Page 12 of Her Hidden Smile

“Why, are you planning on getting hurt?” she teased.

I barked out a laugh.

“Are you teasing me, Miss Millie?”

“I was, wasn’t I?” She sounded bemused.

How adorable.

“I just like the thought of you being protected,” I explained.

I heard her huff of laughter and smiled.

“Hopefully I’ll have the paperwork completed before the first student arrives,” she said. “How much time do I have?”

“Now? About an hour and a half.”

“Okay, I’m on it. Talk to you soon.”

I smiled. “Bye.”

“Bye.” She hung up. I knew the OCD woman was probably already at her computer, just waiting for me to get off the phone so she could start working on the waiver. I shook my head, still smiling.

I turned back to the barn.

“Shit.”

I pressed in her number again.

I definitely heard a smile in her voice when she answered. I wondered if I would actually see one on her face. “You need the keys, right?”

“You’re a mind reader,” I answered.

“Yep. I’ll leave them outside the door.”

“You’re not going to hand them to me?”

“I’ve got a waiver to write.”

Damn. I felt disappointed.

“Okay, be right there.”

I jogged over to the house where the gate was open again. I found a keyring taped to her front door, with two keys. The ring was meticulously notated cherry pickers. The keys had numbers written in indelible ink, one and two. Yep, definitely OCD. I needed to introduce her to Angelica. Maybe she could teach my sister a thing or two.

I was in the barn when I noticed that one picker had a number one stenciled on the side, the other a number two.

“Of course.” I rolled my eyes.

I grinned as I used the key with the number one to start up the number one picker. I looked at the manual transmission and laughed. I wondered what college kid knew how to drive a stick shift.

I got her going and was pleasantly surprised when I wasn’t inhaling the perfume of diesel smoke. Yep, Millie had definitely gone top of the line. Maneuvering the vehicle out of the barn was a breeze.

For me.

But I’d been dealing with every kind of construction equipment out there. Hell, I’d even worked with the world’s most MacGyvered excavator known to mankind. The guys and I were trying to repair it with a few rubber bands and some barbed wire because we couldn’t find baling wire or duct tape. It wasn’t doing the job until Gus pulled out his Fixodent to keep his dentures in place. Damned if that didn’t do the trick.

Yep, there was no way I was letting any of the students drive this thing. I got out of the cockpit and examined the basket. I liked the harness set-up. No matter how far someone leaned out, there was no way they would fall to the ground, as long as they were harnessed in properly. And I’d see to that.