Talk Nerdy to Me (44 page)

"I
have two motorcycle helmets," Charlie said. "We can use those. I
probably would have thought of it eventually, but thanks for the suggestion,
Denise."

Eve couldn't let him keep
talking like that. "You're not going up in it, Charlie. We've already had
that discussion."

He
smiled at her. "And I'll bet we'll have it again. I'm the one with a
pilot's license. You need what
I
can
bring to the table."

Oh,
yes,
I
certainly do.
"We'll
talk about it later," she said.

'Talk
about it now, if you want," Denise said.
"I'll
go
start putting on the foundation. I know enough to do that much. But if you want
my advice, whoever takes that purple thing out for a test run will suit up
like an astronaut. That hovercraft is a death trap." She walked back into
the kitchen, her heels clicking on the tile.

Eve
tried not to feel deflated by Denise's comments, but it wasn't easy. Denise had
always been able to take the air out of her sails. In any case, Charlie had to
see that Denise was concerned about her little sister's safety, which removed
her from the list of suspects.

She
glanced over at him and lowered her voice. "See what I mean? She wants
bumpers and space suits, so
I'll
be
protected. It can't be her."

Charlie
didn't jump right in and agree. Instead he was disturbingly silent.

She
grew impatient. "Come on, Charlie. Surely after what she just said, you
can't still think that she's the one."

He
took a deep breath. "Oh, she could definitely be the one. She's just
hoping to keep you from being hurt when you crash and burn."

Chapter Twenty
-six

Charlie
had hated like hell to give Eve his verdict on Denise, but he saw her safety
suggestions as a potential attempt to keep her machinations from becoming
lethal. She might long to stop her sister, but she didn't necessarily want to
kill her in the process. Just her spirit.

In
all fairness, he didn't have absolute proof of Denise's guilt. But somebody had
taken off the dashboard of the hovercraft and switched those wires around. That
might have happened right before he and Eve had come home from the baker}' the
night before. If they'd arrived later, whoever it was might have done even more
damage.

He
didn't know for sure who that person was, and for now all he could think to do
was get the hovercraft up and running. So while Eve helped her sister prepare
for her big date with Manny, he put on his goggles so he could concentrate
on
figuring
out why the rotary engine wasn't running the way it should.

About
an hour later, Eve came out to the garage. "She's gone."

Charlie looked up from his
work and pulled the goggles
off again. But that's all
he intended to pull off. This afternoon they'd been all over each other the
minute they'd known they were alone. He wasn't going to give in to that
temptation again. Maybe the temptation wouldn't be so great this time, anyway.
Eve didn't look in the mood for sex.

Instead she was frowning at him.

"I'm
sorry if my opinion about your sister upset you," he said.

"You're entitled to it, but you're
wrong."

"I hope I am."

Eve
sighed. "We had the best time just now while I was working on her hair and
makeup. Then I had her try a bunch of different jewelry. We were
giggling
together. That was the second time today, which is a miracle.
We never giggle together."

Charlie
didn't know what to say. He'd love to be able to tell her that he'd changed his
mind about Denise, but he hadn't. Denise was a complex woman, and having a
giggle-fest with her sister didn't mean she wasn't planning to sabotage the
hovercraft any way she could.

"I've
had a chance to think about this." Eve leaned against the workbench, close
enough to talk but not close enough to touch.

Charlie
figured that was no accident. "And what do you think?"

"Let's
say we give ourselves through the weekend to get the hovercraft
operational."

Charlie nodded. "That's reasonable."

"I
could take it for a test flight either Saturday or Sunday night, depending on
when we think it's ready."

He
decided not to argue with her about who would be going up in the hovercraft.
"Okay."

"You
said you had some ideas about who I should market it to."

"I do."

"Do they have offices
in New York?"

"At
least two of them. I can check on the others." He sensed a nervous energy
arcing between them. This was what they'd talked about, the culmination of her
dreams and the end of his participation in her project. Neither of them knew
what would happen to their relationship after that. "Want me to call
tomorrow and see if I can make a couple of appointments for Monday?"

"Yes.
Yes, I do." She was still frowning, but her blue eyes gleamed with
determination.

He
smiled, wanting to lift the mood. "I think for the hell of it I'll
identify myself as your secretary."

"Just
so you don't identify yourself as my boy toy." Her frown eased and she
smiled back.

"That would be okay
with me, too."

"I
know it would. Temporarily." She gazed into his eyes. "Ah,
Charlie..." Then she pushed herself away from the workbench and started
pacing. "The appointments are the first thing I wanted to talk to you
about. The second thing is—" She turned to face him. "I want to catch
whoever's trying to sabotage this project."

He
should have seen this coming. She wouldn't be satisfied to foil the person's
attempt. She'd want to know who was doing it, especially if it might be her
sister. "I assume you've figured out a way to do that."

"Yep." She
clasped her hands in front of her.

"Hit
me." He tried not to think about the purple bra and panties she was
wearing under that yellow sweat suit.

