Talk Nerdy to Me (Nerds, #5)(4)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

"It’s strictly experimental." She lowered her voice. "It may never get out of my garage. I’m just—"

"So you are building it!" Rick turned to Charlie. "I’ll bet you’re helping her, aren’t you?"

Charlie looked at Eve, his expression stormy. "Well, you see, I didn’t—"

"I would love some help, Charlie," Eve said. "There are definite gaps in my knowledge when it comes to the electrical system. I’m pretty much self-taught, and it would mean a lot if you’d check out my wiring."

"I’d be glad to."

He said it so quickly that she had no doubt he was thrilled to be asked. Being asked to help might make up for not being told about the hovercraft earlier. She let out a breath. Maybe this wouldn’t turn into a complete disaster.

But she needed to move this party elsewhere. The workday was over in Middlesex, so happy hour could begin any time. A couple of guys in jeans and flannel shirts had just come through the door and were headed over to the bar. She thought Charlie had noticed them, but Rick seemed oblivious.

"I’d like to get a look at that thing, myself," Rick said.

She edged closer to the door. "I’m trying to keep the project under wraps. Until now, I haven’t told anybody about it except my neighbor Eunice, and she’s sworn to keep it secret. It may never work, so there’s no point in making a laughingstock of myself, right?"

"I doubt that’s going to happen," Rick said. "You’re one smart woman. If you’re building a hovercraft, then I’ll bet good money that it’ll work."

Eve winced and hoped the two guys at the bar hadn’t heard that. Maybe she’d better take steps to contain the information within the circle of people who already knew. "Tell you what. I only live three blocks away. Why don’t we head over to my place and I’ll show you what I have so far?"

"Sounds good," Rick said. "I rented a Subaru, so we can all ride over in that. Unless Charlie wants to follow on his bike."

"I’ll ride with you," Charlie said quickly, as if unwilling to be odd man out.

After Charlie and Eve grabbed their coats, everyone left the tavern. Eve gave Rick the address as she climbed into the passenger seat. That left Charlie, Manny, and Kyle crammed into the backseat. Good thing it was only three blocks, because nobody looked comfy back there.

As the shortest, Kyle got the middle, and Charlie ended up behind Eve. He helped the crush of broad shoulders by leaning forward and talking to her through the little space between the seat and the door panel.

"What kind of silhouette did you go with?" he asked.

"Round," she said. "I wanted it to be multidirectional and aerodynamic."

"I’m picturing a Frisbee," Rick said.

Charlie ignored him, leaning closer so he could talk more directly with Eve. "So I’m assuming you decided on fiberglass?"

"Right." She twisted her body and talked as best she could through the narrow opening. "Although the choice was made for me, in a way. I found a flying-saucer prototype on eBay, and the hull was fiberglass."

From the driver’s seat came a chuckle. "A fiberglass Frisbee," Rick said. "Catchy. You could call it that."

"With fiberglass you wouldn’t need as much thrusting power to give it forward momentum," Charlie said.

Eve nodded. "Fiberglass is great, but I’m still dealing with the safety angle. Right now it’s too fragile to withstand much of an impact. When the engine on my workbench exploded this afternoon, I was lucky that no pieces hit the frame."

Rick braked at a four-way stop. "You exploded something?" He sounded worried.

"A little glitch with the biofuel," Eve said. "Listen, Charlie, before you agree to help me, you might as well hear about the fuel situation. You’re liable to think I’m completely bonkers to consider it."

"I’ll help," Rick said as he pulled through the intersection. "Even before I hear about the fuel situation. Unless you’re running gerbils around in a wire cage. I’m against that as a fuel source. So’s the ASPCA. I—"

"I’m making the fuel myself," Eve said.

"Excellent." Charlie’s tone conveyed total approval.

Eve had expected doubt and disbelief. Instead she was getting praise. It was a heady experience. "I also have a tank of hydrogen that I may end up using, but—"

"Isn’t that what they had in that blimp that exploded a long time ago?" Rick said. "The photos of that were awesome."

"I don’t want to use hydrogen if I can help it," Eve said. "I’m… exploring the option of using biomass as a feedstock for ethanol. My idea is to use the hovercraft as a fun teaching tool, to show people we don’t have to depend on oil as a fuel source."

