Chapter Ten
Shiny, iridescent silver. Chrome bumpers. Extended cab. Riveted tire wells. My God, Heather Carvalho’s perfect new truck was a guy’s wet dream.
Tyler glanced at his men who had all trickled over from the farm to the front porch at the sight of the forty-thousand-dollar toy being lowered off a flatbed, as if hopeful dogs smelling brisket in the smoker. He walked a slow circle around the truck, leaning in the open driver window. He inhaled. It had that new truck smell. Smooth leather seats. An entire console of gadgets, back-up cam. His farm trucks were state-of-the-art. Blue Rocket was his baby. Tyler loved trucks and kept his mint. But nothing beat the feel of new rubber beneath one’s accelerator.
“Gonna irrigate the fields with all that drool, Thaddeus?” Tyler ribbed as he came around the tailgate to stand with his guys.
T.R. scoffed and dabbed at Tyler’s mouth with an imaginary napkin. “Hey, look at pot talkin’ at kettle while he drools an ocean on his boots—”
Tyler swatted his hand out of his face while his farmhands laughed, and he walked over to the dealership rep. “How many miles this truck got?”
The kid—barely old enough to shave, Tyler snorted—checked his paperwork. “Eight, from a test drive.”
Tyler leaned down to Heather’s ear as she signed a stack of papers without reading the contractual words, which made the lawyer in him cringe and grit his teeth. “Hear that? Someone else test-drove it and didn’t like it enough to buy. It might have problems.”
Heather twisted a grin into submission, but she didn’t give him the satisfaction of her attention as she continued to sign. What was she grinning about? Flipped the page. Kept signing.
“I assure you, sir, it’s in great shape,” the rep said.
“What kinda warranty does this beast have?” he pressed, folding his arms.
Heather nudged him. Like the pillar he was, he didn’t budge, just let her shoulder glance off him.
“Three year limited or 36k, whichever she hits first,” the guy replied.
“Bumper to bumper? Or y’all got a bunch of loopholes?”
At this, Heather flashed him an unreadable look, though her mouth was still twisted as if suppressing a smile. “Geez, Dad,” she muttered.
T.R. coughed, “You have no idea, Heart. Lawyer to the bone.”
She giggled under her breath. “Good one, T. rex.”
T. rex? What the hell? Was she flirting with his cousin? How did she know his middle name? And judging by the stupid smile spreading across Thad’s face, his foreman was eating it up. She returned to her signing. Flashed those coy amber depths at him again. His muscles twitched beneath the perusal.
Tyler shook his head. The kid in his dealership polo and kakis glanced between them nervously.
“She’s covered bumper to bumper, sir, and gets five years of free standard maintenance. We normally give three years, but she, well, we gave her five.”
He quirked a brow. Why was that? Had she flirted up Mr. Barely Legal here, too, to get perks? And why did the thought irritate so much? “She get a shit APR or you guys treatin’ her right?” Tyler pressed.
Heather glanced up from the clipboard again and shook her head at him. “You can’t help yourself, can you?”
He grunted. “I do spreadsheets, girl. You do impulse buys on the internet.”
Her smile widened. Softened. Teasing a smile from his own lips as she licked hers like she wanted to laugh or retort. She’d heard his joke. She better mark her calendar because he didn’t crack them often.
“She paid in full. That’s why we gave her two extra years of maintenance. As a perk,” the man-boy replied.
Paid in full? She had that sort of cash just sitting around? She had said she was a boarding school brat…
She scrawled her signature on the dealership’s final page and smiled brightly at the rep.
“Thanks, Heart. Enjoy your truck,” the rep said.
The guy was on a first-name basis with her, too? What next? Would she break out some nickname for him and make him blush? Because while he hated nicknames, she seemed to love them.
Yet she didn’t. She pushed a wild strand of mahogany hair out of her face that the breeze seemed determined to tangle, eying him. In fact, she’d only eyed him this whole time. His twitches of irritation settled a degree. The guy jumped back in the flatbed and the rattling diesel knocked into fast vibrations as he drove around the barnyard loop and back down the road to the main gate.