Accidentally in Love (7 page)

“Everyone,” Brett said, “this is Angus. He’s very happy to be here, and he’s looking forward to mastering the art of defensive driving. Mrs. G?”

“I’m Edith Goodsen. My grandson, Jeff, seems to think I’m no longer capable of driving a car, so I’m here to prove him wrong.”

Brett could feel Ellie’s gaze on him, but he didn’t need to look back at her to know what it meant. She was just as worried about Mrs. G as he was. At eighty-five, with two hip replacements behind her and unable to walk very far without help of some kind, her reflexes might not be fast enough to help her avoid possible collisions. Despite his misgivings, Brett would do what he could for her and hope for the best.

“Junjie?” Brett said slowly. “Am I saying that right?”

The young fellow next to Mrs. G laughed quietly, then quickly bowed his head again before speaking. “Say like, um,
Jay
-ung-gee. I move Canada with Mother and Grandmother one year.”

“Junjie.” Brett repeated it again, slower, until Junjie nodded. “And you’ve been in Canada for a year?”

“Yes. One year. We move Taipei. Need drive for Grandmother.”

Mrs. Goodsen reached over and patted his hand. “Your English is excellent.”

“Thank you,” he said slowly. “Miss Goodzen.”

“Call me Edith.”

“Good,” Brett answered, hoping she didn’t notice the way Angus rolled his eyes.

Then he turned and waited for Ellie to speak. The look she gave him was the same one that usually came right before she called him Dudley Do-Right, except this time her face softened and a small, guilty grin tugged at her mouth.

“I’m Ellie, I own the boutique Pandora’s downtown, and apparently I’m a menace on the road, so I’m here to be fixed.”

“What means ‘menace’?” Junjie asked.

With her cheeks glowing pink, Ellie laughed. “It means I’m a very bad driver and I need to be reprogrammed.”

“Ah,” he nodded. “Menace bad.”

It was on the tip of Brett’s tongue to correct her, but he didn’t. She wasn’t a bad driver; she never lost control of her vehicle, she didn’t cut off other drivers, she didn’t run red lights, and she always signaled before changing lanes or turning. The problem with Ellie always came down to speed. If she could learn to go a little easier on the gas pedal, she’d be damn near perfect.

Yup, he mused, letting his gaze linger on her a moment longer. Damn near perfect.

Clearing his throat, Brett pulled up a chair and opened his copy of the book. “So let’s get started. First thing we’re going to go over is the different responsibilities you have when you get behind the wheel. Angus, as a new driver, what do you think that means?”

And so began the longest eight hours of his life. Angus’s participation consisted of an occasional grunt, offered with varying degrees of enthusiasm, and snide comments about how stupid the whole thing was. Junjie was keen but easily distracted by Mrs. G, who tended to veer off the topic if Brett didn’t keep her focused.

As for Ellie, she didn’t say much, but she watched and listened intently, without a single sideways comment about him or his profession. He tried not to look over at her too much, though he could feel her watching him most of the day, even when the others were working on their street-signs sheet.

When he finally allowed himself to glance over at her, he was surprised to see her face set in a deep, studious frown.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. “Ellie?”

When she didn’t answer right away, the rest of the group stopped and looked over at her. She blinked a few times, shook her head, and cleared her throat.

“No, it’s…” She blinked again and swallowed hard. “It’s nothing.”

It didn’t look like nothing to him. In fact, it looked like a whole lot of something, but he knew better than to push it. The last thing he needed was her referring to him as Dudley Do-Right or Poncherello in front of the class.

When they finally broke for lunch, Junjie and Angus scattered, while Ellie and Mrs. G both pulled food out of their bags.

“Will you join us?” Mrs. G asked, making Ellie chuckle when Brett balked.

“Oh, I, uh, thanks,” he said, shooting a quick glance Ellie’s way. “But I think I’ll just run out and grab something.”

“Nonsense. We have plenty, don’t we, dear?”

“Plenty,” Ellie parroted behind her smirk as she slid her sandwich toward the middle of the table. “Help yourself.”

Mrs. G held out a small thermos and nodded at the lid. “Would you open that for me?”

Ellie poured some of the soup into the small plastic bowl Mrs. G set out. “It doesn’t feel very warm—can I go heat it up for you? There must be a microwave or stove around here somewhere.”

“I like it on the cool side, but maybe you could heat some up for Brett there.”

“No,” he said, maybe a little quicker than he should have. Asking Ellie to go heat him up soup was just inviting trouble, and they’d done pretty well so far. “It’s fine.”

