Talk Nerdy to Me (Nerds, #5)(35)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

Eve seemed to have similar powers of concentration. She kept testing the chemical content of the fuel. She’d brought her laptop out to the garage and was running some data on that as Charlie leaned close to the engine and listened to the sound it was making to see if that would identify the problem.

But it was hard to hear with that pounding going on in the background. Finally he lifted his head. "What is that?"

Eve glanced up from her computer screen and frowned. "Um…" She turned toward the garage door. "Someone’s banging on the door."

"That’s ridiculous. Why don’t they just ring the doorbell?"

"They might have tried. I’ll bet we wouldn’t have heard it." She walked over to the garage door button and punched it.

"Wait! Put it down again! You don’t know who’s out there!"

Eve glanced at him, obviously realized that she’d been about to reveal her hovercraft to whoever was outside the garage, and smacked the button again, bringing the door down with a thud. "Whoops."

Charlie sighed. "We have to get this hovercraft operational and patented so we can forget about all this cloak-and-dagger stuff." He heard himself use the word we and winced. There was no we in this arena. He was a helper, and once his help was no longer needed, he’d be out of the equation.

The banging on the garage door started up again.

"I’d better see who it is." Eve got up and walked toward the kitchen door.

"I’ll come with you."

She glanced over her shoulder. "You can keep working. I doubt if our saboteur would come by and bang on the garage door. That’s not what you’d call sneaky."

"Sometimes bold is sneaky." He’d appointed himself her protector and he wasn’t going to let some garden-variety intruder get past him just because they seemed too obvious.

She reached the entry way and looked out the peephole. "Nobody’s there."

"That’s because they’re still banging on the garage door. They got encouraged when you started to open it." Charlie reached for the dead bolt. "I’ll go out there and see who it is."

"I’m going with you."

As soon as Charlie opened the door, he saw a track with equipment in the back and figured it out. "It’s Creepy Critters Exterminating."

Eve groaned. "We didn’t call them and cancel."

"No, and the Subaru just pulled up to the curb."

"Damn it. I hate this. Denise is so sure I can’t handle things without her being around to organize me. Now I’ve just proved her right!"

Charlie came back inside and closed the door. Then he gathered Eve into his arms. He’d promised himself to be careful about doing that, but this was an emergency.

Tilting her chin with his forefinger, he looked into her eyes. "Listen to me. You are a genius."

"I am not! Don’t you dare call me that!"

"Eve, embrace it." He held her close. "You don’t have the kind of brain Denise has, or the kind of brain I have."

"I know. You don’t have to rub it in."

"I’m not. I’d love to have your brain."

She wiggled against him. "I thought you wanted my body."

"That, too. But this is about what you have between your ears. It’s exceptional, and you need to celebrate that, not feel inferior."

She took a deep breath. "That’s not easy. Right now Denise is out there telling the exterminator that she left the job of canceling to me and I failed."

"She probably needs to do that to protect her ego.

She’s only the normal kind of smart, the kind that gets top grades and scholarships. She’s like me. We know how to catalog, how to sort and quantify. You’re miles beyond that. Screw the call to the exterminator. Your mind is too big for that kind of junk."

She gazed up at him, her expression soft and yielding. "Charlie, don’t take this wrong."

"What?"

"I’m in love with you. I can’t help it. I don’t know how I could help it, with the way you are. I know you don’t want to hear that, but I have to say it or bust apart."

His chest grew tight. "Eve, I—"

The door opened and Denise barreled through, followed by Rick. "The exterminator just left." Her irritation was obvious. "You’re going to be charged with the service call, because he did make the trip. I should have let him come in and inspect, I suppose, but I didn’t want to deal with that right now." She stomped into the den and slammed the door.

Charlie released Eve and glanced at Rick. "That looks like more than exterminator-induced anger."

"Did you upset her?" Eve faced him, her eyes flashing. "So help me, if you forced yourself on my sister, I will see that you never work in fashion photography again."

