Talk Nerdy to Me (Nerds, #5)(36)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

"You look great, Denise," Charlie said. "Eve was telling me you had a safety modification suggestion for the hovercraft."

"I guess she didn’t consider it very important if she’s just now telling you about it."

"I thought it was a great idea." Eve wished she’d mentioned it earlier, just so Charlie would know that Denise was thinking of ways to protect her, not ways to do her in. "But we’ve been concentrating on the engine, and I temporarily forgot." She glanced at Charlie. "She thinks we should attach a lightweight rubber bumper around the outside rim."

Charlie glanced at the hovercraft and nodded. "Good suggestion. We’re hoping not to run into anything, but it wouldn’t hurt to have something like that, just in case."

Eve noticed that he was still using we when she would be the only person in the hovercraft, at least until after the first flight. But she let that go for now. "Yeah, I think it would be a smart move."

"I’d call it essential," Denise said. "Considering that you have no experience in building something like this, it’s bound to crash. I hope you’re going to wear a helmet, too."

"I hadn’t thought of that." She’d been so intent on getting the thing in the air that she’d given no thought to whether she’d be in danger doing it.

"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 nak*d 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 br**sts, 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."

"Oh, hell." He started around the hovercraft. "What’s another—"

"I’m back!" Denise waltzed into the garage, a dreamy expression softening her sharp features. "Manny’s turning his portfolio over to me. Can you imagine?"

‘That’s serious staff," Charlie said. He glanced at Eve and winked. "It’s not often a woman gets to see a guy’s portfolio."

"That is so true!" Denise twirled in place. "Most men would rather get nak*d than reveal the contents of their portfolio. It indicates such a degree of trust."

"So the evening went well?" Eve didn’t have to ask. She just liked seeing her sister in this gaga condition and wanted to pump it for all it was worth.

"Let’s put it this way. We agreed that the bakery should change its name to Hot Buns and become a franchise. If that happens, we will go into business together." She announced it with the same flourish as if they were engaged to be married.

"Hot Buns?" Charlie cleared his throat. "Have you mentioned that to my mom and Aunt Myrtle?"

"Actually, Manny called them on his cell. They loved the name."

"Wonderful," Charlie said.

"It is wonderful." Eve sent a warning glance in Charlie’s direction. The name of the bakery was the least of the problems. Eve didn’t want her sister to come crashing to earth when she discovered Manny wouldn’t leave California. "Assuming the franchise works out, where would you and Manny locate your first bakery?"