“I know what to do,” she told him. “I have to use that four-arm metal thingy to loosen the bolts.”

He chuckled. “It’s called a four-way lug wrench.”

“Close enough,” she said, reaching for it.

Flipping the tool around, she tested each end of the wrench until she found the correct size for her lug nuts. Once the end was snugly slipped over the nut, she tried to turn the wrench. It wouldn’t move, so she rose up onto her knees and leaned over the tool to give herself more leverage and then tried to twist it again. No such luck.

Damn it. Why is this not working?

“Need some help?” Brett asked.

Sidney shook her head. “Nope. I can get it. It’s just a little tight.”

So she used the trick Brett had taught her. She slid one of the heavy jack stands under the opposite end of the wrench to hold it up in place. Then she rose to her feet and kicked off her black heels. Keeping one hand on her car for balance, she placed one foot on the left side arm of the wrench and stepped up onto it.

Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen.

Instead of standing on top of the wrench several inches off the ground, her weight was supposed to break the lug nut loose. But for some strange reason, it didn’t work.

Weird. Especially given that she had put on a few pounds since Brett had last seen her. It wasn’t like she had been all that thin back when they’d dated, but she couldn’t help worrying that her most recent weight gain only reflected how miserable she’d been for the past year.

Brett cleared his throat, as if reminding her that he was still standing there and watching her. “You sure you don’t want my help?”

“I’ve got everything under control,” she replied, bending her knees and bouncing a little on top of the wrench. Still nothing happened. So she did the only thing she could do. She bounced a little harder, hoping she didn’t break something. Including herself.

Sidney did everything in her power to force that stupid lug nut to move because there was no way she was going to admit that she needed Brett’s help. Even if, in this instance, she clearly did. So much for proving to him that she was capable of handling any situation thrown at her. That was kind of hard to do while sitting on the side of the road as helpless as a baby bird that had fallen from its nest.

“Okay, stop that,” Brett ordered. “You’re either going to damage your car or wind up hurting yourself. Get down from there and just let me take a look.”