his eyes. “Why didn’t you say something sooner? I would have helped you to the Jeep.” Or some other nearby flat surface where she could get off her feet. Preferably landing on her back.
“I guess I didn’t feel anything. I was too busy walking on a cloud of righteous anger,” she said, still never glancing at him. Instead, without asking permission, she opened the glove compartment and dug out a few wrinkled-up napkins. Wetting one with her tongue, she put it on the ball of her foot, which was bleeding in two or three spots.
“Perfect, add infection to your pain,” he said with a disgusted sigh. Reaching into the back seat, he flipped the lid on a small cooler there and grabbed a bottle of water. As he lifted it out, he shook it off, then tossed it to her. “Here. Clean it with that. The spit-on-a-cut thing only works if it’s your mother’s spit.”
“Thanks.”
She opened the bottle, wet the napkin and cleaned off the sores on one foot, then the other, apparently not minding when specks of blood—and the water—flicked onto her dress. A few drops also plopped onto the high arch of her foot and slid down her heel, onto her leg, landing just above her other knee. They glided up her bent limb, riding a long, soft line of flesh, weaving an intricate trail across the ridges of her skin. His hands tightened on the wheel. His jaw and jeans tightened, too.
When the droplets reached the lacy fabric of those panties of hers and rode on underneath, she finally noticed. Sucking in a surprised breath, she glanced down, realized that her dress was hiked up almost to her crotch, and immediately looked over at him. Mike managed to keep his eyes forward, as if he hadn’t been stealing glances at her like some horny fourteen-year-old peeking into the girls’ locker room. He still saw out the corner of his eye as she grabbed the hem of her dress and yanked it down. And wasn’t sure whether to give thanks or curse his luck.
“You could have said something.”
Playing dumb seemed the safest course of action. “About what?”
She frowned in disbelief. “I thought boys outgrew their fascination with girls underpants by the time they hit twelve.”
That immediately sparked a genuine laugh, and Mike had no control over it. It spilled out of his mouth, as warm as it was unfamiliar, tasting strange. But feeling…good. When was the last time he had really been amused by something? Before his transfer, perhaps. Before the drug case that had brought about that transfer, even.
The ridiculousness of her claim echoed in the car and within two seconds, she was chuckling with him. Laughing at herself. “Okay. That didn’t come out right.”
“No, it didn’t.”
“I meant…”
“I know what you meant. You were talking about that boys’ elementary-school urge to catch a glimpse of some fellow third grader’s Strawberry Shortcake panties.”
“Well, it so happens that I don’t wear Strawberry Shortcake panties,” she retorted.
“Yeah. I know,” he murmured, unable to get rid of the tiny smile still tugging at his lips.
“You were looking.”
“All the male angels in heaven would have looked.” Never glancing over at her, he continued, “We might not want to see the pink cotton under your school uniform anymore, but we are instinctively bred to zone in on anything made of silk and lace. Especially when it’s resting between a pair of soft thighs.”
Where in the hell all that had come from, Mike honestly didn’t know. He couldn’t remember stringing together such a thought in a long time, much less actually saying it to someone. A woman. A stranger.
A stranger who was watching him from the other seat, her jaw hanging open and her cheeks a little pink.
“Don’t go grabbing for the tire iron, I’m still not going to leap on you,” he said, his tone dry. “I was just making a point.” Returning his attention to the road, he noted the few small scattered buildings that made up the outlying area of the town of Trouble. And another one of those Trouble Ahead signs. “Who named this place, anyway?” he muttered.
She cleared her throat, glad for the subject change. As was he. Talking about a woman’s silky panties and her silkier thighs was a bad idea less than an hour into a relationship.
Not that they were in a relationship! No way. Their acquaintance was going to last approximately twenty minutes…the length of time it took to get her to her car.
“Probably the same person who named the towns of Paradise and Intercourse, Pennsylvania,” she said.
He wondered if he ought to point out that some considered paradise and intercourse connected but figured he shouldn’t. They’d managed to skate off thin ice and he definitely didn’t want to glide back out onto it. He just needed to get this woman to her destination, push her out of the Jeep and keep on going to his grandfather’s house. Where his world was normal. Not involving kooky women who got pissed off and walked until their feet bled. Ones who made him laugh. And leer.
“The name Trouble definitely suits some of its residents. My relatives included.”
“You going to tell me how they ditched you?” he finally asked.
She sighed, then shook her head in resignation. “We went for a drive, then pulled up at a rest stop outside town. I, uh…made a suggestion they weren’t happy about and they demanded to leave. When we got to the car, one of them started screeching about her handkerchief blowing away and demanded that I chase after it.”
“Let me guess. You kicked off your shoes to run?”
“Uh-huh.”
“And they got in the car and left without you?”
“Yep.”
“Where does the tire iron fit in?”
She made a sound of frustration. He glanced over, seeing a look on her face that matched it.
“Aunt Ivy waved it out the window as they drove away, yelling that she’d hit me over the head with it if I tried to force her to move out of her house. I picked it up along the way and was fantasizing about shoving it up the old witch’s nose.”
Bloodthirstiness obviously ran in the family. But he figured it wasn’t the time to point that out, particularly since she’d finally let go of the tire iron.
“She better not have scratched my car when she dropped it,” Jen muttered, sounding more disgruntled than genuinely angry.
Hmm. Tire iron flying out the window of a moving car. He somehow suspected she wasn’t going to get her wish for no scratches. She’d be lucky if there were no dents. But that was for her to work out with her aunt—and her insurance agent—so he kept his opinion to himself.
“Why would you try to force her out of her house?”
“I’m not trying to force them. But I suggested that they move somewhere more appropriate.”
Like a mental institution, from the sound of them. But he figured he’d better not say that, either. He’d been doing a lot of keeping his mouth shut since he’d met her, which really wasn’t
