Love 2.0

by Lee Kilraine

  What scared her was that being around people would only make it harder when she returned to Greensboro and her solitary life. What scared her was how the small, sexy grin on Kaz’s lips sent a warm flush through her body.

  “I appreciate your parents’ kindness, but I think the hotel will suit me fine.” Reaching in, she grabbed a bag with everyday clothes and the toiletries she’d bought when she was heading out of town three days ago. Or was it four?

  She peeked into the backseat, and the odd angle of the guitar neck had her shaking her head. Monty may have fired her, but he expected both his guitar and the Elvis costume back in good shape or he’d withhold her last month of pay to cover the cost. Good old Monty.

  Kaz nodded toward the guitar. “There’s probably someone down at the music shop who can fix your guitar for next to nothing.”

  “That would help; otherwise my boss will try to charge me double what the guitar’s worth. Any chance there’s someone who could fix my Elvis pantsuit too?”

  “I think I have just the person for that. Let’s go get you settled in the hotel and then get a bite to eat first, though. I know a place that will strip the memory of my ma’s meat loaf right out.” He placed his hand on the hatchback and waited until she’d stepped back to slam it closed. “In fact, we might find Beatrice over at the diner. She’s a whiz with a needle and thread.”

  The two of them stood giving her car one last look before getting back into Kaz’s truck.

  Mira tried to remember how much cash she had and only then realized she didn’t even know where her purse was. “Oh, I need to go back to the car. My purse is in there.”

  “No. Quinn fished it out when he grabbed your phone. It’s back at my parents’ house. This is my treat anyway. I owe you after my mom’s meat loaf.”

  After checking her in to the Honeybee Hotel, they walked across the street to a place on the corner called Dave & Lu’s Diner. It looked like an old train car with a door at each end.

  Inside, a voice called out, “Kaz, honey, take that corner booth and I’ll be right with you.”

  Oh boy. The smells that hit Mira the second she stepped through the door made her remember she hadn’t had anything but macaroni, hot dogs, and corn flakes for the last two months. Her mouth literally watered when she caught site of a few of the dishes being served at the booth next to them. “I feel a bit guilty about this. I mean, your mom made her meat loaf special for me and all.”

  Kaz looked across the table at her. “We can always head back.”

  “Not on your life. I may feel guilty, but I think I’ll manage it. Especially if the food tastes even half as good as it smells.”

  The waitress arrived next to their table with a shy, sweet smile for Kaz. “Hi, Kaz. Renee asked me to take your order since she’s busy with a birthday party in the corner. Do you need more time?”—she paused, her glance grazing Mira politely before landing on Kaz again, eating him up—“Or do you know what you want?”

  “Hey, Cheryl. I’ll have Lu’s special of the day. Mira? I guarantee everything Lu cooks is special. You can’t go wrong no matter what you pick.”

  “Make it two specials, please.”

  Cheryl nodded without taking her attention away from Kaz. “Great. I’ll put that order right in. How about drinks? Or . . . anything else?”

  “Does sweet tea sound okay?” He glanced across at Mira. “One sweet tea and one half-sweet for me.”

  She nodded and smiled up at Cheryl, who never saw it, or her, for that matter. Mira looked back at Kaz to see if he was flirting back, but the man didn’t even seem to notice that the waitress was giving him all the signs.

  “Thanks, Cheryl.” He gave the waitress a friendly smile, but his brow furrowed when she lingered next to him at the booth. He nodded once, but when he didn’t say anything else, Cheryl finally drifted away.

  Mira decided Kaz could provide a much-needed distraction from the mess of her own life right now. And he had her curious. Maybe he had a girlfriend and had eyes for no one but her. That would be romantic and commendable. “So, tell me about yourself, Kaz Cates.”

  Chapter Six

  “Not much to tell. You already know I develop games and con-Nsult.”

  Mira arched one eyebrow at him. Was he modest or being intentionally obscure? “And . . . ?”

  “And what?”

  “How old are you? Are you married? Got a girlfriend? How did you become known as the Wizard? You know, just generally tell me about yourself.”

