Talk Nerdy to Me (Nerds, #5)(15)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

Laughter sparkled in his eyes. "Does she invent things?"

"Not that I know of. She’s mostly all about the numbers, all about stock options, leveraged buyouts, boring stuff like that."

"Blah."

What a sweet word that was. Blah. The sweetest word she’d heard in a long time. Her mood improved exponentially. "I thought with your magna cum laude and everything, you might be interested."

Charlie groaned. "I suppose my mom told you about that, too."

"It was a slow day at the bakery. I was waiting for Myrtle to finish frosting my cinnamon roll. And you didn’t answer my question."

"Eve, are you worried that I’ll be attracted to your sister?"

"Maybe a little bit. After all, she is a college professor."

"Don’t put me in the same category as Rick."

That confused her. "He has a thing for college professors?" Somehow Eve couldn’t picture that.

"No. his general category is good-looking women, and as long as someone fits in that category, he’ll dive right in. He doesn’t care what else is going on with her, just so she’s a babe. His girlfriends all fit the profile and are pretty much interchangeable."

"And your point is?"

"You implied that I’m the same way with female brainiacs. If they’re smart, I’m going in, regardless of other factors. One’s as good as another. But I don’t happen to operate that way."

She was intrigued with this conversational thread. "Then how do you operate?"

"I’m a one-woman kind of guy."

The way he said that, looking straight at her, made squiggles of excitement dance in her tummy. "I see."

"Once I focus on someone, she’s the only one I want."

She warmed herself in the heat of his gaze. "So once you’re committed, someone could drop you into a room full of nak*d Mensa ladies and you wouldn’t be tempted at all?"

"Nope. Not if I’m into someone else."

And he was into her. She had no doubt from the way he was looking at her. But he was fighting it. "Well, doesn’t that suck the big one?" she blurted out before she could stop herself.

"What do you mean?"

"There you stand, the perfect boyfriend, and you’ve taken yourself off the market where I’m concerned! It’s not fair." Her sudden burst of anger surprised her.

It seemed to surprise him, too. "Okay, look. I should go. You’re right, it isn’t fair." Then his glance strayed to the hovercraft. "Except, damn it. I really want to make sure you get this airborne without smashing yourself into tiny bits. And I’m worried that someone is trying to steal your concept."

She didn’t want him hanging around because of some misplaced protective urge. If he was determined to tight his attraction to her, she would make it easier on him. "I won’t smash myself into tiny bits, and there’s no hard evidence somebody is trying to steal anything. I could still find those notes. Feel free to leave."

"But—"

I mean it, Charlie! Your services are no longer needed around here." She was working up a good head of steam, now. Until he’d said that thing about being a one-woman guy, she’d been able to talk herself out of feeling gypped. But that was the last straw. She’d searched all her life for a man who could make that kind of deep commitment, and now that she’d found one, she couldn’t have him.

He gazed at her, his expression troubled. "I really think that we should—"

The doorbell rang. She couldn’t imagine who could be coming over at this time of night, but whoever it was might provide the perfect segue to get Charlie out of here. She hated the fact they were fighting and their friendship was in jeopardy, but she was probably foolish to try and hang on to that friendship when he’d be leaving Middlesex at the first opportunity.

"Let me see who that is." She started into the kitchen.

"Don’t forget to check the peephole." Charlie followed her.

"I always check the peephole." She was feeling cross with him and frustrated by the situation. Why did he have to set his sights on Hoover Dam, anyway? What did Hoover Dam have that she didn’t have? Oh, yeah. Big turbines. Men and their machines. Phooey.

When she looked through the peephole she saw Rick standing on her front porch blowing into his hands to keep them warm. She started to open the door and it wouldn’t budge. Then she remembered that Charlie had locked it.

Charlie was unnecessarily freaking her out with all this door-locking and talk of people stealing things. She was in Middlesex, voted one of the ten safest towns of its size in the nation. The real estate agent had told her that early on. Eve hadn’t thought the statistic had mattered all that much to her, but now she realized instinct had led her here, because she wanted to raise her kids in Middlesex.