Rick backed away, hands raised. "So help me, I didn’t do anything! I was just trying to be nice!"

"I’ll bet." Giving him a scathing look, she turned on her heel. "I’m going to go check on Denise."

The minute she’d disappeared into the den and closed the door, Charlie looked at his cousin. "What gives? I thought you were going to try to seduce her, not make her furious."

Rick seemed bewildered. "I think there’s something wrong with that woman."

"What do you mean?"

"I have my routine, and it works like a champ. First we have coffee and maybe something sweet, like a piece of pie. We stopped by the Rack and Balls and did that. I didn’t finish mine, on account of it was my second piece of the day, but I wanted to stick with my game plan."

"Okay." Charlie doubted even Rick would try anything funny while Archie was watching from the bar.

"Then afterward I usually find a quiet place to park, preferably with a view. I was a little handicapped, because it’s daytime and I couldn’t find a good view of city lights. In fact, even at night, Middlesex is short on city lights, but—"

"Rick, get to the point. Please tell me you didn’t try to force yourself on her."

"No way, dude! We were sitting there, and I did my opening move of running my finger up and down her arm and telling her how beautiful she is, especially in that light that line works, regardless. There’s always some kind of light, unless it’s pitch-dark, in which case I turn on the dash lights and say she looks good in the glow from the instrument panel. But I didn’t have to do that this time. There was plenty of light."

Charlie ground his back teeth together. "You tried to kiss her, didn’t you?"

"Well, yeah. How can you get your hand under her bra if you don’t start with a kiss?"

"You tried to put your hand under her bra?"

"Don’t get so excited. It’s all a smooth transition, cuz. Well, normally. I move in for the kiss and start on the buttons of the blouse at the same time. It usually works great"

"I can’t believe this."

"I couldn’t either! She hauled off and whacked me!"

"You don’t say." Now that Charlie looked more closely, he could see a bruise forming on Rick’s cheek. "Sounds like it was justified."

"She could have just said no," Rick’s tone was injured.

"Maybe you didn’t give her the chance."

"She had plenty of time between the stroking-her-arm part and the kissing-and-unbuttoning stage. But anyway, that’s not the important thing. The important thing is what she said about her sister during the pie and coffee part. I quizzed her about Eve, like I said I would."

"And?" Charlie hated to take information from such a gonzo source, but he was desperate to figure out who was stalking Eve and her project.

"She said Eve was so pretty as a kid that nobody paid any attention to a gifted older sister. She said that was fine with her, because everyone left her alone, but nobody likes being ignored, right?"

"No, they don’t." And now Charlie was really worried.

"She might be this big-deal professor, which is getting her a certain amount of attention, but I think she’s worried about what kind of attention Eve might get with the hovercraft. I think she’d love to see that whole thing go in the crapper if you want my opinion."

"Thanks, Rick." Charlie was reluctantly grateful, although he wished his cousin had been more subtle with the seduction routine.

"You’re welcome." Rick smiled, then he winced and put a hand to his cheek. "She’s one strong chick."

Strong enough to pry open a door with a crowbar? Charlie had seen enough cop shows to know that jealousy could be a powerful motive, but his heart ached for Eve. She would never want to face the fact that her sister would rewire the hovercraft and risk a fire that could cause her serious harm.

"Remember, this operation is only half done," Rick said. "I have to find out what’s going on with Eunice. Do you happen to know where she works? I thought I’d drop by and set something up, maybe get her in the mood by taking her to dinner."

Charlie almost laughed. "I think you’ve mixed up your women. That might have been the way to go with Denise, but I don’t think Eunice needs any prompting."

"You know, I would have switched things around if I could, but Denise already had a date with Manny for dinner, so I had to work with what I was given. You’re right, though. I can do takeout with Eunice. Hey, maybe she likes food sex."

Charlie shook his head. "You’re incorrigible."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Neither. Anyway, Eunice works at Patriots Insurance Agency. It’s on the corner of Main and Second."

