Duke went around the front of the truck and got into the driver’s seat. He started the engine and nudged his way out into traffic. He was aware Olivia hated the traffic, but right now she seemed content to just bask in the air conditioner filling the truck’s cab with cold air.
After about five minutes of the stop and go traffic on the strip, Duke looked over at Olivia and smiled. “Now you look more relaxed. That’s good. I was afraid you were going to wind up giving yourself ulcers or something the way you were going back there.”
Olivia chuckled. “If I was going to give myself ulcers, I think I would have already done it.”
Finally, Duke spotted the towering lights of his favorite frozen custard place. The enormous building was walk-up only with nothing but benches where customers could sit to eat their frozen treats on a hot night. Duke maneuvered into a parking spot that had probably been designed for a much smaller compact car and then parked the truck.
“Frozen custard?” She was gaping out the window like a little kid. “Really?”
“Why not?”
“I—uh—I don’t know.” Her brow was furrowed as she struggled to get herself down out of the truck.
Duke went around quickly to help her out. He held the truck’s door open with his shoulder and carefully put both hands around her tiny waist. She slid down and stood between Henry’s door and Duke’s body. He could smell the sweet dampness of her perspiration and the light, spicy fragrance of her scented lotion. It was an intoxicating combination. Duke had never expected to be attracted to a woman like Olivia, but there was no denying he was.
“You’re going to have to move if you want me to walk up to the order window,” Olivia whispered to Duke.
He smiled down at her. “Sorry. I’ll move in a minute just as soon as my brain starts working again. At the moment, I’m totally overwhelmed by having you here beside me.”
“Overwhelmed? You?” She gave a giggle. “I find that difficult to believe.”
He caressed her cheek and lightly stroked her lips. He wanted to kiss her. It was a startling revelation. It shouldn’t have been but that’s what he was feeling. Attraction. The sort of attraction that made his heart race and his palms sweat in a way that had nothing to do with the hot night air pressing so close around them.
“Come on,” Duke said in a low voice. “Let’s go get in line. It still looks pretty busy for ten o’clock at night.”
He took her hand then and she let him. They strolled over to the order window and got into the line. Duke chatted about ridiculous stuff. He knew he was being silly. Asking her about her favorite custard toppings and whether or not she preferred frozen yogurt or custard or regular ice cream. She probably thought he was silly, but it kept them both occupied. The lines of tension on her face began to relax. She started to use gestures when she talked. Her eyes were bright with interest and humor, and it did not take Duke long to realize he was falling in love with this woman.
“What can I get for you tonight, folks?” The girl in the window looked more than a little harried on this busy night. Then she seemed to focus on her customers and paused. “Oh. Hey, Duke. I haven’t seen you around in a few weeks. What can we get for you?”
“I’ll have my peanut butter coconut and chocolate with bananas,” Duke told Haley the frozen custard clerk. “And then whatever the lady wants.”
“Just plain strawberries on top of vanilla,” Olivia said quickly. “And small size please.”
“Small?” Haley winked at Olivia. “Don’t you want to make sure you have enough to share with Duke so he doesn’t devour his and eat yours too? We don’t call him the Custard King for nothing.”
“The Custard King?” Olivia was grinning from ear to ear as she turned to look at Duke. “Should we get you a vanity plate for Henry that says Custard King? You know, so everyone knows.”
“I think that’s a fantastic idea!” Haley crowed as she got their custard orders ready. She was moving from counter to counter with the sort of speed and efficiency that comes with long practice. In only a few minutes, she had the two custard orders ready to go and was ringing them up on the register. “Duke here is one of our favorite customers, ma’am. You’re lucky to be out with such a gentleman.”
Duke actually felt as though his cheeks were going to flush crimson. Olivia cast a sly look up at him from beneath her lashes. “Oh, I believe I’ve noticed some of his more gentlemanly qualities.”
