Chapter Seven

Stan wiped his hands on the rag, then shoved it in his pocket. “We’ve been friends since high school. Do you think I’d cheat you? You really need a new alternator.”

Hayden clenched his teeth. “This is going to be expensive, isn’t it?”

“Let’s define expensive.” Satisfied his hands were clean, Stan pulled the keyboard toward him, typed the password, and called up his estimate calculator. “It’s less expensive than replacing your transmission, and less expensive than if you’d blown a head gasket. The way it’s running, you’re lucky you made it here.”

Hayden sighed again. “I know I don’t have a choice. Go ahead and fix it. Do I get a courtesy car?”

Stan looked through the window of his lobby to the parking lot. This was Bloomfield. Of course he didn’t have courtesy cars. The only vehicle in the lot that didn’t belong to a customer or his mechanics was his pickup.

He turned back to his friend. “Why do you need a courtesy car? You live within walking distance to work.”

“I’ll walk to work.” Hayden’s frown changed to a grin. “But I have a date tonight and I need a car.”

Stan gave his friend a light punch on the shoulder. “Dude.” It was good to see his friend dating. Shortly after they graduated from college Hayden had met Marissa and married her after a whirlwind romance. The quick marriage ended with a quick divorce when Hayden caught Marissa cheating on him. Hayden was a good guy, and he deserved to find a woman as faithful as he was, who would share his life. “Anyone I know?”

Hayden looked out the window, down the street. “Actually, yeah. You know her pretty well.”

Stan ran through a mental list of women Hayden might want to date that he knew well. If he had to think of dateable women, he’d pick a woman with a good sense of humor, someone sensible, honest, trustworthy, and of the same faith. Of course having a good job would help.

So he ran through a mental list of the women their age at church.

The first woman who would be a good one for his friend was Amber.

He imagined Hayden taking Amber out for dinner. He grinned, picturing Amber bartering with Hayden over who got the crust from the home-baked bread that came before the meal. She’d win, obsess about putting too much butter on it and eat it anyway, the whole time complaining about putting ten pounds on her butt. Two minutes later she would take another piece and say she was going to jog around the block when she was finished eating, then not do it. They would laugh at each other’s jokes and have a great time, and Hayden would take her home.

Stan’s smile faltered.

Hayden would want to kiss her good night.

His eyes narrowed. “Who?” he asked, knowing his voice came out clipped, but he didn’t care.

Hayden’s brows arched. “Your cousin Crystal. That’s okay, isn’t it?”

The picture of Amber smiling faded to his cousin’s face, then merged back to Amber. Instead of looking at Hayden, he turned to his computer and called up his inventory list to see if he had the right alternator for Hayden’s car, or if he would have to order it. “She’s a good choice. Crystal’s not seeing anyone right now.” Neither was Amber. Which suited him just fine. Although he didn’t know why the thought of Amber and Hayden together bothered him. Hayden was his best friend, and he wanted to see his best friend happy, especially after his short and unhappy marriage. He also wanted to see Amber happy. He and Amber had been friends since forever, and they’d seen each other through all their low points, as well as their high points.

He waited while Hayden removed his key from his key ring. Stan tagged it, then stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out his own keys. “You can borrow my truck,” he muttered while twisting his key off the ring. “Make sure the gas gauge is in the same place when I get it back tomorrow.”

Hayden accepted the key and attached it to his own ring. “Thanks. I really appreciate this. How are you going to get home tonight? I guess Amber can give you a ride. I hear you two have been spending a lot of time together lately trying to find her gnome. I wonder where he’ll turn up next after the theater, and what he’ll be wearing.”

In Bloomfield news traveled fast, which Stan had always found amusing. Until now.

“I don’t know why this town has a newspaper. Does anyone need to read it?”

Hayden shrugged his shoulders. “Sure. It’s got lots of good stuff in it.”

Including lots of words that were currently being used to make ransom notes that didn’t have a ransom.

One corner of Hayden’s mouth turned up. “They have a contest going at the Gazette to see who guesses the next outfit.”

“Did you enter?”

“Yup. I think next time he’ll be a ninja. Crystal thinks he’ll be a pilot.”

And Stan thought Gnorman should just be a gnome, holding a trophy in Becky’s garden. “You go have a good time with Crystal. I’ll call Amber and see if she can give me a ride.” Maybe once he was home she’d wait while he had a quick shower, and they could go out for supper. Where he’d let her have the crust with all the butter she wanted. And hopefully she would wear her favorite purple sneakers, because this time, before they got back in the car, they were making a trip around the block.

Amber dumped the water out of the spaghetti, set it back on the stove, then nearly jumped out of her skin when Stan appeared beside her.

“What are you doing here?” she gasped as she pressed her hand over her pounding heart.

“I live here. What are you doing?”

She glanced at the clock on Stan’s stove, then back to Stan. For someone who could shower and get dressed in the amount of time it took her to boil a pot of noodles, he looked good. He’d picked a nice pair of dark jeans and a button-down shirt instead of his usual casual evening attire of sweat pants and his favorite holey T-shirt. Not only was he clean and well dressed, but he smelled good too, like some kind of woodsy soap and shampoo.

“I made supper. I can’t believe you’re down here already. Did you even get wet?” Yet, as the words came out of her mouth, she knew he had. She’d heard the water running, and all traces of grease were gone from his skin and hair. If it wasn’t her imagination, he’d also shaved.

He looked good enough to be in a magazine, or on the cover of one of the romance novels she liked to read.