A couple of mouthfuls of lukewarm tomato soup out of the thermos lid and half of Ellie’s BLT—that was lunch.

“Look at us,” she mumbled when Mrs. G got up to stretch her legs. “Two meals together in one week; if that doesn’t get people talking, I don’t know what will.”

“They’re probably already—”

“Oh, drat,” Mrs. G interrupted. “I thought I had some candy in my bag, but it looks like I’m all out. Is there a vending machine somewhere?”

“Will these do?” Brett reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small bag of red Swedish Berries, hands down the best candy in the world. “Consider it my contribution to lunch.”

“Lovely.”

He poured them into a napkin in his palm, held them out to Mrs. G, then moved back over to the table and held them out to Ellie, whose gaze narrowed suspiciously.

“What?” he asked. “You don’t like candy?”

“No, it’s not—” She stopped, still watching him with a bit of disbelief as she reached for some. “Never mind. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. For a second there, you had me thinking my choice in candy was going to be yet another strike against me.”

Again, he meant it as a joke, but she didn’t laugh. She didn’t even smile.

Great.

“Uh, no, Ponch. When we first met, you had just fallen off a dirtbike.”

—Officer Jon Baker,
CHiPs

Days later, Ellie still wasn’t sure what had happened during that first class. Somewhere between Understanding Intersections and Know Your Road Signs she’d found herself staring at Brett, and she had no idea why. To make it worse, he’d not only caught her staring, but the whole class had ended up staring back at her.

And then at lunch, when he pulled those red berries out of his pocket…she gave her head a brief shake. Candies? Really? Was she actually that pathetic that she’d let a handful of candies make her change her opinion of him?

Well, it wasn’t just any old candy, and he’d almost smiled when she took some, so, yeah, there was that.

A little time with the girls, that’s what she needed, and Tuesday night couldn’t come fast enough. Last week had been a little awkward because she’d sat there all night going back and forth over whether or not she should say anything about Brett having dinner at her house, and had ultimately said nothing at all. Why?

That was a damn good question. It might have been because she didn’t want them to know how easily her mom could steamroll her, or it might have been because they’d want to know what she and Brett had talked about, and it wasn’t Ellie’s place to tell them about his transfer. And then, of course, there was the fact that a simple smile from him made her do a face plant into the door.

Yeah, explain that one, she mused. In the end, the only thing she’d told them was that Ponch was the only driving instructor in town, so between class time and the twelve hours of actual driving she had to put in with him, they’d be spending a lot of time together in the coming weeks. And given her history with him, Ellie couldn’t blame them for laughing as hard as they had. Hell, even she laughed after a while.

As she’d done last week after closing up the store, she called her mom and asked if Gail wanted to join them for a drink at Chalker’s, then silently cheered when she again declined. Tuesday night was
NCIS
night, and apparently nothing got between Gail and Gibbs. Even Buck, who’d called every night since Gail arrived, had been told he’d have wait until the episode was over.

Main Street was almost deserted as Ellie headed out. Thayer and Thackery Ostlund—or T-Squared, as they were generally known—were the only ones left, and once they finished sweeping the walk in front of their hardware store, that would be it. Main Street would be tucked in and put to bed for another night.

The lights were out in both Maya’s flower shop and her apartment above Jayne’s bookstore, so she must have already left. It wasn’t unusual for Maya to go ahead of Ellie, but it was highly unusual for Ellie to check over her shoulder as she walked down the street. There were no buildings in the block and a half between T-Squared’s and Chalker’s, just a community garden and a fenced-in lot that had been empty since Ellie moved to town.

In all the times she’d walked that stretch between her store and Chalker’s, this was the first time she’d felt the slightest wave of unease.

“That’s what you get for listening to your mother go on about Gibbs’s cases,” Ellie muttered, hustling up the stairs and into the lobby of the giant log building that housed not only Chalker’s Pub but also a restaurant and hotel. She spied Maya the second she stepped into the pub, and instantly the creepy feeling disappeared.

Regan arrived a minute later, and, as usual, Shelley had already set Jayne’s drink on the table before she got there.

“Sorry I’m late.” It was the same thing she said every week, the same thing the rest of them barely even noticed anymore, but when she took the seat beside Ellie, there was something in the way she looked at her, like she…Oh, crap.

“Now that we’re all here”—Regan popped a peanut into her mouth and grinned—“something you want to tell us, Ellie?”

“No.” She shook her head over her glass. “Not particularly.”

Halfway through a sip of her wine, Maya perked right up. “Oooh, what?”