Those potential kids would need a father, of course, and she’d been unconsciously searching for him too. So what if Charlie looked like the perfect candidate for that, too? He didn’t care to raise his kids in a place that ranked in the top ten safest towns for its size. Maybe he wasn’t so damned smart, after all.

She unlocked the door and Rick came in looking as though he’d had one too many jolts from the muscle stimulator. His shirt was buttoned up wrong and apparently his coat zipper had jammed a third of the way up.

"Nanu, nanu," he said in a halfhearted imitation of Mork from Ork. I needed a time-out. Hey, Charlie, how’s it going?"

"Okay."

Eve told herself not to react to Charlie’s soft tone, but her heart wrenched, anyway. Those two quiet syllables spoke volumes about his state of mind. He was upset. Well, so was she.

"I’d offer to help you guys." Rick tried to tame his hair, which was standing out in six different directions. "But I’m wiped. Maybe I could stretch out on Eve’s couch until Charlie’s ready to go home."

Eve grabbed her opening. "Actually, Charlie’s ready to—"

"I thought Eunice was planning to run you home," Charlie said.

"She was, but I couldn’t talk her into quitting. She never seems to wear out." Rick looked dazed.

"Maybe you shouldn’t have let her use that muscle stimulator," Eve said.

"Oh, that was cool. It was just the pace was brutal. I kept trying to convince her that we should take a break, but then she’d turn on the black light and start twirling her tassels or some such trick, and I’d be back at it."

Eve resisted the urge to glance over at Charlie, who was no doubt rolling his eyes at his cousin’s lack of restraint.

"Finally I just grabbed my clothes and ran. Got dressed on her front porch. Then the local fuzz cruised by and I was afraid that paint job would glow in the dark, so I had to jump behind a snowy bush to finish the job."

"That explains the sprig of evergreen behind your ear," Charlie said.

"There is?" Rick reached back and pulled out a twig with a few pine needles attached. "After all that’s happened, I didn’t even feel that. I think the aliens gave her sexual superpowers, man. She’s like some X-rated Ener-gizer bunny."

"Rick," Charlie said. "There were no aliens. She made all that up."

"That’s what you say!" Rick struggled with his jammed zipper. "You weren’t there! I never knew there were so many ways to use a green glow stick. So. Eve, can I borrow your couch?"

Eve decided the evening had come to a fittingly weird ending. "Charlie, I think maybe you need to take your cousin home."

Charlie sighed. "Probably a good idea."

"I’d like that," Rick said. "But I can’t seem to get this zipper unjammed."

"Let me see. I’ve dealt with a trillion cantankerous zippers in my life." She dropped to her knees in front of Rick and tackled the balky zipper.

"Thanks," Rick said. "Listen, Charlie, just to give you an idea of how much Eunice worked me over, I would normally look at a beautiful woman kneeling in front of me and start getting ideas."

"Well, don’t." Charlie sounded irritated as he reached for his boots.

"Hey, no worries! Trust me, I’m not thinking of anything like that. It’s like when someone offers you chocolate cake after you’ve eaten everything on the buffet table. You have nowhere to put it."

Eve glanced up at him. "I’m not offering you chocolate cake. Rick."

"Damn straight she’s not." Charlie grumbled as he put on his coat.

"Oh. I know that! I’m just sayin’."

"Looks like the zipper on your lip isn’t working any better than the one on your coat," Charlie said.

Eve wiggled the zipper and freed it up. "There." She zipped Rick’s coat as she stood. The poor guy did look as if he’d ridden all the Coney Island rides ten times in a row. "Maybe you should stay away from Eunice," she said.

"Are you kidding? I just need to get my strength back. We’re on again for tomorrow night, unless you really need me over here."

Eve wasn’t sure what to say. "Well, I really—"

"I know," Rick said. "You really don’t need me. I think Charlie invited me to be polite, and you went along for the same reason. Charlie’s the guy you want, right?"

Right. "I’m not sure Charlie can make it tomorrow night," Eve said. "Don’t you have a conflict, Charlie?" She glanced at him and wished she hadn’t. He’d put on the chaps that showcased exactly what she could never have, damn it.

