THE TROUBLE with blinding flashes of inspiration, Molly McGillivray decided as she scowled into the innards of the ancient Jeep she was removing the carburetor from, was that they were never in oneâs comfort zone.
If they were, of course, they wouldnât be blinding flashes of brilliance. They would be âho hum, yes, of courseâ notions that one would have thought of long ago.
The other trouble with blinding flashes of inspiration was that, once you thought of them, they wouldnât go away.
They were so outrageous, so perverse, so downright awful that you couldnât forget them!
They nagged and pestered and generally haunted you all the livelong day.
Like today.
Ever since her longtime fiancé, Carson Sawyer had come home last month, Molly had been wracking her brain for some subtle way to make him wake up and remember that they were, in fact, engaged.
Well, not exactly remember. She knew Carson remembered. It was handy to remember. Having a fiancée allowed him to keep his attention on business and kept the fortune hunters at bay. It was âusefulâ to be engaged, heâd once told her cheerfully. And back then sheâd been quite happy to agree.
It had been useful to her, too.
But that was then. Enough was enough. Theyâd been engaged for years. It was time to do something about itâlike get married.
Try telling Carson that.
Actually she had tried. But Carsonâs mobile phone had rung the first time sheâd broached the subject. And heâd had an emergency appointment another time. And the last time heâd been home, well, he certainly hadnât noticed what she wanted him to noticeâthat they werenât getting any younger, that everyone else was married and having kids and it was time they did, too.
She didnât suppose things like starting a family were high on his list of priorities. She remembered well enough what her brother Hugh had said when sheâd asked him what had attracted him to Syd, his wife.
âSex,â heâd said.
Syd had punched him.
âSheâs a great housekeeper, too,â heâd added with a grin, dodging a second blow and then circling around to catch her in an embrace. âBut I think it was mostly how unbelievably sexy she was.â Heâd nuzzled her ear. âStill is,â heâd added with a wink, reaching down to pat her four-month-pregnant belly. Syd had rolled her eyes, but the light of love had been in them, and Molly knew the feeling was mutual.
It was true, Molly realized. Sex did play a part. A big part. And her sister-in-law had sex appeal in spades. Sydney had probably been born with a come-hither look in her eyes. Molly figured sheâd been born with safety lenses over hers so she wouldnât get grit in them when she worked on engines which she did every day as the mechanic at Fly Guy Island Charters, the business she owned with Hugh.
Molly loved the business. She loved the engines. But men didnât notice women who worked on engines. Not as women, anyway.
And they certainly didnât have sexual fantasies about a woman who could take apart a carburetor and put it back together with no pieces left over. They didnât want to take her to bed and make hot sweet love to her. They didnât want to set a wedding date.
It didnât even occur to them. To him. To Carson.
So she needed help. She needed to get his attention. To appeal to him on the same basic elemental level that Syd had appealed to Hugh. She needed to become a sexy, alluring woman.
Something of a stretch, she thought grimly, when she was generally covered in motor oil and wearing her brother Hughâs T-shirts and steel-toed boots.
But she was willing to work. She just didnât know where to start.
Or she hadnât.
Until last night.
Last night sheâd gone to the Grouper, the islandâs most âhappeningâ watering hole and had sat at one of the tables by the wall, watching the âhappeningsââall the flirting and teasing and male-female innuendo stuffâtrying to get an idea of how to do it. From a distance she didnât have a clue.