She blew out an impatient breath. "Let's forget about it."
"You can't exactly do that. It'll congeal." Leaving a mess wasn't Charlie's style, especially when he'd helped create it. "Then there's no telling if your machine will ever work right."
"I don't really ca—" She must have seen the look of dismay on his face. She paused and cleared her throat. "Charlie, it was wonderful of you to give this a shot, but I want you for the hovercraft, not my washing machine."
Hearing her say she wanted him, even if the rest of the sentence was about mechanical projects and not sex, drove out all thoughts of appliance disasters. Instead he found himself concentrating on her mouth and the memory of its moist, velvety interior.
Unless he got out of this cozy bathroom that had a lock on the door and condoms under the sink, he was liable to do something incredibly unwise. He closed the lid on the washer. "Let's go see about the hovercraft."
Chapter Eight
As they walked into the kitchen, Eve noticed the pizza boxes sitting on the table and remembered they hadn't eaten dinner. A hot number like Charlie could make a girl forget all about food, but now that he wasn't kissing her, she discovered she was hungry, after all. "Want to take some pizza and Cokes out to the garage so we can eat while we work?"
"Sure." Charlie walked over and lifted the lid on both boxes. "Looks like Eunice and Puck made off with the pepperoni and sausage. I hope it wasn't your favorite." "Nope."
"What is?" He glanced over at her.
"Veggie, but I like other kinds, too."
He looked pleased with himself. "Then veggie it is. But it's not very warm."
"That's okay with me." She wouldn't expect it to be warm after all the time she and Charlie had spent in the bathroom fooling around with the washer and each other. "But I can nuke some for you, if you want."
"Nah. Cold is usually how I eat it, because I get involved in some project and forget until it's too late."
"Me, too. Besides, cold pizza isn't as messy, so you can work without getting food everywhere."
"Exactly."
They exchanged a smile of agreement, and that smile of his had way more impact now that she knew what a great kisser he was. It didn't matter, though. Charlie could hardly wait to leave Middlesex, while Eve had finally found a place she wanted to call home. As he'd pointed out, they were headed down different paths.
But they were in the same place right now, and she had to decide whether or not to ignore his noble reluctance and seduce him. A man who could kiss like Charlie might be able to perform other heterosexual tasks with the same level of expertise. After six months of abstinence, Eve found herself more than a little interested.
She grabbed a couple of Cokes out of the refrigerator. "Do you and Rick usually eat one pizza apiece?"
"No. Why?"
"I just wondered why you brought three. That's a lot of pizza, especially when you didn't know Eunice was coming over."
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 no-strings 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 no-strings 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."
"I don't think so."
Eve didn't think so, either, but she didn't want to start accusing people. "If you're so intent on playing Joe Friday, you can grill my sister tomorrow night. I'll get out the rubber hoses and the spotlight."
"Your sister's coming to visit?"
"Yeah." Then Eve remembered Denise's reaction to the hovercraft. She'd told Eve to stop working on it immediately. Surely Denise wouldn't drive down here, use her key, and steal notes in a misguided attempt to save her baby sister from bodily harm. Surely not.
"Does she know about the hovercraft?"
"Uh-huh."
"What does she think?"
"Oh, she loves the idea." Eve wondered if her nose would grow. Charlie would find out soon enough what Denise thought of the project, but at the moment Eve didn't want to give him information that would land Denise squarely on his list of suspects.
As she climbed the steps to Eunice's snow-covered front porch, Eve wished Rick hadn't mentioned the hovercraft Monday night at the Rack and Balls. Everything had been running smoothly, with the slight exception of the explosion, until she'd unveiled her project. Now her notes had disappeared. No matter how much Eve wanted to believe otherwise, she didn't think that was an accident.
Charlie rang Eunice's doorbell and tried to concentrate on the matter at hand, but instead he kept thinking about those missing notes. He was convinced someone had swiped them. The project was a potential moneymaker that had no patent protection yet, and now several people knew about it. That put Eve and her invention in a vulnerable position.
Eunice came to the door wearing a pair of glow-in-the-dark antennae and not much else. Her black thong and tiny black bra mi
ght get her kicked out of a nudist colony, but she'd still be booked on charges of indecency if she stepped out of her house looking like that. The X-Files theme song floated from somewhere inside.
Eunice looked startled. "What is this, a posse?"
Although distracted by the bobbing antennae and the vast expanses of goose-bumpy bare skin, Charlie managed to stay on topic. "One of Rick's important clients wants to talk to him."
"And it took four of you to deliver that message? Oh, never mind. It's too cold to stand here and discuss this. Come on in." She stepped away from the door, shivering
Charlie stomped the snow from his boots and took off his jacket as he walked into the dark living room. A shaft of bluish light from an open door down the hall indicated where the action was. No telling what kind of action involved green fluorescent antennae, though. The music came from that room, too. Charlie was afraid to speculate.
Once everyone had gathered in the cavelike atmosphere, Eunice closed the door, which shut out the light from the porch and made the room even darker. "Rick's tied up at the moment, so make yourselves comfortable while I go get him." She hurried down the hall and everything that could bounce, did bounce.
As they all stood around in the living room, the only sound besides the X-Files music was the rasp of zippers on everybody's coats. Charlie figured they all were busy processing the sight of Eunice in that getup. He started to take off his glasses to clean away the condensation and then stopped himself. Sometimes a little protective condensation was a good thing.
Finally Manny cleared his throat. "Seeing her reminds me of a Star Trek convention some woman dragged me to years ago."
"In that case, sign me up, Scotty," Kyle asked." 'Cause I could go for some of that, especially after painting those cookies. They got me in the mood, you know?"
Manny snorted. "Give me a break. You are always in the mood."
Charlie edged closer to Eve. "Does she wear those antennae a lot?"
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