Nerds Are From Mars (4 page)

His eyes widened in alarm and he pulled back as if she’d just asked him to strip naked in the middle of Starbucks.

She sighed. This was going to be way tougher going than she’d thought.

Chapter Three

“Uh, that’s okay. I don’t think I need a birth chart.” Nolan wasn’t sure what he’d expected. Maybe he’d hoped for several more general discussions about astrology. Maybe he’d thought she’d recommend some books that he could read on his iPad so none of his colleagues would know what he was getting himself into.

He’d never dreamed she’d want to practice her craft on him, specifically. He’d seen one of those charts a long time ago – concentric circles filled with obscure symbols. In his opinion, the chart fell into the same category as fortune telling and he’d never believed in that nonsense, either.

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t charge you.”

“Do you usually charge?” Belatedly he realized that he might have insulted her with the question.

Sure enough, she bristled. “You bet I do. I gave up my day job and astrology is how I make my living. I create charts, teach classes, and write. My first book is out and it’s selling very well.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply . . . damn, I seem to be putting my foot in my mouth every two seconds. I think it’s great you’re so successful. And I hope to hell that didn’t sound patronizing, because I don’t intend it that way.”

Her expression softened. “You’re dealing with something outside your experience. I can make allowances for that.”

“Thank you.” He got the picture. This was no hobby, and if he didn’t treat her career with respect, they really would be done.

Therefore he had a choice. He could refuse to give her the information she’d requested and they’d part ways, probably forever. He’d have thrown away his only chance to get to know Darcie Ingram, the person he’d dreamed about all through high school, and – truth be told – still did dream about sometimes.

So, was he insane? Would he really let his prejudices and reticence screw him out of spending quality time with a beautiful woman who’d gone to both trouble and expense to seek him out? Hell, no, he would not.

He took a deep breath. “San Diego, 6:49 a.m., August twenty-eighth. You know the year.”

“Yes. Same as mine.” She peered at him. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? You look a little . . .”

“Nervous? That’s because I am.” He cleared his throat. “How long will it take you to make up the chart?”

“I’ll start on it now and have it finished sometime today.”

“Aren’t you going to any more lectures?”

“I might, depending on how long this takes.”

He frowned. “I hate for you to miss out on some of the sessions. You said you were interested.”

“I am. If something really calls to me I’ll give myself a break and go. But once I get into a chart, I become very absorbed.”

He admired that kind of dedication. He was the same way when he really got into his work. “But you paid to be here. You could do the chart after the conference, couldn’t you?” Putting it off would be fine with him. More than fine.

“That seems silly. I’m here. You’re here. I can do your chart today and then we can talk about it. If I wait and finish it after I drive home, I couldn’t give you an in-person reading, and that’s half the fun.”

“A reading?”

She gazed at him in silence for a few seconds. “You sound horrified. You know what? We should forget this.” She picked up her purse and her empty cup as if preparing to leave the coffee shop. And him.

He reached out to stop her and ended up grabbing her arm. He hadn’t meant to grab anything, but she was starting to leave and he didn’t want that. “Wait.”

Although she sat down again, her expression didn’t change. She’d given up on him. “Nolan, this friendship thing isn’t going to work. I don’t know why I thought it would.”

“Please don’t go yet.” Now that he was holding her arm, he couldn’t seem to take his hand away. Although she was wearing a purple long-sleeved blouse, he could feel the warmth of her skin through the material and he wanted to maintain that human connection. She also smelled terrific and leaning forward like this, he could breathe in her flowery scent much better than when he lounged back in the chair.

He looked into her eyes. “Darcie, I’m a science nerd who’s spent his life with other science nerds and I must seem like a hopeless case to you. But you said you relished the challenge.”

“I didn’t realize that the thought of me doing a birth chart reading would horrify you.”

“I’d say terrify is a better description.” He rubbed his thumb over her sleeve. “Horror and terror sound a lot alike.”

Her blue eyes registered his subtle caress with a slight brightening of her gaze. “All right, then you’re terrified. I knew you’d be skeptical, but I didn’t think you’d recoil from me as if I had horns growing out of my head.”

