Page 33 of Daddy’s Fortitude

He gaped in shock as he saw that it was Aimee. What the hell was she doing here? And why was she driving a forklift? Then he noticed that she seemed to be wearing a uniform. Did she work here? Was this her main job?

Clearly he should have asked her more questions yesterday.

She had a pallet of something on the forklift, which she drove over toward a waiting truck, setting it on there before backing up.

Then she turned the forklift around and started driving back toward him.

That’s when she seemed to spot him. Her mouth dropped open as she gaped at him. “Ammo, what are you doing here?”

The forklift must be electric it was so quiet.

“I came here to get some equipment to take care of your yard.”

“You don’t need to take care of my yard. I’ll take care of my yard,” she told him as she continued to drive toward him. Was she going to actually stop?

“No, I’ll take care of the yard.” Even though she clearly had access to all of the equipment that she might need, she didn’t seem to have the time or energy to do it.

“No, you will not,” she said.

He started walking toward the equipment rental part of the building, ignoring her. She didn’t have a say in what he did.

All right, so it was technically her yard, but he was the guy who was here to look after her, and that included taking care of any landscape responsibilities.

“Wait. Hey, come back here!”

There was a loud screeching noise, and he froze.

“Oh, no. Oh my God. I can’t believe I just did that.”

Ammo took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.

It was just a truck. It was just a truck.

Turning, he looked at his truck, which now had a long, thick scratch along the side of it, from where she must have turned the forklift around without making sure there was enough room.

She was out of the forklift and staring at the scratch in horror, and then she turned that gaze on him.

“Ammo. I’m so sorry.”

It’s just a truck.

12

“I’m so sorry,” Aimee said as she stared at Ammo’s truck in dismay. She couldn’t believe she’d just done that. Why hadn’t she been paying more attention?

She was a better driver than that. Well, she’d become a better driver after she had forgotten to engage the handbrake that one time.

“I’ll pay to fix it, I promise.” She had no idea how she was going to manage that, but she’d figure out a way, because that’s what you did when you break something. You did your best to fix it, right?

Even if you were completely broke and couldn’t afford to.

“Oh, hell.”

Aimee glanced over to see her best friend standing there with her hands on her hips. Her long blonde hair was caught up in a high ponytail, and she was wearing a Beau’s Outdoor Spectacular Emporium T-shirt the same as Aimee.

The name of the place was kind of ridiculous. An emporium? What even was that? But Kirsten’s grandfather had named it years ago. And when Kirsten had tried to change it, there had been a huge uproar from her customer base. Which didn’t include just the population of Greasy Knob, but went further afield to several more towns in the area.

When Kirsten had taken over the Emporium, she’d faced a lot of criticism and disbelief because she was a woman. Which had made Aimee mad. Kirsten knew her stuff better than anyone else. Gradually people had come to realize that.