Rescuing Vanessa (A Little Bit of Coffee, Flowers, and Romance) by Christina Li Page A

didn’t label these as well as I should have.”
    “Great. I’ll be home in about half an hour then.”
    “See you later .”
     
    When she pressed the end key, she shook her head. Was Daniel pursuing her? No. That simply wasn’t possible. He was lonely. That had to be it. She was nothing special, simply a good friend, a mate. Well, she wouldn’t waste time waiting for him to get here. If she hurried she could get through a few boxes (labeling them better!) and figure out which she wanted to put in the attic and which she wanted to keep out and unpack.
     
    ***
     
    “Hey, beautiful, when do you get off work?” Denny flirted with the waitress at Rosalita’s, a Mexican restaurant about halfway between his hotel and Vanessa’s.
    “In about an hour,” she replied smiling.
    Denny was in a good mood after the ‘work’ he had done that morning and he needed to eat. He had some extra good stuff back in his hotel room. It would be fun to share it with this pretty girl and he deserved a reward. His day was definitely getting better.
    Vanessa had to leave sometime and then, well, she wouldn’t be coming home any time soon…
     
    ***
     
    No matter what, Daniel could not shake the sense that something was terribly wrong. “Lord, what is wrong?”
    His only answer was a strong impression to get to Vanessa as rapidly as he could. When he pulled into the driveway, he felt compelled to go over to Vanessa’s car. “All right, Lord, this is strange. Is this You, or did I drink some bad coffee this morning?”
    He went over to her car and walke d all round it. Feeling silly, he stooped down and peered underneath. Not seeing anything at first, he nearly missed the slow drip. Was there some kind of fluid leak? He reached under and touched a few drops. It wasn’t dark, but it felt oily. Laying down on his back, he slid under her car and touched her brake lines. There. He could feel a slight tear along one of the lines. Was that deliberate? She needed to get her car into an auto shop immediately. If her brakes were to go out in Chicago traffic… He didn’t even want to think about it.
    Though the sun was warm that day, he shivered . “Lord, did some nutter do this?”
     
    “Daniel, what are you doing? I saw your car in the driveway, but I didn’t see you. Why are you under my car?”
    Daniel jerked in surprise, then quickly pulled himself out from under her car. “Sorry. I felt like I should check your car and I found a problem.”
    “Re ally?” She squatted down and tried to see under the car. Daniel showed her his fingers. “What is that?”
    “I think it’s brake fluid. It’s lighter in color than oil or power steering fluid and it feels greasy.”
    She touched his fingers and felt the fluid for herself. Frightened, she crossed her arms over her chest. “What happens with that kind of leak?”
    “It’s very dangerous. Your brake s could go out. You need to have your car checked immediately.”
    “Well,” she said standing back up. “I’m glad you caught it. I guess the Lord led you to check this?” She had never been that faithful or involved at church growing up, but she had always respected her grandparents’ faith, especially when they had an unction from the Lord. She recognized the same faith at work in Daniel.
    Daniel nodded and stood up too. “Vanessa, I don’t think this was an accident. There’s a little cut in one of your brake lines.”
    Her eyes narrowed, with a slight tilt of her head, not quite able to believe him. “Why would someone do something like that? It doesn’t make sense.”
    “I don’t know. You should probably report it to the police.”
    “ I left my cell inside.” She couldn’t think clearly. What should she do? She thought she had garnered a measure of peace in recent weeks, things were looking up, she was starting to believe she actually had a future. Her body trembled like one of California’s earthquakes. Daniel put his arm around her shoulders and gently led