“What you proposed to do is totally out of my comfort zone.” He kept stroking her with his thumb because the brightness remained in her eyes and he didn’t want it to disappear.

“But you obviously don’t want to make it part of your experience.” She looked down at his hand on her arm as if considering whether to ask him to let her go. “We should stop talking about it before we ruin what little common ground we have left.”

He gripped her arm a little more firmly. “I want to make it part of my experience. I’m asking you to go back to your original plan and create my birth chart. Please.”

She glanced up. “Why should I?”

At this point he had nothing to lose, so he laid all his cards on the table. “You were my dream girl, Darcie. I never expected to see you again, but here you are, coming to meet me on purpose. I’m not entirely sure why you’ve done that, but if I’m dumb enough to drive you away, I’ll regret that for the rest of my life.”

She held his gaze for several long seconds. “Okay. I’ll do your birth chart.” The corners of her mouth twitched. “I noticed there’s a message board in the main hallway. Would you like me to tack it up there when I’m finished?”

He swallowed and released his hold on her arm. She might be teasing and she might not. This was like a mental game of chicken. He was determined not to be the first to blink. “If that’s convenient for you, then fine.”

“It’s one option.” Then her laughter bubbled forth. “Oh, Nolan, you should see your face. Talk about sheer terror!” She laid her hand on his coat sleeve. “I wouldn’t torture you by putting your chart on a public bulletin board in full view of all your colleagues. That would be mean.”

“But I didn’t tell you not to.” He didn’t fail to notice that this time she’d touched him. Too bad he had a dress shirt and a sport coat blocking the warmth of her hand.

“No, you didn’t, and you get points for that. In fact, we’ll do the reading somewhere private, maybe in my room after dinner. Would that work for you?”

“Yes.” He hoped that he hadn’t injected too much eagerness into that reply. He adopted a more businesslike tone. “That would work.” If she’d told him earlier that the reading would take place in the privacy of her hotel room, he’d have agreed to the whole program a hell of a lot faster. To spend that kind of alone time with Darcie, he’d agree to paint zodiac signs on the walls of his lab. Okay, maybe not on the walls. But he’d paint them on the fuselage of the model rocket sitting on his desk.

“Then I’ll get to work. We should exchange cell phone numbers so I can text you when I’m done.”

“You bet.” He heard himself and cringed. Once again, too eager. Oh, who was he fooling? He’d admitted that she’d been his dream girl and if he loused up this reunion he’d regret it for the rest of his life. She had to know he was still nuts about her.

They each hauled out their phones and exchanged digits. That was when it dawned on him that she’d mentioned meeting after dinner to read his chart. The conference wasn’t providing tonight’s meal, so people were free to make their own plans. Idiot that he was, he hadn’t picked up his cue.

But he could still fix that slip-up. “Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?”

She finished keying in his number and glanced up from her phone. “I’m not sure when I’ll be finished with your chart. Tell you what. If I’m running late, I’ll just order room service and let you know when I’m ready for you to come over for the reading.”

“Would it bother you if I’m there when you’re still working?”

She laughed. “No. When I’m concentrating, you could stage a football scrimmage in there and I wouldn’t notice.”

Yeah, he related to that. “Then why don’t I come to your room around six and we’ll order dinner whether you’re done or not? That way I know you’ll eat. If you’re anything like me, you might forget food completely.”

“I’ve been known to.”

“What’s your room number?”

She gave it to him and he keyed it into his phone. “I’ll have some lunch sent over in about an hour so you won’t skip that meal, either. What do you like?”

“You don’t have to do that, Nolan.”

“I don’t have to, but I will, especially since you’re creating my chart for free.”

“I should hope I’m doing it for free, since I’m forcing it on you.”

“I’ll be a better man for facing my fears. Now tell me what you want for lunch or you’re liable to get something I like and you hate.”