“Good for you.” Haley ran the credit card and then handed it back to Duke. “All right, Custard King. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I think I can go longer than twenty-four hours,” Duke said dryly.
Haley didn’t look convinced. “I don’t know about that.”
Duke handed the tiny vanilla and strawberry custard bowl to Olivia and picked up his own much larger serving. Then he gestured toward Henry. “Want to tailgate with me?”
“I don’t know if I can get up there!” She gave Henry a dubious once over as they approached.
Duke snorted and reached inside the bed to unfasten the tailgate and lower it. “You’re a dancer, Olivia. I bet you could jump up there a whole heck of a lot more easily than I can.”
She pursed her lips. “Yeah, but I might spill my custard.”
“It’s custard,” Duke pointed out. “It isn’t going to spill.”
“I might lose a strawberry.”
He plucked the custard bowl out of her hand and set it in the truck bed. “There you go. Now, go get it.”
She laughed at him as she put both hands flat on the tailgate. Bouncing gracefully on her toes, Olivia launched herself straight up into the air. Turning elegantly and letting her weight off one hand, she pivoted her whole body and then landed with her butt on the tailgate.
“See?” Duke shook his head, impressed. “I don’t even think I heard the shocks bounce.”
She made a face and reached for her custard. “That’s because I weight about as much as a toddler and have the body of one, too.”
“Don’t say that,” Duke rumbled. “And hold on. I’m coming up.”
He jumped too, but the whole truck shuddered beneath his weight, the springs squeaking as he landed hard on the tailgate and settled himself. Olivia was still giggling as she bounced right along with Henry’s frame.
“I will say that,” Olivia told him firmly. She looked downcast. “I’m tiny. I know that. I don’t have much of a figure. I know that too. I just can’t imagine why a guy like you would ever look twice at me and yet here you are buying me frozen custard like we’re on a real date.” Her face froze for a second and she looked mortified. “I’m not meaning to say that I’m assuming that this is a date. It’s not like that. I’m not going to go all fatal attraction on you because you bought me frozen custard or something.”
“I know that.” Duke glanced down at her and then put a huge bite of custard in his mouth. “And I am taking you out for custard because I want to go on a date with you. But this isn’t a date because when I do finally take you out on a date, I’d like to do it right. And that starts with an evening that does not involve police.”
Olivia exhaled a sigh and nibbled a spoonful of melting custard. “Then you’re going to be waiting a while. I feel like there’s basically nothing in my life right now that isn’t heading for a disaster involving police and probably the repo men. It’s all falling apart, Duke. Can’t you see that?”
Duke exhaled a huge sigh. He knew exactly what she was describing. Well, not exactly. But he understood what it was like to feel as though your life wasn’t going where you had always assumed it would. A few moments passed in companionable silence before he finally thought of what he wanted to say.
“Olivia, it seems like you’ve been supporting your uncle for a really long time. Maybe all of your life. At least all of your adult life. In one way or another he took over your life. Maybe this is just an opportunity to change that for good? Don’t you think?”
“Maybe you’re right,” she whispered. “Ril
ey has been the center of it all for a very long time. I just never thought of it like that before. I wanted to help him be successful. I thought—I don’t know how I thought it was going to work. That I would finally save up enough money and he would just tell me to go ahead and start my dance studio?”
“Is that what you want?” Duke asked her softly. “Is that your goal? If it really is, then why not go for it?”
“I guess I’ve always been afraid,” she admitted. “I’ve been convinced I would fail.”
Duke didn’t know a damned thing about starting a dance studio. He didn’t know how to run a business. He didn’t know how to fund one or start one or even to figure out who to talk to when you wanted to open a business.
“I don’t have all the answers, Olivia,” Duke told her quietly. “But Branson is the place where businesses start and crash every single day of the week and I know there has to be some kind of resource out there to help you figure out how to at least give it a try.”
“Do you think so?” Olivia looked like a tiny child asking if Santa Claus was real. “Do you honestly think someone would take a chance on me?”
