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drive the car until this is figured out.”
    All that stuff she’d just put to rest over the past couple of days came rising back up again. He was doing too much. That she couldn’t possibly repay him went without saying—she didn’t want to owe him more than she could afford to give, because she feared those feelings of obligation. She didn’t want him making decisions for her, taking over her life! She was afraid he’d begin to control her, isolate her.
    Dory’s old tapes were running in her head and she knew it, but it was impossible to stop. She kept hearing Trip’s voice, not Clay’s, even though Trip was never truly helpful—he was purely manipulative and domineering.
    An ordinary woman without all her emotional baggage would be able to appreciate a nice man lending a hand now and then, and she so wanted to be an ordinary woman.
    Not only was Dory wearing out that old lament, but she was also trying to figure out whether it was safe to take her own car to town, drop the kids off at school and go to a mechanic.
    “You can’t be doing that,” she said. “You can’t be making decisions for me!”
    He seemed not to even hear her. He closed the hood. “I start a twenty-four-hour shift this morning at the firehouse. If you drop me off at work, you can use my car while yours is being worked on.”
    She shook her head. “You can’t do that,” she said sharply. “You can’t tell me what to do, make my decisions for me like that.”
    “I’m just trying to help, Dory!”
    “You’re telling me what to do—and it’s invasive, controlling and abusive!”
    He stared at her in wide-eyed shock.
    And Dory stood frozen. Watching his eyes. Thinking. Blushing at her outburst. Finally he smiled slightly.
    “I’m sorry,” she said. “I overreacted.”
    “No kidding. I just bring out the best in you, don’t I? I didn’t mean to take away your freedom of choice and, for God’s sake, I would never be abusive. You seem to be a little on edge or something.”
    “I have become wary of strange men bearing gifts….”
    “Strange men? Come on!”
    “Why would your mechanic friend fix my car on the cheap? I mean, that’s suspicious!”
    “Because I helped him move three times, landscape his last house and install a fancy hot tub—now, that was a huge pain! We moved these big friggin’ boulders his wife had to have decorating her backyard. And I also babysat three kids over night so he and the wife could get away for their anniversary. One of the kids had the flu. The stomach flu. He has to fix about nine cars cheaply to get even with me!”
    Suddenly she had to cover her mouth so he wouldn’t see her laugh. Mr. Good-Looking Bachelor, wiping up kid puke. She bet that was worth the price of admission. She sobered. “Still. You’re poking around in my car without being asked. Without asking.”
    “Because for some reason you won’t let me be a good neighbor!” He took a breath and leaned on the hood of her car.
    Sophie and Austin stood on the porch, watching. Clay saw them and softened his voice. “Dory, I’m in the safety business. I have a bunch of nieces and nephews. I’d get in my sisters’ business if I thought there was a chance the vehicle they were taking the kids to school in might not be a hundred percent safe. Let’s not fight about it.”
    “Well,” she said, considering. “As long as you think of me as a sister and there’s no more of that date business. Because I don’t date.”
    “I thought we might have a good time, but I’m changing my mind about that. You’re too angry about something, and I’m not interested infighting my way through the anger. And since your kids are fun and well-adjusted, I doubt you’re angry all the time—maybe it has something to do with me specifically. So how about if I just lend a hand when it’s no trouble for me and you forget I ever asked you out? How about that? Can we start over then? I swear, I’ll never ask you out again. Believe me, I’ve