Talk Nerdy to Me (14 page)

He started out toward the
garage. "I wanted to make sure I had a kind you liked."

"That
was thoughtful." And thought-provoking, too. He'd overbought on the pizza in
order to increase his'odds of hitting her preference. He was a guy who really
wanted to please. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a lover with
that kind of mind-set. She wondered if he'd consider an affair if she promised
not to keep him in Middlesex a minute longer than he wanted to stay.

"Charlie?"

"What?" He
turned, the pizza box in his hand.

Want
to have a nostrings affair with me?
It was a showstopper of a
line, but she couldn't deliver it. What if he said no? They'd never be able to
work on the hovercraft together for the next few nights if that invitation and
rejection hung in the air between them.

"I forgot
napkins," she said. "Be right back."

Turning
back to the kitchen, she took a deep breath. Might as well face the truth, the
one that Charlie had already figured out. Neither of them were the type who
had nostrings affairs. Therefore Charlie saw her as off-limits. She might as
well be sitting inside a red circle with a slash across the middle.

Looking
at the situation from her perspective, she was up against quite an
obstacle—Hoover Dam, to be precise. Someone could even say she was in a pissing
contest with that installation, and considering the volume of water churning
through it, she wouldn't have much of a chance. Plus she didn't want to
deliberately get in the way of Charlie's dream.

So
although he was yummy, she would rein herself in and let any moves be his. If
he kissed her, she'd kiss back. If he started undressing her, she'd start
undressing him. If he inquired about the location of the condoms, she'd tell
him exactly where to find them. He couldn't very well blame her for throwing a
monkey wrench into his scheme if he'd been caught red-handed heaving the wrench
himself.

With
that settled, she headed back into the garage. She found Charlie studying
something that looked like a page of her notes. "Did you find them?"

He
glanced up. "Only this page. A corner of it was sticking out from under
the hovercraft."

"That's
weird." She put the Cokes on the workbench and got to her knees to look
around the edge of the hovercraft.

"I
did that already. I didn't find any other pages. You must have moved the notes
and dropped this one in the process."

Still
on her knees, she repositioned her glasses and gazed up at him. "I know my
house is filled with clutter, but it's organized clutter. I know what's there.
I wouldn't have picked up notes that were this important and dropped a page
without realizing it. I just wouldn't."

"Then what do you
think happened?"

"I don't know. I'm the
only one who's been out here."

"Until Monday
night."

She stared at him.
"What are you saying?"

"I
don't know." He shook his head. "Never mind. I shouldn't be casting
suspicion on anyone."

"Did
you see anybody go near the workbench Monday night?" Eve thought back over
the discussion they'd had out there with Eunice, Rick, Manny, and Kyle.
"Because I didn't."

"I
don't think I did, either. But I was so engrossed in looking at the hovercraft
that I can't be sure."

She
got to her feet. "I would have noticed, and I don't think they did."
Even when she'd been exchanging that meaningful glance with Charlie, she would
have seen someone walk over and pick up her notes. Or at least she liked to
think she would have. While trying to re-create the scene in her head, she
walked over to the pizza box and took out a slice.

Charlie
reached in while the box was open and took out a piece, too. "Anybody else
have access to them since then?"

As
she closed the lid on the pizza box, Eve thought of Eunice, the FedEx delivery,
and the unlocked door. "Eunice has a key to the house. I gave it to her
months ago so she could put any packages that are delivered to
me inside the door. I get a lot of deliveries of parts,
and I'm often out of town when they come."

"Would
she come in and take the notes?"

"I can't imagine why. She's known about the hovercraft
pretty much from the beginning. If she'd wanted to steal my notes, she could
have done it long before now."

"Maybe
she didn't think it was worth it before, but after Monday night, she realized
the notes might be valuable."

Eve swallowed her bite of pizza. "That's just it—
they're not of much value by themselves. You'd need more than that to market
it. Plus the information about the fuel is wrong. I blew up an engine with
what's in those notes. I don't know how anyone could make use of them."

"She
might not know that."

"I'm
sorry, but I can't believe Eunice would steal my notes hoping to make a
profit." Even though Eunice liked designer shoes and handbags, she
wouldn't stoop to theft. Would she?

When the doorbell rang, Eve jumped. Then she grinned
self-consciously. "Guess I've managed to freak myself out."

"Maybe
it's Eunice and Rick coming back."

"I
doubt it." Returning her half-eaten piece of pizza to the box, Eve headed
toward the kitchen. "They wouldn't be ringing the doorbell when they could
just walk in."

"You mean because Eunice has a key?" Charlie followed
her.

"She
wouldn't need it. The door's unlocked."

"You
don't automatically lock your doors?"

"Not usually when I'm here." She walked through the
kitchen into the entryway as the doorbell rang again. "This is a small
town. That's one of the reasons I wanted to live here as opposed to New York. I
like not having to lock my door all the time." But she had to admit that
finding her door unlocked when she'd come home tonight had been unsettling.

"I'm
not sure that's a good idea, leaving your door open when you're here."

