Hope Flames

Page 16

Luke laughed, but then Carter turned the key and the Shelby rumbled to life.
“This one talks back,” Luke said.
Carter grinned. “No, she doesn’t. She purrs, like every woman should.”
Luke shook his head, but couldn’t help admiring the lines of the Shelby. What he wouldn’t give to own something like this. On a cop’s salary, though, it wasn’t likely to happen.
“You could have one,” Carter said, as if he’d just read Luke’s mind.
“Not a chance.”
“Just buy a junker and restore it. I worked a lot of week-ends on this one. She wasn’t perfect when I got her, but she’s an original, and she’s beautiful.”
He swept his hand across the sleek leather seats. “Maybe. Someday.”
“What else do you have to do on your off days?”
What else, indeed?
Carter parked in front of Bert’s, and they went inside and grabbed a seat. Luke ordered coffee and, with not more than a second’s hesitation, one of those cinnamon rolls that Carter was craving.
It didn’t take them long to dive into the food, which they did pretty quietly. Even though Luke had already eaten breakfast, there was no use denying himself a roll. Freshly baked, thick, and slathered with icing. When he was full, he pushed the evidence of his gluttony to the side.
“It’s going to cost me a lot of running time to burn those calories.”
“Worth it, though,” Carter said, taking a sip of coffee.
“Yeah, you’re right. So who was the guy you had to fire?”
“One of the dudes in the body shop. His skills just weren’t up to par.”
“Bodywork is important. You can’t afford to keep someone on who isn’t good.”
“Tell me about it. I’ve gone through three guys in the body shop here in Hope in the past year. I don’t know why I can’t get a good body guy.”
“Maybe you can fill in until you find someone,” Luke teased.
“Yeah, you’re a laugh riot.”
“As I recall, it used to be your specialty. That and rebuilding engines.”
“Sure, in high school. Now I have enough to do just running the stores.”
“You don’t miss getting your hands dirty under the hood of a car?”
Carter grinned. “Who says I don’t get my hands dirty anymore?”
“That manicure and the lack of grease under your nails.”
“Manicure my ass. You’re such a dick, McCormack. I could strip down an engine before you’ve even dragged your lazy ass out of bed in the morning.”
Unfazed, Luke sipped his coffee. “So you say, rich boy. But I still say your hands are too clean to be doing the grunt work.”
Carter signaled for the waitress, who presented him with the check. “Let’s go take a look at your truck.”
Two hours later, Luke and Carter were filthy, staring under the hood of Luke’s truck.
“It’s a fuel injector problem,” Carter explained. “They all seem to be injecting fuel, but not firing properly on all cylinders. I think a couple of them are clogged. You’re getting fuel to all your cylinders, but the number three and number five are running lean, like they’re not getting as much fuel as the rest of them.”
Carter’s formerly white shirt was now covered in grease, and he seemed unconcerned about it. He grabbed a rag and wiped his hands.
Luke nodded. “I thought that might be the issue, but I didn’t have the diagnostics at home.”
“It doesn’t appear to be a problem with getting fire to the injector. The injector is either getting clogged up, or it’s just plain toast. We’ll run some cleaner through it and see if that takes care of it, but I seriously doubt it will. My suggestion is to replace these. That should solve your problem.”
“Sounds good. Try the cleaner, but if that doesn’t work, replace them.”
Carter signaled for one of his mechanics, stating instructions. The guy nodded and walked away.
“Satisfied now that I know what the hell I’m doing?” Carter asked as they both headed to the sink.
“Hell, you always knew what you were doing. I just enjoy giving you shit.”
Carter cocked a grin. “It was fun getting into an engine again. Thanks.”
“My pleasure. Do I get a discount since I helped with the diagnostics?”
“No. You have to pay extra because the diagnostics came from the owner.”
“Now who’s the dick?”
Carter laughed. They headed up to his office to get a soda. Luke sat in the chair and crossed his feet at the ankle.
“So now that you know how I spend my days, tell me about your job. How’s the cop business?”
Luke shrugged. “Keeping me busy enough that I’m not bored.”
“Good enough. Hope’s not really a high-crime kind of town. You still crave the excitement of a big-city police force?”
“Kind of. But I like protecting my hometown. So I’m torn.”
“Understood. How’s the love life?”
Luke snorted. “Don’t have one. And I like it that way.”
“Word on the street is that you’re seeing Emma Burnett.”
“I’d like to know where this ‘word on the street’ shit is coming from.”
Carter smiled. “Oh, you know how it is in a small town. I get my tidbits of gossip here and there. And how is Emma?”
“Gorgeous. Hot. Skittish.”
“Not exactly your type. You much prefer them sexy, available, and not interested in commitment.”
“Well, she is sexy.”
“One out of three isn’t very good odds.”
The one annoying thing about Carter was his persistence, no matter the topic. “I’m also not dating her.”
“But you want to.”
“I don’t want to date anyone. We’re friends.”
Carter snorted. “Luke, you’re not friends with any woman.”
“That’s not true. I’m friends with a lot of women.”
“Sure you are. After you screw their brains out, they stay friendly with you. Not sure how you manage that, but you do. So is that the way it is with you and Emma? You got her into bed, and now you two are . . . friends?”
“No.”
“No, to which part? The getting-her-into-bed, or the you-two-are-friends part?”
Luke didn’t answer the question.
“Huh. Interesting.”
“You’ve got this all wrong. We really are friends. It’s just . . . complicated.”
“Definitely not your kind of woman. Or . . . exactly the kind of woman you need.”
“This coming from a man who hasn’t had a serious relationship since Emma’s little sister Molly in high school.”
