Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“Perfect.”
Passing her the flathead, he followed her back to the open hood. “What’re you doing?”
“This is the solenoid relay”—she used the screwdriver to point to something in the engine—“which is basically an electromagnet and a couple of contact points inside a metal canister. They use a small amount of power to connect to a big amount of power.” She bent, fidgeting with something. “Inside there are two contact points, and they’re spring-loaded so they stay apart. When you apply power to the electromagnet, they close.” She held a hand out to the side, squeezing her thumb and index finger together to illustrate. “When they close, they connect this wire here.” Ren leaned to the side so he could see and pointed to what she meant. “Which is connected to the positive terminal on the battery, this terminal here, which runs down to the starter.”
He laughed, already lost. “You could be making all of this up, but it sounds amazing.”
“Long story short, I’m going to use this screwdriver to bypass the solenoid relay switch.”
“You’re sexy when you’re being a gearhead.” He leaned in closer, whispering, “Please don’t electrocute yourself.”
Ren laughed. “I’m only willing to try this because your screwdriver has a rubber handle.”
“If this works, I’m taking you out for a fancy dinner after.”
“I thought you were doing that anyway.” She grinned over her shoulder, teasing and flirty, and she probably had no idea the power she had over him. When she finally learned how to harness it, he was done for.
“Extra fancy, then,” he answered.
She nodded for him to go back inside the car. “Keep it in neutral and turn the key to the on position, just so everything lights up. Let me know when you do.”
He kissed the top of her head and then ducked into the driver’s seat. “Okay,” he called to her.
“Go ahead and turn it all the way.”
He closed his eyes, hoping he didn’t manage to inadvertently zap his new girlfriend, but he heard her happy whoop when Max’s engine roared to life. Ren closed the hood and bent to kiss it, saying, “Good boy.”
Three hours later, Ren fell back in her chair, clutching her stomach and groaning happily. “That was the best meal I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
Dressed in a new set of secondhand clothes that they picked out on the drive back from the lake—a cream silk skirt and green top that complemented Ren’s eyes, a nice pair of jeans, and a linen button-down that she’d said made Edward’s tanned skin look golden—they’d parked along a quiet street lined with older homes and small businesses and walked to a brick building fronted by a mixed garden of flowers and vegetables. Inside, the decor was as welcoming as being in someone’s home. Heavy dark tables encircled an open kitchen with a wood oven in the center, its copper chimney stretching to the ceiling. Ren had been delighted, fascinated by the staff waiting and busing tables, by the food she could see being prepared and how much organization it took to make something like this look like no work at all. Observing the world through Ren’s eyes made Edward realize how often he didn’t really pay attention to what was going on around him. He moved through life constantly on the offense and went into every interaction with an objective. It meant he missed the details, missed the moments that made life worth living.
Edward gazed at the destruction all around them: crumbs from the world’s best salted butter rolls, only a tiny fatty scrap of an impeccably cooked steak, some stray radicchio from a delicious salad, a few tendrils of linguini, and two empty red wineglasses. There wasn’t birthday cake, but the waitstaff lit a candle in the center of her decadent Bananas Foster bread pudding. He’d pulled out his phone to capture her expression as they’d set the plate in front of her, the candlelight reflected in her wide, tear-rimmed eyes. That was one moment he wasn’t going to miss.
Now she looked at him from across their small table. “You’ve absolutely ruined me.”
That was too tempting a sentence to dwell on. Planting his elbows on the table, he leaned in. “Did I hit number one yet?”
She winced, clucking her tongue. “It’s going to be really hard to beat the year I turned thirteen and Steve let me drive the truck to and from town, and then I saw a meteor shower that night when I was out at the pond.”
“Skinny-dipping, engine victories, and those buttery salted rolls don’t beat that?”
She pressed her lips together, fighting a laugh. “Mm-mm.”
He drummed his fingers on his chin, pretending to think. “Okay, I have one more idea.” He tossed the napkin to the table and reached for her hand. “Let’s go.”
The field was dark and deserted—just like he’d expected. With a tiny, nervous smile, Ren climbed out of Max, but stayed close to the door. “Where are we?”