On Tenterhooks (2 page)

Chapter
2

Steve had gone into the technology field so that he could maintain a safe distance
.
He used a wall of technical jargon, certifications and computer servers to insulate himself from any deep friendships with co-workers. The entire bank relied upon his ability to install, maintain and repair hardware systems.
He had a casual demeanor and was able to keep up with friendly conversation, but his
skills kept others at a safe and revering distance
.
He honed his talents as a skeptical, detached mechanical mind and found this useful for both his profession and his life, until he met Julie.

They had met
nearly a decade
before
her
accident
.
He
was at his desk when he received the simple phone call that would lead to
their
shared
life
.

“Mr. Connor, good morning! This is Julie Todd from
Cautela
Insurance.”

“
Oh, hi
.
Good
morning
!
”
He heard the wind fuzzing through her phone
.

“Sorry for the noise
.
I didn’t realize how windy it was out here
!
I should
have made the call before I got out of the car.”

“Not a problem
.
Are you here?”
He opened his drawer and took out his keys and sunglasses.

“Ye
s
, standing in front of your banged
-
up Jeep
.
What a shame! Do you have a few minutes to come out and review the damage with me?”

“Be right there.”
He locked his computer and left his office.

When he reached the parking lot
outside the bank building
, he found her crouched next
to
the front wheel well of his Jeep Wrangler, penlight and clipboard in hand, as she inspected the damage. Her cream-colored suit jacket hung casua
lly off the side mirror of
the car
.

“Knock, knock,” he said, rapping on the tailgate.

She smiled and stood up to greet him
,
“Mr. Connor?”
S
he approached him, hand outstretched
.
Slender fingers tipped with cherry red polish. He liked
the look
.

“Steve, please,” he shook her hand, delighted in the warm strength of her grip.

“Julie Todd. Thank you for meeting me out here.”

She had a gleaming Julia Roberts smile. Her hair was
strawberry
blond, short
.
Long enough to cover her face
,
but not long enough to stay behind her ears as the wind gusted around them.

Wow. Gorgeous.

“No, it’s uh, not a pr
oblem, really,” he stumbled. “I’m here. I mean, I’m
happy to be here.”

“Great! I’ll just be a few moments.”  She smiled again and turned back to her work.

“Okay, I’ll just
uh, yeah, stay out of the way, back here.
”

Julie
put her clipboard on the pavement and bent down, running her hands along the damaged
quarter panel
.
The
warm
wind rippled the blouse across her back
in tiny
red
waves of silk
.
Steve admired her
long,
tan limbs and the summer freckles on her bare shoulders.

“
Yeah
, some schmo sideswiped me on the way to work yesterday.
”
He picked nervously at the grooves in the spare tire mounted on the back of
his
Jeep.
“
A
cted like it was
my
fault he drifted into my lane.”

“Yep, well, that’s why we’re her
e,” she said over her shoulder
to him. “But the police issued him a citation
,
and I don’t expect his insurance agency will give us any trouble.
I’m just glad nobody was hurt
.
I’ve seen some bad ones lately.
”

Steve nodded
, even though she was looking at the
paint damage
and not
him
.

“
So if you’ve got
my
damage report
, and the police report, how come you needed to
come out here
instead of just having me take it to a garage?
”

“
Well
, we like to see the damage in person,” she replied
, as
she
moved around the perimeter of his Jeep
.
She rubbed at a scratch in its red paint with her thumb
.
“It’s not that we don’t trust the police, but they don’t specialize in damage assessment like we do
.
We aim to be thorough,” she
smiled
.

“Ah, okay, well I am glad they sent
you
.”
His words were stumbling and awkward
, even to him
.
Suddenly,
he was thirteen
again
, a pudgy wallflower at the school dance
, c
onfused and terrified by
,
yet utterly drawn to
,
members of the opposite sex.

“Me too,” she laughed
,
relieving
his fears with another
glowing
smile
.
Now behind the rear bumper, she exclaimed,
“Wow, this is great!
  We don’t see very many of the extended cabs
.
I’ve always been fond of these, even though they don’t seem to be very popular
.
Do you notice any difference when you take it off road?”

“
Um,
I don’t know
.
I’ve
never taken it off road
.
The only time I’ve even put it in four-wheel drive is when it snowed last year.”

“Really?
I gave up my old CJ7 when I took this job.
”

She shook her head and jerked her thumb toward her
standard-issue
white
Cautela
-owned
sedan
parked a few spaces away in the next row
.

“I was way too quick giving up something that I
loved .
.
. didn’t
know it ‘til it was gone, though,” she said. “Big mistake.”

“Anyway, d
on’t you ever have the urge to put the dog in the back and go crazy in a mud pit?” she asked.

She
stepped out of her
he
els and hiked her skirt
up
above the knees
.
She kneeled, bare knees on the
pavement
,
as she looked under the tailgate of the Jeep.
Steve’s eyes moved down to the
small
muscles
in her slender legs and the shape of her skirt over her curves, as she inspected
for damage
.
His
mind turboed, searching
for anything to keep the conversation going.

“Um, nope
.
Don’t have the d
og or the desire,” he replied.
Lame
.

“Then why’d you get the model with all this room
?” she asked
, standing back up
.
She wiped the road grit off her bare knees
and feet
as she
stepped back into her
heels
.

“I’m
a
network engineer
.
I like t
o take
hardware
home with me
sometimes
.
Kind
a
a
hobby
,
I guess.”

Julie nodded
.
“I ge
t it
.
Computer geek
.
No offense.
”

“None taken,” Steve replied.

“
Well, there’s no obvious damage to the frame or the suspension.
Any problems with alignment, braking?
Noticed anything like that
?” She picked her clipboard up off the asphalt.

“
Nope. Seems to be cosmetic only, but
just
that is driving me crazy
.
Does that make me shallow?”

He scored a
nother thousand-
watt smile.

“
No, n
ot at all. My guess is that you’re a man
who
takes good care of the things he loves and hates to see them hurt.”

“Um, yeah
, I guess that’s about right,” he
managed
. They stared
at each other
, smi
ling across the quirky silence.
He watched her slide her
bare
arms back into her suit jacket.

“Well
,
I guess that’s about it
.
T
he police did a pretty accurate job of
it
.
They were only off by about $200.”

“Okay, so now what?” Steve asked
.
“I am kind of embarrassed to be driving around with the quarter-panel all banged up like that.”

“Understood
.
I’ll file
this
today
,
and
make sure
the body shop call
s
you to schedule an appointment
.
They were busy when I talked to them this morning, but I’ll try to get them to fit you in during the next week or so
?
”

“Okay,
great.”

“Mr. Connor
—
oops, sorry
—S
teve,
it was my pleasure assisting you today,” Julie said, extending her arm again for another firm handshake.

“Thanks again for your help
.”

“You’re very welcome,” she said, turning to go.

Steve star
ed after her
.

Say something. Say anything!

“Hey
Julie
,”
he
called
.
She
turned.
The
warm summer breeze
blew across the lot. She
brushed
her hair
out of her face
.
He wanted to
reach out and push
the
stray
hair
behind her ear
.

“
Um, w
hen the Jeep is fixed and the case is closed, how about we try out
my
four-w
heel drive?”
he asked
.