Chapter Twenty Three

In response to the soft spoken voice, Kelleigh laughed a short laugh. "I'm sorry, it's been a bad day or couple of days, rather."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. How can I help you?"

A litany of items scrolled through her head: resurrect Steve and kill him again being the first item. She actually smiled at her own sarcasm then quickly focused on the caller.

"I have a racecar that's unfinished and I need recommendations as to what to do next and references for who should do the work. I was given your name as a starting point."

"Right on. Well, first I'd need to see the car eh?"

Kelleigh stifled the urge to laugh again. She hadn't realized that Eddie was Canadian. "When can you come by?"

"Well, I'm in town today. I could come by later this afternoon if that's okay with you."

"That would be great. I promise that I won't verbally abuse you when you come."

Eddie laughed with a deep rumble. "Aye, that would be good. How do I find you?"

Kelleigh gave him directions to the house and they hung up. She was intrigued at the prospect of meeting Eddie. There was something about the sound of his voice, as if there were constantly laughter underneath his words that caught her attention.

Having been cajoled out of her violent mood, Kelleigh ignored the garage and went into the house. Seeing the textbooks on the table, she took the workbook then sat on the couch to study. Her test was first thing tomorrow morning and she wanted to study some more, even though she felt pretty confident. However, she certainly didn't want to be cocky. Being a woman, she knew to expect difficulties when she took the test. She was daring to enter a man's world. As much as feminism declared their movement a success, there were still areas were women dared not tread. However, Kelleigh wasn't taking this test to prove anything other than she could do it. She was taking this test to improve her life. This was something she had always wanted; Steve's death had shown her that.

She found herself stretched out on the couch hours later as she closed the workbook. She'd reread the entire book and felt confident that she could and would indeed pass tomorrow. Feeling satisfied, she looked up at the clock. "Oh no!" It was nearly time for Eddie to arrive.

Hurrying out to the garage, she flipped the light on. It blinked once then went out. Cursing under her breath, she tried to make her way to the workbench to flip on another overhead light. She had been after Steve for months to fix the lighting in here and he never got around to it. Now she would have to add it to the list of things she would need to figure out.

Reaching the worktable, she leaned against it and reached out to the switch. As she did so, she grazed her hand against a piece of sheet metal that Steve had left there. "Son of a …" Kelleigh let out with a few curses as she felt her hand warm with blood. Turning on the light, she saw a large gash across the side of her hand. At the same time, a knock on the garage door let her know that Eddie had arrived. "Great timing,” she muttered as she grabbed a rag and wrapped it around her hand. Making her way around the racecar, she called out "Just a minute, I'm trying to get to the door."

She no sooner got the words out when her shin caught the jack handle that was sticking out from underneath the car. "Oh for the love of God." She was a wreck, bleeding and bruised as she finally reached the door.