You can't be a mechanic or a spy if you don't catch even the minute details. Warmth surges up her arm where he touched her for a moment, and Gaby goes ahead and lets herself revel in it. It's human nature, after all, even if its from a lumberjack of a man.

"Competency? I believe you must mean gullible." Don't think she didn't catch the slip in his words, either. So he might be a local and just takes work elsewhere in the world. A long lost son.

"I was doing just fine aside from getting turned around. I would have made it by dark, thank you very much." A sniff and a huff, she starts to move faster towards his directions, glad for the close proximity.

See? She was doing better than she'd thought.