I own nothing apart from Amber and Riley and the plot!!!

Chapter Four

Ever since I had Riley I hadn't even come close to liking another guy, much less having any attraction to any. I wouldn't let myself get close to anyone, my first concern and priority was to Riley. But meeting Embry changed that; I couldn't understand it but I literally felt the connection.

Yet I didn't want to get my hopes up; I'd only just met the guy. He could be a loony for all I know but even that thought didn't seem to kill some of the attraction. I just had to keep reminding myself to wait and get to know the guy.

I knew we weren't going to leave this place unless it was necessary. Both of us already loved it here; Riley had made a friend and I had found a good job.

I didn't need to worry about driving to Emily's to pick up Riley; she had offered to drive him home just before I finished work. I don't think Sam even knows that she's looking after Riley but I guess she must have said something because Matt apparently talked about him non stop.

As I pulled into our drive way Emily was waiting in the car with the two kids out the front of the house. Riley grinned when he saw me and I smiled back before turning to Emily.

"Do you want to come in for a drink?" I asked, chuckling when I saw Matt nodding his head pleadingly.

Emily chuckled as well, taking off her seat belt, "I guess I could do with a cup of tea."

Matt and Riley cheered and jumped out of the car, running up the driveway. "Come on mom. I want to show Matt my drawing book." He said hopping from one foot to the other anxiously.

I stared at him in shock; Riley never showed anyone his drawings apart from me. He was far too shy. I realise now the how good it had been to organise this with Emily; I'd never seen him so happy before.

The second I unlocked the door the two boys bolted inside, Matt following Riley to his bedroom and I could hear their chatter from in the kitchen. I led Emily into the kitchen, filling the kettle up and flicking it on. I busied myself with preparing the cups while Emily took a seat at the table.

"How was your first day?" She asked as I handed her a cup.

I smiled, "It went really good. The guys are hilarious."

"Don't ever let them convince you to cook for them." Emily warned me with a grimace.

I laughed, "I wouldn't dream of it. It's almost horrifying how much they eat. I still can't believe that they close the shop up for lunch; Embry thought I was nuts when I asked him about that."

Emily tried to look indifferent, "So what do you think of Embry?"

I blinked, wondering where the question had come from. Could he have possibly been saying something about me? Showing interest, perhaps? I shook those thoughts away as I noticed Emily studying me carefully.

A blush settled over my cheeks as I replied, "He's nice." I said vaguely.

"Just nice?" She teased.

The blush deepened, "Well I don't really know him, yet."

She seemed pleased by this answer and let it drop. After a few silent moments she asked quietly, "Are you going to tell them about Riley?"

I looked down, "I don't know."

"Why shouldn't you tell them?" Emily asked.

"Look, we've moved around a lot and nearly all of the places we've been to have treated us like outcasts because of me being a young single mother. I just don't want to put him through that yet; I don't know how they'll react." I said desperately trying to make her understand.

She put down her cup and looked at me seriously, "Amber, I can't pretend like I know what you've gone through but I do know those boys and none of them would think any less of you for having a child, especially Embry."

"Mommy, look at my drawing."

We turned our heads to see Matt running out excitedly, a piece of paper in his hand and Riley trailing behind him with a grin. Emily took the picture and I got a glimpse of a large dog.

"That's my dad." Matt said proudly.

Emily froze for a second and then laughed but something sounded off. She picked up her bag and put her hand on his shoulder, "Well we had better get going. We'll see you tomorrow Riley. Goodbye Amber."

"Bye Emily thanks again. Bye Matt." I called, watching with confusion as they walked out, Emily whispering something to Matt who looked a little guilty.

"So what do you want for dinner?" I asked Riley when we had re-entered the house.

He sat on a chair thinking, "Hm, what about spaghetti?"

"Spaghetti it is."

After dinner Riley went to bed after a shower and I spent the remainder of the night thinking of Embry. Even as I went to bed I knew he would pop up in a dream.

