“I tune cars,” I told her. I hated lying to her. But I didn’t want to lose her, either.

I’d turned on the heating when we arrived and as the workshop warmed up, she started to slowly shed layers of clothes. I watched, enthralled, as the denim jacket with all the patches came off. Then one shirt, then the next…then, finally, the extra t-shirt, leaving her in just a black one. It wasn’t even low cut but, somehow, just seeing her in a t-shirt was far sexier than seeing Katie or Bree in their lingerie and stockings or, hell, even naked.

That got me thinking about seeing Erin naked. That golden braid swishing back and forth as she bounced on top of me. Those perky little breasts thrusting up towards the ceiling as she arched her back….

I coughed and pointed to one of the circular sew-on patches on the denim jacket she’d taken off. “What’s that?” The patch showed a red dragon with text in gold letters around the edge.

“Oh!” she flushed. “It’s from a book. Throne of Night.”

I’d never heard of it: I’m not much of a reader. But if she was interested in it, I wanted to know more. “What’s it about?”

And so, as we worked, she told me. She described the world it was set in, sort of medieval but with magic. There were dragons and elves and crystals that could capture a person’s soul. She was hesitant at first: she kept giving me do you really want to hear this looks. But I was enthralled and, as I kept nodding her on, her shyness dropped away and she came alive. She didn’t just tell me about the book, she told me about why she loved it so much, how it transported her away. I’d never known a book could do that. “I’m going to have to read it,” I told her.

She gave me a doubtful look. I guess she could tell I’m not the reading type.

“I mean it,” I said. “I want to try it.”

And when she realized I was serious, she gave me a shy little smile that made something lift and tug inside me.

We worked away, talking happily for hours and it was only when my stomach rumbled that I realized it was lunchtime. We stopped to get takeout sandwiches from the café, slab-like BLTs with crispy bacon, juicy tomatoes and just the right amount of mayo.

We went back to it, talking and working. The engine gradually came together and so did the laptop: by mid-afternoon, she had the circuit boards fixed and was working on the screen. She was a certified genius. And I was…I didn’t know what to call it. Smitten?

Stupid. I didn’t feel things like that.