Sometimes It Is Rocket Science (19 page)

“I’m not going anywhere, doll.”  Robert lifted her chin with his index finger and covered her trembling, Irish cream-flavored lips with his.  The way her mouth opened under his tempted him to haul her out of the chair and into his arms, but it wasn’t the right time.  When he pulled back, the sheen of tears had disappeared from her eyes and color had returned to her face. 

“Don’t forget, the bastard went after my father and a kid I consider a brother.  He’s purposely distressing my fiancée.  I have as much at stake as you do.”

She opened her mouth to remind him that they weren’t
really
engaged, but something about the hard glint in his eyes kept her from verbalizing that thought.  She licked her lips, tried to ignore the taste of him lingering on her skin, and shrugged lightly.  “Does this mean you’re up for helping me with the car?  I have the SUV’s CPU.  It suffered some damage, but I think most of the data is recoverable.  You can use the PC in my workshop.”

“Only if you promise we’ll call it quits before dawn.”

“Deal.  We’ll use the coffee pot in my shop, but we need to grab fresh milk.  The stuff in the fridge down there is old.”  She stuck out her tongue, gagged.  “Guess I need to extend NORA’s protocols to include the contents of that fridge, too.”

Georgiana stood up, used her right foot to shove the chair against the wall.  She dumped a pile of black plastic on the desk.  When Robert didn’t move to follow her out of the office, she glanced back at him over her shoulder.  “What’s wrong?”

“Georgiana,” he sighed, voice tinged with fond exasperation.  “If you’re going to take my phone apart, could you at least put it back together when you’re done?”

For the fifth time in forty-five minutes, Georgiana shifted in the high-backed, poorly cushioned chair.  The small, leather armchair had looked deceptively comfortable when she’d tiptoed into Tab’s dark bedroom.  She regretted not taking a chance and slipping onto the bed beside her snoring brother.  Even if she’d ended up squashed between his broad shoulders and the wall she would have been more comfortable.

Her bare foot slipped off the corner of the slick cushion; her sole slid along Quinn’s furry spine.  The Setter lifted his head and aimed sleepy, grouchy brown eyes up at her.  “Sorry,” she mouthed, lifting her foot back onto the cushion.  The dog dropped his head back onto his paws without further complaint but shifted out of range.

Georgiana kept the screen of her tablet aimed away from Tab’s face.  After a bout of restlessness two hours earlier, he’d settled into a deep sleep.  She and their father had joked about Tab’s snoring, but now she found the sound soothing.  If Tab could snore, it meant he was alive.

She and Robert had worked for hours on the SUV.  The car’s computer was more damaged than she’d initially thought, but Robert was confident he could recover all the necessary data.  While he’d determinedly coaxed information out of the CPU, she’d started on the decimated engine.  The light, steady conversation was a nice change from the delicious, but heavy, tension that usually surrounded them.  It reminded her of the easy friendship they’d shared.

He’d held her to her promise to quit before dawn, too.  Before she could finish with the
intake valves, Robert had dragged her out of the workroom and instructed NORA to lock her out until after eight in the morning.  As if they’d been on a date rather than sharing coffee and college horror stories, he walked her to her bedroom door and kissed her goodnight until her toes curled.  Hours later, she could still taste him on her lips.

Though she was physically and mentally exhausted, sleep had proved elusive.  After tossing and turning for twenty minutes, she’d slipped out of her room and into her brother’s.  Fortunately Tab hadn’t put up a fuss when she’d insisted that he keep his door cracked.  It had been months since that horrible night, but whenever she closed her eyes she still saw her precious brother slowly dying in a tub of pink water.  She trusted that they’d moved beyond suicide, but a closed door made her nervous.  She feared it always would.

“Gigi?”

Georgiana’s head snapped up at her brother’s raspy voice.  She used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe away the tears gathered in the corner of her eyes.   “It’s me.”

“Wha’re you doin?”  The rustle of bedding filled the silence as he reached across for the lamp.  He blinked rapidly at the sudden intrusion of soft, white light.  “Are you sitting in the dark watching me sleep?”

Georgiana tapped out of her program on the tablet and rubbed the back of her neck with her free hand. Unsure how to answer, she shrugged.  She didn’t want him to feel smothered, and she didn’t want to add to his guilt.  Humor seemed like the best avenue.

“Sounds kinda creepy when you say it like that, doesn’t it?”

“Little bit, yeah.”  A sleepy smile crept across Tab’s face.  “At least I don’t have to worry about  steppin’ on you.”

“Bigfoot.”

