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Seattle Cinderella

By Gail Sattler

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Seattle Cinderella
Chapter 1
Luke Princeton pushed open the door to the muffler
shop and walked inside.
Ignoring the sign saying customers weren’t
allowed in the work area, he forced a smile at the young
woman seated at the desk in the corner of the small service
office. “Mind if I go in? I need to talk to the boss.”
She jerked her head toward the shop window, where
three people wearing blue coveralls stood together under a
car raised on a hydraulic hoist. One of them pointed upward
and the others nodded. “You know the drill,” she mumbled,
not missing a keystroke.
Indeed he did. He also knew which one of the three
he wanted—the one who was six inches shorter than the
other two.
He stepped into the shop, stopping with his toes on the
yellow line. “Hey! Cindy!” he called out quickly before they
fired up the welding torches and no one could hear him.
All three of them raised their welding masks and turned
toward him.
Cindy laid her torch down, pulled off her safety gloves,
stuffed them in her pockets, and walked toward him. “What
can I do for you, Luke?”
“You can join me for lunch.” He gave her his best and, he
hoped, most charming smile.
She didn’t smile back. Instead she lowered her head
and wiped her hands down the legs of her coveralls. “No,
seriously.”
He was completely serious—as serious as he’d been the
last dozen times he’d asked.
Luke rammed his hands into his pockets. “I have a
reservation on the blue van this afternoon, but when it came
back this morning it sounded a little noisy. I think the last
people who rented it did something to the muffler. Can you
fit it in before four thirty?”
She nodded. “We certainly can. All you had to do was
make an appointment with Annie.”
“Right. Annie.” One of Cindy’s two sisters who worked
at the muffler shop part-time. He could never remember
their names. “What’s the other one’s name again?”
“Zella. Annie comes in on Mondays, Zella comes in on
Fridays, and they alternate Saturdays.”
A and Z, first and last. He’d remember that. “Annie
seemed too busy, that’s why I asked you myself.”
For a second Cindy smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile.
“I’ll just make that appointment for you.”
Her lack of an answer about lunch didn’t go unnoticed.
While Cindy penciled him into the appointment book,
giving him the last empty time slot of the day, he fished the
key for the van out of his pocket.
“Since you’re busy, I could run and get a couple of coffees,
and we can sit and have a little break without going out.”
She pulled a white tag to attach to the car’s keys, and
wrote Prince Rentals on it. “Sorry, I really don’t have time to
stop today. Maybe another time, though.” She tied the string
to the key ring and hung it on the wall with the rest of the
keys. “See you at four thirty.”
Luke smiled in acknowledgment then turned around and
his smile dropped. He tried not to let yet another rejection
get him down as he returned to his building across the shared
parking lot.
“Struck out again, huh?”
He glared at his partner and soon to be ex–best friend.
“Don’t you have some work to do?”
Brent raised a cup from the coffee shop a few doors down
then set it back down on the counter. “Nope. Break time.”
However, Brent had the file open for a fleet quote they were
going to make and was writing, despite his alleged coffee
break. “I told you that you should have taken her a latté or
something. Then she would have had to stop and talk to you,
just to be polite.”
“You’re probably right, but it would have been rude not to
bring one for her sister.”
“Try when she’s over there alone then.”
“But I can’t ask her when she doesn’t have one of her
sisters there to answer phones or deal with customers. She
can’t take the time.”
“Did you ask her out for lunch again?”
“Yes, and she turned me down again. Too busy.”
“Or you can’t take a hint.” Brent sipped his coffee. “She’s
obviously not interested.”
Luke rammed his hands into his pockets. “She doesn’t
say she’s seeing someone. I’d respect that. She always says
‘another time,’ so that makes me think one day she’s going
to say yes.”
“She’s just being nice because you’re a good customer.
You’ve been trying to get her to go out with you for at least
six months. I think it’s time to move on.”
Hoping to catch a glimpse of Cindy through the window
of the muffler shop, Luke turned to look outside. “I can’t.
There’s just something about her that gets to me.”
Brent snickered. “Right. You gotta love a woman who
knows how to work a welding torch.”
Luke turned to give Brent the evil eye. “I know it sounds
strange, but that’s a part of it. After her dad died, she stepped
right into his footsteps. She does the same work Dave did.”
“Even puts up with those lazy sisters like Dave did.” Brent
didn’t look up from his quote. “Yeah, she’s good all right.”
“You’ve got to admit that running a brake and muffler
shop isn’t a typical job for a woman. She’s got guts.”
Brent’s snicker turned into a belly laugh. “There’s a line
you can use to impress a lady. I like you because you’ve got
guts. Now I know why she won’t go out with you.”
Luke picked up a clipboard with an inspection form on
it. “You’re not helping. If you were in my place, what would
you do?”
“Ask her to go out to a movie or something.”
“If she won’t go out with me for a short lunch, what
makes you think she’ll go to a movie?”
Brent shrugged his shoulders. “How about sending her
flowers?”
“I don’t think she’s the flowers type.”
“All chicks like jewelry. Give her a necklace with your
