily dealt with, she’d have significantly less stress in her life.

  Another man had gotten out and was working to get the car hooked up to the tow truck. Finn and Mitch walked over to him, and between the three men, they made quick work of getting the hook-up finished. Belle hated the sight of her car being towed away, but at least she wasn’t stranded now, having to find her own way back to the office.

  Mitch joined her on the sidewalk, his hand coming to rest lightly on her back for a moment. “Let’s head to the boutique.”

  “Thank you again for the rescue,” Belle said as Mitch accelerated into the early afternoon traffic.

  “You’re welcome. I’m just glad I was available to help you out.” He glanced over at her. “Have you had lunch?”

  Belle had been planning to grab something on the way back to the office, but of course, her car hadn’t done anything smart like breaking down right in front of someplace where she could have gotten some food while she waited.

  “No, I haven’t had lunch yet.”

  “Want me to swing by somewhere so you can grab something. I don’t really have the time for a sit-down meal, but I haven’t had lunch yet either.”

  “I was just going to go through Tim’s drive-thru and get a sandwich,” Belle said.

  “Sounds good to me.”

  It didn’t take them long to get through the drive-thru since the lunch rush had already passed. Th
ey’d each ended up with a sandwich meal which had, thankfully, included a donut. It was just the treat Belle needed to soothe the last of her jangled nerves over the car situation.

  When they got to the shop, Belle slid her purse strap over her shoulder then put the bags containing her sandwich and donut into the hard hat. After she got out of the truck, Mitch held out the large coffee she’d ordered. With a smile, she took it from him.

  “It was nice seeing you again.”

  “You, too. Hope the rest of your day goes more smoothly,” Mitch said, his broad smile revealing the small indentation of dimples that were almost obscured by the scruff on his cheeks. He really was an attractive man, which wasn’t something she should be noticing about a friend.

  “Hope you have a good day too. See you soon.” She stepped back and shut the door, wondering when she might see him again. Even going to the new shop didn’t guarantee she’d run into him.

  Once inside the building, Belle tried to put aside her thoughts about Mitch and focus on her job. Since Jasmine was already mid-meeting with the bridal consultation, Belle chose to go straight to her office to eat her lunch. As she sat at her desk eating, she logged onto her computer and began to compile the vendor confirmations she’d need to be dealing with that week. She only had one wedding on the weekend, but it was a big one that included the rehearsal on Thursday evening.

  She smiled as she glanced over her schedule and saw that she had a meeting with Maya on Thursday afternoon. It wasn’t often—or at all, really—that she became friends with a bride she was working with. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the brides who hired her, but she did prefer to keep things professional if she could. It just made things easier when there were payments due or if problems arose.

  Maya was the exception. It appeared that the whole family was an exception. She certainly hadn’t envisioned making friends with whoever she’d hired to do the renovations either. Not that she was complaining. It was about time she had a few more friends. Not too many though. Her schedule couldn’t handle a sudden influx of people she’d have to make time for.

  Mitch pulled into the parking lot of Finn’s garage then got out. He thought he’d see if Finn had pin-pointed the problem with Belle’s car before he headed home.

  “Twice in one day,” Finn said with a grin as Mitch stepped into the office. “Must be love.”

  “What?” Mitch felt heat rising in his cheeks and hoped that he had enough tan to keep it from showing.

  “You’re helping out a lovely lass.” Finn gave him a wink. “I know all about that.”

  “We’re just friends,” Mitch told him, putting as much conviction as he could into the words.

  Finn clapped him on the shoulder. “Well, that is an excellent place to start.”

  Mitch sighed. “I just thought I’d see how you were getting on with the car. Maybe give her a report.”

  Either he’d decided to stop the kidding or postpone it until later because, instead of pursuing the teasing, Finn just nodded in the direction of the garage and led him out of the office. There wasn’t much noise since it was the end of the day, but the air was heavy with the scent of oil and rubber.

  Mitch listened as Finn explained what they’d discovered so far about the car. Though Mitch knew a lot about building houses, he didn’t know all that much about vehicles. Most the terms Finn used were foreign to him. And he suspected they would be to Belle as well.

  “So what’s the bottom line?” Mitch asked. “In layman’s terms.”

  “Bottom line is that it’s repairable, and she should have her car back by the end of tomorrow. It’s also not a terribly expensive fix, so she shouldn’t worry about that.”

  Mitch was glad to hear that and knew that Belle would be too.

  “Do you want to call her?” Finn asked. “Or should I?”

  Mitch had a quick internal conversation before saying, “Probably you should since you can tell her the cost of the repair.”

  Finn gave him a quick grin, a twinkle in his eyes. “Oh, I can give you that information if you’d like.”

  Mitch shook his head. “That’s between you and her. I don’t want to get involved in that.”

  This time, Finn chuckled. “As you wish.”

  It wasn’t exactly what Mitch wished, but it was for the best. “Thanks for fitting her in.”