“Creeper.”  After a jaw-cracking yawn, Tab scooted closer to the wall and patted the bare spot beside him.  Georgiana flew out of the chair and curled against his side with a desperation that would have been embarrassing a year earlier.  He draped a heavy arm across her shoulders.  “What are you doing up so early?”

“Looking over your physics project like I promised.”

“Thanks, sis.”

She tilted her head back and scrunched her nose in disgust.  “Don’t thank me yet.  You have a lot of work to do on it still.  In fact, after reading what you have so far I’m not sure we’re related.  One of us has to be adopted.”  Georgiana’s fingers dug into his sides and tickled away his scowl.  “There’s no way any sibling of mine would confuse Kirchhoff’s law with Planck’s law.”

Laughter tumbled from Tab’s lips.  “You’re such a dork.”

“And you have more research to do.  I emailed you a short list of books and articles you should read.”

“Why bother when I have my very own living, breathing scientific encyclopedia right here.”

“Because I won’t always be right here.”  She winced at her poor wording.  He’d opened up so much since the addition of Robert that she’d momentarily forgotten the minefield surrounding him.  When Tab angled his face towards the wall, she cupped his cheek and forced him to meet her tear-dampened gaze.  “I mean when you’re off at college – at Stanford or wherever.  I’ll answer whatever questions you have, but I doubt your professors will let you phone-a-friend during exams.”

“Gigi…”

She swallowed, brushed the hair out of his eyes.  They’d avoided serious discussions for months, but the time for avoidance was over.  “But if you don’t want to go away for school, that’s okay, too.  Whatever you want to do is more than okay with me.  I just want you to be happy, and if you take up being a mime out in the middle of downtown I won’t love you any less.  I’ll be your number one fan.  There is
nothing
you could do that would make me love you any less.”

“Except forget the laws of thermal radiation.”

“Eh.  It’s not completely unforgivable.  I’ll make you a set of flashcards.”

Tab’s mouth fell open in mock horror.  He pressed his hands to his chest and gasped.  “Oh
no
!  Not… the flashcards.”

“Watch it, little brother.  The flashcards helped you pass both your bio and trig finals two years ago.”

“You may have a point about the trig flashcards, but I never looked at the ones for biology.  I lost them shortly after you gave them to me.”

It was Georgiana’s turn to gasp.  She
thwacked
her brother’s arm lightly.  “You never said a word!  I spent three days on those cards and then had to
beg
Mrs. Davis to laminate them for me.  I took half the credit for your grade!”

“You were so proud of those stupid cards I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“I would have made you another set.”

“I forced Dad to promise not to tell you about the cards.  He helped me study for the final.  He made it fun, and we agreed to let you keep the credit.”

Georgiana’s throat swelled with grief and wistfulness.  If it was unfair that she’d had so little time with their father, it was downright criminal that Tab had been robbed of the opportunity to make more memories.  Especially when he didn’t even remember their mother.

“Dad was good at that.  I never would have made it through my world geography class without him.  He made a song out of the capitals.”  She hummed the simple melody, regretted not teaching it to Tab when he’d struggled through geography. 

“Is that where the dork gene comes from?”

“I don’t know about the dork gene, but I know who you got being ticklish from.”  Before he could squirm away, Georgiana’s fingers lightly danced along Tab’s ribs.  His near-hysterical cackling woke Quinn but neither seemed to care.  Tab batted at her hands, but she kept finding new sensitive spots to prod.

“I may be a dork,” she said, giggling along with Tab, “but I’m not the one who sounds like a hyena right now.”

“Y-y-yes you d-do!”  Tab attempted to scramble over her and off the bed, but only managed to make his most ticklish spots more accessible.  Red faced and panting, he wiped his sweaty brow on sleeve of her shirt and kicked at her feet.  “St-stop it!  I’m gonna pee!”

“I would not advise calling his bluff,” a sleep-roughened but amused voice spoke up from the doorway.  Two sets of moss green eyes fixed on Robert’s silhouette.  He stiffened under the laser-like focus of the Colliers’ attention.

Georgiana recovered first.  She shifted Tab so that he was on the edge of the bed and tucked her hands primly in her lap.  She winked at Robert over her brother’s shoulder.  “I did once.  He had been crying wolf every time I touched him, so I decided to take a risk.”

Face red, Tab twisted his torso and slapped a long-fingered hand across her open mouth.  “I was
seven
,” he hissed.

She grasped his bony wrist and yanked his hand away from her face.  “I was soaked.”

Tab’s shoulder slumped.  He shot his sister a baleful glare.  “Dad was so mad he didn’t let you babysit for two months.”

