Talk Nerdy to Me (Nerds, #5)(33)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

After Charlie climbed off his bike he walked back to have another talk with Rick. "You need to know a few things," he said. "First of all, Eve doesn’t think her sister is guilty."

"That makes sense. It’s her sister. But you think she might be guilty, right?"

"It’s possible, but if she is, she’s not a hardened criminal or anything."

"Hey, I didn’t think she was!" Rick finger-combed his hair. "Not Eunice, either. I wouldn’t be putting the moves on any chick who’s dangerous. The really bad ones would as soon chop your dick off as look at you."

"I wouldn’t know about that." Charlie wondered what sort of crazy world Rick lived in out there in L.A. that he’d even think of such things. "But the other point I wanted to make is that if it is Denise, she may give up the whole sabotage deal because now she’s interested in Manny."

"Manny? Manny Flores, my assistant?"

"Yep. Apparently they met today at the bakery and sparks were flying. They have a date tonight."

"You don’t say." Rick rubbed his chin. "That puts a different slant on things. Is Manny interested in her?"

"I don’t know. They’re seeing each other tonight. That’s all I can tell you. You could find out from Manny." Aha. This might be a way to sideline Rick’s plan. "Yeah, you should probably call him and get that info before you go inside to meet Denise, so you won’t muscle in on his territory."

"Nah. I would do that for you, cuz, but Manny’s another story. The way I look at it, I got here first. He can eat my dust."

"Wait a minute. Rick." Charlie’s conscience was pricking him. Being alone with Eve for the afternoon might not be worth it. The fallout from Rick’s seduction attempt could be nasty, especially if Denise was innocent of any wrongdoing. "You’re not planning to get involved with Denise for real, so I think you should forget this whole scheme of yours."

"Who says I’m not?"

"I do! You just spent last night with somebody else!"

"So?" Rick looked genuinely perplexed.

Charlie stared at him, unable to comprehend that kind of thinking. "I guess I’m more of a small-town guy than I like to think," he said. "Jumping from one woman to another in less than twelve hours seems …"

"Awesome," Rick said. "You should try it sometime, cuz. And don’t think this is strictly a guy thing, either. Girls are into it, too. That’s the beauty of living in a big city—more choices. I figured Eunice was my only avenue of expression. I didn’t count Eve, because I think something’s developing between you two."

Charlie didn’t bother to deny it.

"And now I have a second possibility staring me in the face!" Rick grinned. "I realize I haven’t met her yet, but she’s Eve sister. She has to be decent looking, unless she was adopted. Jeez, I didn’t think of that. She could be adopted. She could be a real troll. You’ve seen her, right? Tell me the truth, now. Is she really ugly?"

Charlie grabbed at what seemed to be the only option left to him. "Yes, she’s really ugly."

"She is not." Rick laughed. "You never could he worth a damn. Come on, let’s go in."

As they approached the front door, Gus walked out looking as if he’d come from a funeral parlor. "I couldn’t save her," he said.

Charlie panicked. "Who? Who couldn’t you save?"

"The washer. She’s deader than a doornail."

Air whooshed out of Charlie’s lungs. "Damn it, Gus, when you said she, I thought—"

"Didn’t mean to scare you, son." Gus clapped him on the shoulder. "But I think of the machines I repair as my girls." His smile didn’t do much to change his gloomy expression. "When you live alone, you can get a little strange."

Rick gave Charlie a nudge in the ribs. "So, Gus, did your wife pass on? I’ve been living back in California, so I haven’t kept up with ail the news in Middlesex."

"Five years ago last month," Gus said. "I try to keep busy, but I still miss her. Good thing I have the repair business or I’d go nuts. Well, see you two boys later." Carrying his toolbox, Gus trudged over to his van.

"See?" Rick said. "Exhibit A. A repairman who is also extremely single."

Charlie watched Gus stow his gear in the back of the van. "I’m not sure I’d want either my mom or your mom to end up with Gus, if that’s what you’re leading up to. He would depress the hell out of them."

