A Hard Winter's Night

Chapter Five: Naughty or Nice

She was instantly reminded once he turned to meet her eyes. If it were possible for him to even be more intimidating, that unwelcoming frown he held as he moved closer, was off the charts. Did she offend him and didn't pay attention? Linda often put her foot in her mouth at times, but she'd never said more than two words to the guy that she could remember. Maybe it isn't me, she rationalized to herself. Maybe he's like Evan, who just hated people in general. Evan never liked to go out and do parties or anything social. He roamed with his trusted buddies and came home when he was hungry or horny. He tolerated her and Sandy, but that seemed to be about it in hindsight. It was an empty existence that reduced her and her daughter to tools instead of people. Still, with the grumpy mechanic, she smiled and waved, hoping to change his mind about her, whatever that meant. "Hi! My name is Linda and this is my daughter, Sandy." She patted Sandy's head. "Uh, Jimmy's Tow brought us here and was hoping you could look at my truck?"

Winter stood a moment and looked at her and the kid, then over at Jim who waved to him as he pulled away, leaving her truck right at the mouth of the garage entrance. His frown deepened. That asshole never gave him a head's up when he was bringing new business to his garage. They had an agreement to discount each other's services to help refer new customers, and for a while it worked great. But recently, business has been a little too good for Winter and if the lack of space in his garage demonstrated anything, his plate was pretty full. Hell, he still had some Aristans on a waiting list to repair their bikes. Not to mention everyone was getting their vehicles ready for travel during the holidays. "Shit."

Linda scowled at his response. "Excuse me?"

Winter glanced at her. "One second." He loped past the bikes and table and jumped over the railing to sprint to Jimmy, who was already driving away. "Jim! Jim!" But it was too late. Only taillights in view as Winter shook his head. "Fuck me." He turned to look at the truck with some sort of plastic animal jammed underneath the axle and Linda who was standing at the entrance holding herself with a concerned frown waiting for him. He sighed. Great. Now I'm stuck with them. Winter proceeded to walk back to the garage with frustration fueling every step.

"Hey, is everything okay?" She asked watching him barrel towards her. She was freezing and he was out there without a coat or jacket.

"Fine." He glanced up at her as he passed her. "What happened to your vehicle?"

Linda turned and followed behind him, the taps of her boots playing in contrast to the long strides of his gait. "Uh, I accidentally ran over one of Santa's reindeers going to the bookstore and now it's lodged underneath. I couldn't back up or remove it so here we are."

She followed him into the office and stood in front of the counter as he walked behind it.

"Seems quite a large object for you to miss."

Linda folded her arms, her eyes narrowing at his snide comment. Okay, what's this guy's problem? "Like I said, it was an accident."

Winter grunted as he pulled out his clipboard. "Yeah." 

She opened her purse to grab her pocketbook. "Shoot, Jim didn't ask me to pay him. I–"

"You pay him through me. His referral gives you a discount for the tow." He flipped through to find a blank form. Several pages of forms he needed to file since two days ago and with each flip seemed to heighten his angst. He needed a freaking assistant. He looked down to see a wide-eyed little girl with her little hands on the edge of the counter. However, it was her smile that made him look.

Sandy stood on her tip-toes. "What's wrong with all of the motorcycles?"

He looked back to his paperwork. "They're broken."