Hartley Bryant caught one look at the new garage manager and complete forgot what she was doing. The wrench in her hand clanged to the floor, breaking her from her trance.

"That good, huh?" came a teasing voice from under the next car over.

"Shove it, Dean," Hartley bit out. She could feel the blush heating her cheeks as she went back to work on the sedan.

Dean's comments didn't keep her eyes from glancing towards the manager's office every few minutes. Working at Smith's Garage was a local gig, but it paid well. Fred Smith, the garage's owner, had taken the place over from his father – the whole thing went back generations. Fred was now the owner of a very successful chain of clubs across the country, which allowed him to treat his employees at the garage very well.

When Fred came out of the manager's office with the new guy in tow, Hartley wasted no time pushing the stray hair that had peeked out from under her ball cap behind her ears and grabbing for a rag to wipe the grease from her hands.

"Dean, Hartley, this is Cole Trenton," Fred introduced. "He's going to be the new garage manager. Easier on me – allows me to travel more for the clubs. He'll be a go between for all of us, so try and get a hold of him first before you call me. Not that I don't love checking in with you guys."

"Not at all," Hartley excused. "You're a busy man."

Fred smiled at Hartley. "I am. With that, in fact, I'm off again. I'll leave you here, Cole, to get acquainted."

Hartley watched Fred leave until she realized Cole was waiting to speak with her. He held out a hand and gave her a smile that immediately hatched butterflies in her stomach.

"Like he said, I'm Cole. You're … Hartley?"

She nodded. "Hartley Bryant. It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise. I'm looking forward to working with you."

Hartley just smiled coyly at him. She was trying to figure out what she could say next that wouldn't make her sound like a complete idiot when Dean sauntered over, smug look on his face and grease still smeared on his hands.

"If it isn't Cole Trenton," Dean greeted, shaking hands with the new manager. "How've you been?"

"Not bad," Cole replied. "Good to see you, Winchester."

Hartley raised a brow at the exchange; a person wouldn't need to be clairvoyant to sense the awkwardness in this transaction. Cole made to get away quick once the niceties between him and Dean were done, but looked over his shoulder and shot Hartley a smile before disappearing back into the office.

"I take back what I said," Dean told her. "My advice is not to even look in his direction."

Hartley rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Why? Because I'm a chick mechanic and he's a businessman?"

Dean just shook his head. "Forget it. I tried."

He went back to his work, and Hartley did the same. She was a little concerned about Dean's suddenly brash behavior; he hadn't acted like that towards her before. She would even venture to call him a friend. Hartley's younger cousin, who may as well have been like a sister, Florence, was married to Dean's best friend, Castiel Charles. It meant they had crossed paths quite a lot over the last several years, and she felt like she knew Dean pretty well.

No worries, she decided. I'll ask him about it at dinner tonight.

Castiel looked around at the farm house he and his wife, Florence, were working on renovating. With any luck, it would be done and ready by the time the twins arrived.

"You look concerned," Flo said, coming up behind him and rubbing his shoulders. She would have gotten closer to him, if her pregnant belly had allowed.

Castiel clicked his tongue. "I don't remember anything about the wiring being torn out in this ceiling. Do you think the contractors forgot to mention it to us?"

Flo just shrugged, moving in front of her husband so he could pull his arms around her waist and run his hands over her stomach. "Maybe. I don't think it'll be much of a fix."

"You're probably right," Castiel sighed, setting his chin on her head. "Should we head home then?"

"That would be nice. I'd like to get a nap in before everyone comes over for supper tonight."

As they walked out to their car, Castiel snapped his fingers. "Speaking of that, I heard back from Gadreel. He'll be there tonight."

"Perfect," Flo grinned. "I do enjoy a good matchmaking opportunity."

Laughing, Castiel backed the car out of the gravel driveway and reached for his wife's hand. "Oh, Flower. If Gadreel and Phedra are going to get together, you should let it happen on its own. They're two adults who, I'm pretty sure, are well aware of what they want in a significant other. If they recognize that in each other –"

"Then they'll figure it out, I know, I know," Flo sighed. "I just like seeing people I care about happy. If it's happy with each other, then even better!"