As it was I didn't get a great night sleep, my mind filled with unrelenting thoughts of a certain mechanic. Naturally my mood was terrible as I drove to work and when I got there I forced it away. I wouldn't let my emotions interfere with work.

I smiled at Jacob as I settled at my desk, "Good morning Jacob."

"Good morning. You are such a life saver you know that, right?" He said.

"You guys were doing okay without me," I said, barely able to conceal my grin.

He gave me an incredulous look, "You can't be serious. You managed to book in eight customers yesterday while they usually hang up on us."

I couldn't help it; I started laughing, "That's because you don't have people skills. Well, Sam might but the rest of you don't."

"I have people skills." Jacob said, sounding offended.

"Professional people skills." I corrected, still giggling.

"What's going on here?"

We looked over at the sliding door to find Embry leaning in the doorway. He was…glaring at Jacob and when I looked over at Jacob to see how he was taking this he had barely managed to hide his grin.

Weird boy.

"Jacob's trying to face the reality that he doesn't have professional people skills." I said, smirking at the now pouting Jacob, "How are you Embry?" I asked smiling.

He relaxed then, smiling back, "I'm pretty good. I take it we didn't scare you away then?"

"If you're trying to scare me away then you might want to remember the fact that you'll have to do my job if I leave." I said with a small shrug, watching in amusement as both their faces turned horrified.

"Don't leave please!" Embry said pleadingly.

Jacob swatted him over the head, "Why did you give her the idea to leave, idiot? Now we'll have to chain her to the desk."

I laughed, sitting down, "No one's chaining me to the desk. I'm here to stay boys."

"Jacob, Embry come in here and stop flirting with Amber, Embry." Jared shouted, his head grinning from the other side of a car.

Embry blushed and both grudgingly went back inside, looking like little children that had been smacked for stealing a cookie. It was a fairly busy morning, the phone ringing for emergency bookings and I had to double check with Sam for some late night bookings.

When the clients came in to drop of and collect their cars I saw them nodding and smiling at Sam as they looked at me. When Sam came back inside after shaking their hands he gave me a giant smile that I didn't know anyone was capable of.

"I think I may have to listen to Embry and Jake's suggestion of chaining you to your desk if you think of leaving. That's the sixth customer that have commented on the best customer service they've had at a mechanics." He said happily.

I blushed and gave a small shrug, "Just doing my job. I've learnt it's easier to be nicer to customers then annoy them."

The rest of the day past quicker than I thought possible and just as I was packing up my desk Embry came out, covered in oil and grease. I wrinkled my nose at the oil and he laughed.

"I'm guessing now wouldn't be a good time to hug you." He said lightly, his chocolate eyes twinkling.

I blushed, trying to keep the thought of Embry being that close to me out of my mind – and failing successfully, "I'd probably whack you over the head with a batt if you tried." I said jokingly. "I'll see you tomorrow." I said, smiling shyly at him and slipping past.

The rest of the week seemed to go similarly like this and my interactions with Embry seemed to become more frequent. We were flirting shamelessly and I was constantly getting knowing grins from the rest of the guys whenever I even looked at Embry. Customers kept on coming in and I tried not to focus on a certain someone while I dealt with some of the more difficult customers.

Yet I could still feel his gaze on me while we were both in the middle of the work and I would have to force myself not to turn in his direction otherwise I wouldn't hear the end of it from Jared, Quil and Jake. Even Paul was starting to lighten up and joke around with me.

However it was finally Friday and everything was quiet for the day. There were only a few cars booked in this afternoon and all of them had already been paid for. As usual I got there on time and was currently turning everything on.

"Hey Amber."

I looked up to find Paul, Jared and Embry standing in front of me, all grinning. I looked at them suspiciously, wondering what they were possibly planning or what they had done. Multiple pranks came to mind; I had seen them teaming against Quil, Sam and Jacob and I hoped I wouldn't be brought into anything.

"Hello. What are you three up to?" I asked, trying to keep the suspicion out of my voice.

They noticed however and their grins turned innocent, "We were just wondering if we could possibly have your advice on something." Jared said rocking back and forth on his heels with his hands behind his back. Why didn't he just start whistling while he was at it?

