should be okay."
Charlie
listened in wonder. Apparently Rick really had turned his calendar over to his
assistants. "Then let's see what we can get accomplished. We have the
evenings, and next weekend." He decided not to mention that he was leaving
for a job interview the week after that.
"I'm
taking the train into New York in the morning for a photo shoot," Eve
said. "I won't be back until Wednesday about five. But that gives me time
to order a new engine and have it express shipped to the house." She
looked at Charlie. "If you and Rick would be willing to come over and
bring pizza around six, we could get started."
"Sounds good,"
Charlie said.
Rick
turned to Manny and Kyle. "Will you guys be okay if I spend a few nights
over here helping out?"
Manny
nodded. "Just don't forget to take your cell, in case something comes
up."
"I always have my
cell," Rick said.
"Then
it's settled." Charlie took one last look at the hovercraft.
"Wednesday night we'll start getting this baby ready to test."
And
the sooner the better. The longer Charlie hung around Middlesex with Eve, the
more he was liable to question whether he should leave at all. But he had to
leave. He'd dreamed of working at a major hydroelectric plant for years. Eve
might be delicious, but he had to pursue his dream or live with regret
forever.
Chapter
Four
Eunice
stayed until the guys left, which didn't surprise Eve. That whole cup of sugar
thing had been bogus and they both knew it. Eunice couldn't tell one end of a
potholder from the other, just like Eve.
"So
that's Charlie Shepherd's cousin." Eunice peered out the peephole in Eve's
front door as the men headed toward their car. "He even looks good
distorted."
"That excuse about a
cup of sugar was lame, Eunice."
"I
know, but it's not every day a hunkmobile pulls up in front of your house. I
had to quickly finish up my phonesex client and come over to
investigate."
"I
hope you didn't leave the poor guy hanging." Eve figured she was the only
one in town who knew that Eunice moonlighted as a phonesex girl. Eunice's day
job as the receptionist for Patriots Independent Insurance Agency didn't pay
enough to keep her in designer accessories, so she supplemented her income by
giving phone sex on nights and weekends. She considered it a stress-free way to
make extra money now that she'd been relieved of all sexual inhibitions by her
alien abductors.
"Nan,
I wouldn't end a call before the guy gets his jollies. I'm not that mean."
Eunice pressed her face to the door. "Ah, will you look at the fluid way
the Rickster climbs behind the wheel? Yum."
"I
can't look. You're hogging the peephole." Eve wouldn't have been
interested in watching Rick, though. She only had eyes for Charlie, the guy who
liked her hovercraft. His body movement was fine, but she was especially
drawn to the fluidity of his mind.
"Well,
they're pulling away, so you couldn't see anything, anyway. But if the Subaru
designers offered Rick as an optional accessory, they'd sell a ton of cars."
With a dramatic sigh she turned back to Eve. "Thank you for introducing
me to such a fine specimen of manhood. Even if it doesn't work out, I have
someone new to use as my fantasy guy during phone sex."
"You
picture a fantasy guy?" Eve hadn't ever thought of it from Eunice's
perspective.
"Only
if I want to really get into it. Sometimes I fake everything, but sometimes I
actually go for it. An image of Rick would definitely inspire me to go for
it."
"Yeah,
I guess he's pretty cute." But Eve had lost interest in the subject of
Rick. She'd even lost interest in the subject of phone sex.
Instead
she was remembering that precious moment after Charlie had made his circuit of
the hovercraft. He'd looked at her then, his brown eyes shining with admiration.
She could live a long time on the memory of that warm gaze.
He'd
given her the geek stamp of approval, and that meant more than he could ever
know. If someone like Charlie-—someone with an engineering degree and
Ellen Kottler, Jeffrey A. Kottler, Cary J. Kottler