"Thanks, dude." Rick zipped his jacket. "I’ll be back, probably in the morning sometime. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it. Which reminds me. Did you and Eve have some quality time while we were gone?"

Charlie gazed at his cousin. "I don’t think I’ll answer that."

Rick grinned. "That’s an answer, all by itself." He punched Charlie on the shoulder. "Way to go, stud. See you."

After Rick left, his words echoed in Charlie’s head. Way to go, stud. Yeah, that’s what he’d acted like, some horny bastard who couldn’t control himself. He’d spent too much time getting laid and too little time doing what he’d promised, which was to help Eve get her hovercraft off the ground. Way to go, stud.

At first Eve had thought she’d have to comfort Denise after her upsetting experience, but apparently Denise had enjoyed the drama of her stomping-into-the-den routine. She was in a better mood than Eve ever remembered seeing her. Obviously she’d never had two men on the string. Although she made it clear that Rick wasn’t her type, he seemed to have given her ego a much-needed boost.

Eve located the red sweater, hooker shoes, and flashy jewelry she’d agreed to loan Denise. Then she promised to come back and do her sister’s makeup after Denise had showered and dressed. With Denise safely ensconced in the shower, Eve returned to the garage to check on Charlie.

She found him hunched over the rotary engine, his prescription goggles on as he tinkered and swore softly to himself.

"I didn’t mean to abandon you," she said.

He glanced up and pulled the goggles down around his neck. "No problem. You had to see about Denise. Is she okay?"

"More than okay. I’ve never seen her happier."

Charlie looked surprised. "She wasn’t insulted? From what Rick said, he acted like a Neanderthal."

"I think he did, but if you ask me, she thoroughly enjoyed pushing away his unwanted advances. I don’t think she gets all that many of those."

"Hmm." Charlie’s expression closed down a little.

"What?" But she didn’t really have to ask. Charlie was making mental notes beside Denise’s name in his list of suspects. "Did Rick say something?"

Charlie’s gaze was sympathetic. "She really is upset about the hovercraft, Eve. The modeling career is bad enough, but she doesn’t want you getting attention for something like this."

Eve’s stomach clenched. "She said that?"

"Not in so many words, but she told Rick that she’d been ignored as a kid, because you were so pretty."

"I’ve heard that a million times before. She’s never tried to hurt me as a result of that complaint."

"You’ve never tried to build a hovercraft before," he said gently.

"It’s not her." Eve couldn’t imagine her sister switching wires knowing the pilot of the hovercraft could get burned as a result.

"How can you be sure?"

"Because she suggested a safety modification, that’s why. I meant to tell you sooner, but…" But she’d been overcome with lust. Then she’d forgotten about it until now.

"I know." Charlie looked into her eyes. "We’ve let ourselves get way too distracted. I’m not letting it happen again, at least not until we have this baby launched."

Eve nodded, knowing he was right. They had to finish this project. Whoever was trying to steal the idea might not care about using alternative fuel. For Eve, that was the main reason to get the hovercraft on the market.

Of course, once they did and the danger of someone stealing it was gone, Charlie would leave. And she wanted him to follow his dream. But she couldn’t hold back her sigh of regret.

"This hovercraft is a fantastic concept, especially using the biofuel." Charlie’s voice was soft. "I’d say it’s worth a little personal sacrifice."

"So we’ll both do our part to promote cleaner air?" She wished she felt more noble and less deprived.

"Yeah. All your hard work needs to amount to something. The invention needs to get out there and you deserve recognition for making that happen."

"Eve, are you available for the makeup session?"

Eve turned to find Denise standing in the doorway to the kitchen. Even without the jewelry and makeup, the transformation was amazing. In the low-cut red sweater, black slacks, and hooker shoes, Denise looked nothing like a professor and quite a bit like date bait.

Eve tried to tell from Denise’s expression whether she’d heard any of the conversation and whether jealousy was eating a hole in her sister’s stomach. But Denise had perfected a blank look years ago and she was wearing it now.

"Sure," Eve said. "Let’s do it."