Nerd in Shining Armor (Nerds, #1)(36)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

Her family deserved every second of the time she spent with them. If her mama hadn’t told Matt that she thought ear tugging might be a sign Merv was lying, and if Lincoln hadn’t thrown a hissy fit and insisted they turn the boat around, Gen and Jack might not have survived.

But while she was being pampered by Mama and teased by Lincoln, she felt like she was missing something critical, like an arm or a leg, without Jack around. She’d called his house, gotten the machine, then called Matt at the office to discover Jack was already back at work, trying to get caught up. Gen had arrived at her desk this morning with a sense of excitement, thinking that Jack would stop by to see her soon.

She wondered if he’d shaved off his beard. He wouldn’t have taken time to shop for black clothes, though. She’d prepared herself for him to look like a nerd again. In fact, she’d rather see him looking like a nerd, because she was fond of that picture. She missed him desperately.

But the man who approached her desk wasn’t Jack. In spite of that, she gave him a big old smile, because Matt Murphy was her third favorite guy after Jack and Lincoln.

"Are you sure you feel good enough to be working?" Matt said. "I don’t care if you want to take more time off."

"If Jack can come back and put in all those blessed hours, I surely can hold up enough to do a little typing." True to what she’d promised herself, she no longer tried to keep the backwoods expressions out of her conversation.

"Jack? Oh, you mean Jackson."

"It was easier for us to use nicknames on the island," Gen said. "Now I can’t get myself to change back."

"I’m sure that’s true. That was quite an ordeal." Matt shook his head. "Anyway, I’ve tried to get Jackson, or Jack, to relax a little, but he won’t. He’s convinced this new software in development could be a lifesaver for the company, and he’s determined to whip it into shape."

As much as Gen loved hearing that Jack was busy saving Rainbow, the news only confirmed what she’d expected. Jack had put her completely out of his mind. "I’m still hoping Nick will tell you where he banked all that money," she said.

Matt gazed at her. "I don’t think he will. Not after I turned down his deal."

"What deal?"

"In the middle of all the commotion, while you were reuniting with your mom and Lincoln, Nick called me over and said he’d give back all the money if I wouldn’t turn him over to the authorities. But if I turned him in, he’d carry the info on his Swiss bank account to his grave."

"That low-down, dirty, rotten, slime-sucking—"

"Yeah, I’ve thought all those things, too. But you know what? It’s done. We’re never getting the money back, and Rainbow will be a little shaky for a while, but I’d rather be me, with a business to rebuild, than Nick, who will never be anything but a criminal—and a failed criminal at that. I’ve decided not to waste time being angry with the guy. He’ll soon get what’s coming to him."

Gen sighed. "I suppose you’re right. But Jack and I worked hard to keep him alive, and now I hate to think of him breathing the same air we do."

"I doubt he’s having any fun. I was curious enough to find out how he was doing in the hospital and how bad the infection was in his toe. They said he still can’t walk, and he screams bloody murder every time they make him get out of bed and try it."

"He could be faking. He knows sure as shootin’ that once he leaves the hospital he’ll be locked up tight."

"Maybe, but he’s as good as locked up now. A guard’s watching him twenty-four seven." He frowned, his voice filled with regret. "I was such a naive fool to trust him the way I did. I should have seen the signs of his instability a long time ago."

Genevieve’s insides twisted. "Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger."

Matt’s gaze snapped to hers. "Genevieve, you have nothing to feel bad about. I’m the one who’s known him the longest, the one with the responsibility to this company and its employees."

"And you’ve had a hay wagon full of troubles on your mind these past few months. You have no cause to feel guilty, either."

"My personal problems are no excuse." He scrubbed a hand over his face. "But dwelling on my shortcomings won’t make anything better, either."

Genevieve smiled. "Now you’re sounding like my mama."

"I wouldn’t be surprised. Your mama is one of the smartest women I’ve ever met. Good thing I have Lincoln to vouch for me, or she wouldn’t give me the time of day. Which reminds me, you’re invited for our boat ride this evening, you know. I have to warn you, though, that I’ve promised Lincoln he can drive, and the boy has the soul of a hot rodder."

Genevieve laughed. "He said the very same about you. Not exactly those words, but close enough."

