Page 17 of Protecting Addison
MacGyver chuckled. “Teenagers are so hard to impress these days,” he said.
“We’re realists,” Ellory countered. “Besides, everyone has phones. We can just call for help.”
“That’s all well and good…when youhaveyour phone. But what if you don’t? What if you forget it and you go for a walk and fall into a deep hole in the ground?”
“First of all, I never forget my phone. It’s surgically attached to my hip,” Ellory sassed. “And if I fell into a hole, I’d just shimmy my way up.”
“Ah, the chimney-climbing technique. Yeah, that’s one way, but that’s harder than you think,” MacGyver told her. “Especially if you’re injured. You could also move dirt from the sides of the hole to the bottom, and eventually raise the level of the bottom itself. That would take a long time though. And the risk of getting dehydrated and weak is huge.
“But take stock of what you have. Your clothes, shoelaces, shoes themselves. Anything can be used to help you dig, or give you traction, or even to make some sort of flag that you can throw up and out of the hole to let others know you’re there. Or to trap water if it rains. There are a lot of things you can use or do to help yourself.”
“That makes sense.”
“The important thing is not to sit there and feel sorry for yourself. Use your brain. Nine times out of ten, there’s something around you that can help in whatever situation you find yourself in.”
“Will you teach me how to make a bomb out of nails, a battery, and that paperclip?” Ellory asked.
He burst out laughing. “No. But we can start with how to change a tire, how’s that?”
Ellory rolled her eyes, but nodded.
MacGyver got up and opened the garage door. “I’m thinking we should use your mom’s Bug as a test subject, since that’s the car you’ll most likely be in that gets a flat tire.”
“Your car is immune?” Ellory asked with a smile.
“Smartass. No. But if we get a flat tire while we’re inmycar, there’s no way I’d make you change it.”
“Because you’re the big bad Navy SEAL, and a guy, and you don’t think a girl can do it?”
“No. Because the day I sit around and watch someone I care about do work that I’m perfectly capable of doing myself, is the day my human decency card is taken away.”
Ellory stared at him but didn’t say a word.
“But if you’re with me when I get a flat, I would certainly welcome your help in fixing it.”
“You wouldn’t want me to just sit in the car and wait for you to do it?”
“Only if that’s what you want to do. The thing is, Ellory, I’m not the kind of man who likes to sit on the sidelines. Whether it’s watching your mom cook us dinner, or doing dishes, or laundry, I want to help. Or if I see one of my teammates struggling with something, or their girlfriends or wives, ten times out of ten I’ll try to help find a solution for whatever’s happening. Be it if my team’s held captive in a foreign country by terrorists, or I’m at the grocery store and see someone haranguing one of the cashiers for no good reason. I’ll always speak up. Always do what I can to help.”
He could see the wheels spinning in the girl’s head, but he didn’t give her time to respond. “Come on, let’s get the jack out of the trunk. I’ll show you where it is, how to get the spare out, and how to change the tire.”
MacGyver didn’t actuallyshowEllory anything, he made her do it all. In his experience, that was the only way to learn something. At one point, Addison stood in the front door, shaking her head at the sight of her perfectly good tire sitting on the driveway as Ellory tightened the lug nuts on the spare she’d put on in its place. Then she smiled at MacGyver and went back inside.
It felt good that she was checking on them, and that she trusted him with both her daughter and her vehicle. MacGyver knew how much Addison loved her little VW Bug. It wasn’t the best car to have when you had four kids, but he’d never encourage her to get rid of something she loved so much. If push came to shove, MacGyver would buy her an SUV or minivan.
“Like this?” Ellory asked, bringing his attention back to what she was doing.
“Yes, exactly like that,” he praised. Then he took a deep breath and brought up what he’d wanted to talk about all evening. “Your mom said you had a tough day at school today.”
He thought there was a fifty-fifty chance that she’d blow him off. Or get mad that he’d even brought it up. But to his relief, Ellory sighed. She didn’t stop what she was doing, which was part of the reason he decided to teach her how to change a tire tonight, he wanted her hands to be busy, a distraction.
“People are jerks.”
“Yup,” MacGyver said easily, hoping if he didn’t fill the silence, she would.
And it was a good bet. Ellory kept talking.
“As if I can help it that I have Crohn’s. Or that my hair is red. Or that I’m short. Just because Chrys has boobs already and flaunts them all the time by wearing tight shirts, and I don’t, it doesn’t mean that I don’t like boys.”
