Tia remembered Carol mentioning Glenn was a huge fan of the superhero that flew around in a red cape as she mentally calculated the drive time from Nashville to the southern Illinois town. “But that’s only three hours away,” she said. “Why the rush?”
“The museum closed at five, and they left too late to make it in time to visit today. Best-case scenario, I hope to find them this evening. Totally plausible in such a small town. If not, we’ll be waiting at the museum when it opens tomorrow morning....”
Ethan stopped midsentence and glared. “This is the third time you’ve made that snorting noise and shook your head at me,” he said. “What’s the problem?”
“All your grandmother wants is to have a little fun.”
“By fun, if you mean jumping on the back of a dangerous vehicle with a virtual stranger to pursue a daredevil adventure list, then I mean to put a stop to it.”
“A museum visit is hardly plunging over Niagara Falls in a barrel.”
Tia saw the hard glint in his eyes again and knew arguing would get her nowhere. She softened her tone. “If you go charging over there to drag her home, Carol might never forgive you,” she said. “I can see how much you love your grandmother. Are you sure you want to do this?”
He nodded once. “Thanks to your interference and that cockamamy list she cooked up, again because of you, I don’t have a choice.”
Chapter 5
Ethan kept his eyes glued on the road ahead, only diverting them for an occasional glance at his side-view mirrors when he changed lanes.
Inside his head he battled a case of the should-haves. For instance, he should have rented a car with a bigger interior than his low-slung coupe to put more physical distance between him and his passenger. He should have requested Tia change out of those infuriatingly sexy shorts into something less tempting before leaving her place and he should have kept his hands to himself.
Unfortunately, hindsight was of no help to him now.
Tia’s proximity, the faint scent of her perfume, the lingering peachy taste of her mouth and his body’s awareness of her seated mere inches away were a sweet torture he’d have to deal with. He spared a quick glance at the in-dash GPS system. For at least another two hours.
Visions of her straddling him on the sofa played through his mind, and Ethan shifted in his seat, the butter-soft leather suddenly uncomfortable. He tried turning up the radio, but listening to the sportscaster’s monotonous recap of the Yankees game and updates on the rest of the day’s sporting events for a third time failed to crowd the unwanted images from his head.
Ethan accelerated and the needle on the speedometer raised a few notches. Shaving time off the drive was worth the risk of a speeding ticket. Anything to get to their destination and out of the car’s close quarters that much sooner.
A beep sounded. The GPS warned of an accident ahead tying up traffic, and offered an alternative route.
Some alternative, Ethan thought. He could either sit in traffic or add an additional hour to the trip by taking the other road. He exhaled. Either way he was screwed. Flicking on his turn signal, he maneuvered the car into the right lane and took the fork in the road leading them out of their way.
“Looks like our three-hour trip is going to be closer to four,” Tia said, looking at the recalculated driving time on the GPS.
She’d been tapping away on her smartphone, and her words were the first either of them spoke since the tension-laced trip had begun.
“Yeah.” Ethan debated if it would be best to allow the awkward silence to stretch over the remaining hours or take on one of the two proverbial elephants taking up space in the car’s tight confines.
He decided to attack the smaller one first, clearing his throat. “I want you to know, these past two days,” he began. “It’s not the way I operate. Blackmail, an ultimatum or whatever you want to call it isn’t my normal approach to problem solving.”
He heard a light chuckle from the passenger seat. Without seeing her face, he couldn’t determine if it was tinged with humor or sarcasm.
“So you’re saying I bring out the worst in you?” she asked.
“I wasn’t going to put it that way.” Ethan said. “I was going to say I’m just worried about my grandmother.”
“But—”
He cut her off, already knowing she was going to tell him there was no need. “I know you believe I’m making a big deal over nothing, but I have my reasons. I also realize we hardly know each other, and after the way I’ve acted, there’s no reason for you to trust me. And I’m not asking you to,” he hurriedly added. “However, I am asking you to trust I have my grandmother’s best interests at heart.”
He wasn’t sure what he expected her to say, but he’d spoken from his gut. He hoped now she at least understood where he was coming from.
Ethan checked out Tia’s reaction to what he’d said in his peripheral vision. She appeared to be thinking about it at least. A few minutes passed before she replied.
“I can’t promise you anything, but I’ll try,” she finally said.
Ethan nodded. It was a start, which was good enough for now. If he was going to convince his grandmother to come home, Tia would be more useful as an ally than an enemy.
“And, Ethan?”
Finally, Ethan turned to look at her.
“Just for the record, the tactics you used with me suck,” she said.
Ethan acknowledged the well-deserved flack with a contrite nod, but stopped short of apologizing. It would have been disingenuous at this point, considering he would have done the same thing. However, for some reason it had been important she know it wasn’t something he’d enjoyed and had only done as a last resort.
Ethan sighed. One source of the tension enveloping them had been addressed. Now to tackle the bigger elephant, the one that had nothing to do with his grandmother and everything to do with what nearly happened between them back at her place.