"I enjoy that kid." Talk of Lincoln seemed to lift the shadows from his eyes. "But do you think there’s any chance he’ll have normal hair someday?"

"Someday." Genevieve was really happy for Mama and Lincoln, because Matt looked like a stay-around kind of guy. Her mama would put him through his paces, but Genevieve thought the ending would turn out happy for everyone.

"So do you want to come with us?" Matt asked. "I’ll let you drive, too, if I can pry Lincoln’s fingers off the wheel."

"Thank you, but to tell you the truth, I could use some time to myself." And that’s probably what she’d get. Seven-thirty would come and go without Jack showing up to take her out for a double-dip sugar cone. She didn’t expect him to remember, but just in case a miracle happened, she wanted to be there to answer the door.

"I can understand that," Matt said. "I’m sure your mama’s been hovering."

Genevieve rolled her eyes. "You can’t even imagine. I’m grateful you’re taking her somewhere so she’ll stop fussing over me."

"Don’t be too hard on her. She was pretty darned scared. We all were."

Genevieve looked up at this kind man and hoped her mama wouldn’t hold him off for too long. "You really care about her, don’t you?"

He grinned sheepishly. "It shows, huh?"

"Yes, but it looks good on you. If you need another person to vouch for you to Mama—"

"Whoa." He held up a hand. "Thanks, but no thanks. I think one kid campaigning is plenty. If you both start in, she’ll think we’re ganging up on her. I don’t want her to feel pressured. Everything will be fine. I’m a patient guy."

Genevieve lifted her eyebrows.

Matt grinned. "Okay, semipatient. It’ll work out."

"I hope so." She smiled at him. "You deserve each other, and I mean that in the nicest way."

* * *

Genevieve had a harder time convincing her mama that she didn’t want to take the boat ride. Annabelle obviously didn’t want to let her out of her sight. But finally, after Genevieve explained that if she didn’t get some time alone she would go crazier than a bedbug in a cornhusk mattress, her mama finally agreed to go off and leave her.

Genevieve really did think she might go crazy, but not from too much company. She’d had too little company—of the Jack variety. It truly puzzled her that she could miss him so much she hurt. But that was the sad situation she found herself in.

At six o’clock she made herself a turkey sandwich, ate half, and put the other in the refrigerator. Lincoln would eat it tonight—he could be counted on to finish off any and all leftovers.

She’d dressed in the kind of clothes that said Oh, did we have a date for ice cream? I barely remembered. Her white shorts were clean but she’d bought them last summer, so they weren’t special. Her cropped tank top was from a shopping trip two summers ago. It was red, which wouldn’t matter to Jack, who wouldn’t be able to tell if it was some flattering color or not.

Although she hadn’t bothered with shoes, she’d combed her hair and put on a little makeup. She’d left off her lipstick, though. Fresh lipstick was a dead giveaway that you were expecting company, that you were eager to see someone. Which she surely was, damn it.

To pass the time until seven-thirty, she picked up her whittling, the same little I’iwi bird she’d been working on the night before she’d left with Nick. The person she’d been then seemed so much younger than the person she was now. Surviving an experience that nearly killed you could have that kind of effect on someone, she decided.

Because it was still light outside, she took her carving out in the tiny backyard. They had three plastic chairs back there with faded cushions on the seats and a round plastic table where they ate sometimes. She sat in one of the chairs and started working on the little bird’s beak. Her next-door neighbor was playing a boom box outside, so she wouldn’t hear Jack drive up, but from this position she could see the street. She wasn’t likely to miss him.

Of course he wouldn’t arrive. At this very minute he was probably hunkered down over his blessed computer screen, writing a brilliant program for Matt, so that Rainbow wouldn’t go into bankruptcy. To expect him to run over here and take her out for ice cream was selfish, in a way.

Except he’d promised, and he knew how much was riding on that promise. At least he’d known when they were back on the island. Now, though, he didn’t seem to remember that she existed.

A phone call would have been nice. It wouldn’t have killed him to stop by her desk today, either. He had to have lunch sometime, and they could have eaten together, if he’d thought about her at all. Well, it wasn’t like she hadn’t predicted this exact thing.