  He shot her an arched look at the Wizard comment.

  “I’m thirty-one, unmarried, and unattached. Born and raised right here in Climax. I moved away for college and my first job but moved back a few years ago to start my own consulting business. That’s about it. Now it’s your turn.”

  “In a second. I’d like to follow up on a few things. So not married and no girlfriend. Are you gay?”

  “No.”

  “Asexual?”

  “No.”

  “Is the waitress an ex of yours?”

  “No. Why all the interest in my love life?”

  “Because Cheryl’s eyes made out with you six ways to Sunday and offered you an invitation in neon letters and you didn’t even blink, that’s why.”

  “Huh. I didn’t notice.” His gaze wandered over to Cheryl as if seeing her for the first time.

  “No kidding. I think Cheryl likes you, and if you asked her out you would get a big yes from her. Just sayin’.”

  He cleared his throat and fiddled with the silverware sitting in front of him. “I’ll take that under advisement. Now it’s your turn.”

  “I’m twenty-nine, happily single, and an Elvis fan.”

  “Feel like telling me about all the boxes in the back of your car?”

  “I guess it would be fair to say my life is in transition right now.” Saying her life was in transition was like putting lipstick on a pig. Mutation or stagnation was much more accurate. “I’m like thistledown blowing in the wind. Just experiencing life and waiting to see where I settle.”

  * * *

  Kaz looked across at her and tried to square that with her desperate cry for help a few days ago. It wasn’t adding up. Although, in his experience, by the time a woman got to the point where she felt the need to run . . . to disappear . . . she’d long passed the point of trusting people. They were usually skittish and pulled into a protective cocoon.

  Of course, that was if he believed her story. Remembering the venom from Jones the other day and the warning to lay low on his work with the underground, logic said she was part of a setup and not in real need of help. He’d hear her out, though. He may not believe in coincidence, but a faint whisper in the back of his mind, what if you’re wrong about her, was forcing him to keep an open mind, just in case.

  “How long have you been an Elvis fan?”

  “About two month—I mean, my whole life.”

  So she hadn’t been on the run long, because if she had, she’d have her story down pat. “What happened two months ago to make you an Elvis fan?”

  She looked like she was going to deny it; then she sighed and leaned back in the booth. “My new job.”

  “What did you do before Elvis?”

  “This and that. You know how it is.” Her eyes shifted around looking everywhere but at him.

  “I guess you did it here and there too.”

  “Yep.”

  Cheryl brought their ice teas with a little extra sugar for him. When he looked across at Mira her eyebrows were raised and she jerked her head at the waitress. What? She expected him to flirt back with Cheryl? He wasn’t even attracted to Cheryl. Although he’d never really thought about her either. Never noticed her before—as an attractive woman. As a potential date. He looked up at Cheryl, really looked, and held her gaze with his and smiled. “Thank you, Cheryl.”

  Her eyes blinked a few times before she smiled a bright smile as sweet as honey back at him. “I’ll have your meals right out. I think I’ve got exactly what
you want. I mean for lunch.”

  Mira rolled her eyes at that, but he nodded up at Cheryl. “Great. Thank you, Cheryl.”

  He watched Cheryl head back to the kitchen, not really sure he wanted to head where Mira was prodding him to go.

  “Dude. You need to up your game beyond ‘Thank you, Cheryl’ if you want this to go anywhere. Is this why you’re single? Total nerd mouth around women?”

  What? Was this why he was still single? He’d thought it was simply because he hadn’t contemplated settling down yet. Nerd mouth? Well, she might have him there.

  It wasn’t that Kaz was an introvert; it was more that he didn’t always pick up on social cues or hints. Of course, much of that had to do with the fact that he was often absorbed in writing computer code. But he’d cop to being the typical nerd in high school. Sure, he’d liked girls back then, but he hadn’t had much time or patience for them. He’d started his own business fixing computers during his freshman year, and between that, advanced calculus homework, and computer lab experiments to write up and present, he hadn’t had time to figure out how to talk to girls.

