The phone rang in the kitchen. At least she hoped it was in the kitchen. She kept forgetting to put it back on the charger.
“Hello?” she answered it.
“Hey, how did the date go last night?” Linda asked.
“Oh my God, last night was fantastic.” Eyes closed, she recalled Michael sitting across the table from her, drumming his fingertips together and saying excellent just like Mr. Burns.
“Really?” Linda sounded dubious. Why?
“Oh wait. I didn’t actually meet the guy you fixed me up with. I had car trouble.”
“And car trouble was fantastic?”
“Yeah. I met my mechanic’s brother. He was at the garage working late.” On the Satellite of Love.
“Your mechanic’s brother?” Now Linda sounded more dubious.
“My brakes were making a horrible noise so I stopped in and he said they weren’t safe to drive on so he offered to take me out for pizza and drive me home.”
“Oh, please. You fell for that?”
“For what?” Maureen smoothed her shirt over her hips. The clock said straight up noon, but he had said around noon.
“Every mechanic in the world uses that it’s not safe to drive line. That’s how they get you for more money.”
Maureen twisted the ends of her hair around her finger. “He showed me the thingy and it looked really bad. Besides, if he just wanted to get more money out of me, why did he take me out to dinner?”
“Let’s see, you wore the blue dress. Do you think he might have been trying to get a look at your cleavage?”
Well, her turtleneck would be a test then. Cleavage didn’t exist in it. “I thought that was the point of the dress.”
“It is, but do you really want to waste it on a grease monkey?”
“I didn’t happen to be using it for anything else. That guy you fixed me up with wasn’t too upset when I called him to tell him I couldn’t make it.”
“Greg isn’t the type to show his emotions. I know he was looking forward to meeting you. You ought to give him a chance.”
A shape slowed on the street, but she couldn’t make it out through the sheers. It wasn’t dark enough to be the Satellite. Nobody else was supposed to drop by today. “Listen, I hafta go.”
“Another clandestine meeting with your mechanic?”
“I’ll call Greg and try to reschedule for next weekend.” If I remember his name long enough. “But I really have to go right now. I’ll see you Monday.” Before Linda could get in another zinger, she hung up the phone. Michael walked past the front window and her heartbeat stammered. He wasn’t just a grease monkey but funny, sweet and interesting. Sexy. Mustn’t forget sexy.
When she yanked open the door, he had his hand poised to knock.
“Hi.” He raised one eyebrow. “Waiting long?”
“No, I was on the phone and saw you through the window so I figured I’d just get it before you knocked and—” And babbling like an idiot. What was it about this grease monkey that made her gibber like a teenage girl?
He held up her keys. “I brought your car. I got the brakes done this morning. It needs a tune up, but I didn’t have time to get to that. The garage is closed tomorrow, but say the word and I’ll take care of it for you.”
“That would be great. Did you bring the bill? I can write you a check if it isn’t ruinous.”
“No bill,” he said with a shake of his head. “I took care of it.”
“You took care of it?”
“Sure. The part was cheap and I did the labor myself.” He grinned, and the way his eyes sparkled did funny things to her insides. “Of course, I would take a kiss in payment.”
“A kiss?” The memory of their kiss last night assaulted her. Her body throbbed as she remembered the moment she would have given in and a split second later when she’d known she couldn’t. Did he remember it as clearly? Especially the couldn’t part?
Michael turned his cheek to her and tapped it. “Come on. I think I earned a kiss. It was a lot of work.”
Okay, maybe he did remember the couldn’t part. Laughing, she pecked his cheek. “Alright, but we’re going to have to establish some rates if you’re going to continue to work on my car.”
He caught her around the waist, hauling her against his hard chest. “I’m willing to negotiate on a case by case basis.” Then he dipped in, gave her a quick kiss on the lips and released her.
She tottered backward. There was way more to this guy than grease monkey and whatever it was short-circuited her decision-making abilities. Like right now, she should be annoyed that he’d grabbed her, but wasn’t. Last night she should have been more careful about going anywhere with a stranger in his car, but hadn’t been. In a few minutes she was going to head off to who knew where with the same guy even though logic, good sense and Linda told her it was a bad idea. “So where are we going?”
“I was hoping you’d have some ideas. I’m not very familiar with the area.”
Maureen clasped her hands. How was he going to take this idea? If he didn’t like it, he’d probably endure the day and never talk to her again. Outside of tomorrow when he was tuning up her car. He’d already committed to that. How much did she care? He wasn’t permanent date material. He wasn’t even local. But he was really— Interesting. Regardless, this dating option didn’t carry the same weight it might have. It wasn’t like she was destroying a perfectly good specimen with a really stupid choice. “How do you feel about dinosaurs?”
“Dinosaurs?”
Linda’s expression while talking to her on the phone a few minutes ago had probably looked a lot like Michael’s did now. Textbook dubious. “Yeah, dinosaurs. The natural history museum has a special exhibit. Some recent finds from China. If you’re interested.” She chewed the inside of her cheek. He didn’t. Look interested, that was. If anything, his expression had shifted to baffled.