"What?" Now I didn't bother hiding the suspicion; whatever they were planning wasn't good.

"Would it be more...satisfying to get revenge by, say, glad wrapping the toilet bowl when three unmentionables have been drugged laxatives?" Paul asked with a voice filled with so much innocence I thought I was talking to a child.

I blinked, stunned, "I'm not going to be one of those three unmentionables, right?" I asked wearily, looking at my coffee sitting next to me harmlessly.

"Of course you're not one." Jared said exasperatedly, rolling his eyes for effect.

I bit my lip trying to conceal my grin, "Then I would agree with that being a suitable act of revenge. But I had no part in this." I said warningly, looking at them pointedly.

As if reading each other's mind they all straightened and saluted me, "Yes ma'am." They barked.

I shook my head; waving them away with my hand, "Off with you. Don't cause too much chaos."

They all grinned and gave one final mock salute before filing out the sliding door, Embry turning back now and then to just look at me. A blush filled my cheeks as he settled for just walking backwards, occasionally glancing behind to see how close he was to hitting the window.

Yet the last time he glanced behind he didn't notice Paul reaching forward to close the door silently, both Jared and Paul indicating to me to keep quiet. I wanted desperately to warn Embry and I watched as he gave me a final look before turning…and running dead straight into the sliding door.

I winced as I heard him growl and the door flew open. I watched from my spot as Embry chased the two of them around the car, disappearing one moment and appearing the next much like in some corny comedy. It was quiet for a moment and then I saw Paul pop up out of nowhere, Embry jumping on him a second later when his spot was discovered.

Sam arrived then, shouting at them and I saw their current argument vanish from their eyes as they studied Sam evilly. My laughter resurfaced and I tried to hide it behind my coffee as Sam turned his attention on me. Behind his back Jared and Embry were pulling faces at Sam and I had to look away before I took a sip of coffee.

I didn't see them for the rest of the morning, sitting at my desk and swinging my chair around in complete boredom. I had done everything, and I mean everything that I could think of to pass the time and make me look busy. I had given up, and as I got off my seat I headed into the work area.

It was surprisingly quiet and as I walked around to the front of the only car in the garage I found Embry underneath. When he noticed me he rolled out, grinning and ushered me over to the staffroom. We hid by the door, watching as Jacob made a pained expression and then bolted for the bathroom. I went to say something but Embry shoved his hand over my mouth and he didn't move it, both of us listening for…

"WHO THE FUCK PUT GLAD WRAP ON THE TOILET BOWL?"

We burst out into laughter and ran from the room, both relieved to see that Sam and Quil had gone to get lunch. We heard Jacob continue to swear and eventually stumble out of the bathroom and into the garage.

"EMBRY! DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT THERE WAS GLAD WRAP ON THE TOILET BOWL?" Jacob bellowed, the veins on his neck protruding and looking ready to pop.

Embry looked at him as though he was crazy, "Jacob why the hell would I put glad wrap on the toilet bowl? Are you feeling okay?"

Jacob's face was one shade away from purple and when he looked over at me I flicked back to the computer. I began to feel nervous as I heard the sliding door slam open, the window rattling dangerously. I turned to Jacob, shrinking slightly when I saw his clenched jaw and his veins close to bursting. He was shaking slightly and I wondered for a moment if he had a condition.

"Jake, Paul and Jared are back; maybe one of them did it. She's been in here the whole time, back off." Embry said, coming up behind him and putting a hand on his shoulder.

That seemed to bring Jacob back to reality and he glanced at me apologetically, "Sorry Amber; I haven't been feeling well." He said looking guilty.

"That's okay Jake; I hope you feel better." I said meekly, watching as he turned and left the room. I gave Embry a grateful smile, "Thanks, I thought he was gonna break something." I admitted.

He laughed but it sounded off, "Yeah, he can get a bit cranky when he's not feeling well but nothing serious would ever happen."

I watched as he gave me a final smile and slipped out of the room. I sighed and leaned back in my chair; it had certainly been one hell of a week.