He stole a glance at the passenger side. If a particular commercial hadn’t aired, Ethan had no doubt they’d be in her bedroom now. Those long legs of hers wrapped around his waist as he buried himself deep inside her.
“What are you thinking about so hard?” Tia asked
“Huh?” Ethan asked in lieu of a reply, her question catching him off guard.
He saw her shrug out of the corner of his eye.
“The drive isn’t exactly scenic, and I think I’ve heard the sports roundup enough times to repeat it verbatim,” she said.
Peering through the windshield, Ethan had to agree. The evening sun had abandoned them around the same time the city landscape had given way to trees and dense shrubbery, with only a ribbon of tedious highway in between.
“I figured we could talk to pass the time, and you appeared to be thinking pretty hard about something,” she said.
Ethan started to say his mind was on work, the weather, anything except what had truly been in his head. But he didn’t play games.
“I was thinking about what nearly happened between us at your place,” he said.
The next few moments took the awkwardness between them to a new level. The only sound was the radio announcer’s voice as he once again recapped how the Yankees had defeated the Red Sox.
Ethan switched off the radio.
“I’m not sure if you’ll believe it, but again, it’s not like me to come on so strong to a woman I’ve barely known two days,” he said. “Not to mention one with whom I’ve been at odds the entire time.”
He shook his head. How could he explain his uncharacteristic behavior to her if he didn’t understand it himself?
“Would you believe me if I told you I’m not the kind of woman who leaps onto a man’s lap within minutes of him walking into my living room?”
A quick peek in Tia’s direction revealed she
was pressing her lips together to keep from laughing. When her giggles finally escaped, Ethan was surprised to see them mingling with his own laughter. Some of the tightness in his shoulders eased and he relaxed into the leather seat.
It felt good to share a laugh with her. He hoped it boded well for the rest of their quick mission.
“How about I believe you if you’ll believe me?” he asked.
“Deal.”
Tia extended her hand, and instinctively, Ethan removed one of his from the steering wheel to seal their agreement. The innocuous contact with her bare skin made him wish she was straddling his lap again and he could run his hand along the soft skin of her gorgeous legs.
Instead, he placed his hand back on the steering wheel, gripping it tightly.
“So how do we handle this thing between us, this attraction? I’m not exactly sure what to call it,” she said.
Her question was up-front. No pretense or game playing. A refreshing quality in a woman he both appreciated and respected. However, it didn’t make her question easy to answer. He’d been wondering the same thing.
“I’m tempted to say let’s just get it out of our systems,” he said. “But I thought kissing you would accomplish that and it didn’t. It only makes me want to kiss you again.”
He saw her raise her hands to her lips in what he figured was an unconscious gesture.
“Considering the reason we’re together right now, it would probably be a mistake...” Her voice faded off, and she turned to stare out the passenger-side window.
Ethan nodded in agreement. “So I vote we put our mutual physical attraction on pause, for now.”
Tia was looking at him. Although his gaze was trained on the road ahead, he could feel the heat of her eyes on his face.
“Once we get this situation with my grandmother settled, we’ll decide if we want to explore our attraction,” Ethan said. “I’ll take you to dinner and a movie and show you that, contrary to my actions, I’m not a blackmailing control freak.”
“And maybe you’ll discover there’s more to me than being an interfering fruit loop.”
The humor in her tone was contagious, and Ethan found himself chuckling. “So you heard that, huh?”
Before Tia could answer, her phone buzzed. Ethan heard her take about three of those deep breaths she was so fond of before she pushed out a final one that sounded full of exasperation.
“What did she do this time?” Tia spoke into the phone. Over the short period they’d known each other, Ethan had heard her sound annoyed, obstinate and even turned-on. But this time she sounded weary, and Ethan knew whatever was on the other end of the line was wearing her out.
“She what?” she said seconds later. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
There was a pause before Tia’s end of the conversation started up again.
“No, you were right to give me a call. You’re there to assist Lola, but Espresso Cosmetics pays your salary,” she said. “First, I want a gift basket, filled with those Belgium chocolates and that pricey coffee Rafael loves so much, sent to the set. I don’t care how much it costs. Just have it waiting when he arrives in the morning, along with a note apologizing for Lola’s unprofessional behavior.”
Another pause.
“Don’t worry, I’ll handle Lola,” Tia said and then ended the call.
She leaned back in the seat, and in the dimming light, Ethan saw her scrub a hand down her face.
“That bad?” he asked.
“I should have packed a large thermos filled with the spa’s tranquil tea,” she muttered.
“Hate to break it to you, but it doesn’t work,” Ethan said.
“Of course it does. I drink it all the time,” Tia protested.
“Tasty, yes. Calming, no.”
“Still, I wish I had a cup right now,” she said. “If only for the placebo effect.”
“Work or personal problem?” Ethan asked. They were seated right next to each other; it would be ridiculous for him to pretend he hadn’t overheard.
“Both. Or one feeding into the other, if that makes any sense,” Tia said. “It’s already eaten up my whole day. Even before you stormed into my office earlier, I hadn’t been able to get any work done concerning the spas, which is my actual job.”