As she sat whittling away at the bird’s beak, it came to her that maybe she was asking too much of Jack. Come to think of it, by leaving this date up to him, she’d abandoned him to totally take care of himself. She knew good and well that when he was preoccupied with his work, he wasn’t good at that. Rather than demand that he drop everything and pay attention to her, she’d be a whole lot better person if she’d take some ice cream over to him.

Unfortunately, she didn’t know whether he was at work or at home, and he might not answer the phone at either place. When Jack concentrated, he really concentrated. Matt would know where Jack was, but Matt was out on a boat with her mama and Lincoln.

Shoot. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she’d take Jack any way she could get him. Maybe he wouldn’t always know she was there, but once she got his attention, he gave her a hundred and ten percent. That more than made up for the times he might forget all about her. She was even willing to fry in the face of astrological wisdom and link up with a Taurus. Jack had that kind of hold on her.

Okay, it was decided, then. Tomorrow she’d use her lunch hour to track him down. She’d take him his two favorite flavors of ice cream, double chocolate fudge and strawberry cheesecake, and she’d tell him no more tests. She got little squiggly feelings in her tummy as she thought of what she and Jack might do with that ice cream. Maybe she should take it to him after work instead of during lunch.

Something rustled behind her. She put down her knife and started to turn, thinking it was the neighbor’s tabby cat. "Hey, Lillibeth," she called. "Are you—"

An arm snaked around her throat, cutting off her wind.

Chapter 23

The way Jack saw it, he had three priorities: getting the new software program ready for testing, fixing Gen’s pink suitcase, and making sure he took her out for ice cream. Sleep wasn’t a priority, so he didn’t bother much with that.

By six-thirty on the night he’d promised to pick up Gen, he had the software project in decent shape. Not perfect yet, but he was on the right track, and he could afford this break. Gen’s suitcase, the handle neatly repaired by a shoe shop, sat by his front door. He trimmed his beard, jumped in the shower, and dressed in the white shorts and white T-shirt Mrs. Applegate had bought for him.

She’d heard about his adventure and had come over wanting to do something to help, so he’d given her a shirt and a pair of slacks for size and asked her to go shopping for him. He’d explained the black program that Gen had outlined and given Airs. Applegate a wad of cash.

His neighbor was a careful shopper, and he couldn’t believe how many things she’d walked in with last night. She’d followed his directions about buying a lot of black, but she’d also bought him some white stuff, which she said ivould be much more comfortable in the summer and ivould look good with his tan. He’d decided that she was ight about wearing white in the summer, and white seemed like the right color for an ice cream date, as long as he was careful with the double chocolate fudge.

About four this morning he’d taken a break from writing code to make a test run over to Gen’s house so he’d know how long the trip would take. Fifteen minutes, but he’d add another five to allow for more traffic. At four in the morning her mom’s house had been dark, and Jack had parked outside for a few minutes, thinking about Gen inside, sound asleep.

While he was deep into his project he hadn’t missed her quite so much, but this morning he’d ached so badly he could barely stand it. If he’d known which bedroom window belonged to her, he might have thrown stones against it to wake her up. But he hadn’t known, and he still had plenty of work to do on the Rainbow program, so he’d forced himself to drive home again.

Tonight would be an ice cream date—nothing more. Even if Gen acted like she wanted it to turn into more, Jack was going to do his best to resist her. He wanted to impress upon her that he was a man of his word when it came to this relationship. His track record with women had been terrible, so now he had to prove that he could be reliable. If he was very careful about coming through on all his promises to Gen, he might have a chance with her.

At ten minutes past seven he left his house. At twenty minutes past seven he ran out of gas.

* * *

After the first moment of terror, which Genevieve thought would happen to anybody grabbed suddenly from behind, she got furious. She was sick and tired of Nick Brogan running around trying to kill innocent folks.

So when he hauled her up out of the chair by the neck, she tried to stomp on his bad foot.

"Stop it!" he yelled. "I’ve got your knife! I’ll slit your throat if you don’t stop it!"

"You will not." She kept struggling and stomping, wishing she had on shoes. She tried to get an elbow in his stomach, but he pulled her up hard against him, and he was stronger than she was. She tried screaming a little, but decided that was a waste of time. Nobody would hear her over the rap music blasting away next door.