"Oh,
come on." She didn't like this subject, didn't like feeling on edge about
her personal safety. That was a New York issue, not a Middlesex issue.
"Don't tell me you lock yourself in whenever you get home, because I won't
believe you."

"No, but I'm a... an
engineer."

She
swung to face him. "You were going to say it's because you're a man,
weren't you? Then you thought better of it at the last minute."

"Maybe."
He had the decency to look uncomfortable. "Sorry about that."

"Damn
straight. For all you know I'm a black belt who can take somebody out while
you're still standing there figuring the odds."

"Are you a black
belt?"

"No."
She'd thought about taking self-defense classes when she'd lived in New York,
but now it seemed unnecessary.

"Then I wish you'd
lock your door."

"I
refuse to live like an inner-city person when I'm not one anymore." But
she turned around and checked the peephole before she opened the door. Some
habits were hard to break.

"It's
Manny and Kyle." She opened the door. "Hi, guys! I thought you were
frosting cookies."

Manny
stomped the snow from his shoes. "We were, but when we didn't hear back
from Rick, we thought we'd come over and check to make sure everything's
okay."

Eve
glanced at Charlie, who gave a noncommittal shrug. No help there. "Rick
and Eunice went over to her house for a little while," Eve said.
"They'll probably be back any minute."

"Where does she live?"
Manny asked.

"Right
next door," Eve said. "They should be back any time. Would you like
to come in and wait for them? We have extra pizza, and I might have a couple of
beers in the refrigerator."

"No,
thanks." Manny started to turn away. "We'll just go check on
Rick."

"I'm sure that's not
necessary," Charlie said.

"We
think it is necessary," Kyle said. "We just heard from an important
client of his. We're talking big money. Rick would definitely want to respond
personally to this. He's given us strict instructions to let him know whenever
this client calls."

"Then
I'll go get him." Charlie reached for his boots and shoved his feet into
them. "I wouldn't want him to lose a valuable client."

"I'll
go, too." Eve started putting on her boots and coat. She had an urge to
talk to Eunice, anyway. Maybe the subject of hovercraft notes could be
broached, to see whether Eunice looked guilty. Eve couldn't believe that her
neighbor had taken anything, but now that the thought had been planted, it had
taken root.

"Then I guess we'll
all go," Manny said.

Before
they left, Charlie took Eve's keys from the metal key holder she had mounted by
the front door. Silently he handed them to her.

"I
was going to lock it, you know," she said, feeling a little belligerent.

"Glad to hear
it."

She
resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him. Instead she opted for
maturity as she stepped outside and locked the door behind her. Before all of
this came up she might not have locked it, though. Running next door hadn't
seemed like reason enough. She hated the idea that her concept of small-town
living might be naive.

On
the way across the snowy yard, she leaned close to Charlie so Manny and Kyle wouldn't
hear. "There aren't any lights on in the front of the house."

"I
noticed." Charlie's boots crunched through the top layer of frozen snow.

"Do
you really think he wants to be interrupted, no matter what?" Eve tried to
match her stride to Charlie's but came up a little short. They'd never walked
anywhere together before, and she hadn't realized what big steps he took.

"The
Rick I used to know wouldn't want to be interrupted, but maybe success has
changed his priorities. That's why I want to handle this instead of leaving it
to those X-rated cookie frosters."

"X-rated? What do you mean by that?"

"Uh, nothing."

"Come
on, Charlie. Don't make me ask Manny and Kyle."

"They're
for a bachelorette party." Charlie sounded uncomfortable. "They're on
the explicit side."

Eve
lowered her voice. "Your mom and aunt are baking explicit cookies?"

"Yep."

"I guess I shouldn't laugh, but that's too
funny."

"Yeah, it's hilarious."

Obviously
Charlie didn't appreciate the humor in it. "Now I have to see one. I can't
believe those two women convinced the guys to help frost. I love that."

"My
mom and Aunt Myrtle could charm the birds from the trees. Listen, when we get
there, you and I will block the doorway so that if Rick wants us all to go
away, that's what we'll tell these overzealous assistants."

"I, urn, would
actually like to have a word with Eunice."

Charlie
gave her a sharp glance. "So you don't think she's so innocent, after
all?"

"I
think she's innocent," Eve said quickly. "I just want to make
sure."

"You'd better get that
key."

"I
suppose." She hated the idea of mistrusting anyone and couldn't imagine asking
Eunice to return the key.

"Any
other keys floating around?" Charlie's breath fogged the air.

"I
sent one to my parents, and another one to my sister, Denise." Six months
ago she'd been so proud of owning her own little house that she'd mailed the keys
in a flourish of imagined hospitality. Her parents had not visited, which was
probably just as well. Denise had been here once, right after she'd moved in,
when she'd been able to blame the chaos on moving. Six months later she had
nothing to blame but inertia.

"I guess we can
eliminate them as suspects."

"Suspects?"
She said it way too loud, loud enough for Manny and Kyle to hear. Instantly she
lowered her voice again. "We don't have suspects. This isn't like a police
investigation. The notes will turn up."