“You’ve been running a very successful show on a shoestring budget with a lunatic for a staring character for years now. I cannot believe anyone would think you weren’t ready to try this on your own,” Duke reminded her. “Once this whole Riley Saunders thing is figured out, we’re going to find a way.”
“We?”
“Sure.” Duke leaned over and placed what he hoped was not a sticky kiss on her cheek. “I would be heartbroken if you didn’t at least let me try to help. Not that I would be any good at teaching dance or putting kids’ hair in buns. I don’t even particularly like kids. But I can cheer you on from the audience and I’m good at the heavy lifting.”
“Duke, thank you for everything.” She put her hand on his arm. “I—I fired you and I was wrong to do that and I’m incredibly embarrassed. I know you were upset, but I hope you don’t hold it against me.”
“Never,” he told her quickly.
“I understand why you were pushing me to look at Riley. I think I knew even then that you were right. It was just hard to accept that Riley was lying to me and trying to make everyone else look guilty just to make himself appear innocent.”
Duke lifted his custard bowl as though they were going to toast. “Then I hope this is the start of something new. Something totally unrelated to a dog and pony show. Or cats and donkeys. Whatever the current trend happens to be at the moment.”
Olivia laughed and lifted her custard bowl to click it against his. “Here’s to a new beginning.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“You don’t want to be responsible for picking me up in the morning, Duke.” Olivia had that slightly apologetic and hesitant vibe going on. “Just drop me back off at the theater to get my car. Please?”
Duke sighed as he started Henry’s engine and wished he could just put Olivia in his pocket and keep her there. How much easier would that be? “Are you sure? I don’t mind, Olivia. You’re not some kind of a burden. I’m up at the crack of dawn anyway. I could go into the office, get a little paperwork done, swing by and pick you up. It’s not like I wouldn’t be heading to the theater anyway to help wrap this case up.”
In the muted light coming from the dashboard, she looked so very young. Sometimes Duke wondered how someone who appeared this fragile could still be doggedly humming along after everything that had happened already. Most of the people Duke knew would have collapsed by now, pulled the covers over their head, and refused to come out until someone else picked up the pieces.
“I appreciate the thought, Duke.” She reached over and put her hand on his arm. “I really do, but I think I’d rather have my car. I just don’t feel right about being stranded someplace. Not even my own apartment.”
How could he argue with that? Duke chuffed out a little sigh and nodded. “All right then. But you’re not to go anywhere in the middle of the night without at least texting me. You have my number, right?”
“You gave me your card, but I’m not sure I put your number in my phone.” She pulled out her smartphone and held it up. “Here. Give it to me again.”
Duke rattled off his phone number as he maneuvered Henry out onto Route 76. Traffic was finally moving a little faster as most of the travelers attending the evening shows headed back to their hotels and campgrounds. He was almost sorry for the quicker pace since it brought them back to the parking lot of the Moonrise Theater way before Duke was ready to part ways and end the evening.
“Thanks for the custard,” Olivia told him as he parked his truck beside her squat SUV. “It’s been a really long time since I’ve gone out like that.”
“Me too,” Duke agreed. Then he gave a self-deprecating chuckle. “Okay. So, it’s been a really long time since I’ve been to the custard place with someone else. I usually just go by myself, get the biggest size available, and then I sit on the tailgate and eat until I know I’m going to have to do about a thousand crunches the next day to make up for the fat and calories.”
“Oh please!” She rolled her eyes in an expressive gesture that was so feminine that it made him want to kiss her. “I cannot imagine that you can’t afford a few thousand calories every night. You look like a pro athlete.”
“And you look like a dancer, which means it would appear that you could use about ten times that amount,” Duke teased.
Olivia sighed. She looked thoughtful. “I don’t know that I can call myself a dancer anymore. I’m really starting to believe the whole having-my-own-studio thing is a pipe dream that will never happen.”
