She squinted at the light and looked up at his sharply defined cheekbones highlighted by the sunlight coming in through the open shed doors.
“What are you doing here?” she blurted out.
“Where are you hurt?” he asked, crouching down at her side. Good god, his crotch was practically at eye level. Luckily he wasn’t in those thin scrubs this time around. Those jeans were still pretty fitted, though.
“I’m not hurt,” she finally replied and sat up on her pink creeper. He was too close, too overwhelming whenever he crowded her space.
When he didn’t say anything after a moment, she looked up and met his stare.
“You’re just as beautiful in engine grease as you are in a sweater vest,” he said quietly.
Her heart thudded hard in her chest, and she could feel her brain malfunction even as she pulled back. “Why are you here?”
He got to his feet, his warm hands grasping hers and pulling her up. Their bodies brushed, and Kareena jerked again, a tingle shooting up her spine.
“You haven’t been responding to my texts,” he finally said. “Since I’m done prepping for my show tomorrow and I’m not on call tonight, I decided to come out and see you myself. Wow, this is the E30 you’re working on, huh? I can’t remember if you told me. Was this your father’s car?”
She narrowed her eyes at him as he walked slowly around her car touching everything. “Dad bought it for my mom from a guy who barely drove it. After Mom died, Dad was too sad to drive it anymore, so I bought it off him before he could sell it to someone else.”
Prem ran his fingers through his thick black hair. One stubborn lock slid back into place across his forehead. “It’s nice. Looks like it needs a lot of work, though.”
“I told you.”
“Cars? That’s probably the hottest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said.
Kareena shrugged. “I think my obsession was born out of necessity.”
“Because your car means family to you, right?”
“Yes. And the memory of someone I’ve lost.”
“I can’t tell you how much I understand that,” he replied.
Prem crouched to inspect a tire. “I know you said you finished the engine last year, but what are you working on right now?”
“I just have to replace the dash instruments, and then the rest of the work needs to be completed in a shop. Upholstery. New mirrors and windows. Refitting with interior trim. Body work.” Kareena hated that she couldn’t do all the work at home, but some skills required years of apprenticeship to get just right. Not to mention tools.
“Is this why you’ve been busy?”
“And because we don’t have anything else to say to each other.”
“We were able to communicate pretty well when we first met.”
Kareena put the wrench she’d been holding on the makeshift bench covered in a grease-stained towel. “I’ve read a lot of romance novels, and do you know what happens at the end of every single one that has a fake relationship in it? Someone finds out. And then the whole thing blows up. Except, we won’t have a happily ever after. Why? Because we’re too damn different, Prem. What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
He was grinning, hands tucked in his back pockets, as he rocked back on his heels. “Nothing, it’s just you sound really cute when you’re freaking out.”
She adjusted her glasses, praying that the heat in her cheeks wasn’t noticeable. “Stop trying to distract me with flirting. You have to keep your distance until I have no other options. Use this time to find other investors.”
“Rina, there are no other investors,” he said. He motioned to her shed, then outside her double doors at the house. “Four months will go by before we know it. The sooner we accept that, the faster we can secure the money we need. I told you. I’ll protect you when we walk away from each other.”
“Let me do it my way first,” she said. The thought of pretending to be in love with him made her nauseous. Especially since everyone would know that he didn’t believe in love and couldn’t possibly feel the same way. “I just started looking . . .”
“Swiping right on dating apps isn’t going to work when you’re on a deadline.” He shoved his hands in his pocket. “You’ll barely be out of the ‘talking phase.’”
“Excuse me?”
His smug expression rubbed her raw even as his long, tapered fingers brushed gently over the hood of her car. “You know, where you just message back and forth until one of you says something completely ridiculous, and you end up ghosting each other. Since your last date I’m assuming that’s what you’re doing, too, right?”