  It sure didn’t come naturally to him like it did to his brothers. Hell, when the female population swarmed around his brothers like puppies to a bone, Kaz had escaped into crunching code, running algorithms, and creating make-believe worlds in the Ethernet.

  That was what he understood. Bytes, pixels, C++, Java, UNIX, Fortran, DAEMON, and PHP. That was his world. That was the language he could speak as sweetly as Shakespeare had scratched words on a page.

  Mira’s hand waving in front of his face brought his attention back to the table. “Sorry. What were you saying?”

  She grinned across at him. “You need some help in the romance department and I’m stuck here for a week, so I’m just the woman to do it. Plus, I could use the distraction.”

  “I’m not sure I agree with your assessment.” Actually, her assessment was probably accurate and one his brothers agreed with.

  Cheryl returned with their meals. She slid them on the table in front of them, managing to give his shoulder a soft stroke in the process. “You call me if you need anything. Anything at all.”

  “Thank you, Cheryl.”

  Mira held her comment until Cheryl was back behind the center counter that sat in front of the small kitchen. “She’s throwing out a line for you to grab and you keep on missing it.”

  “Maybe I haven’t decided if I want to catch it. I’ve never looked at dating as a catch-and-release experience.”

  “Interesting. So when you date, you think each one will last forever?”

  “No, not forever. Not yet, but when I date, I want it to turn into something substantive.”

  She paused her fork as it hovered over her dish. “You’re like the Holy Grail of men. Women waste years of their lives searching for exactly that, so why are you still single?”

  Why was he single? He hadn’t found a woman he couldn’t live without? On a more practical level, because his last three serious girlfriends had gotten tired and frustrated when his work took all his attention for hours, sometimes even days at a time. They got tired of having to bring him back into conversations when his mind checked out as it chased another thought tangent off into another direction.

  He’d always figured there had to be someone one day who’d if not understand him—at least accept him—but if she was out there, he’d yet to find her. But he wasn’t telling this woman any of that.

  “Why are you single?” he countered.

  That sat her back in her seat and got her quiet for a moment. “Not for the same reasons you are. At least I know when a man is interested. You know, you have nothing to lose by letting me coach you. I’m only in town another week; then you can go back to being Mr. Darcy.”

  Had she been listening to the Grapevine? He took a bite of his food and considered the situation. He hadn’t fallen for the damsel in distress act; was her coaching angle a new way for her to stay close enough to keep poking around? Keep looking for his underground network connections? He’d give the woman credit for being a quick thinker.

  She wouldn’t discover anything from him to help Jones. And it would give him the opportunity to ferret out where she’d seen his photo. It looked like he’d be taking Mira up on her offer which, according to all his brothers and now Mira, was a necessity.

  He cut into his blackened chicken, glancing across at her. “You’ve got nothing else to do while you’re waiting for your car?”

  “It pains me to say I really don’t.” Mira gazed down at her plate and sighed before taking a bite of her own chicken.

  “Okay, coach.” He nodded and stuck his hand across the table toward her. “I’m all yours.”

  Mira paused, poised with her fork in the air, before she set it on the table and reached out, placing her hand in his. Her cheeks flushed and she blinked across at him. “Oh, um. Great. This should be fun.”

  He liked the feel of her hand in his. The little jolt that zipped up his arm was unexpected, though not unpleasant. Not anything he would pay attention to due to her circumstances but interesting to note. But fun? That wasn’t the first word that popped in his head.

  “Do you have a library in this small town? I could use a book to read.” She glanced up and then out the front window, her eyes scanning the row of buildings. “And maybe use one of their computers to check email.”

  “Sure we do. It’s down the block. I can take you after we finish here.”

  “You don’t need to babysit me. Just point me in the right direction and I’ll be fine.”

  “I’ve got to go right by it to get back to work. How about I at least drop you off?”

  Renee came over to refill their glasses while Cheryl was busy with another customer.

