When Brett finally glanced up, she motioned for him to come back over. But he shook his head. So Sidney did what she had to. She rounded the counter and headed into the garage, straight toward Brett.

One of his brows rose in question. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Not here, you’re not. You can’t be back here. Didn’t you read the signs?” He pointed to the closest one on the wall nearby. “It says no customers allowed in the work area.”

She grinned smugly. “Good thing I’m not a customer then.”

He tilted his head in confusion. “Huh? How do you figure?”

“Customers pay for your service, right? But you wouldn’t let me pay you. So that means I’m not one of your customers.” That was her story, and she was sticking to it.

He gave her a yeah, right look and pointed to a different sign. “Well, this one says ‘Employees Only,’ and the last I knew, you don’t work here.”

She shrugged. “Apparently, neither do you. At least not today. Why didn’t you tell me it was your day off?”

“Because it didn’t matter.” He glanced around the garage. “Who the hell told you it was my day off anyway?”

She ignored his question. “It does matter when you’re working on my car and not getting paid for it.”

Brett waved his hand dismissively. “It’s not a big deal. Let it go already,” he said, walking past her toward a rear exit.

Sidney followed him outside. “Fine. If you won’t let me pay you for your time, then let’s at least make a trade. You did something for me, now it’s my turn to do something for you.”

His feet stalled beneath him, and he turned around slowly to face her. His heated eyes resembled the blue flame on a welding torch, and they zeroed in directly on her. “Sidney, if you’re even close to insinuating that you’d sleep with me in exchange for fixing your car, you’re seriously going to piss me off.”

Wait, what? She blinked at him in confusion, not understanding where the hell he’d gotten that cockamamie idea from. “Oh dear Lord, of course not. That’s not at all what I was getting at.” But she couldn’t help giggling. If he thought having sex with him would be doing him a favor, he was seriously underestimating his skills in the bedroom.

Her reaction only annoyed him more. “What’s so funny?”

“Uh, nothing.” She bit her lip to contain the laughter bubbling in her throat. “I just meant that I wanted to help you get that loan you’re going to apply for so you can buy that used car lot and open your garage.”