"Cool." Charlie sounded excited.

"If biomass has something to do with the Catholic church, I’m in trouble." Rick said. "I am so lapsed."

Eve decided to take her cue from Charlie and ignore Rick’s comments. "I’m using my own kitchen scraps," she said. "Leftover veggies from the salads I make all the time. I want to make fuel options easily accessible."

"There you go," Rick said. "At last, a legitimate use for broccoli stalks."

Then it came to her—Rick wasn’t used to being left out of a conversation, especially one that included a woman. Well, too bad. Charlie was the man of the moment, and she intended to concentrate on him.

"So what are you doing for a converter?" Charlie asked.

"I designed my own."

"Wow." Charlie blew out a breath. "That’s amazing. Good for you."

"But the mixture I’m getting may be too rich for the engine I bought. I have a small rotary. Or had, past tense. It’s destined for the landfill, now."

"I love rotary engines," Charlie said. "Inspired choice."

"Thank you." Good thing she was flexible, because she had to twist around to carry on this conversation properly. She leaned her cheek against the headrest. "I was so afraid you’d laugh at the whole thing. I’ve read tons of books and taken a bunch of online courses, but I don’t have an engineering degree like you, so there may be some structural—"

"We’re here," Rick said. "All out for the incredible hovercraft show."

"I’m sure it’s going to be great," Charlie murmured through the opening, before he unsnapped his seat belt. "Absolutely great."

"Thanks. That means a lot to me." As she climbed out of the Subaru, Eve realized she was very turned on. She hadn’t known how much she’d craved this kind of enthusiastic endorsement. She’d thought that inventing something all by herself had given her more creative freedom.

Maybe it had, but she’d also had to battle her doubts alone, and many times she’d wondered if she was totally crazy. Or maybe she was just plain arrogant to believe that her little toy had the power to revolutionize the fuel economy.

Yet in her heart of hearts, she did believe that. For a concept to take hold, it needed a fun factor. The hovercraft, running on alternative fuel, would be that fun factor.

Finally having someone validate her decisions meant the world to her. She liked that the someone had turned out to be Charlie, who was getting hotter by the minute. Brains could be so damned sexy.

As she ushered everyone inside, she thought briefly of her lack of housekeeping skills and then decided not to worry about it. These were bachelors. Bachelors weren’t neat. Well, maybe Charlie was. She’d turn on only necessary lights as she took them from the front door through the kitchen to the garage.

"Don’t mind the mess." She said that mostly for Charlie’s benefit, in case he was a neat freak. "The cleaning lady comes tomorrow." That wasn’t precisely true. She hadn’t hired a cleaning lady yet because she didn’t want someone from Middlesex gossiping about the fuel converter in her kitchen or the purple spacecraft in her garage.

On Mondays she usually shoveled out the worst of the clutter and ran a vacuum around, but today she’d been too involved with testing her fuel to think of it. Leading the way through the dark hall to the kitchen, she flipped on a light so they wouldn’t bang against things on their way to the garage.

Whoops. She’d completely forgotten about her Victoria’s Secret underwear. Because her washing machine was on the fritz, she’d handwashed her bras and panties in the kitchen sink last night. Then she’d draped them over the kitchen chairs.

Most models she knew wouldn’t have cared a bit if a bunch of guys caught sight of their underwear drying in the kitchen. But Eve was shy. Always had been and probably always would be.

She didn’t do lingerie ads for that very reason. Still, she loved fancy undies, especially in vibrant colors like red, purple, and jade, all of which were represented in her kitchen right now. And she was blushing. Damn it.

She paused, trying desperately to think of something clever and sophisticated to say. Meanwhile all four men stood staring at the colorful and intimate display. No witty words came to her.

Charlie was the first to speak. "Oh, wow."

She gulped. If Charlie, the man she most wanted to impress, made some comment about her lingerie lying around, she might die of embarrassment.

He cleared his throat. "I’ve seen something similar, but never quite like that."

Rick laughed. "Cuz, you really need to get out more."