“Dinosaurs,” he repeated.
“The exhibit is going to be there for another month so if I don’t make it this weekend, it’s no big loss. Besides, I’m going on a field trip with the kids in two weeks. I was just hoping to get a preview.”
“No, that actually sounds fun.” Michael frowned like he couldn’t believe he was saying it. “I haven’t done anything like that in ages. Do you want to take your car or stop at the garage for the Satellite? I’m afraid it still has a mismatched trunk, but it purrs.”
If he was going to give on the museum, she could give on the funny looking car. “That’s fine. I’ll grab my coat and purse and we can go.”
Muttering about the timing and the transmission, and finally extracting a promise from her that she’d bring it in tomorrow for a tune up, he drove to the garage. He parked around back and she followed him to the bay where the Satellite was parked. Tony stood behind the car with his arms folded.
“Hello, Miss Donnelly.” His barely pleasant tone turned hard when he spoke to Michael. “Where are you going?”
“A museum.” Michael’s voice was equally tense.
“A museum,” Tony repeated.
The two men stared at one another. In the garage, Rusty peeked around the hood of the car he was working on. Maureen stuffed her hands in her pockets. What was it about this that bothered Tony? Did he disapprove of his brother taking her out? Or of her going out with his brother?
“You be home for dinner?” Tony asked.
“I doubt it.” Michael reached back and took Maureen’s arm. “See ya tonight.”
As she let him escort her to the car and open the door, panic crawled through her chest. Tony had a son going into second grade next year. If he didn’t like her dating his brother, he might talk to other parents. If enough of them decided they didn’t want their child in her class the school board might not renew her contract. That was probably a lot of wild paranoia, but having a class full of kids with hostile parents wasn’t. Linda had a pack of them this year in third grade and they were making her life hell. Two years ago Jenny Gilchrist had six kids fail an
d those kids’ parents drove her so crazy, she’d ended up in the hospital with panic attacks and had quit at the end of the year.
Without a word, he backed the car out of the garage. By the time he’d pulled onto the street, she couldn’t bear spinning scenarios anymore. She turned sideways in her seat. “What’s going on?”
“What?” Michael stopped at the light and glanced at her.
“With your brother.”
“Nothing.”
His features were set in hard planes. Had the question or the incident spawned his irritation? Since she didn’t have a lot invested in this relationship yet and it might be too hot for her to handle anyway, her need to know was more important than his delicate ego. “It didn’t look like nothing.”
“Trust me. It was nothing.” The light changed and he turned onto the main road.
“Really? Because I saw something and I’m still seeing something. Something really grumpy. I’ve never dated any of the seven dwarves before, so I might be wrong, but it really does look like Grumpy.”
He struggled to hold on to his stiff, annoyed expression for a few seconds before caving and grinning at her. “Grumpy?”
“Yes. So are you going to tell me what was going on or do I have to reference a few more kids’ movies?”
“My brother doesn’t think I should be seeing anyone local since I’m not going to be around long.”
Hands clutching steering wheel. No effort made to meet her eyes. Carefully chosen words. There was at least half a lie in there. Instinct demanded she run it down, but that could be another reason her first dates so rarely turned into second dates and those almost never turned into third dates. Michael was not nine and her natural suspicion needed to take a hike. “You’re going to need to go over a block. This street doesn’t have an exit onto the highway.”
Now he made an effort to meet her eyes. “You don’t care that I’m...not local?”
See, this was where she was growing as a person. That little hesitation should be driving her nuts, but it wasn’t. Or it was and she was ignoring it. Personal growth. “It’s a date not a courtship. Besides, I’m not sleeping with you.”
Michael turned onto a side street, but didn’t hit the gas. Instead, he let the car coast. A wise decision since he was staring at her. “You’re not?”
“No. Were you under the impression I would?”
The car drifted to the right, but he corrected it without looking. “I was still working on where we were going to eat lunch.”
“Anywhere’s fine with me. There isn’t a lot around the museum though and it’s going to take almost an hour to get there, so we should probably eat before we get out of town.” Maureen fixed her gaze out the windshield. He still stared at her with about the same expression he’d had when agreeing to go to the museum. He stopped the car at the end of the block without looking at the sign or the traffic. When he made no effort to pull out, she turned to him. “There’s a Subway about a block that way. If you’re in the mood for a burger, there’s a great local place called The Station, but it’s kinda out of the way.”
“I don’t mind out of the way.”
“Then go straight to the next stop sign and turn right. We have to go over the highway to the other side of town.”
* * * *
Bear squeezed Maureen’s hand and studied the artistically arranged bones. Definitely a dinosaur. He had to take them at their word that it came from China. That she’d wanted to go to a museum still warped his mind a little. A museum. He hadn’t been in one since he got out of school. More proof Maureen wasn’t your average, ordinary, everyday girl.
Then again, maybe she was and he’d just been steeped in wacko, weird girls for too long. To flat out announce she wasn’t having sex with him couldn’t be what regular girls did. He hadn’t even thought that far ahead.