"You don’t know that. I’m thinking he used to be cheerful. Look, it says right on his van ‘Your Cheerful Appliance Repairman.’ That lettering looks more than five years old. I’ll bet when Gus was getting some, he was a regular Mr. Sunshine."

Charlie sighed. "No he wasn’t. He’s looked that way as long as I’ve known him."

"Well, okay, then. But he could still fix the machinery at the bakery. That’s all I’m saying." Rick punched Eve’s doorbell. "Was that the washing machine you were working on last night?"

"Yeah. I ran into some glitches."

"Glitches? You?" Rick shook his head. "You must be losing your touch, dude."

"I have a few things on my mind."

Eve came to the door wearing a bright yellow sweat suit.

"And there’s one of them," Rick said under his breath.

Charlie had to agree. He broke out in a grin the minute he saw her standing there. "Hey, Eve."

"Hey, Charlie." As she let them in, she smiled back, but when her gaze drifted to Rick, her pleasant expression vanished. "I don’t want you causing problems for my sister," she said as she closed the door behind them. "Denise is—"

"Eve, I wondered what you wanted me to do with all of this." Denise appeared from the back of the house, her arms full of Eve’s hobby supplies. "Oh, hi, Charlie."

Charlie could see that Denise had been trying to create some order out of the chaos in Eve’s house. He wished that he trusted her more with Eve’s stuff. Because he didn’t, it made him uneasy that she was poking through Eve’s possessions.

Nevertheless, he had no absolute proof that Denise was untrustworthy, and he needed to be polite. "Hi, Denise. I’d like you to meet my cousin Rick Bannister."

"Ah, Rick. I’ve heard so much about you."

Charlie shot a glance at Eve, who merely shrugged and looked innocent.

"All good, I hope," Rick said.

"Let’s say it was all interesting."

"I’d rather be interesting than boring." Rick took off his jacket and hung it on one of the pegs beside the front door. "You look like you could use some help with that." Before Denise could reply, he’d scooped everything out of her arms. "Where does it go?"

‘That’s the point." Denise looked at Eve. "I don’t know what you want me to do with everything, but we have to put it somewhere so we can get the washer out."

Eve blinked. "We’re taking the washer out?"

"I called a scrap metal place. They’ll be out to pick it up first thing in the morning."

"Oh." Eve gazed at the pile Rick was now holding. "I’ll get some garbage bags. We can give it all to the Salvation Army. I have some things under my bed that can go, too."

"Great." Denise started toward the kitchen. "I’ll call for a pickup ASAP."

"Not necessary," Rick said. "Or at least we used to have a drop-off place by the post office. Charlie, is it still there?"

"It’s still there." Charlie was impressed. When Rick needed to be weird to match up with Eunice, he showed his twisted side. But for organized Denise, he was ready with practical suggestions. No wonder Rick had such success with women. He could be whatever they needed.

"Then once we have this together," Rick said, "Denise and I can load it into the Subaru and take it down there." He smiled at Denise. "Sound good?"

Denise gave him an assessing look. "I’ll also need some help getting the washing machine out to the driveway."

"I’m your guy."

"Rick and I can handle that," Charlie said. The death of the washer was partly his fault. The least he could do was help get the carcass outside.

"Nope." Rick shook his head. "Denise and I can take care of it. You and Eve have things to do in the garage. All we need is a few garbage bags, and we’ll be all set."

"I’ll get them," Eve said.

By the time Charlie had taken off his jacket and chaps, Eve was back with a box of black trash bags.

She handed them to Denise. "I’ve shoved a bunch of other hobby projects under my bed. You can get rid of all of them. From now on, I’m focusing on my inventions."

Denise nodded. "Okay. Rick, come with me."

Charlie watched them go down the hall and into Eve’s bedroom. "What did you tell your sister about Rick?"

"That he was the kind of guy who prided himself on being able to get any woman he met into bed in a matter of hours." Eve turned to him. "The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that his whole double-agent deal is an excuse to try and seduce two women in one day."

Charlie nodded. "Probably."

‘That said, if he tells you anything you think I should know, please pass it on."

"I will." He looked into her eyes and saw a gleam of determination that hadn’t been there before. "Sounds like you’re not going to let anyone or anything stand in the way of completing this project."