"I’d like a closer look." Charlie started toward the table.

Yes, she would definitely die of embarrassment. Charlie wasn’t content to gaze on her underwear from a distance. He wanted to scrutinize it up close, probably analyze the structural capability of the elastic and underwire.

She searched for a way to end this excruciating moment. "Hey, let’s not forget about the hovercraft." She forced a smile. "Isn’t that what you guys came to see? Let’s go on out to the garage and check it out!"

"In a minute," Charlie said. "First I want to examine …"

"Charlie." She couldn’t bear this another second.

"… your converter." He brushed past a purple bra as if he hadn’t even seen it. Then he crouched down beside the large stainless steel contraption she’d rigged up—thanks to more finds on eBay—to distill her fuel. "This is wild, Eve. Absolutely wild."

Rick shook his head. "Charlie, you are such a nerd."

And that, Eve realized, was why she found Charlie irresistible.

The discussion with Eve in the car had stimulated every one of Charlie’s nerve endings, including the ones connected to the playground equipment below his belt. Some guys got excited when a woman talked dirty. Charlie got excited when a woman talked nerdy.

Discovering this side of Eve was like opening up the wall of a cute little cottage and finding it wired to support NASA’s flight center. It got him hot.

Now this underwear display had added jet fuel to the blaze. Surrounded by Eve’s lingerie, he couldn’t help but imagine her wearing those jewel like pieces of silk and lace, and his brain was on tilt. Or maybe it was the blood draining south that made him so fuzzy that all he could think about was hot, sweaty sex. With Eve.

He hadn’t come over to her house so he could imagine hav**g s*x with her. Why had he come? Oh, yeah. The hovercraft. Just in time, he’d remembered. The fog had cleared from his brain long enough for him to notice something besides the touchable silk all around him. In the comer stood her converter. The converter had become his life preserver in a sea of sexual currents.

"Reminds me of a smaller version of what I’ve seen in a microbrewery," Rick said.

"That’s actually where I got the idea," Eve said. "But don’t try to drink anything that comes out of there. It’ll corrode your insides."

Charlie studied the dials on the converter. They were fascinating, but not as fascinating as the purple bra dangling six inches from his face. The tag was right there, available for him to read her specs. He should ignore it. Nothing good could come from reading that tag.

But he was an engineer, and engineers focused on measurements. She wore a 36B underwire. Despite claiming not to care about the size of a woman’s br**sts, he’d always been partial to the elegant proportions of a 36B.

The converter. He needed to say something about it. "You could patent this, to go along with the hovercraft. They could come as a package." And speaking of packages, his was growing exponentially as he contemplated the structural wonder of that underwire gently lifting Eve’s br**sts, thereby producing nuzzle-worthy cl**vage.

"I’d like that," Eve said. "In fact, that would be part of my ultimate goal, so that people would see how easy alternative fuel could be. And I’d really hate to see anyone using petrochemicals to operate something that’s just for fun."

"You mean gas?" Rick said.

"She means gas." Charlie remembered having to coach Rick through chemistry, and even at that he’d only pulled a D. Rick wasn’t dumb, but no one would ever accuse him of being a scholar.

"I get it," Rick said. "A green toy to promote green living. I can see it catching on in Southern California, no problem."

Manny shifted his weight impatiently. "Is the garage through that door?"

"Yes," Eve said, "but I’d rather wait until we’re all ready to—"

"Let’s take a look at that hovercraft." As Charlie stood, he hoped his erection had subsided sufficiently to make it unnoticeable.

He needed to get out of this kitchen full of Eve’s underwear, and she obviously didn’t want to let two guys she didn’t know wander around in the garage without her. Charlie was beginning to feel rather protective of this project himself.

Because he’d been over in the corner, everyone else filed through the door ahead of him. That gave him one precious opportunity to test the silky fabric of the bra between his thumb and forefinger. Pure tactile pleasure.

Out in the garage, Rick whistled in surprise, and Charlie reluctantly let go of the bra. Manny and Kyle had said nothing, but maybe they’d been struck dumb by the sight of the hovercraft. Probably not, though. Charlie had an idea nothing fazed these two, not even dainty purple underwear.