“Highly unlikely. I’m a Sagittarius, so I like nearly everything, whereas I’m guessing that you are –”

“Don’t even say it.” His last girlfriend had ridden him unmercifully about being a picky eater. “And I’m better than I used to be. Harcourt is forever taking me to ethnic restaurants to, as he says,
educate my palate
.”

“Let me take a wild guess. Fagan Harcourt was born sometime between July twenty-second and August twentieth.”

“Good guess. August tenth.”

“If I’d been wrong on that, I’d have to get him to let me do his chart to see where I messed up. He’s such a classic Leo.”

Nolan had a moment’s panic. “You’d . . . uh . . . ask to do his chart?”

“I absolutely would if I had the opportunity, and I can guarantee he’d get a kick out of it because the chart would be all about him. Leos love that kind of attention.” She patted Nolan’s arm. “Don’t worry. I can tell the people who think astrology’s cool from those who’d rather have a colonoscopy than have their chart read.”

“Then God knows why you approached me.”

“Intuition.”

“About what?” He looked into those blue eyes fringed with dark lashes and almost had to pinch himself. He’d never in a million years imagined he’d be sitting in a Starbucks exchanging long, meaningful glances with Darcie Ingram.

“I saw that flyer and knew I needed to be here this weekend and make contact with you. The obvious reason was to clear my guilty conscience about high school, but I don’t think that’s the only thing going on. I’m . . . well, I have some psychic abilities.”

“You do?” He’d never known someone personally who claimed to be psychic for real. People joked about it, but she didn’t seem to be kidding.

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

“Does that freak you out?”

“It doesn’t freak me out. I just have trouble accepting that someone really is psychic. So many things can be explained if you look at them logically.”

She nodded. “That’s certainly true. Let’s not get into the whole psychic thing right now. I think having me work on your birth chart is enough woo-woo for the time being.”

“Woo-woo? Isn’t that an insulting term?”

“It’s like most insults. I can use it because I’m part of the woo-woo crowd, but you probably can’t without ticking me off.” She smiled at him.

“I’m going to need an instruction booklet before this is over.”

“Don’t worry.” She stood. “I promise there’s no test at the end.”

He levered himself out of his chair. “I’ll walk you to your room.”

“That’s sweet, but totally unnecessary. I’m sure you have places to go and people to see. You’re a big deal at this conference.”

He glanced at the time on his phone and sure enough, he had promised to attend an autograph session that was almost over. Now that he was writing his own book, he realized how important those promises were. “Actually, there is something that I need to –”

“Say no more. See you at six tonight.” She hurried away.

Although he had to take off, too, he gave in to the urge to watch her leave. She was a knockout in her black designer jeans, heels, and that silky purple blouse that draped her breasts so elegantly. He still had trouble believing that he’d had a coffee date with Darcie Ingram, which would be followed with in-room dining tonight.

And she’d have his chart there. He hoped that he’d be able to get his mind around the idea of that and not inadvertently insult her again. He began to appreciate the difficulties of hooking up with someone who had a different culture or religion.

Her field of study was diametrically opposed to his. But damn it, she’d come to Space Expo specifically looking for him. That was flattering, and he was determined to make that work out well for both of them.

He made it to the autograph session before it was over and bought a book from one of Bill’s friends from JPL. Bill was there, too, so they walked to the main ballroom together for the scheduled lunch featuring a panel of astronauts from some of the early space missions.

Along the way they passed two Jedi Knights, a group of Vulcans, and a very convincing Iron Man. Finally Bill commented on it. “Does this feel weird to you?”

“Sort of, but in another way it’s like old times at Comic-Con. I’ve been thinking of going to some of the fan events this afternoon.”

“Me, too, although it seems like playing hooky to ditch the heavy stuff to score autographs from movie stars. My kids would love me forever if I did that, though.”

“Then we’ll do it.” Nolan grabbed the excuse to do what he wanted to in the first place. “We’ll split up and stand in different lines so we can get some memorabilia for your kids.”

“Excellent.” Bill grinned. “I keep alternating between serious scientist guy and Trekkie guy. I never really grew out of that, and now my kids are into it.”

“Because you encouraged them.”

“I did.”