Page 14 of Katie's Highlander (Highland Protector 3)
Katie smiled and shook her head. “It wasn’t his fault that I didn’t eat. I’ve never been much of a breakfast person. But I did enjoy some coffee before I left. I figured I’d grab something at the café after I find out about my car—it’s kind of taking them a while to get back here with it.” She glanced at her phone. “We’ll be having supper instead of lunch if they take much longer. You’re welcome to come along but I don’t want to disrupt your schedule any more than I already have. I’m sure you’ve got park stuff to do. Your whole family sounds pretty busy from what I heard them talking about this morning.”
She’d disrupted far more than his schedule but he didna think it prudent t’say so.Ramsay pushed away that thought as James Abernathy pulled up in front of the shop with Katie’s car, or what was left of it, secured with several wide black straps to a flatbed trailer hitched to the back of the wrecker. By the light of the sunny day and safely mounted on the waist-high trailer, the tiny car looked to be in a great deal worse condition than it had the night before.
“Holy shit.” Katie slowly rose to her feet, pulling off her sunglasses in the process. “Holy shit!” she repeated quite a bit louder as she walked toward her car.
The lass was right. The car looked t’be ready for the scrap heap.
“Mornin’ Ramsay!” James exited from the wrecker, slammed the faded and scratched truck door closed, and strode back to the trailer. Propping an elbow on the edge of the trailer’s metal railing surrounding the car, he shook his head. “Don’t look too good, does it?”
Ramsay glanced at Katie’s expression and his heart went out to the lass. “Nay, it does not but I’m sure between you and yer father, ye’ll have it repaired in no time, aye?” This was a perfect example why horses were much better when it came to reliable transportation.
Katie hadn’t spoken again by the time the elder Abernathy joined them at the curb. She just stood there staring at her car.
Gordon Abernathy grabbed the bill of his grease-stained ball cap, slowly pulled it off his head, and scratched at his receding hairline. “Damn.”
Damndidna even begin t’cover the description of the damage as far as Ramsay was concerned.
The windows that weren’t missing completely were shattered and dangling in place in jagged curtains of broken glass. Metal was bent, dented, and scratched. Chunks of mud, leaves, and grass were sticking out of crevices and tears that a car shouldn’t have. The dark interior looked as though it had been blast-coated with white powder and the deflated airbags fluttered limply from the dashboard and the steering wheel. All the tires, the three that were still attached to the car, were flat and the left rear wheel listed at a sickly angle. Plain and simple, if Katie’s car were a horse, the poor thing would have to be put it out of its misery.
Katie stood with one hand flattened against her cheek, her mouth slightly ajar, and her unblinking gaze glued to the wreckage. She finally dropped her hand to her side and slowly shook her head. She turned to Ramsay, her look of bewilderment and loss making him want to pull her into his arms and make all this sorry business go away.
“It didn’t look that bad last night.” She pointed a shaking finger at the wreck. “Did you think it looked that bad last night?”
“Nay, lass.” Ramsay ached to offer some bit of comfort, but he wasna all too certain how t’go about it. Katie’s face was getting redder by the minute and Ramsay’s survival instincts warned there was an emotional explosion well on its way. “But I’m certain Gordon and his son can make it good as new.” He turned to them. “Aye, men? Ye can repair the lass’s auto and make it right, aye?”
James hefted his tall lanky frame up onto the trailer beside the auto, shuffling around it as he alternately wiggled and poked at the bent pieces of metal. When he reached the rear portion of the car, he frowned at the roof, then leaned in closer, cocking his head in the process. “How’d you get footprint dents in the roof? Big footprints.”
“Never mind,” Katie said. She looked to James’s father who was still studying the wreck. “Well?”
Gordon rubbed his chin and slowly circled the trailer at ground level, occasionally squatting down to look up underneath the car. Eyes narrowed and head tilting first one way and then the other, he gradually meandered his way back to the point where he’d started. “I can fix that,” he finally said, his grizzled chin barely bobbing up and down in slow confirmation of his verdict.
“Parts are gonna be the problem,” James interjected. “Can’t find parts for these foreign models at the junkyards around here.” He shrugged and shook his head at Katie. “We’ll have to order most of’m and your insurance company might have a say as to where we can get’m.”
“Son of a bitch!” Katie blew out a frustrated huff and scrubbed her eyes with the heels of both hands. “I guess that’s what I get for looking at the stars through the moonroof instead of paying attention to where the hell I was going.”
Ramsay locked eyes with both Gordon and James and gave a subtle warning shake of his head. He had no doubt that none of them would survive if anyone was ignorant enough to comment on what Katie had just said.
Katie yanked the bill of her ball cap lower and glared at the car as though it were an adversary. “I’ve already called my insurance company and they said if I send pictures, I don’t have to wait for an appraiser. They said they’d get back to me by late this afternoon with a decision as to whether it’s totaled. If I get that info to you by tomorrow morning at the latest, how soon do you think you could have it fixed? A few days, maybe? A week, tops?”
Both Gordon and James looked at Katie in shocked amazement then turned in unison to Ramsay and almost imperceptibly shook their heads.
Ramsay swallowed hard and turned away.I dinna ken a damn thing about vehicles, but even I can see there’s no way in hell this thing will be drivable in a week.
“Hey!” Katie snapped her fingers and stomped one foot. “I’m over here. A week at the longest—right?” She took a step forward as though about to attack. “I need your best estimate on when I can expect to be back on the road—now what is it?”
“Lady,” Gordon Abernathy said in an excruciatingly slow southern drawl. “Only way you’re gettin’ back on the road in under a month, and that’s a generous estimate, mind ya, is if you get Mr. MacDara here to drive you to Wilmington so’s you can rent a car and be on your way. Either that or take the bus to wherever it is you’re goin’.”
“A month?” Katie stared at Gordon as though he’d just called her something profane. Slowly, fire flashing in her eyes, she turned and faced Ramsay. “Did you hear that? A damnmonth?” she repeated.
Time for a bit a peace-keepin’.“Aye, lass. Ye see the damage. Surely, ye ken how it would take Gordon and his son at least that long t’gather up all the pieces they need and put yer wee car back together.”
“I was just passing through here on my way to a beach house reunion with friends. I can’t stay here a freaking month.”
Katie’s voice hit a higher pitch with each word and it wouldna surprise Ramsay if the lass ended up screaming. While the thought of Mistress Katie Jenson spending an entire month in the town of Brady filled him with hope and a renewed sense of purpose, he didna miss the forlorn quiver in her voice hidden beneath the shrillness of her tone.
Hell’s fire.Ramsay really didn’t want to say what he was about to say, but Gordon had already brought up the option so he didna have much of a choice—especially since the sweet lass was close to tears. “I can take ye to Wilmington today so ye can rent a car and only lose yesterday and today from yer journey t’visit with yer friends. Or I can give ye a lift to the bus stop.”
He could feel himself tensing as though about t’be gut-punched. He didna want her to go.Tarry here awhile, lass. Say ye’ll stay for a wee bit,he silently implored.