initials on it.”
“You’re so funny.” Luke made no attempt to keep the
sarcasm out of his voice. He sighed and turned back to
the window. “I’ve never seen Cindy wear jewelry. Not even
earrings. Besides, isn’t there a workers’ comp regulation about
jewelry and power tools?”
“Point taken. How about church?”
Luke shook his head. “She doesn’t go to mine. But I think
I know where she goes. When I took Kat to her friend’s
youth group a couple of weeks ago, I saw Cindy’s pickup in
the parking lot.”
At the mention of Cindy’s truck, both men turned their
heads to look out the window. There it was: a large black 4X4
with orange flames painted on the sides, parked in the back
corner of Mufford Brake and Muffler’s area of the lot.
“There can’t be too many of those around town,” Brent
muttered.
“Maybe that’s what I should do. Kat won’t go to church
on Sunday morning, but that friend of hers has taken her to
youth group a few times. Maybe I should check it out.”
“Good idea.” Brent raised his empty cup and tilted it
toward the garbage container. “Coffee break’s over. Back to
work.”
%
Cindy Mufford watched Luke return to his office from her
vantage point beside lift three. The large windows were great
for letting the natural light in—and for keeping an eye on
her handsome neighbor.
As happened often, Luke and his partner were involved
in a lively discussion. Cindy smiled as Brent smacked Luke in
the back of the head with his empty cup before tossing it into
the trash. Those two had a special relationship to be able to
share a business partnership for so many years and still be good
friends. Cindy glanced at her stepsister Annie and thought of
her other stepsister, Zella. Unlike Luke and Brent’s, hers was
a partnership not made in heaven.
As she worked, she couldn’t get it off her mind. When
she couldn’t stand it anymore, she sucked in a deep breath,
put her wrench down, returned to the office, and approached
Annie’s desk. “Why didn’t you make an appointment for
Luke this morning? He shouldn’t have come into the
shop just for that.”
Annie shrugged her shoulders and kept typing. “He
wanted to see you anyway. He always does.”
Cindy held her breath while she counted to ten. “I was
working. Unlike you.” She swept one hand through the air,
encompassing the papers spread on the desk. “You’re doing
your homework. You’re supposed to be closing off
month end.”
“Mom said it would be okay. The assignment has to
be turned in tomorrow.” Cindy tamped down her anger.
Annie was still going to college to follow her dream, while
Cindy had to drop out and take over the business when her
father died.
“Your mother doesn’t have the right to say that. I have a
business to run.”
“Your father gave Mom half interest, so that means she
has every right. I’ll finish the month end tomorrow at home.
By the way, be quiet when you get home tonight. Mom is
going to a seminar tomorrow and has to be in bed early.”
“What about supper? If you’re going to throw the half
interest in my face, my half interest in the house means
supper every day, not fending for myself. And please don’t
tell me Zella is cooking.”
Annie’s eyes narrowed. “Your supper will be in the fridge.
There wouldn’t be a problem if you’d gone out with Luke.”
“He asked me out for lunch, not supper.” Cindy opened
her mouth, about to tell Annie that her personal conversations
were none of her business, but stopped before the words
came out. She didn’t have a good relationship with either of
her stepsisters as it was. Snapping back would only make it
worse, if that were possible. If Melissa ever said something
good about her in front of Annie and Zella instead of the
constant criticism, things might be different. But that wasn’t
going to happen, so it was best just to keep quiet. Since she
only had half interest in the house and half interest in the
business, she couldn’t sell either one to get a house of her own,
and she didn’t earn enough money from half the business to
live on her own and pay rent. So she was stuck with them. Or
they were stuck with her.
Annie leaned back in the chair and ran her fingers
through her hair. “If you’re not going to go out with him,
maybe I will. He’s hot.”
As Annie spoke, the school bus stopped in front of the
car rental, and a girl hopped out.
Cindy watched the girl run to Luke and give him a big
hug. Luke might be hot, but he was also a single father. And
Cindy had experienced enough misery with her own blended
family to not get involved in someone else’s.
“You go right ahead.”
Annie pulled a flash drive out of the computer, scooped
up her books, and stomped out without another word.
Cindy stared blankly at the clock. All day long Annie
had been doing her homework for college on company time.
Hopefully she would keep her promise and catch up on the
company’s accounting work on her own time.
Melissa had poisoned so much between them, but at
least integrity remained. At this point, it was the best she
was going to get.
Cindy gritted her teeth and got caught up on the
paperwork until everyone scheduled to pick up cars today
had done so. She worked on the next parts order until her
two employees left then flicked on the Closed light and
locked up.
Tonight she was spared from more drama from her
stepmother and stepsisters because she wasn’t going home,
she was going out.
After she cleaned up, she was going to the church to join
the youth group for a hockey game in the parking lot. She
was normally a good player, but after the day she’d had, she
pitied the goalie.
She hopped into her truck, slammed it into first gear, and
roared off.

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