Castiel nodded. "I get that. But remember what happened when you tried to set up Hartley and Dean at the wedding?"

"That wasn't necessarily intentional; he was your best man and Hartley was my maid-of-honor. It just worked out that way."

"Not super well, I'll remind you."

"It's better now. They're friends."

"Kind of."

Flo reached over to pinch her husband's side. "All right, all right, Professor. Get me home so I can nap, please. Your children are already wearing me out."

Castiel just chuckled as he sped up on the highway, anxious to get his beloved wife home and comfortable.

Andell sighed as she left her last class for the spring semester. She had a week off until the summer semester started, and she was looking forward to heading home for the time being. She missed her sisters and her parents. A few days back at home before coming back to enjoy a summer semester of Constitutional Law and Commercial Law. Anything to get through law school just a little bit faster.

She was lugging a stupidly heavy duffel over her shoulder on her way to the car when two students came running out of the dorm building behind her, knocking her to the ground in the process. Her hands were scraped and her knee was bleeding. Thank goodness she'd fallen with her bag under her head.

"Silver linings," Andell sighed to herself. She sat up, inspecting her knee and groaning. She really didn't want to go back to her room for a band-aid.

"You okay?"

She looked up to see a hand reached out to her, and a very tall man smiling down at her. Andell brushed her hands off as well as she could and accepted his hand. He pulled her to a standing position like it was nothing.

"Thanks. These two jerks …" Andell waved her hand in the direction they had run, but then trailed off when they were nowhere to be seen.

"I saw the fall," the man admitted. "Wasn't close enough to stop it from happening. Can I help you patch up that knee?"

Andell thought that over. Her hands were burning a little, and it might be nice to have the help. This guy didn't seem too bad.

"I'm Andell Scott."

"Sam," he replied, taking her bag from her shoulder. "Are you a TA or …?"

"Second year," Andell corrected. "You?"

"Not a second year. Are you comfortable going to your place?"

Andell shrugged. She was more than capable of defending herself. "Sure. I'm on the second floor."

They made small talk as they walked up to Andell's room. She let them in and Sam followed her to the bathroom. She got out some bandages and a washcloth, showed Sam where her other first aid stuff was, and took a seat on the counter.

"Going home for the summer?"

"For the week. I'm taking a couple of classes this semester. Constitutional Law and Commercial Law."

"Wow. You're ready to get this done."

Andell snorted. "That's the truth."

"Who do you have?"

"Ritter for Constitutional and Preston for Commercial."

Sam nodded. "I've had them. They're good."

"Good to know."

Sam finished his task in silence, then helped Andell off the counter. He waited for her to lock her room again, and carried her bag to her car.

"Thanks for your help, Sam. Maybe I'll see you around. If not over the summer, then maybe the fall semester."

"Maybe," Sam smiled, shaking her hand. "Be careful out there, Andell. I really do want to see you again."

Taken a little bit by surprise, Andell felt her cheeks heat up. "See you around."

Hartley and Dean were finishing up their respective jobs so they could close the garage, get cleaned up, and head over to Castiel and Flo's – separately – for supper.

Hartley was tightening a screw when Cole greeted her, walking over from the office. It spooked her and caused the screwdriver to slip across her knuckles.

"Damn it!" She immediately grabbed for the closest rag and applied pressure on her hand.

"Sorry about that," Cole winced. "Didn't mean to spook you."

"It's fine," Hartley assured. "What's up?"

"Just leaving for the day, wanted to tell you thanks for your help in teaching me some of the ropes. Do you want some help with your hand?"

"Nah, it's just a scrape. Thanks, Cole."

She watched him go before groaning and taking a look at her hand. Dean set down what he was working on and went over to where Hartley stood.

"Damn, Hart. That's rough. Come here."

