Asher Kane's Arc

Chapter 1 of 6

Asher Kane wanted one thing from the harvest festival: a few honest minutes alone with Sammy. She was the only rival worth beating, and the only person in town he couldn't stop thinking about. The problem was simple. The whole town called him trouble, and Sammy believed them. He found her behind the pie booth, counting ribbon prizes. Her purple hair was tied up, her boots scuffed, her green eyes already sharp when she saw him coming. "Let me help you carry those," Asher said. "Just us. Five minutes." Sammy snorted. "Alone? With you?" She nodded toward the crowd. A few people had already stopped to watch. "My mother warned me about boys from that garage. Half this town thinks you steal engines for fun." "I fix them." "Same hands." She picked up her box and stepped around him. "Find someone who trusts you. Then maybe I'll listen." That was the wall. Her rules required a witness, someone respected, someone who would swear Asher was more than his reputation. He had no one like that. The people who knew his good side wore leather and rode loud. So he changed his plan. If words wouldn't work, he would let the town watch him act. Minutes later a scream cut through the fair. A toddler had wandered into the pony paddock, straight toward a spooked horse rearing on its hind legs. Parents froze. The crowd gasped and did nothing. Asher moved. He vaulted the fence, scooped the child up, and spun his back to the horse. A hoof caught his shoulder. He grunted, stumbled, but held the kid tight and carried her out through the gate. The mother grabbed her daughter and sobbed thanks. The crowd stared, silent now, rearranging everything they thought they knew. An older woman near the booth, the festival chairwoman who ran the whole event, pressed a hand to her chest. "That boy," she said loudly, "just saved a life. I don't care what garage he sleeps in." Sammy had seen all of it. She lowered her box of ribbons. For the first time, she looked at Asher like a person instead of a rumor. "Shoulder," she said. "You're bleeding." She tore a strip from the booth's cloth and pressed it against the wound. Her hands were rough and quick. "Hold still, troublemaker." "Does this mean I get my five minutes?" She tied the cloth tight enough to make him wince. "It means the chairwoman vouches for you. Not me." But she didn't let go of his arm. "Come to the garage tomorrow. I'll check that cut. We talk then." The wall was gone. The whole town now knew Asher Kane was no coward. He had earned his minutes with Sammy. But as she walked off, he realized the new problem. Tomorrow she would come to the Iron Vultures Garage, into his world of leather and engines. And everything there said exactly the kind of man she'd been warned to avoid.