Know Me Well (Wishful 3)

Liam kissed her brow. “It’ll get easier. Let’s go finish helping her unpack.”

Inside, the AC was finally starting to make a dent since the door had been shut for longer than five minutes at a time.

“What took y’all so long?” Judd asked.

“Were you canoodling in the alley?” Autumn teased.

“It’s too damned hot for canoodling anywhere,” Riley said. “If you leave now, our order at Speakeasy should be ready by the time you get there. And by the time you get back, I might’ve decided to pretend you never said that.”

“Then I guess I’m on pick up duty.” Autumn grabbed her purse. “I shall return with sustenance post haste.”

“And beer!” Judd added.

“And beer,” she acknowledged, and shut the door. She was back in a matter of minutes. “So my car’s dead.”

“Is there something in the gas around here?” Liam asked.

“No. I didn’t get the door shut when I came up to start with the unpacking. It’s been sitting there for hours.”

“I told you you needed to get that battery replaced,” Judd said. “I had to jump it twice last winter.”

“I know, I know. I just haven’t gotten around to it.”

“We’ll take care of it,” Liam promised.

“Oh, I can help with that,” Riley told her. “I actually have jumper cables in my trunk.”

The last thing he needed was Riley snooping under her own hood. She didn’t know cars, but even she would be able to tell something wasn’t right. “You keep your hands off that engine,” he ordered. “You can’t be trusted not to put the positive on the negative and the negative on the positive. I spent too many hours fixing Jo to have you blow something up.”

Riley stuck her tongue out at him.

“Just let us finish with this, and we’ll be out to deal with it in a few minutes,” Judd added.

Both women rolled their eyes.

“You forgot to do the King Kong beating of your chest and pronounce yourselves Tarzan to our Janes,” Autumn said.

Judd shook his head. “I tell you, we get no respect.”

“None at all,” Liam agreed, and bent back to the task at hand.

A few minutes later Judd looked past him. “What do you want to bet they’ve gone to go take care of it themselves?”

“Huh?” Liam cranked his head around. But Autumn and Riley were out of sight. “Shit.”

“Eh, let ’em. It’s probably a statement about feminism or something.”

“No, it’s not that. I don’t want Riley to—”

“Liam Montgomery!” Her shout carried from the sidewalk outside.

“—look at her engine,” he finished.

Judd went brows up. “What did you do?”

“What had to be done.” And now it was time to face the music.

Rising to his feet, he headed outside, where Riley had moved Jo nose to nose with Autumn’s Altima. Jo’s hood was up, and Riley stood besi