'Tomorrow
night, almost everybody in town will be at either the bachelor or the
bachelorette party."

"Wow,
that's tomorrow night already?" Charlie had lost track of everything but
Eve and the hovercraft.

"Yes,
and Denise and I are invited, along with all the women in town, including
Eunice, I'm sure."

"And
all the guys are invited to the bachelor party." Charlie could see what
she was getting at. "We'll leave the hovercraft as bait, and each of us
monitors who disappears from either party."

"Bingo."
She balanced on the balls of her feet, as if she wanted to chase down the perps
right this minute. "We'll keep in touch by cell phone. If either of us
notices someone's been gone a long time, we call the other one and both of us
will head back to the house. We'll catch them red-handed."

"One
thing. I'll do the confronting. You'll stay in the car."

She
waved that aside. "We're not dealing with some seasoned criminal. I'll
have my pepper spray on me, if that would make you happier."

"You
have pepper spray?" He'd never pictured her aggressively facing down an
attacker, but he could picture it now. She'd decided to take charge of this
situation, and damned if he didn't find that sexy.

"I
only carry it when I go into the city, but this time I'll make an exception. I
wouldn't use it on Denise, though. I can take her."

"So you
do
think
it might be Denise."

"I
don't. But I'm not sure. And that's why we have to do this. So you're up for
it?"

"You
do have a way with words." As he gazed at her, he tried to concentrate on
the plan. But the image of her yellow jacket unzipped to reveal the purple
underwire bra, size 36B, wouldn't go away.

"Stop
looking at me like that, Charlie. It makes me want to jump your bones and I
know you don't want that."

"Oh,
I do want that. I want that very much. But I'm going to be a grown-up and work
on the hovercraft tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day—whatever it takes for
us to get you ready for your appointments on Monday."

"And
I appreciate that," she said. "I really do. I'm impressed with your
self-discipline. I want to be you when I grow up."

"No
you don't." He thought of all the joyous, spontaneous, and creative
facets of her personality, all those things that he loved about her.
"Don't ever grow up, Eve. If you do, you'll stop inventing purple
hovercrafts."

"But
I might be able to work in this garage with you and not want to strip you naked
and run another test on the compatibility of our equipment."

He
fought the urge to walk over there and let that happen. "I have a
short-term solution for that problem."

"You're going to weld
the zipper shut on your jeans?"

"No,
but almost as good. I'm going to call my mother and Aunt Myrtle and ask if
they'll bring us dinner."

Aside
from having unlimited sex with Charlie, Eve couldn't have dreamed up a more fun
time than eating the wonderful food that Rose and Myrtle brought over and
hearing their plans for the bakery.

They ate Yankee pot roast,
homemade rosemary bread shaped like a pair of breasts, and a salad better than
anything Eve had ever made for herself, and she knew her salads. They sat at
Eve's kitchen table and discussed whether the bakery needed repainting to match
the new line of items being offered. Or rather, Eve, Rose, and Myrtle
discussed. Charlie concentrated on his food.

After
the meal, Rose and Myrtle went out to admire the hovercraft and tell Eve what a
brilliant young woman she was. By the time they left, she was floating on a
cloud of loving acceptance and never wanted to come down.

"Thank
you for inviting them," she told Charlie. "They make me feel as if
what I'm doing is worth something."

"It
is." Charlie watched her from the opposite side of the hovercraft, as if
keeping that between them would
insure that nothing sexual
would happen now that the chaperones were gone. "If my mom and Aunt Myrtle
help you believe it, then you should spend more time with them."

"I was thinking about
that tonight." She hesitated, unsure if he'd think she was presumptuous
in imagining she could in any way fill his shoes. "But if you went out to
Nevada, I could... sort of... stay in touch with them. I couldn't repair
things, but Gus could do that. If they needed anything else, I could help out.
It wouldn't be the same as if you were here, of course," she added
quickly. "I wouldn't want you to think—"

"You're
looking for ways to help me leave." He said it wonderingly, as if he
couldn't quite believe she'd do that.

"I
know how you feel about them. I wondered if you were at all uneasy about
leaving. Not that you should be." She hoped she hadn't opened up a can of
worms. "They're very resourceful, but I saw an expression on your face
tonight that made me wonder if you were a little worried about that."

He
sighed. "I tell myself not to be, but... yeah, Nevada's quite a distance
away, and with Rick out in California, that leaves no relatives close
by."

"Well,
for what it's worth, I could check on them now and then."

"That's
... that's quite a gift you're offering, considering how you could just as
easily ask me to stay."

She
shook her head. "No. No, I couldn't. I know what it's like to feel as if
you're not doing what you were meant to do."

"Yeah,
I guess you do." He swallowed. "I'm staying over in this part of the
garage, because I'm afraid if I walk around this hovercraft, I'll start kissing
you and never stop."

She
quivered. "I don't know how we're supposed to act like adults, now,
Charlie. Unless it's X-rated adults."