Her top lip curled. “So the ninth circle of hell basically.”
“What were you planning on wearing to the fund-raiser?”
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I have black jeans. But...I mean, I guess I could go to the mall in Tolowa and get a dress.”
“That isn’t going to work.”
“Why not?”
“What kind of dress would you buy?” he asked.
“Something floral? Kind of...down to the knee?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re not Scarlett O’Hara,” he said, knowing that with her love of old movies, Anna would appreciate the reference. “You aren’t going dressed in the drapes.”
Anna scowled. “Why the hell do you know so much about women’s clothes?”
“Because I spend a lot of time taking them off my dates.”
That shut her up. Her pale cheeks flamed and she looked away from him, and that response stirred...well, it stirred something in his gut he wished would go the hell away.
“Why do you want to go anyway?” she asked, still not looking at him.
“I want to talk to Nathan West and the other businessmen there about investment opportunities. I want to prove that Sam and I are the kind of people that can move in their circles. The kind of people they want to do business with.”
“And you have to put on a suit and hobnob at a gala to do that?”
“The fact is, I don’t get chances like this very often, Anna. I didn’t get an invitation. And I need one. Plus, if you take me, you’ll win your bet.”
“Unless Dan and Mark tell me you don’t count.”
“Loophole. If they never said you couldn’t recruit a date, you’re fine.”
“It violates the spirit of the bet.”
“It doesn’t have to,” he insisted. “Anyway, by the time I’m through with you, you’ll be able to get any date you want.”
She blinked. “Are you... Are you Henry Higgins-ing me?”
He had only a vague knowledge of the old movie My Fair Lady, but he was pretty sure that was the reference. A man who took a grubby flower girl and turned her into the talk of the town. “Yes,” he said thoughtfully. “Yes, I am. Take me up on this, Anna Brown, and I will turn you into a woman.”
Anna just about laughed herself off her chair. “You’re going to make me a...a...a woman?”
“Why is that funny?”
“What about it isn’t funny?”
“I’m offering to help you.”
“You’re offering to help me be something that I am by birth. I mean, Chase, I get that women are kind of your thing, but that’s pretty arrogant. Even with all things considered.”
“Okay, obviously I’m not going to make you a woman.” Something about the way he said the phrase this time hit her in an entirely different way. Made her think about other applications that phrase occasionally had. Things she needed to never, ever, ever, ever think about in connection with Chase.
If she valued her sanity and their friendship.
She cleared her throat, suddenly aware that it was dry and scratchy. “Obviously.”
“I just meant that you need help getting a date, and I need to go to this party. And you said that you were concerned about your appearance in the community.”
“Right.” He wasn’t wrong. The thing was, she knew that whether or not she could blend in at an event like this didn’t matter at all to how well her business did. Nobody cared if their mechanic knew which shade of lipstick she should wear. But that wasn’t the point.
She—her family collectively—was the town charity case. Living on the edge of the community in a run-down house, raised by a single father who was in over his head, who spent his days at the mill. Her older brothers had been in charge of taking care of her, and they had done so. But, of course, they were also older brothers. Which meant they had tormented her while feeding and clothing her. Anyway, she didn’t exactly blame them.
It wasn’t like the two of them had wanted to raise a sister when they would rather be out raising hell.
Especially a sister who was committed to driving them crazy.
She loved her brothers. But that didn’t mean they always had an easy relationship. It didn’t mean they didn’t hurt her by accident when they teased her about things. She acted invulnerable, so they assumed that she was.
But now, beneath her coveralls and engine grease, she was starting to feel a little bit battered. It was difficult to walk around with a screw you attitude barely covering a raw wound. Because eventually that shield started to wear down. Especially when people were used to being able to lob pretty intense rocks at that shield.
That was her life. It was either pity or a kind of merciless camaraderie that had no softness to it. Her dad, her brothers, all the guy friends she had...
And she couldn’t really blame them. She had never behaved in a way that would demonstrate she needed any softness. In fact, a few months ago, a few weeks ago even, the idea would have been unthinkable to her.
But there was something about this invitation. Something about imagining herself in yet another situation where she was forced to deflect good-natured comments about her appearance, about the fact that she was more like a guy than the roughest cowboys in town. Yeah, there was something about that thought that had made her want to curl into a ball and never unfurl.
Then, even if it was unintentional, her brothers had piled on. It had hurt her feelings. Which meant she had reacted in anger, naturally. So now she had a bet. A bet, and her best friend looking at her with laser focus after having just promised he would make her a woman.
“Why do you care?” He was pressing, and she wanted to hit him now.
Which kind of summed up why she was in this position in the first place.
She swallowed hard. “Maybe I just want to surprise people. Isn’t that enough?”
“You came from nothing. You started your own business with no support from your father. You’re a female mechanic. I would say that you’re surprising as hell.”
“Well, I want to add another dimension to that. Okay?”
“Okay,” he said. “Multidimensional Anna. That seems like a good idea to me.”
“Where do we start?”
“With you not falling off your chair laughing at me because I’ve offered to make you a woman.”
A giggle rose in her throat again. Hysteria. She was verging on hysteria. Because this was uncomfortable and sincere. She hated both of those things. “I’m sorry. I can’t. You can’t say that to me and expect me not to choke.”
He looked at her again, his dark eyes intense. “Is it a problem, Anna? The idea that I might make you a woman.”
He purposefully made his voice deeper. Purposefully added a kind of provocative inflection to the words. She knew he was kidding. Still, it made her chest tighten. Made her heart flutter a little bit.
Wow. How annoying. She hadn’t had a relapse of Chase Underpants Feelings this bad in a long time.
Apparently she still hadn’t recovered from her earlier bit of mistaken identity. She really needed to recover. And he needed to