  “Kaz, is this Elvis?” Renee switched the pitcher of tea to her left hand, wiping her palm down her apron before reaching out for a handshake. “I’m Renee and I’ve been waiting to meet you for days now. We haven’t had an Elvis sighting around Climax in, oh gosh, going on seven or eight years. Until you. What an exciting day that was. Sorry about Pisser, of course, but wowee that was fun.”

  Her gaze flashed over to him, then back to Renee. “Thank you. Thank you very much.”

  “Ha! I love it. Maybe you can wear your Elvis costume in here next time and sing my favorite. Do you know ‘Teddy Bear’?”

  “It’s in my repertoire, but between the torn sleeve and the bloodstains, I won’t be doing my Elvis act any time soon.”

  “That’s right. We need Beatrice.” Kaz leaned back and turned around, examining the booths and tables in the diner. “There she is. You can ask her about patching it up for you when we’re done.”

  Renee nodded down at her. “Beatrice is exactly who you need. There isn’t a stain Beatrice hasn’t handled yet. She was a seamstress in Hollywood after her acting career ended. I’m sure she can fix you right up. This is so exciting. Wait until I tell Marylou I refilled Elvis’s iced tea. What a hoot!” Renee moved off to refill a few more tea glasses on her way back to the kitchen.

  “Um, she knows I’m not the real Elvis, right?”

  “I’m almost absolutely sure she does. The thing is, we have a Grapevine in Climax that is as efficient as it is enthusiastic. And from the minute you hit town four days ago, you were the star. Elvis is at the tire shop. Elvis stopped in at the Spin Cycle. Now Elvis bought a hot dog at the gas station. The whole town practically cried when the last Elvis sighting about your run-in with Pisser came in.”

  Mira shook her head. “Crazy. Back home no one would have blinked an eye.”

  Kaz extrapolated big city girl from that comment and filed it away. He looked around for Cheryl, and she quickly appeared at their table.

  “How about some pie today, Kaz? I’ve got your favorite, Lu’s bourbon peach.”

  Lu, his oldest brother’s girlfriend, stuck her head in the kitchen window and called out to him. “Kaz, you treat Elvis to a piece of my pie! Take it to go if you’re in a
hurry! I want to be able to put up a sign that says Elvis loved my pies!”

  He raised an eyebrow at Mira, who smiled and shrugged. “Cheryl, can I get two pieces of pie to go?”

  “You can have whatever you want, Kaz.” Only she didn’t move away to go get it but stood there smiling at him.

  “Thank you, Cheryl.”

  As Cheryl walked away, Mira rolled her eyes and said, “Dude. We’re starting those lessons tomorrow.”

  Chapter Seven

  On the way out of the diner Mira was introduced to Beatrice, a sweet elderly woman who was more than happy to fix her Elvis costume. She seemed very excited about the challenge of removing bloodstains from white polyester, but considering she herself was a woman who got excited about calculus problems, who was she to judge?

  Kaz dropped her and her piece of pie off at the library and said he’d see her the next day. For not being willing to help her, he sure was being helpful. Just not precisely the way she wanted.

  Although it had been two months since she’d left Florida and she hadn’t heard a peep out of Ivan. Maybe all Ivan had needed was a cooling-off period. Time for him to meet a new woman to fixate over. Time for his anger to cool off and his ego to reinflate. Was it possible she didn’t need the Wizard’s help now?

  Then again, one month ago she’d ditched her old car and paid cash for her current clunker, opened a new phone account, and hadn’t used her social security number when Monty hired her. So, while it was entirely possible she’d lost him, it was also possible Ivan simply hadn’t found her—yet.

  She entered the library and looked around. It was more modern than she’d expected from the building’s façade, but it was definitely as small as it had seemed from the outside. Worlds away from the big public libraries in Miami. Then again, all she needed was to use their internet, so quaint was just fine.

  “Can I help you?” The woman behind the circulation desk lowered her glasses an inch down her nose, peering over them.

  “Yes, please.” Mira walked to the desk, setting down her container of pie. “I’m only in town visiting, but I was hoping I could use one of your computers to go online.”