  “Anything for a friend,” Finn said as he lifted his hand.

  Mitch returned the wave then left the garage. He debated going to the family home, but he had been there the day before, so he chose to head home, making a quick stop to pick up a few groceries.

  His phone rang as he walked into his apartment. When he saw Tristan’s name on the screen, he answered right away.

  “Up for some company, bro?” Tristan asked.

  “Sure. What do you want for supper? I was just going to have some soup, but we can order in if you want.”

  “How about I pick something up?” Tristan suggested.

  Once they’d sorted out the food, Mitch went to take a quick shower to wash away the grime from the day. Having Tristan around, playing some video games for awhile would be the perfect distraction. God knew he needed that.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  When Maya showed up alone for their meeting later that week, Belle was a bit surprised. Usually, either her mom or Gabe came with her—sometimes both—but this time it was just the bride.

  “We managed to finalize the wording for the invitations, and I overrode everyone’s opinion on the font for the napkins.” Maya grinned. “So we’re good to go with that.”

  “I’m glad you got that decision made since the invitations need to go out sooner rather than later. You’re on a tighter timeline than most brides.”

  Maya gave her a rueful look. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”

  “It’s not a problem, but we just can’t delay on too many things.”

  After Belle made a note of the latest decisions, they discussed what still needed to be done. Belle was happy that things went so smoothly and quickly, since usually when Maya’s mother and Gabe were present, the conversation was a lot more chaotic which ate up a lot of her time.

  “Have you already got your own wedding all planned out?” Maya asked once the discussion about her wedding was over.

  Belle looked at her then shook her head. “No. Can’t say that I have.”

  Maya’s eyebrows rose. “You haven’t? I would have thought you’d have it all planned already.”

  “As a teen, I used to think about it, but now I have no intention of getting married, so I haven’t thought much about it. It’s enough that I get to plan weddings for all the brides who come to me.”

  “Not get married? Why not?” Maya sat back in her chair, a chastened expression on her face. “Sorry. That’s not really any of my business.”

  Belle gave her a gentle smile. “You do realize, of course, that it’s not the goal of every woman to land a husband.”

  “Yeah. I know,” Maya said with a sigh. “It’s just that since finding love with Gabe, I kind of want everyone to experience the same thing.”

  “I get that,” Belle told her. “But not everyone’s experience with love is the same. Some of us have been burned by it in the past and have no desire to repeat the experience.”

  “Maybe it was just the wrong man,” Maya said. “With the right man…”

  Maya’s words trailed off as Belle began to shake her head. With another small smile at Maya, because she didn’t want to upset or offend her, Belle said, “I’m happy, Maya. I don’t need a man in my life to make me happier. Friends. Family. My work. It’s enough.”

  The other woman’s brows drew together as she frowned. “I really do hope you’re happy. I kinda want all the people I like to be happy.”

  “I’m happy. Don’t worry about me.”

  “I’ll try not to,” Maya said.

  “Let’s just focus on getting you married so you can be with the man you love every single day.”

  “I am c
ompletely on board with that,” Maya agreed, a smile curving her lips.

  Once the meeting was finished, Maya left, and Belle returned to her office. It was the last appointment for the day, so she kicked off her shoes and took off her suit jacket. Feeling more comfortable, she was able to focus on the list she’d been working through for the vendors. It was something to keep her mind off her conversation with Maya, and the fact that her words didn’t ring quite as true as they had in the past. Maya wasn’t the first one to ask that question—and she likely wouldn’t be the last.

  An alert on her phone reminded her that she’d have to leave right at five-thirty as she had the rehearsal to attend at six. Then she could go home. Her favorite part of a busy day. Thankfully, she’d gotten her car back the day before so she could move around freely without having to rely on anyone else. It always felt like she was inconveniencing people when she had to beg for rides.

  Even with Mitch. For some reason, she still couldn’t believe that he didn’t mind coming to help her out. But even if she did believe it, that didn’t mean she’d be calling on him for any more help. Or that she’d read anything more into his willingness to help than a friend helping a friend.

  “I didn’t really believe you,” Maya said from where she sat across the table from Mitch.

  Several of them were meeting for dinner before going to a movie, but so far it was just him, Gabe, Maya, and Tristan. Kenton and Avery would be arriving soon, but Bennett, Grace, Makayla, and Ethan planned to meet them at the theater. They didn’t like to leave the babies for too long even though they seemed to trust Ethan’s sister, Sierra, and Mitch’s sister, Danica, to watch them.

  “Believe me about what?” Mitch asked.

  “That Belle wasn’t interested in getting married. I really thought you’d just misread her.”

  “Oh? How did you find this out?” Mitch really didn’t need confirmation that what Belle had said to him was true. She’d seemed quite convincing when she’d told him herself.

  “I asked her if she’d planned her wedding out already, and she said no, that she didn’t plan to get married.”