Her Holiday Secret. Jennifer Greene
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only had eyes for Maggie, and they were big and soulful and sincere. “You just take it for as long a drive as you want to, honey. Enjoy yourself. It’s such a classy car, I can’t even think of another vehicle that’d be more perfect for you—”
Once Harv was shut out and they were both seated inside the car, Maggie said, “Look, I can see you’re getting exasperated with me—”
On a witch-black night in a pitch-black car, he could still see the wariness in her eyes. Wariness that hadn’t been there before. “Are you kidding? I’m not remotely exasperated.”
Exasperated, no. Dumbfounded, yes. Naturally he kept quiet while she fiddled around, learning where the gauges and controls were, and finally putting the baby in gear. Most people test-drove vehicles in daylight and perfect conditions, but Andy had cleaned up after too many car crashes. Her seeing how the vehicle handled on snow-crusted roads at night was a prizewinning idea, in his view. Only she’d had enough after one round-the-block.
He made her drive it on the highway for a good ten miles, then cajoled her into handling it in an empty iceslick parking lot. But that was all he could talk her into. Actually, he thought the vehicle was a good choice for her and Harvey was likely to make the best deal—he’d never have brought her here otherwise. He just couldn’t believe any woman could make up her mind faster than a speeding comet—much less stick to it.
Harvey was waiting outside when they drove back in, wearing a three-hundred-watt smile to help light the night. “You loved it, didn’t you? I just knew you would. And I’ll help you all through the financing, little lady, don’t you worry about a thing. You’ve picked a great car, a really great car—”
“Harvey,” Maggie said gently, “we’re not going to survive the next five minutes together if you call me ‘little lady’ or ‘honey’ again. Just call me Maggie, okay?”
Twenty degrees, tops, wind so mean it had to be twenty below with the wind chill, but Harvey’s forehead abruptly beaded sweat. “Of course, Maggie—”
“And I won’t need financing. I’ll pay you in cash.”
Harvey’s jaw dropped. Hell, so did Andy’s.
“Well, not cash,” she swiftly corrected herself. “I meant a check. I don’t actually have that kind of cash on me. But a check’s okay, isn’t it?” Her gaze darted from one man to the other. “I mean...I assume I can’t drive it home, that you’ll have to call the bank tomorrow to make sure it clears and all, but...”
“Um, Maggie...” Andy swept an arm around her shoulder to steer her out of Harvey’s earshot. He wasn’t sure what to say—not without bucking into her pride—and those shoulders of hers were stiff, that beautiful jaw of hers jutting at an awfully defensive angle. “Sweet pea, I’m getting the feeling that maybe you haven’t bought too many cars before?”
“Well...no. The thing is, my parents died, Andy. Not together, but about the same time. My mom got sick, pneumonia they couldn’t lick, and my dad was on the way to the hospital when someone smashed into him. We were pretty young—Joanna just out of college and I was in my first year—”
“Aw, hell. I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t tell you to make you feel bad. And I didn’t mean to get into all that—I was just trying to explain about the cars. Joanna already had a car, so I ended up with my parents’ vehicle, drove it for years. When it finally quit...well, the car that just got totalled is the only one I ever bought of my own. And that experience was just as awful and nerve-racking as this one.”
Andy was suddenly getting a whole different picture of why car shopping upset her so much. There’d never been a dad or someone to teach her the basic strategy. “Well, to begin with...it’s pretty rare people pay for cars in cash.”
“Yeah. I know. The guy about had a fit the first time—like he changed his mind and didn’t even want to sell it to me? Cripes, he gave me such a hard time I almost walked out. If I hadn’t needed the wheels, I would have.”
“I understand. But thing is, the sticker price isn’t the whole story. If you want the car, you want the car. But it’s real likely Harv’ll go down some significant dollars if we give him a chance to sharpen his pencil. And the other thing is, you just might not want to deplete any interest-earning savings or capital to pour into a single giant expense like this.”
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