Instead of fantasizing about Stan smiling from the cover of a book, she stirred the sauce and turned off the heat. “Everything is done. How did you get ready so fast?”

“I don’t know why you say that. I also don’t know why it takes women so long to shower and get dressed.”

Amber spun around so fast that her hair flew into her eyes. “How do you know how long it takes a woman to shower?” She stood, pointing at him with the spoon, not caring that a drop of red sauce landed on her sock while she waited to hear who it was that had showered at his house. She just might have to claw the woman’s eyes out.

His eyes widened. “I don’t know. Movies, I guess. I also remember my mother tying up the bathroom. When I was in college I had to get up extra early to shower before her or there was no time, and no hot water.”

She felt herself sag. Kathy was safe.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” He blinked, then walked to the cupboard, took out a couple of plates, and returned to stand beside her.

“Nothing,” Amber mumbled as she piled a couple of helpings of pasta onto the plates Stan held over the stove.

The concept of Stan being so familiar with a woman that she would use his shower nearly made her heart stop. She didn’t like to think of Stan that way, but he was quite a handsome man, and he was out there in the dating universe.

Some women might not have thought that a mechanic was a very glorious profession, but no one knew Stan like she did. He was smart, funny, and a good businessman, even though he wore streaked blue coveralls instead of a three-piece suit. He ran his business at a reasonable profit, but with compassion when he knew someone was faced with a costly repair. He set his standards high, and his customers and his employees all respected him.

He also had his standards for dating set high, waiting for the right woman whom God would one day put in his path.

They never talked specifically about such things when they were together, but the topic of what happened behind closed doors had come up at the single adults group at church. While it had been an embarrassing conversation for the group, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Stan was saving himself for marriage, as was she. Of course, neither of them ever having a longtime serious relationship made it so much easier to stay away from temptation. As for her, she’d never even been inside a man’s house without a group, except for Stan’s, because that didn’t count.

He continued to hold out the plates. “I told you we could go out and it would be my treat,” he muttered while she spooned the sauce on top of the noodles. “You didn’t have to cook.”

“Look at the time. Even though you were fast in the shower, if we went out we’d only be leaving now. Instead, we’re ready to eat.”

He grumbled something she couldn’t hear as he set the plates on the table, then folded his hands on the table and waited.

Amber also folded her hands, but she wasn’t ready to bow her head. “Excuse me? I didn’t hear what you said.”

“I said if we went out we would have had something better than plain old spaghetti.”

“Spaghetti is good. It’s also fast, easy, and inexpensive. Besides, it’s not the weekend.”

“Hayden is taking Crystal out tonight. It’s okay to go out for dinner on a weekday. Everybody’s got to eat.”

She looked down at her spaghetti, trying to imagine Hayden and Crystal together, but she couldn’t. Stranger things had happened. “Good for them, I hope it works. What about us? Are we going to eat?”

His cheeks reddened, which she thought adorable, despite his crabby mood. She’d always thought it was cute that Stan was one of a few men she knew who blushed.

“Sorry.” He cleared his throat and made a short prayer of thanks for their food, but instead of starting to eat, he played with his spaghetti, pushing it around on his plate.

“You look like something’s bothering you, and I doubt it’s about your friend and your cousin.”

He was silent for a few seconds before putting the fork down. “I heard that the Gazette is having a contest about Gnorman and what kind of costume he’ll have on the next time he turns up. That makes me think someone at the newspaper might be behind this.”

Amber’s fork froze an inch from her mouth. “Are you kidding me? Don’t you think it’s a little farfetched that Randy, Bailey, or Jayne would do such a thing?” Although a publicity stunt or conspiracy made to increase circulation was certainly better than the alternative that had been rolling around in her head.

“Think about it. If the contest boosts sales, that will also get more advertising revenue, which is where the big money is.”

Amber lowered her fork. “While entertaining, I don’t think it’s likely. Although we do know that whoever is doing this at least takes the newspaper.”

“That’s no help at all. That’s pretty much the entire population of Bloomfield. Like you said, it’s probably someone in the garden club.”

She didn’t want to think that, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t know what she’d done to make someone want to get her kicked out in disgrace, yet it was happening. Only no one knew she would lose more than just her membership.

She raised her head to make eye contact as she spoke. “I know we’re starting to get desperate for a real clue, but I don’t think it could be any of them. I don’t think anyone else who works at the Gazette is in the garden club, so that’s a dead lead.”

“The other day you made a comment about someone wanting you out of the garden club and it’s really bothering me. Why do you think someone would do that to you?”

“Because I can’t even grow vegetables, never mind flowers. I don’t belong in the garden club.”

“You’ve got a nice enough garden that meets minimum standards, and everyone likes you.”

“No, there’s someone who very obviously doesn’t like me.”

He sighed. “I don’t think that—”

The ringing phone interrupted Stan’s words. He shifted in his chair, pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, greeted the caller, and turned to Amber. “Yes, she’s here.”

Amber froze as she watched Stan nodding while the other person talked. “We’ll be right there.” He flipped the phone shut, returned it to his pocket, and stood. “That was Tucker. Tonight he’s on duty instead of Bubba.” Stan grinned. “I’m on his speed-dial in case something goes wrong with the police car. Anyway, he was doing his rounds and he says there’s an envelope stuck in the door of your store. If we get it now instead of morning, maybe if we get to where it says Gnorman is going to be, and if they’re still there, we’ll catch them in the act.”

That was a lot of “ifs” but it didn’t matter. Amber stood so fast she nearly knocked her plate off the table. “Let’s go. And this time, I’m driving.”