That was a lie. He’d been thinking about it since the moment he’d glanced over his shoulder and seen her leaning against the Satellite, her dress accenting her trim little waist and the swell of her breasts. A lotta dreams last night had his greasy handprints all over that dress. And her creamy flesh.
Yeah, that would be the woman holding his hand in a natural history museum, wearing jeans and a turtleneck, who had announced on the way here she wasn’t having sex with him. He studied her profile as she read the plaque. No way he was getting any of that unless he played the fame card. Which might only get him a slap in the face. That would suck.
No matter what he did, this experiment was going to be a failure. Sure, he had a couple of days when he got to pretend to be a guy with a girl, but he wasn’t going to get the girl in any way. He got to enjoy the illusion without anything else.
“The kids’ll love this.” Maureen sighed. “They are going to go bonkers.”
Bear admired the glow to her face. She was already excited for the kids. Once upon a time, he’d had that glow about his shows. When he knew how excited the fans would be to see them and he’d been excited for them in advance. Someday, he hoped to get that back.
“So, do you want to see the rest of the exhibits?” Maureen asked. “There’s a really cool fish.”
“Well, if there’s a really cool fish.” Bear draped his arm around her shoulders. “Are you wearing perfume?”
“No.”
“What is that sweet scent?”
“Probably shampoo. What does it smell like?”
“Lemons.”
“That’s the body wash.” She guided him out of the special exhibit and past the planetarium.
“Lemon scented body wash?” Why was it perfect that Maureen would use lemon scented body wash? He brushed his nose across her velvet cheek. Yep, lemons.
“I have one or two indulgences.”
“Really?” Really? Beater car, cheap lunch, tiny house. What could she be indulging in? Better question. What did she consider an indulgence? And how difficult would it be to fulfill those indulgences? “Like what?”
“Why?” She stopped in the middle of a display of volcanoes and looked at him. Her eyes sparkled. “Do you plan on bribing me for some reason?”
Busted. “Maybe I’m just trying to learn what makes women tick.”
“I don’t know that I’m the best one to study for that.”
“Why?”
She quirked one corner of her lips. “Don’t you think I’m special?”
“Of course.”
“Then why are you using me to figure out what women in general are like?”
“Got me. Maybe I am trying to bribe you.”
“Now I have to wonder what for.”
He hooked his finger under her chin. “Life is better with mystery.”
“Is it?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something glittering. “What’s in there?”
“That’s the gem room.”
“Let’s look.” He towed her into the gem room. Hundreds of stones sparkled under pinpoint spotlights. Several cases held semiprecious stones the size and shape of eggs. Bear leaned over a case full of different colored diamonds. This was more his element. “This is pretty cool.”
“They’re neat.” Maureen stood beside him with her head cocked.
“Which one would you want?”
“I’m not much of a jewelry person.”
“You’re not?” His eyes went out of focus for a second. A woman who didn’t like jewelry? When he could see straight again, he turned to her and realized that, other than a watch, she wasn’t wearing a single link, stone, or bead. “You don’t wear jewelry at all?”
“I used to, but when I was student teaching I leaned over a kid to help her with something and my necklace got caught in her hair. After that I stopped.”
“But nothing at all? I can’t imagine a woman who doesn’t love jewelry.”
Maureen shrugged. “Has nothing to do with loving or not loving, it’s just not practical. Necklaces and bracelets catch, rings scratch, earrings get lost, but I have a lot of barrettes.” She reached back and touched
her hair, which she hadn’t pulled back today.
“So barrettes are one of your indulgences?” The gems lost interest for him. The woman in front of his was too much of a gem for them to compete.
“No, I get most of them from the kids. Early in my career I was warned that if I didn’t plant an idea for Christmas presents, I was doomed to get half a dozen coffee cups every year. Instead I get a half dozen barrettes every year.”
Damn, jewelry was his best girlfriend gift. He knew how to shop for it, how to give it and how it would be appreciated.
Of course, it was meant for a girlfriend. Maureen wasn’t a girlfriend. She didn’t know who he was and was willing to let him take her out a few times while he was in town. Bear kissed her cheek. “At least they’re something you can use.”
“That’s what I figured.”
Bear guided her out of the room. “So what are these indulgences of yours?”
“Why are you so interested?”
“Because you’re not telling me.”
“That makes sense,” she muttered.
“Of course it does.” He’d ignore her sarcasm. “Why don’t we just end the run around? Tell me what these indulgences are.”
“You’re not letting this go.”
“No, I’m not.”
She giggled. “Well, that might make me happy this is going to be a short lived relationship.”
“Since it’s going to be short lived you have every reason to be completely honest with me.” God, he was a hypocrite.
“Don’t you think it’s a better reason to be dishonest?” she asked. “Then for the rest of our lives we can be the perfect one who got away.”
“Hmm. Do I want knowledge or mystery? I’ve decided. I want knowledge. Tell me.”
“Here’s the fish.”
They were standing in front of a huge case filled by a petrified fish. It looked like a piranha, but six feet long. “That is cool.”
Satellite of Love Page 3
