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All was quite then all of a sudden the front door burst open and a little girl came running into the room. “Hi mom!! I’m hoooooo...” she started. She skidded to a stop as soon as she spotted Nick.

“Who are you?” she asked, giving him a funny look.

“I’m Nick. Who might you be?” he asked

Lexi cleared her throat. “Damn, I didn’t even notice what time it was. Katie, go take your shoes off and put your backpack in the kitchen.” she told her daughter.

Katie turned on her heals and headed out of the room. Lexi gave Nick an apologetic look.

“Sorry bout that. I didn’t realize it was time for her to come home. That’s my daughter Katie” Lexi explained.

“No problem. Now I know who the little girl is in the photos on the mantel is. How old is she?” Nick asked.

“She’s 7 years old.” Lexi told him.

“She’s the spitting image of you. A real cutie too.” Nick said. He realized how that sounded, blushed and then looked down at the floor. Lexi just smiled at him and went into the kitchen to tend to her daughter. Nick followed her because he didn’t know what else to do.

Once in the kitchen, Lexi went about fixing Katie her after school snack. She placed some of the cookies she made the day before on a saucer and poured her a glass of milk.

“Would you care for some?” she asked Nick. “After we are done with our snack we will go see if Woody has pickup up your car yet. If he has I’ll drive you in to see what the problem was. That sound OK?” she asked.

“Yeah, that’s fine. Those cookies look good” Nick said as he plucked a cookie from Katie’s plate.

“Hey!” Katie complained.

Nick gave her his best crooked smile and ruffled her hair. “So, what grade are you in Katie” Nick asked.

“I’m in the second grade” Katie replied. “I hate my teacher. Mr. Windon is the worst” Katie added.

Lexi stood back and watched the banter between her daughter and this stranger. Katie rarely took to strangers, let alone men. But he seemed so easy to talk to. He was funny and charming as he talked to Katie about school and her friends.

With snack time over they all went into the living room and put their shoes on then went out and piled into Lexi’s truck.

“This is a pretty big truck for such a small woman” Nick said.

“Well, we need a good size truck to haul the horse trailer and all the gear” Lexi told him.

“That makes sense” Nick said.

The rest of the ride down the road was made in silence. When they reached the end of the driveway, they noticed that his car was gone.

“I guess Woody’s already picked it up. We’ll go to the garage and see what he has to say” Lexi said.

On the way to the garage Nick asked Lexi, “you said you haul a horse trailer. Where do you go with the horses?”

“I complete in shows all over” Lexi explained.

“Oh, cool” Nick said.

It didn’t take long to get to the garage. Lexi parked the truck beside the garage and put it in park. She got out and helped Katie out while Nick exited the other side. They walked around the front and Nick held the door open for her and Katie to enter. ‘Wow’ Lexi thought to herself, ‘what manners. Don’t see that much these days’.

“Hey Lexi” said a rather skinny runt of a man in greasy overalls.

“Hey Woody” Lexi said back. “This is Nick. He’s the owner of the car you picked up. Have you had a chance to look at it yet?” she asked.

She looked at the car and was taken aback a little. Yep, this dude had money.

“Yep” Woody responded, wiping his hands on his overalls to rid the grease then handing it out to Nick for a handshake. “Fancy car you got there Mister.”

“Thanks” Nick said, reluctantly shaking the grease-stained hand.

He gazed lovingly down as his sleek, black, convertible Benz. “So Doc, have you diagnosed what’s wrong with my baby yet?

“Well, yep. The problem is your transmission is kaput” Woody answered.