“Dad laughed so hard he almost wet himself.”  She bumped his shoulder encouragingly.  “Don’t worry, while we’re at the hospital we’ll get Dan to tell one or two horror stories from Robert’s childhood.  I’m sure there are several.”  She glanced up at Robert, frowned at the way he seemed to be staring off in space. “Isn’t that right, Bobby?”

Startled out of his thoughts by the sound of his name, Robert straightened and shot Georgiana a disarming smile.  Barefoot and relaxed with the brother she obviously adored, she was the most utterly charming thing he’d ever seen.  He wanted nothing more than to step further into the room and into the Collier siblings’ easy warmth. 

“We didn’t wake you, did we?” Georgiana asked before he could respond to her earlier question.  “The walls are supposed to be soundproof, but I don’t know what decibel levels Dan chose or what kind of insulation was used.  I suppose, given the time period, he would have gone with -.”

Tab’s cool fingers covered her mouth again.  He tugged on his earlobe with his free hand.  “Man, Gigi, it’s too early for that kind of talk.”

Her arched eyebrow said what her trapped lips could not.  Robert pushed off the doorframe and claimed the chair Georgiana had abandoned earlier. His childhood had been far from lonely so he hadn’t often wished for a sibling, but he envied the camaraderie Georgiana and Tab shared.  The jealousy and exclusion rankled.  He wasn’t going to let a little thing like a lack of matching
Mitochondrial DNA keep him on the outside.

“You did not wake me,” he lied, fearing she would disappear behind good manners and guilt if he confessed that the laughter had roused him.  “I had planned to go for a run this morning.”

“We’ll go with you.”  As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Georgiana’s lips curled down.  She did her time on the treadmill out of habit, but she wasn’t a fan of running.  What was it about Robert that made her so eager to spend time with him?

“What?”  Tab pulled away from his sister.  He set his feet on the plush carpet and rubbed the back of his neck.  “Are you crazy?”

“Not out of the question,” she muttered.  Her eyes fell on Quinn.  While volunteering for  a run was unexpected, it was a solid idea.  Tab needed fresh air, and she needed to clear her head.  “Quinn could use the time out, and there’s a kinesiology requirement for your schooling that I’ve ignored.  Now’s as good a time as any to start.”

“It’s early,” Tab observed.  He glanced at the window.  “I don’t think the sun’s even up.”

“You’re already awake, you big baby.  The backyard is lit, and we’ll protect you from the boogeyman.”  Georgiana gestured at her discarded tablet pc.  “We could always go over your physics project if you’re that opposed to a little exercise.”

“We’ll go out for breakfast afterwards,” Robert added, knowing exactly what motivated the teen.

“Waffles and sausage?”

“All you can eat.”

Georgiana groaned, glared at Robert.  “He’ll eat until he throws up, you know that right?  He has a waffle-and-sausage-addiction.  It’s documented.”

Tab kicked her ankle.  “I was
nine
.”  He grasped Georgiana’s wrist and yanked her off the bed.  A small shove to her back sent her staggering towards the door.  “Out.  Let me get dressed.  I’ll meet you downstairs.”  His eyes narrowed suddenly.  “There had better be coffee.”

Robert’s chuckle followed Georgiana into the hallway.  The exhaustion seeping out of every pore dissipated as a mental image of a sweat-soaked Robert wearing only running shorts and sneakers.  She took a step towards her bedroom; her shoulder bounced off the doorjamb.  “Get it together, Gigi,” she grunted, massaging her shoulder.

“Is something wrong, Georgiana?” 

Robert appeared by her side.  His long fingers reached for her shoulder, but she shuffled out of the way before he could make contact. She could blame it on hormones and sleep deprivation and stress, but it wouldn’t change the fact that she’d jump him in a heartbeat if he touched her.  It wasn’t fair that he got to look so edible after only a couple hours of sleep.

“Nothing.  Nothing’s wrong.  Just daydreaming, I guess.”

“Oh?”  Robert’s lips curled up in a sly smile.  “Care to share?”

The saliva in her mouth dried.  She tried to lick her lips but her tongue had turned to sand.  “I…well… I was just wondering if I should rebuild only the engine of the SUV or if there was any merit to assembling the entire vehicle.  I suspect that any tampering done took place in the engine, but it never hurts to be thorough.”

Robert leaned down and brushed his lips over the top of her head.  “Tab’s right:  you are a dork.”

Georgiana stumbled back into her bedroom.  The skin on her scalp tingled where Robert had kissed it.  She gripped the sides of the door tightly to keep from launching herself at him.  “I’ll meet you downstairs.”  The door slammed in his face so hard it ruffled his hair.