Red Truck Rendezvous

been raised with a silver spoon in her mouth, and he had worked for everything he had.
“I was scared,” she finally spoke.
“That I couldn’t fix your truck?”
Portia shook her head slowly. “Of you. Of how I was starting to feel about you. No matter how hard I made your life, you just kept pushing forward. You told me what you would do, and you did it. You never once backed down, and I didn’t know how to deal with that.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Pablo studied Portia’s pretty face. She was a beautiful woman, a bit of a motorhead, and a fantastic driver. For the past five weeks, she had been making him crazy in a multitude of ways.  She irritated him with her constant questions, her habit of looking over his shoulder, and the way he was attracted to her.
“Portia,” he hesitated a moment making sure she was listening. “I never promise anything I can’t deliver.”
Portia nodded. It was precisely what he had done with her truck, but what about her heart. How could she have possibly started to fall in love with the man sitting across from her when they were from two very different worlds?
Pablo lifted his hand, brushing a strand of hair from Portia’s cheek. “I was starting to kind of like you,” his half-smile froze her heart, and Portia felt her stomach turn over.
“I thought you trusted me.”
Portia dropped her gaze, guilt filling her. Teasing Pablo had started as a bit of fun, but the more she grew to know him, the more she liked him. The day he had kissed her, he had turned her world upside down, and she didn’t know what to do about it. Soon she would be hooking up her trailer and heading home. What would happen then?
“I do,” Portia’s words were a whisper. “I don’t trust myself. My father kept telling me to come home, to have a real garage take care of my truck. I’m sorry I doubted you. He has always made big decisions for me. I doubted myself.”
Pablo placed a forefinger under Portia’s chin, lifting her gaze to his. “I didn’t expect to like you,” he grinned. “As a matter of fact, when I first met you, I was sure I was going to hate you, but I don’t. Portia, you’re special. You and your truck and your little camper. You are so full of life, but I’m just a mechanic. I work long hours, I struggle to make ends meet, but I love what I do. I don’t think there is any room in my life for someone like you.”
Portia felt the tears spring to her eyes. Pablo didn’t want her in his life. She had started to fall for him, and though he had proven that she could trust him with her precious truck, she couldn’t trust him with her heart.
A glint of sunlight sparkled off of the little ornament hanging from the mirror of the truck, and Portia turned her attention to it, giving her something else to focus on.  The little truck was so much like Sweetie, it could have been her miniature, and she reached out touching it.
“Where did this come from?” she asked, trying to keep from crying.
“You remember that little box in my office the day you and Sweetie arrived? Pablo asked. “This was in it.” The mechanic studied the truck, his old suspicions rising again as something turned over in his heart. Was it so crazy that he and a girl like Portia Princeton could be together? Hadn’t stranger things happened?
“It’s perfect,” Portia smiled, as a strange warmth spread through her fingers. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was my truck. Where did it come from?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t look. It probably came from some car accessory place.” Pablo felt the lie deep inside, but he couldn’t admit to his fanciful notions concerning these ornaments and who sent them.
“Portia, turned the tiny truck in her hand, squinting to read the engraving on the bottom of it. “There’s something written here.”
When love races toward you, don’t run away.
“What do you think that means?”
Pablo felt a shiver race up his spine. Portia had all but run him over the day she had rolled into his garage. She was bright, beautiful, and right there in front of him. If he turned her away now, would he ever have another chance at finding out where this could go?
Portia turned, her aqua eyes meeting his as her heart melted, at the confused look on Pablo’s face. His words said one thing, but the look in his eyes said something different.
“That’s us.”
“I guess it is,” Pablo agreed. Throwing caution to the wind, he leaned in, kissing Portia soundly, as light danced into the truck.
That kiss, that perfect kiss under the light of the little ornament, changed everything, and Pablo felt himself surrender. Portia had captured his heart, and he wanted nothing more than to show her just how much she could trust him.
Portia pulled back, smiling shyly at the handsome mechanic. Sweetie was once more roadworthy, yet she knew she couldn’t leave. She wanted to get to know Pablo all over again.
***
“I was starting to worry,” Mr. Claus said as they watched the truck roll back to the Inn from their chairs on the tiny porch of the Christmas Cottage.
“It is no easy task getting two stubborn young people together,” Mrs. Claus replied, watching as Pablo helped Portia from the truck. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson about meddling in my business,” she added, reaching over and taking her husband’s hand.
“From now on, I promise to leave the matchmaking to you,” Chris chuckled. “It’s too stressful for an old man like me.”
Mrs. Claus leaned over, placing a sweet kiss on her husband’s cheek. So much had changed over the years, so many new and wonderful adventures. “It has been hard having to wait, hasn’t it?” she mused. “Now we know that they each have someone to love, maybe it will make the