Free Talk Nerdy to Me by Vicki Lewis Thompson Page A

so mechanical and
all."
    "Fixing
broken things is boring. Making something new that didn't exist before—now that
I can get into."
    "So I've
noticed."
    Eve
shifted the weight of her dry cleaning. "I'd better put these away. Make
yourself at home." The comment was superfluous for Eunice, who always did
that, anyway. "I'll be right ba—" The doorbell rang, and this time,
she figured it would be Charlie and Rick.
    In
case she had any doubts on that subject, Eunice reacted by racing to the
peephole and sucking in her breath.
    "It's them?" Eve
asked.
    "He
is so gorgeous that if I were a nun, I'd leave the order for him."
    "Fortunately
for you and the Catholic church, you're not a nun." Eve was delighted with
Eunice's choice of guy. That left Charlie free and clear. "Are you going
to open the door?"
    "Yes."
Eunice stepped back and grabbed her purse from the floor. Taking out a breath
spray, she gave her mouth a couple of shots before dropping the spray back in
her purse and balancing the purse on top of her boots. Then she spit on her
fingers and twirled them around the tendrils of hair that had been allowed to
hang artfully from her upswept do.
    "Are
you going to open the door anytime in the near future?"
    The
doorbell rang again. Eunice glanced over at Eve and smiled. "Is there
lipstick on my teeth?" she asked without changing expression.
    "Not
that I can see." Eve's glasses were smudged from her frantic efforts to
straighten up the place, but she didn't bother to tell Eunice. That would mean
at least another minute delay while Eunice waited for her to clean the lenses.
    "Does
this smile show too much of my gums?" Eunice looked like a ventriloquist,
talking like that without moving her lips.
    "Eunice, open the
damned door."
    "Okay."
Throwing back her shoulders, Eunice kept her smile in place as she opened the
door. "Charlie! Rick! What
a nice surprise!"
    "Well,
hello there, Eunice." Rick's gaze took in the Niagara Falls plunge.
"Talk about a nice surprise! I froze my ass riding over here with Charlie,
but you make the sacrifice worthwhile."
    "Eve
invited me." Eunice twirled a loose strand of blond hair around her
finger. "I brought wine."
    "Excellent."
Rick continued to block the door while he stared at her.
    "I
brought pizza." Charlie shouldered his way past his cousin and nudged the
door closed with his knee. His dark-framed glasses fogged up immediately.
"And it's hot, so we might want to—" He paused and squinted at Eve
through the misty lenses. "Are you holding a whole bunch of clothes?"
    She'd
been so fascinated by the interaction between Rick and Eunice that she'd
forgotten the bundle in her arms. "My dry cleaning."
    "That's a boatload of
dry cleaning."
    She
didn't think in Charlie's world that was a good thing. He didn't look like the
kind of guy who liked high-maintenance women. "My washing machine's
broken, so I've had to take stuff to Press 'n' Go." She found herself
staring at his leather chaps and remembering how they'd framed his buns the
first time they'd met. The chaps did a similar favor for his package.
    "Your
washing machine's broken?" Charlie shoved the pizza boxes against Rick's
chest. "Here. Hold these."
    Rick
was so busy ogling Eunice that it took him a couple of seconds to respond and
grab the boxes. "Uh, okay."
    "I'm
going to take a minute to look at Eve's washing machine." Charlie was out
of his coat and boots and chaps in no time. Then he did a quick polish of his
glasses before he padded over to Eve in his socks. "Where is it?"
    "Really,
that's okay." She was struck by how gallantly he'd leaped to her aid, and
how seeing him in his socks made her wonder how he'd look with a few more items
of clothing removed. "I wouldn't expect you to fix it. I'm sure it needs
... something. I should have called a repair person, but I—"
    "Ah, no reason to call
somebody. I can fix it."
    "He
probably can," Rick said. "If it has moving parts, Charlie can fix
it. He's pretty much the repair king."
    "Then
by all means,