Sidney hopped down and moved out of his way as quickly as she could, but she hadn’t been fast enough. As he maneuvered past her, a familiar scent wafted straight to her nose. In the past, he’d always smelled like this when he had gotten off work, and even then, she couldn’t get enough of it. Sure, it was probably just a mixture of sweat and grease, but the earthly, masculine notes always took on more of a smoky, charred wood quality and made her mouth water.

But she couldn’t think about that right now. She had more important things to worry about. “I don’t understand. I did it the way you showed me.”

Brett glared at her. “What? I never told you to climb on top of the wrench. You were only supposed to put some weight into it to break the nuts free. Not stand on it.”

“Yeah, but that didn’t work…and I put all of my weight into it.” And Lord knows she had plenty of that.

He squatted down and tried to crank on the wrench himself. When it wouldn’t turn, he pulled it off and checked the others. When they wouldn’t turn either, he looked closer at the lug nuts. “Damn it. I think whoever put these tires on this vehicle tightened the lug nuts too much. Probably used a pneumatic impact wrench.”

“Okay, so what do I need to do to fix it?”

Brett stood and dusted his hands off, probably more out of habit than anything. “Nothing.”

Confusion swept through her. “What do you mean, nothing?”

“What I’m saying is that you won’t be doing anything. I’ll have to fix it myself.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I’m most likely going to have to cut the lug nuts off and replace them. Otherwise, the lug bolts could break off inside the wheel, which is more expensive and complicated to fix. But I’m thinking these might have an aluminum cover so I can just chisel off the aluminum part in order to get to the metal inside. That would make things a little easier for me.”

“All right. So what are you waiting for? Let’s get to work then.”

Brett ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s not that simple, Sid. I don’t have those kinds of tools with me.”

Figures. “So now what?”

“I’m going to drive you home and then come back with the tow truck to pick up your car. That way I can take it back to the shop, where I can work on it.”

Her eyes widened. “Are you crazy? I’m not leaving my sports car out here on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.”

“It’s not like we have a choice.”

“Sure we do. I’ll stay with the car while you go get the tow truck.”