Damn it, she should have expected it from Regan. Ellie had ribbed her pretty bad when Regan first hooked up with Carter, so it wasn’t too surprising that the tables would turn if Regan got the chance. This was night-and-day different from what went on between Regan and Carter though.

It was apples ’n’ oranges. Cops ’n’ robbers. Brett ’n’ Ellie.

Ugh!

“What?” Maya repeated. Regan just kept grinning, and Jayne refused to make eye contact with anyone, which spoke volumes all on its own. “Is it a guy? Holy jumpin’…Are you seeing someone, Ellie?”

“No.”

“Yes,” Regan corrected. “Sort of. She had dinner with him last week and conveniently forgot to mention it to any of us.”

“Who?” Maya hurried to set her glass down so she could wrap both hands around Ellie’s forearm.
“Who?”

Ellie loved these three like sisters, but sometimes…

“It’s not what it sounds like,” Ellie started slowly, glaring hard at Regan before turning back to Maya, whose blue eyes were round as dinner plates. “I don’t know what Dudley Do-Right’s been saying, but this is what actually happened.”

By the time Ellie got as far as Brett offering to drop her bike at Tim’s, Maya was struggling to keep her mouth pinched tight. The second she heard that Brett had sat down at Ellie’s table the day after revoking her license, though, she wasn’t even trying to hold anything back.

Maya didn’t just laugh; she snorted. And the harder she laughed, the louder she snorted, until tears rolled down both her cheeks, taking most of her mascara with it. It wasn’t long before the rest of them were laughing along with her, including Ellie.

“So you can see why I wasn’t really keen on sharing this with you,” she said. “And why I begged my mom not to say anything at Jayne’s the other night. Karma is one coldhearted bitch, I tell ya.”

“And…and…” Maya held up her hand as she tried to catch her breath. “And now you’re taking driving lessons with him.”

The snorting started all over again.

“If I was him,” Regan quipped, “I’d fail you just on principle.”

“I know
you
would.” Still grinning, Ellie shook her head at Regan. “And thank you, I appreciate the support.”

“Hey—how many times have the three of us told you Brett’s a good guy?” Regan didn’t wait for Ellie to answer. “Uh-huh. Exactly. If anyone’s earned the right to treat you like crap, it’s him, and you can’t even begin to deny that.”

“Can we get some nachos or something?” Jayne cut in. “I’ve got a hankering.”

They’d barely given Shelley the nachos order before Regan changed the subject.

Thank God.

“Guess who’s looking for a stylist again?”

“No way,” Maya choked. “Again?”

“Yup. It’s a small indie film he’s doing with a friend of his, and they’ll be filming out in the valley for a week or so in June, so…”

“Okay,” Ellie grunted. “I have to ask. What does Carter think about all this? I mean, come on, we’re talking about
Griffin freaking Carr
here—they don’t come any hotter than him!”

“I disagree.” Regan’s grin made them all laugh. “I’ve got the hottest guy in the world sitting at home in his Death Star boxers right now, and no amount of money, travel, or fancy Oscar statues could possibly be better than that.”

“The guy’s a sleazeball,” Maya said, with more than a little bit of disgust. “Every week he’s on a different tabloid with a different chick on his arm.”

Again, Regan shrugged. “Sleazeball or not, I had an idea.”

The other three chorused an “uh-oh” as they all sat back in their chairs.

“No, this is a good one,” she laughed. “The film’s budget is like next to nothing, so I was thinking that instead of charging for my services, I’d do a swap with Griffin. I’ll be his stylist, and in turn maybe I can get him to come out and play for us in an exhibition game or something. We could charge a small admission, set up a beer garden, and donate all the proceeds to the hospital. What do you think?”

Silence hung between them for a few seconds before Maya finally spoke.

“Seriously? I think it’s brilliant.”

“I know, right?” Regan turned to Ellie. “Will Brett still be here to play in June?”

“How would I know?”

“Wait, what?” Maya frowned. “Why wouldn’t he be here?”

When Ellie didn’t answer, Regan did: “He put in for a transfer.”

“He
what
?” Maya gaped at Ellie. “Why?”

Why were they all looking at Ellie like that—like she should not only have the answer to Maya’s question but should be properly chapped about him leaving.

“What?” She took a long sip of her wine, then rolled her eyes. “It’s got nothing to do with me.”

“But…” Maya glanced over at Regan and Jayne, as though seeking another tidbit she didn’t know, then returned her gaze to Ellie. “That’s too bad.”

“Oh, my…” Ellie scoffed. “We had one dinner together, and that was only because Mom bullied us both into it, and now we’re being forced together because he’s the only instructor in town. That’s it. Nothing’s changed.”

