Talk Nerdy to Me (10 page)

Eve thought of her notes,
but they could still turn up somewhere. "No," she said and decided to
change the subject. "Did you decide for or against the cell phone?"

"Against."
Eunice had piled her blond hair in a fancy arrangement on top of her head, and
she wore a slinky red lounging outfit. "I think this should do the
trick."

Eve
surveyed the generous display of cleavage. "You know, I always wondered
exactly what they meant by a plunging neckline. Now I get it."

"This
sucker plunges like Niagara Falls, doesn't it? If I move just right you'll get
a glimpse of the diamond I have in my belly button. Well, cubic zirconium, to
be honest, but if somebody gets close enough to check, they're going to be
interested in something besides gem quality." Eunice glanced at Eve's
burden. "Sarah down at the Press 'n' Go probably paid off her Toyota after
you picked up that load."

"This
is an accumulation. My washing machine's broken."

Eunice
leaned against the wall and pulled off her boots. "I'm surprised you
haven't fixed it yourself." She took a pair of jeweled sandals from her
purse and slipped them on her feet. "You being so mechanical and
all."

"Fixing
broken things is boring. Making something new that didn't exist before—now that
I can get into."

"So I've
noticed."

Eve
shifted the weight of her dry cleaning. "I'd better put these away. Make
yourself at home." The comment was superfluous for Eunice, who always did
that, anyway. "I'll be right ba—" The doorbell rang, and this time,
she figured it would be Charlie and Rick.

In
case she had any doubts on that subject, Eunice reacted by racing to the
peephole and sucking in her breath.

"It's them?" Eve
asked.

"He
is so gorgeous that if I were a nun, I'd leave the order for him."

"Fortunately
for you and the Catholic church, you're not a nun." Eve was delighted with
Eunice's choice of guy. That left Charlie free and clear. "Are you going
to open the door?"

"Yes."
Eunice stepped back and grabbed her purse from the floor. Taking out a breath
spray, she gave her mouth a couple of shots before dropping the spray back in
her purse and balancing the purse on top of her boots. Then she spit on her
fingers and twirled them around the tendrils of hair that had been allowed to
hang artfully from her upswept do.

"Are
you going to open the door anytime in the near future?"

The
doorbell rang again. Eunice glanced over at Eve and smiled. "Is there
lipstick on my teeth?" she asked without changing expression.

"Not
that I can see." Eve's glasses were smudged from her frantic efforts to
straighten up the place, but she didn't bother to tell Eunice. That would mean
at least another minute delay while Eunice waited for her to clean the lenses.

"Does
this smile show too much of my gums?" Eunice looked like a ventriloquist,
talking like that without moving her lips.

"Eunice, open the
damned door."

"Okay."
Throwing back her shoulders, Eunice kept her smile in place as she opened the
door. "Charlie!
Rick!
What
a nice surprise!"

"Well,
hello there, Eunice." Rick's gaze took in the Niagara Falls plunge.
"Talk about a nice surprise! I froze my ass riding over here with Charlie,
but you make the sacrifice worthwhile."

"Eve
invited me." Eunice twirled a loose strand of blond hair around her
finger. "I brought wine."

"Excellent."
Rick continued to block the door while he stared at her.

"I
brought pizza." Charlie shouldered his way past his cousin and nudged the
door closed with his knee. His dark-framed glasses fogged up immediately.
"And it's hot, so we might want to—" He paused and squinted at Eve
through the misty lenses. "Are you holding a whole bunch of clothes?"

She'd
been so fascinated by the interaction between Rick and Eunice that she'd
forgotten the bundle in her arms. "My dry cleaning."

"That's a boatload of
dry cleaning."

She
didn't think in Charlie's world that was a good thing. He didn't look like the
kind of guy who liked high-maintenance women. "My washing machine's
broken, so I've had to take stuff to Press 'n' Go." She found herself
staring at his leather chaps and remembering how they'd framed his buns the
first time they'd met. The chaps did a similar favor for his package.

"Your
washing machine's broken?" Charlie shoved the pizza boxes against Rick's
chest. "Here. Hold these."

Rick
was so busy ogling Eunice that it took him a couple of seconds to respond and
grab the boxes. "Uh, okay."

"I'm
going to take a minute to look at Eve's washing machine." Charlie was out
of his coat and boots and chaps in no time. Then he did a quick polish of his
glasses before he padded over to Eve in his socks. "Where is it?"

"Really,
that's okay." She was struck by how gallantly he'd leaped to her aid, and
how seeing him in his socks made her wonder how he'd look with a few more items
of clothing removed. "I wouldn't expect you to fix it. I'm sure it needs
... something. I should have called a repair person, but I—"

"Ah, no reason to call
somebody. I can fix it."

"He
probably can," Rick said. "If it has moving parts, Charlie can fix
it. He's pretty much the repair king."

"Then
by all means, Eve, let the man do what he does best," Eunice said.
"Rick and I can drink wine in the kitchen until you two come back."

Eve
could see how this had played right into Eunice's hands. No telling what would
happen in the kitchen if Eve and Charlie left Eunice alone with Rick and two
bottles of wine. But one glance at Charlie's eager expression convinced Eve
that she had to go along with the repair option. Rejecting Charlie's skills
would be the same as rejecting him, and she wasn't about to do that.