He held her hand carefully as he pulled her into the small bathroom off the garage. Dean turned on the warm water, testing it first before putting her hand underneath it and gently cleaning away the cuts on her knuckles.

"Ouch! That hurts, you ass!"

Dean rolled his eyes. "You know how filthy that screwdriver is? Not to mention you put that nasty, greasy rag on it. Gotta clean it out before we bandage it."

Hartley watched him carefully as he cleaned up her knuckles before spreading some antibiotic ointment over her cuts and securing a band-aid over the top.

"What do you have against Cole?" Hartley asked.

Dean shook his head. "Nothing. Upstanding guy."

"I don't believe you."

"Yeah, well, what do you know?" Dean smirked. "Take off for the night. I'll finish up what you were doing and see you over at Cas's."

"You sure? Dean, I don't mind finishing up what I was doing."

He rolled his eyes. "Don't make me regret offering. Get out of here. I'll see you later."

"Thanks."

Hartley hesitate for a moment. Dean went back to the cars without even looking back at her. They had never been enemies, unless you counted that brief period after Castiel and Flo's wedding when Hartley wanted nothing to do with Dean, but they'd never been close friends. Just friends. Something about him cleaning her hand though … Hartley couldn't put her finger on it.

Phedra Singer took a deep breath as she parked in front of Flo's house. Her friend had given her fair warning that she was on a matchmaking mission. While Phedra wanted to dismiss it as her friend's hormones flying the plane, she couldn't help but hope maybe there'd really be something to this matchmaking mission. All she knew, though, was that Gadreel was Castiel's brother and did something for the police department … or something like that.

So, she'd dressed in cute shorts and a simple tank top, put on fresh make-up, and braided her hair to keep it from getting sweaty in the Kansas heat. She even used a spritz of her favorite body spray. She saw Andell's car in the driveway, but other than that, was pretty sure she was the first to arrive.

Until Castiel and Gadreel came from behind the house, laughing together. Phedra had met Gadreel once, briefly, at their wedding. He'd been called out from the reception for some work thing, and Phedra hadn't thought much of it at the time. Now, she wished they would have had the chance to get to know each other better; she was suddenly nervous about attending a supper with a group of people she'd been around a million times.

"Phedra, hey," Castiel greeted warmly. "This is my brother, Gadreel. Gadreel, you remember Phedra?"

"I do," Gadreel smiled. "Nice to meet you again."

"Likewise. Is Flo inside?"

"She is. We'll be in shortly," Castiel answered.

Phedra smiled at them before going inside. She found Flo and Andell in the kitchen; Andell was on the counter, telling Flo about some guy she had met on her way to leave campus, and Flo was placing a loaf of garlic bread in the oven.

"Should you be that close to an oven when you're … you know, protruding like that?"

Flo looked up and chuckled. "It's fine. I'm careful. I'll let one of you girls, or Hartley, take it out of the oven. Andell, start over. Tell Phedra about Sam."

Phedra couldn't believe it. She was at the point that she had to give in to her friend's matchmaking schemes to possibly find a guy. Andell found one who sounded pretty great without even trying.

Before they went inside, Gadreel asked Castiel about Phedra. "She's the third sister, right?"

"No, you're thinking of Hartley. And she's not actually a sister. Her mom passed away when she was really young, so it was just Hartley and her dad. Flo's mom helped out a lot, so Hartley was at their house pretty often. Flo and Andell consider her a sister, which can get confusing for some."

"And Phedra?"

"Right," Castiel smirked. "Phedra is a mutual friend of all four girls. She works in public relations for a radio station in town. And yes, my wife is, indeed, trying to set the two of you up."

"Am I supposed to be disinterested?"

Castiel shrugged. "Not if you're interested."

"I'm interested in knowing more," Gadreel admitted.

"Well, I'm sure Flo will be very happy to hear that," Castiel chuckled. "Let's get inside. Dean and Hartley will be here soon, and we'll all be ready to eat."

The brothers walked into the house then, Castiel giving his wife a mischievous smirk, and Gadreel anxious to know plenty more about Phedra.