“There has to be a way,” Duke insisted. “Don’t give up before you try. Hang on, sit tight and I’ll help you down.”
He got out of Henry and ran around to the passenger side of the truck. The air was sweltering hot. It felt as though he was swimming with each step that he took. Finally, he got the passenger door open and reached up to help Olivia down. He knew she was perfectly capable of getting down by herself. He just wanted to put his hands on her waist. She was so tiny. It fascinated him for some reason. Maybe it was that whole protector thing.
“What?” She stared up at him with a curious expression on her face. “You’re staring.”
“I like looking at you.” He felt silly all of a sudden. Like he was going to say this out loud and she was going to tell him that she wasn’t okay with it. “There’s something about you that just makes me want to put my arms around you and tuck you in close.”
“Really?” Instead of looking offended, Olivia looked mystified. “Why? I’m used to taking care of myself.”
“Maybe that’s why,” he suggested. His mind was spinning, his heart was thumping against his ribs, and he wasn’t entirely sure he was making any sense at all. “You’re such a little thing. Tiny. You know? And yet you’re out here trying not to get pushed around and taken advantage of by all of the people who should have been taking care of you.”
“It just brings out the hero in you, huh?”
She gave him a teasing look that somehow managed to not make him feel ridiculous. Duke appreciated that about her. She didn’t mock. He felt embarrassed enough about his own feelings. Mostly because he wasn’t entirely sure she returned them.
“You weren’t attracted to me when we first met,” Olivia observed in a slow, deliberate voice. “I could tell. I’m not your type. Am I right?”
“What makes you say that?” Of course, she was right, but he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to talk about it. He wasn’t even sure how he really felt about the fact that he absolutely was attracted to her now. “I’ve never dated a dancer before. I can tell you that.”
“You always expected to marry a farm girl, remember?” She was smiling up at him now.
They were still standing beside Henry. The doors were shut, which at least kept the moths from flocking toward the dome light inside the vehicle. It was dark out, but the lights of the parking lot were so bright that
they mingled with the neon lights on the theater and made it feel almost like a false daylight.
“Farm girl,” Duke repeated. Then he made a face. “To be honest, I don’t think I was going to marry at all. Farm girls tend to want to settle down in rural areas and raise kids.”
Olivia made a tsking noise. “I think that’s a bit of an overgeneralization, don’t you think?”
“Maybe,” Duke allowed. He thought about his mother. “But that was certainly what my mother expected me to do. Find a local girl, settled down, drive big rigs when I wasn’t farming, that sort of thing.”
“My parents thought of dancing as a cute hobby for a little girl,” Olivia admitted. She reached up and absently smoothed her hand across his chest. He wasn’t sure what she was doing, but he didn’t want her to stop. “I knew from the time I was little that I wanted to be a dancer. A stage dancer, a corps dancer, a teacher. I didn’t care. I just wanted to be in the studio listening and moving to the music.”
“I’ve never been that sure about anything in my life,” Duke murmured. He gently put his index finger beneath her chin and forced her to look up at him. “That’s even more of a reason for you not to give up on the dance studio idea.”
She gazed up at him for a long moment. Her rosebud mouth was pursed and she looked bemused. “Why are you being so nice to me, Duke? I’m not your type of girl. I don’t think I ever will be. I’m flattered, but I don’t want you to be with me just because you feel like I need a babysitter.”
Duke gave a bark of laughter and then shook his head. “That’s not what this is about, Olivia. I respect you. There’s a difference. I feel like I’ve never met anyone with your kind of resilience. You’re tiny and yet you just keep getting back up time after time when you’re knocked down. It’s impressive. Can’t you understand why I would admire that in a woman?”
“I don’t know.” She tilted her head sideways. “Would your family like me?”
Duke’s gut tightened. This was a tricky answer to give. “I don’t care what my family thinks. They would be happy that I’m happy. And then my mother would start talking about child bearing hips and how she was worried that you’d have trouble birthing babies.”
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 20
