Up until now, Taylor or Daisy had always been there to jump in when he’d gotten questions he couldn’t answer—occasionally Margot was around to pitch in—but today he’d just do what he could to answer and call in Margot only for anything extra tricky.
He knew that was another part of it, of course. He didn’t want to have to call in Margot for anything tricky. He didn’t want Margot to have to rescue him from questions he didn’t know enough to answer. He wanted to impress her. But then, would Margot, being Margot, be far more impressed with him if he admitted to what he didn’t know?
He wasn’t used to being in an environment like this. He had no idea how to handle it.
He sighed and looked back down at the appointment list.
“Oh no!” Margot stood at the door, a stack of menus in her hands and a panicked look on her face. He turned around to see what she was looking at. Water, leaking out from the dishwasher. He jumped to turn it off, but Margot had gotten there before him.
“It’s broken,” she said. “Damn it. I’ll call the plumber, I guess.” She sighed. “This would happen on a day Taylor wasn’t here.”
He rolled up his sleeves.
“Want me to take a look at it first?”
Margot stared at him.
“What do you know about dishwashers?”
Luke knelt down in front of the dishwasher.
“My mom owns an inn—I had to figure out pretty quickly how to fix most household appliances.”
Margot let out that low laugh of hers. Thank God his back was to her.
“I honestly don’t know why none of us have ever figured out dishwashers, we certainly wash enough wineglasses every day to need to know this. Between me, Elliot, and Taylor, we know how to fix almost everything else around here, including all of the cars. I think it’s just because the dishwasher hasn’t broken yet.”
He turned around at that.
“You can fix cars?”
She put her hands on her hips, a look of mock outrage on her face.
“Don’t look so surprised at that. Don’t I look like the kind of woman who can fix a car?”
He had no idea how to answer that, but she just laughed again.
“Well, I am—at least, for the easy stuff.” The expression on her face softened. “Uncle Stan taught both me and Elliot about cars, starting with that old truck of his that’s still out there.”
He’d wondered about that old truck. It looked well-preserved, but it had been in the same place since he’d started here.
He turned back to the dishwasher. He opened it and looked around.
“I’ll get the tool kit,” Margot said from behind him. He heard her heels clicking on the wood floor as she went into the back and then quickly came back out.
“I may not need it,” he said. He moved the float switch up and down a few times and then closed the dishwasher door.
“That’s it?” Margot asked.
He laughed.
“I feel like I should pretend there’s a lot more to do here, and it’s super complicated, so I can get lots of praise, but I’m pretty sure the float switch was just stuck.” He looked at Margot. “Okay if I turn this thing on so we can test it out to see if I was right?”
Margot shrugged.
“Might as well, while we’re here to watch it. And we have lots of towels at the ready and are close to the water off switch, just in case.”
Luke pressed the on button and then held his breath. He thought he was right on this one, but it would be just his luck to be very wrong when he was trying to impress a woman. Who was also his boss.
They both stared at the machine as they waited to see what would happen.
“Oh, there you are, Margot, did you get the— What are we looking at?”
He and Margot both turned to see Elliot there, a cup of coffee in one hand and a pastry in the other.
“We’re looking at the dishwasher,” she said. “It’s broken. Or . . . was broken, but Luke may have done some magic with it.” She turned to Luke. “I think it’s not leaking anymore.”
He nodded.
“I think you’re right,” he said.
“You’ve saved the day, Luke,” Elliot said.
“Not just the day, but he also saved me from having to write a large check to a plumber for about three minutes of work,” Margot said. “Thanks, Luke.”
He met her eyes. That warm expression was all the thanks he needed.
Well. He probably could have come up with something better. But unfortunately . . .