“Yeah, but—”

“There’s no ‘but.’ ” She didn’t mean to sound harsh, but how many times did they have to have this same conversation? None of them had been arrested and charged with a crime they hadn’t committed, none of them had sat in a concrete cell while their father did nothing to help, and none of them had been made to feel like she was little more than a hysterical female whose giant ego imagined that Kurt wouldn’t leave her alone.

Thankfully, they didn’t push it any further, and the four of them spent the rest of the evening talking about Regan’s idea for the ball game and if she and Carter had made any headway on wedding plans.

They hadn’t, and neither one of them was the least bit keen on starting them. As far as they were concerned, they’d committed themselves to each other long before Carter slipped that iceberg on her hand, so nothing else really mattered, least of all a piece of paper.

“That’s great,” Maya said, her smile soft and gentle. “Really, that’s so cool.”

“Very cool,” Ellie agreed, wrapping her fingers around the stem of her glass. “I’m not gonna lie—when I see you and Carter or Jayne and Nick together, it makes me a little jealous.”

“How’s that?”

“You know, you both had that moment,” she said. “The lightning.”

“Come again?” With the nachos long gone, Regan picked up the lone olive left on the plate and swallowed it.

“The very first time you met Carter, and the first time Jayne met Nick, that was it. You all just knew.”

“Not the
first
time I met him,” Regan snorted, then shrugged guiltily. “Okay, yeah, maybe there was a little bit of lightning the first time, but it’s not like I could have done anything about it then—I was with Todd, remember?”

“Ugh,” Jayne grunted, rolling her eyes for effect. “I think we’d all rather forget about that. And as for me and Nick, it might have been lightning for me, but it sure as hell wasn’t for him.”

“Uh, yeah, it was,” Regan said. “Just ask Carter or anyone else who knew you guys growing up. Problem with Nick is his head’s so damn thick it took a while for anything to penetrate.”

“See,” Ellie laughed. “That’s great. That’s what it’s about.”

Maya frowned. “But you never spend more than half an hour with a guy, so how…Ooooh! I get it now.”

“What can I say?” Ellie lifted her hands in surrender. “I think you know pretty quick if the lightning’s going to strike or not, and if it doesn’t, why waste each other’s time trying to force it?”

“Well, jeez, Ellie,” Jayne said. “If you’d give me a little time, I bet I could find you—”

“No!”

“What about that guy you were with when you lived back east?” Regan asked. “Was he a lightning moment?”

“Nope. I loved him—before I knew what a piece of crap he was—but there was no lightning. No moment.” Ellie chuckled quietly. “Guess that should’ve been a clue right there, huh?”

“And there hasn’t been anyone else who…?” Thankfully, Maya’s snorting laugh stopped Regan’s question before she could finish asking it.

“Sometimes lightning ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.” She tipped her almost empty glass toward Ellie before cursing under her breath. “In my experience, lightning is nothing more than a warning sign of a big-ass storm brewing.”

“I wholeheartedly disagree,” Regan said with a grin. “There is, however, an exception to every rule, and I think your dickhead ex is just that.”

“What?” Maya laughed. “A dickhead or an exception to the rule?”

“Both, of course.”

The four of them clinked glasses a final time before settling their tab and heading out. As usual, Ellie walked Maya as far as her apartment, then headed down Victoria Street toward home. It wasn’t until she rounded the corner of her street that the vague feeling of unease hit her again.

What the heck?

The last of the hazy pink-and-gray dusk had almost given up to the growing darkness, but the streetlights were all on, and the McLarens’ beagle was barking itself silly, as it did every time they let it out in the yard. Across the street, Jackie was trying to herd her four-year-old twins into the house, and next door to them, big Dickie Garner sat on his front step, the burning tip of his cigarette glowing brighter when he inhaled.

Yup, everything was just as it should be. Her mom had even moved the porch chairs back to the way Ellie liked them.

“Hey, Mom.” She made sure to lock the door behind herself, then tossed her keys in the bowl on the table. “How was Gibbs tonight?”

“Even better-looking than last week.” Gail winked over the rim of her glasses. “Gabbie called. She’s got some time off, so I’m going to head out there on Thursday for a week or so. How was your evening?”

“Good.” Except for the part where she’d started to worry that the whole lightning thing might not happen for her—or, worse, that it already had and she was choosing to ignore it because of something in the past she was too stubborn to let go of.

But maybe she didn’t need the whole lightning thing. She couldn’t ask for better friends, she owned her own home, ran a successful business, and God knew there were plenty of guys out there looking for a date if she so chose, so really, she should be happy. And she was.