He gazed at her, cool as can be. "Not that I know of."

"Of course he doesn’t have a conflict," Rick said. "You should have seen how excited he was about this project, all the research he did on biowhatzit. He wouldn’t miss this for the world, would you, Charlie?"

"Sure wouldn’t." Charlie continued to stare at Eve. "I figure tomorrow we can pool our resources on the fuel question. We didn’t get to that tonight, but tomorrow we can get right into it."

"Great," Rick said. "So Charlie and I can ride over together. We can bring Chinese. Everybody likes Chinese."

Charlie lifted his eyebrows as he looked at Eve. "Do you?"

"Sure. Love it." She shouldn’t let herself be roped into having Charlie come over for another night, but Denise would be here. Denise could chaperone.

And come to think of it, Eve wanted Denise to meet Charlie and figure out that her baby sister was capable of having a nerdy friend. In Denise’s world, nerdy friends were a badge of honor. "My sister will be here, if you’re deciding on portions."

"Oh, yeah?" Rick perked up. "Does she look like you?"

Eve barely kept from laughing. Rick was exactly as Charlie had described him. Even though Eunice had wrung him out tonight, he wasn’t the least bit committed to her. If another woman came along who interested him even more, he’d jump ship in a heartbeat.

"She doesn’t look much like me," Eve said. "She got the dark eyes and the dark hair from my father’s side of the family. I take after my mother."

"Is she a model?" Rick didn’t seem ready to let the topic drop.

"No, she’s an economics professor."

"Oh." That seemed to dampen Rick’s enthusiasm. "Any hobbies?"

"No." Eve realized that Denise was like her in that respect. Economics was her passion and the stock market was her hobby, but you couldn’t really call it that because Denise took her investments as seriously as Eve took her inventions. In other words, neither of the Dupree girls liked wasting time on frivolous pursuits. Eve had never thought about that before.

"She doesn’t sound like my type." Rick said.

"Maybe not." Eve wondered if a woman could ever feel secure with Rick. Apparently, he’d always be on the lookout for someone better than his current love interest. A girl could grab Rick and end up holding thin air, but if a girl ever got a good hold on Charlie, she’d have something. Unfortunately, Eve didn’t think she had a hold on him at all.

"Then I guess we’ll see you tomorrow," Charlie said. "Same time?"

"Okay." Eve tried to look on the bright side. Yes, she’d be tortured by being around a man who was exactly right for her and wasn’t staying in town, but she’d also benefit from his research on biofuel. That was worth something.

Charlie started out the door and paused. "Listen, if you locate those notes, would you give me a call?"

He would have to mention those notes again, just when she’d convinced herself that the missing notes weren’t anything to worry about. "I don’t have your number."

"Let me give you my cell." He rattled off the number. "Want me to write it down?"

"No, I have it." She’d always been able to remember things like that. It certainly wasn’t a sign of genius, though. She had no intention of letting someone slap that kind of label on her, least of all Charlie, who was doing his best to blow this taco stand called Middlesex.

"Then we’ll see you tomorrow night," Charlie said as he went out the door. "Don’t forget to lock up."

She didn’t even answer that. No matter what he said, this was a safe town and she didn’t have to worry about thieves. "See you later," she called after them. And who was he to lecture about personal safety when he was about to climb on a motorcycle and ride it through what had to be icy streets? "Drive carefully!" she added before they were out of earshot.

Then she closed the door. And locked it, but not because Charlie had told her to. She locked it because even in a town that was ranked among the top ten safest for its size, a locked door was a simple way to improve the odds. Nobody had said Middlesex was totally crime free.

After locking the door, she went in search of her notes. If she could find them, that would end this whole crazy paranoia that Charlie was promoting. They had to be here somewhere. Plus she still had a bunch of cleaning to do.

Charlie didn’t usually have passengers on his motorcycle. Tonight he wished he didn’t have this particular passenger. Rick leaned forward so that he could spend the ride relating more of what had happened over at Eunice’s house. In Charlie’s current frame of mind, that was too much information.

"She’s beyond inventive, Charlie," Rick said. "I have to buy that alien story."