A shadow crossed Carter’s face. “That was a long time ago. Molly and I were kids.”
“And I still remember how broken up you were when Molly left. You cared about her.”
“As much as an eighteen-year-old boy could care about someone. I told you. We were kids. It was young love. And it was over a long time ago.”
There was something in his voice, in the way Carter didn’t make direct eye contact with him that told Luke it had been way more than just young love between him and Molly. As a cop, Luke knew how to read body language. And when someone couldn’t look you in the eye when they were talking, that usually meant they were lying. Maybe Carter was still mixed-up over how he felt when Molly had run off. They might have been young, but it didn’t make it hurt any less. And maybe time didn’t heal everything.
Luke and Carter went way back to elementary school. They’d shared a lot of secrets and had been through a lot of shit together. They’d always been honest with each other, but if there were truths being withheld, how Luke felt about Emma was probably one of them.
Hell, even he didn’t know what was going on in his own head about Emma. How could he explain it to his best friend?
Luke stood. “I’m going to head out and let you get some work done.”
“Do you need a ride somewhere?”
“Nah. I need to walk off that cinnamon roll. I’ll hang around town for a bit and run some errands.”
Carter nodded. “We’ll give you a call when your truck is ready.”
He shook Carter’s hand. “Thanks for figuring out the problem.”
Carter grinned as they walked to the front door. “My mechanics could have done that. They’re good at their jobs.”
“Yeah, it’s just your bodywork guys who suck.”
“Smart-ass. I’ll talk to you later.”
It wasn’t often that Luke had a chance to take a stroll around Hope’s main part of town. And he really did need to walk off all the calories he and Carter had taken in at Bert’s. The police station was two blocks away, so he made his way over there and stopped in to see what was going on. The captain on duty gave him a hard time for coming in on his day off. He laughed, but visited for about a half hour, then took off.
Emma’s clinic was another block down the highway. He decided to stop by, surprised when he saw Logan’s truck in the parking lot.
He went inside. Rachel spotted him as soon as he walked through the door.
“Officer Luke. How are you doing?”
“Fine, Rachel. How about you?”
“Great. You don’t have Boomer with you.”
“Off duty today. I was in town doing a few things, so I thought I’d come by. I see my brother is here.”
“He is. With Whip. The poor dog got some wire stuck in him, so Dr. Emma’s taking it out. You can go on back. They’re in room three.”
“Okay, thanks.”
He headed left and down the hall, knocked on the door, and opened it. Logan was sitting in there alone.
“What are you doing here?” Logan asked.
“I saw your truck when I was walking by.”
Logan arched a brow. “Walking?”
“My truck has fuel-injector issues, so it’s over at Carter’s garage.”
“That sucks.”
Luke stepped in and closed the door. “Rachel said Whip got snagged in some wire?”
“Yeah,” Logan said. “We were replacing some fence on the south property, and Whip had come along. While we were puttin’ up the new row, he got tangled in the old fence we’d taken down. I tried to get him untangled, but he got scared and fought me. Some of the discarded pieces got wedged too deep in his skin for me to pull out, so I brought him in here for the doc to take care of him.”
“And how’s that going?”
“Fine, I guess. Doc has Whip in the surgery room now. She said it’s not too bad. He ground some loose pieces fairly deep, but they needed to anesthetize him because he wasn’t too damn happy about having that wire pulled out.”
“I imagine he wasn’t.”
Luke took a seat on the bench next to Logan.
“So . . . fuel injectors, huh?”
“Yeah.” He told Logan about his morning with Carter.
Logan laughed. “Got him to get his hands dirty, anyway. That was a win.”
“True. I don’t imagine Carter has much opportunity to work on cars like he used to.”
“No, now that he’s busy owning all those shops, he has to take care of business. I’ll bet he enjoyed getting under the hood today.”
“Speaking of taking care of business, how come you brought Whip out here yourself? You could have sent one of the hands or had Martha bring him.”
“What? And miss checking out Dr. Emma, the woman who has your balls in a knot?”
Luke rolled his eyes. “She’s not doing anything to my balls.”
“Yeah, that’s why they’re in a knot.”
Logan laughed at his own joke. Luke didn’t find it amusing.
Fortunately, Emma walked in then, sparing him from more of Logan’s awful humor. She looked pretty today with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and her blue scrubs on.
Her brows rose when she saw Luke.
“Oh. Hi, Luke. I didn’t know you were here.”
“I saw Logan’s truck, so I wandered in to see what was up.”
“I see. Day off?”
“Yup.”
She gave him a sweet smile. “How nice for you.”
She turned her attention back to Logan. “Whip’s fine. All the wire is out. He has a few spots that needed stitches, so you’ll have to watch those. I assume you can take those out yourself.”
“Not a problem, Doc.”
“All right. I’m going to send you home with some antibiotics and pain meds, though I doubt he’ll need the pain medication, but just in case. Keep him quiet for a couple days and keep the stitched areas clean.”
Logan stood. “I know the drill, Doc. Thanks.”
“No problem. He’s a really cute dog.”
“Yeah, we kind of like him. So do the other dogs.”
She walked out with him to the reception area. “Do you have a veterinarian for your other dogs? Are they all up on their shots? Have they had a checkup recently?”
Luke loved the way Emma was concerned about Logan’s dogs. From the smirk on his face, so was his brother.
“Dr. Burnett, are you hitting me up to become one of your clients?”
She gave him a grin. “Well, to be honest, I was concerned about your animals. But, yes, I’d love your business. I realize we’re not close to your ranch.”
“You’re close enough. And I like the way you treated Whip. I’ll have Martha, our housekeeper and general keeper of the animals, bring the others by next week for a checkup.”