"That’s right." She hooked a finger into the open collar of his shirt. "And I want my chief consultant on the job." Backing toward the kitchen, she pulled him forward with just a feather touch.

He wasn’t about to resist. "I’m at your disposal."

Her glance started at the top of his head and traveled slowly down to his feet, lingering ever so subtly at his crotch. "All of you?" "Every last molecule."

She laughed. "You sure know how to get a girl hot, Charlie Shepherd."

Chapter Twenty-four

Much as Eve longed to get it on with Charlie, she wanted to wait until the Subaru pulled away from the curb and they were completely alone. So she put him to work checking out the hovercraft’s electrical system while she fired up her converter for the cooking oil they’d brought home from the bakery.

She left the kitchen door open because the sun was shining and the house’s oil heater hadn’t clicked on in some time. With the door open she could glance out once in a while and watch Charlie going over her hovercraft with a fine-tooth comb. She loved how he looked in his prescription safety goggles.

She also loved his thoroughness. She especially loved it when they were hav**g s*x. And they would be doing that before too long. She’d tucked a condom in the pocket of her sweat suit.

This arrangement, with Charlie in the garage and her in the kitchen, felt strangely traditional. She might be whipping up some biofuel instead of dinner, and he might be checking out her hovercraft instead of changing the oil

In the family station wagon, but even so, Eve had a cozy feeling as the two of them attended to their separate chores.

She wouldn’t mind if their chores had been more traditional. If she had Charlie around all the time, she might even learn to cook. He could be the kind of guy who would appreciate a lavender cake with dark purple frosting.

From the other end of the house came the scraping and clunking sounds of Denise and Rick maneuvering the washer down the hall and out the door. Eve hoped they didn’t scratch the hardwood floors doing it, but knowing Denise, that wasn’t a worry. Once the washer went out the front door with a thud, there was silence for a few minutes.

Then the front door opened and closed as they came back in to package up Eve’s discarded hobby supplies. Eve couldn’t listen to that front door close without remembering the creepy feeling of hearing it while she was in bed with Charlie. She didn’t want that intruder to have been her sister. In point of fact, she would love to have dreamed the whole thing.

"Eve?" Charlie’s voice coming from the garage had an uneasy quality to it.

"What?" She walked over to the doorway. "Did I screw something up?" She’d so hoped he’d give her a clean bill of health.

"I wish I could say that, but this doesn’t look like something you’d do." He’d taken off the hovercraft’s dashboard and was gazing at the wiring behind the panel. "Is this how you set it up?"

She looked at the wiring and felt a chill run through her. "No, I didn’t. I’m positive of that."

"Then somebody disconnected everything and reconnected it to the wrong terminals. If you had the motor installed and started it up, you’d have a fire on your hands."

Eve gazed at the wires, then up at Charlie. She was picturing herself getting into the hovercraft, closing the hatch, strapping herself in and turning ON the ignition. The cockpit was snug to conserve space. Getting in and out of it took some agility. Would she have been able to climb out before getting burned?

She swallowed. "I thought they were after the invention. I never thought they were after me."

"They might not be, specifically," Charlie said quietly. "My guess is that they don’t want this thing to take off before they can sell the concept to the highest bidder."

"Maybe they’ve already done that."

Charlie shook his head. "I don’t think so. Whoever it is wouldn’t hang around once they’d clinched the deal. None of our suspects are AWOL."

"We don’t know that." Eve could think of one person she hadn’t seen since last night. "I’m assuming Eunice went off to work this morning, but we don’t know that for a fact. She could be on her way to the Grand Caymans."

Charlie stared at the wiring. His voice was tight. "Call her."

Trembling, Eve hurried into the kitchen and grabbed the Middlesex phone book. She’d never called Patriots Independent Insurance Agency before, and she spent precious time tracking down the number. It wasn’t made any easier because adrenaline was raging through her system.

She was furious. She’d worked so hard on this hovercraft. How dare anyone think they could steal the concept and get rich? How dare someone fool with the wiring and risk a fire that could bum her?