She excused herself and made several other calls, including one to her younger sister, who apparently wasn’t answering. The last one was to that muscle-bound assistant of hers, and Ethan briefly wondered if there was anything romantic going on between them. He told himself at this point it was none of his business. All they’d agreed to was the possibility of one date after they brought his grandmother home. He hardly had a claim on her.
“I need a huge favor, Max,” she said into the phone. “I want you to fly to Albuquerque to oversee Lola’s shoot for the Desert Delights campaign.”
She paused a beat.
“Yeah, I’m really talking about you overseeing Lola,” she said. “I know babysitting a grown woman does not fall under your job description, but you’re one of the few people I trust to handle the situation. I’d do it myself, but...”
She glanced in Ethan’s direction. “Like I told you earlier, something unexpected came up, and I’m tied up tomorrow.”
Tia spent the next few minutes supplying her assistant with details. When she was done, she turned off her phone and stashed it in her purse.
“Wow, I didn’t realize I’d been on the phone so long,” she said as they sped past a road sign.
He pointed to the GPS screen. “Yeah, we’ve got under an hour to go.”
She leaned back into the seat and sighed. “Family can be exhausting.”
“Tell me about it,” Ethan said.
The sound of mutual laughter filled the car’s interior again.
“So I assume Lola is the woman on those island-themed Espresso billboards around town?” he asked.
Tia nodded. “My baby sister. I’m so frustrated with her, I think if we passed one of those billboards, I’d draw a mustache on it.”
Ethan chuckled, raising a brow. “That bad, huh?”
“Worse. In fact, I don’t want to think about her anymore tonight.” Tia looked around the car. “You have any CDs? Some music would be a nice distraction.”
Ethan flipped down the driver’s-side visor and passed Tia the attached CD holder. He was currently on a Prince kick after catching a performance of His Royal Badness on a music retrospective of the eighties.
He turned on the map lights, illuminating the car’s dark interior.
“Oooh, Prince,” she said after checking out the first few. “Just guessing, but did you happen to watch that television program on eighties music the other night?”
“How’d you know?”
“Because it currently has me on a Michael Jackson run,” Tia replied. “Pop quiz. Which one was better, Prince’s 1999 or the Purple Rain sound track?”
“1999.”
“Agreed. While it didn’t feature band members Wendy and Lisa, it did have...”
“‘Little Red Corvette,’” they said simultaneously.
Laughing, Ethan turned the tables. “Pop quiz. Which one for M.J., Thriller or Bad?”
“Bad,” they said, again simultaneously.
“Singles. Madonna’s ‘Where’s the Party?’ versus Janet Jackson’s ‘The Pleasure Principle’?” Tia asked. “I give the slight edge to Madonna. You?”
“I’m abstaining.”
“No fair. You can’t abstain.”
“I can, especially when I’m presented with an impossible question. No way I can choose,” Ethan said.
“Okay, enough of the eighties quiz. Let’s see what else you have here.” Tia resumed checking out the CDs in the sleeve. “Hey, you’ve got the new Wangs album!”
; Ethan had only put the CD in the sleeve out of curiosity. A few minutes of listening to Jeffrey repeat the same two words over and over had been enough for him. He opened his mouth to tell Tia it was in no way part of his music taste or collection, but her enthusiasm caught him off guard.
“I must have gotten my dates mixed up, because I could have sworn it didn’t come out for another two weeks,” she said, stifling what sounded like a yawn.
“You like his music?” Ethan asked.
“Love it,” she said. “Don’t you? Oh. That’s a stupid question. He’s in your collection.”
She slid the disc into the player slot. “I’ve heard a sampler online, but I’ve been dying to get to hear the whole thing.”
Soon the repetitive beat and lyrics of the album’s title cut, “Wang-It,” poured through the car’s Bang & Olufsen advanced-sound system.
Ethan stole a glance at Tia, who was singing along and bobbing her head to the beat. It didn’t surprise him that she already knew the words to the entire song. Hell, there were only two of them.
“Wang-It, Wang-It, Wang-It. W-W-Wang-It, Wang-It, Wang-It. W-W-Wang...”
Ethan continued to listen, hoping to discover what Tia and apparently millions of others liked about Jeffrey’s music. But it wasn’t happening. He turned the volume down a bit.
“Excuse me, but I’m finding it hard to believe a woman who can discern the best albums of Prince and Michael Jackson can listen to this,” he said. “Why?”
He could feel Tia’s eyes on him as they passed a road sign indicating they were only thirty miles outside Metropolis.
“I know the words to his songs can be monotonous, but they’re harmless. None of the swearing or crude lyrics a lot of the current hip-hop artists topping the charts gravitate toward. Sure, his music is nonsensical, but it’s also mindless fun set to a catchy beat.” She stifled another yawn with her fist. “I don’t know about you, but after a long day I can use a little silly.”
He took in her words, surprised to discover he understood. “You just perfectly explained the inexplicable.”
Every Road to You Page 7