"Okay,
follow me," she said. "I'll drop these off in my bedroom on the
way." She started down the hall.

"We'll
be in the kitchen if you need us," Eunice called after her.

"Start
on the pizza too if you want," Charlie said before following Eve.
"This should be quick, but just in case it isn't, go ahead and eat."

"We
might, at that, cuz," Rick said. "It smells great. I never could
resist a piping hot pizza."

Eve
wondered if he could resist a piping hot Eunice. If he couldn't, so much the
better, because just like that, Eve had Charlie to herself. She hadn't expected
it to be so easy. Who knew a broken washing machine could create a romantic
opportunity?

"You
won't have to hang around once I get into it," Charlie said. "You
should grab some pizza before it gets cold."

Apparently
he wasn't viewing this at all the way she was. She'd have to come up with a
reason to stay. "Let me dump these clothes in my bedroom and then we'll
see what the situation is. I'd like to watch and see how you do it." She
stepped into her bedroom and laid the dry cleaning on the bed.

Then
she turned to find Charlie standing in the doorway waiting for her. Charlie in
the doorway of her bedroom was an unexpectedly arousing sight. Even without
the benefit of a leather motorcycle jacket, his shoulders were satisfyingly
broad. Add to that the appealing way his brown hair curled just a little,
sending a softening wave down over his high, intelligent-looking forehead, and
you had one hot-looking guy.

Ever
since Monday afternoon, her hormonal reaction had been building in her system
gradually, drop by drop. Now it had reached critical, mass and she was helpless
in the face of urges that shocked her.

She
wanted him this very minute. If he walked into the room and threw her on the
bed, they could do it on top of the dry cleaning as far as she was concerned.
She probably wouldn't even notice unless a hanger poked her in the butt.

As
she watched him standing in the doorway, her mouth began to water. Denise was
so not getting her mitts on this guy. Eve wanted to strip off his flannel shirt
and corduroy slacks to find out if indeed he wore tighty-whities as she
suspected. Suddenly that seemed like the sexiest underwear in the world.

He,
however, wanted to fix her washing machine. Somewhere between those two goals
they might be able to find a meeting place.

"Mm." His murmur
of approval caught her by surprise.

Was
it possible that he'd read her mind? If she stayed right where she was, would
he walk into the room and take her in his arms?

When he moved in her
direction, her heartbeat changed dramatically. What a rush. She'd never been so
in tune with someone that he acted out her internal impulses. Should she go to
meet him, to let him know his instincts were right on target?

As
she debated whether to hold out both arms in welcome, he cruised right past
her and picked up the pamphlet on her bedside table.

"Properties
of the Custom Rotary Engine."
He flipped it open to the
table of contents. "Now there's something I wish I'd had a chance to read
before tonight. Can I borrow it?"

"Uh,
sure." Damn, he'd been after her bedside reading material, not her. So
much for being in tune. "It gives all the parameters. I skimmed it instead
of doing an in-depth study of the specs. If I'd read it cover to cover, I might
have avoided blowing up the first one."

"We're
not going to blow up another one." Charlie started leafing through the
pamphlet and nodding. "Yeah, this is great." Then he closed the pamphlet.
"Now let's check out that washing machine."

"Okay."
Getting Charlie to think about something human instead of mechanical might
prove more of a challenge than she'd thought.

But right
before he turned around to leave the room, he paused. "You have a round
bed." He sounded surprised, as if he'd been so absorbed in the pamphlet
that this was the first real look he'd taken.

Obviously the man wasn't plugged
into the same sexual outlet that was powering her sex drive. "Yes."
She'd had it so long that she'd forgotten it worked as a conversation piece.
If the bed could jump-start a personal discussion, fine.

"Why round?"

If only she
could tell him she'd bought it because it was supposed to promote great sex,
but that would be intellectually dishonest and she'd never been capable of
that. "I read somewhere that if you want to spark creative ideas, you have
to shake up your brain, surprise it with the unexpected. So I ordered a round
bed."

"Does it work?" He drew
closer to the bed.

Want
to test-drive it and see?
But she knew the timing was
wrong for a comment like that. "It did at first. I had some wild dreams
and came up with the hovercraft concept."

"There's an
endorsement."

"But I should probably
change to something else."

"Trapezium?"

She laughed.
"Wow. No two sides the same. That would shake things up."

"Just draw up some specs and
I'll fool around with it."

Now there was a concept. Charlie
making her a bed. That could lead to some interesting discussions. "Okay,
I will."

"With
this one, though, I would think you'd fall off." He glanced from Eve to
the bed and back again.

She wondered
if he might be picturing her in that bed. With luck he was also imagining a
sexy negligee. The brightness of his eyes made that a definite possibility.

"The
dimensions feel strange at first, but you get used to them," she said.
"Then again, I don't move a lot in bed."
Except
when I go there to do something besides sleep.

He
swallowed.
"I,
uh, do. I thrash around something terrible.
Sometimes
I
wake up and I'm all tangled in the ..." His
voice trailed off as his glance met hers. "But I'm sure you don't want to
hear that."

"I
don't
mind." She held his gaze, which was fun because she had to look up. When
a girl stood five ten in her stocking feet, she didn't look up to a whole lot
of guys. Charlie was at least six five.