understood all right. It’s flannel and opaque or you don’t go.”
Laurie threw out her lower lip in a pout. “That’s not very festive.”
“It’s a New Year’s Eve party at my parents’ place. You aren’t supposed to be festive!”
Laurie raised an eyebrow.
“Not festive in that way,” Gwen said.
“You mean in a prepared-for-serendipity way?”
“I mean in a going-after-middle-aged-married-men way.”
“You should talk. You’re the one who’s going to be wearing the skirt. You’ll see. And so will their wives. But don’t worry. I’ll be there to watch your back.”
Gwen shuddered at the thought. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” she said noncommittally and began wheeling her suitcase over to the covered parking. “Thanks for the ride.” She turned to wave at Laurie and nearly smacked her in the face because she was right behind her. “What are you doing?”
Laurie discreetly pointed to Gwen’s charcoal gray Japanese import. “Are those legs supposed to be under your car?”
Gwen had already seen the cutoff clad legs of her neighbor sticking out from beneath her car. He’d driven over the curb so that the front wheels were lifted off the ground. From the angle they now stood, she could see under the car to the slice of well-muscled midriff that was also exposed. She heaved a deep breath in irritation. “Yeah.”
Laurie audibly swallowed. “You don’t need the skirt. Give it to me right now.”
Clearly, Laurie wasn’t going anywhere without an introduction. Even though Gwen had given up men, she still didn’t want to see her neighbor’s reaction to Laurie in hunting mode. She had a nice little nonrelationship thing going with him and Laurie could really screw it up.
Honestly, Gwen didn’t know how she did it, yet right now, she could feel Laurie getting into the zone. It was more than just throwing back her shoulders and licking her lips. Something about her walk changed. And her expression. She made eye contact with a vengeance.
Just for the sake of experimentation, Gwen tried making eye contact with her neighbor’s legs. It didn’t work—and not only because he chose that moment to shove himself from beneath the car and stretch, providing them with a brief, yet highly memorable view of his supine body.
Gwen choked in the middle of swallowing.
“Hey, Gwen, you’re back!” Shoving himself off the stained pavement, he brushed at the back of his shorts, examined his hands, reached for a red rag and wiped them off.
“Hi, Alec. This is…”
But Laurie was ahead of her purring, “Hi. I’m Laurie.”
“Laurie, this is my neighbor, Alec Fleming,” Gwen said at the same moment Alec was reaching for Laurie’s hand and introducing himself.
Clearly her work here was done. Ordinarily, Gwen would discreetly move away, but she wanted to see the show. And there was the matter of knowing whether or not Alec was finished with her car.
Laurie immediately moved closer to him, getting into his personal space, Gwen noted, though she didn’t know why she bothered. She wasn’t planning on using any of Laurie’s stalking tips.
Alec had tucked his fingertips in his back pockets, a pose that displayed the width of his chest and showed off his arms, which were revealed by a sweatshirt that he’d cut the sleeves off. The ragged edges emphasized his shoulders.
Ah, mating rituals. Laurie looked dazzled and not as sure of herself as she usually did.
Gwen could see why. Even in his grease-monkey state—or maybe because of his grease-monkey state—Alec was looking mighty fine.
But then, he usually did. He was lucky enough to have a natural honey-on-whole-wheat-toast color of skin that meant he looked good without subjecting himself to the damaging effects of the sun.
Now that she’d given up men, Gwen would no longer be subjecting herself to multihour sessions involving exfoliation and painting her body with self-tanner, then standing with outstretched arms during most of a movie-of-the-week and hoping that no one was peeking through the space where her curtains didn’t quite meet.
Men. Too much trouble. She shook her head slightly as Laurie wrinkled her nose. Wrinkled her nose. Someone probably once told her it looked cute. Gwen supposed it did, in a way, if you were a man. Look at me. I’m so helpless and you’re so big and strong. Ick, ick and more ick.
“I really appreciate you giving Gwen, here, a ride home.” Alec turned just enough to include Gwen in their charmed circle.
“Gwen’s a friend. I didn’t mind,” Laurie breathed.
At least she didn’t tell him it hadn’t been any trouble, because any trip to the busy Houston airport was a royal pain.
“And aren’t you just the sweetest thing to change her oil for her?”
Laurie’s voice had taken a syrupy tone to which she wasn’t entitled since she’d been born and raised in Kansas City. Gwen narrowed her eyes at her, but she didn’t notice.
Alec didn’t either. He was too busy flashing a grin at Laurie. “She’s paying me!”
Which was what Gwen had already told her. It mollified her somewhat that Alec admitted it. She was about to complain about her car not being ready when he continued.
“And I’ve earned every penny.” He lowered his brows—attractively—at her in mock sternness. “Lady, when’s the last time you had your oil changed? The filter was frozen in there.”
Gwen suddenly found herself on the defensive. “I, uh…”
“Since you’ve chosen not to buy American, I needed to borrow a metric tool set, which I didn’t realize I’d need until after I’d drained all the oil out.” He rubbed his index finger against a spot above his eyebrow, leaving a faint smudge that detracted not one whit from his appearance.
“Shame on you, Gwen,” Laurie said snidely.
Gwen glared at her until Laurie remembered they weren’t in competition for Alec’s attention.
“But I’m probably just as bad about car maintenance.” Which was a lie. Laurie was a fanatic about car maintenance because she’d once been stranded in the middle of the night after going to a trendy new club in an iffy area of Houston and never wanted to repeat the experience. However, Gwen understood that Laurie was trying to make up for her earlier comment.
“It was poor planning on my part, I’ll admit. My brother-in-law wouldn’t bring me his tools until halftime. Texas is playing Penn State,” Alec added.
“Oh, yeah,” Gwen said, as though she followed college football. After Eric, she’d had enough of football.
“Like I said, it wasn’t a problem.” Laurie was still hanging around and Gwen guessed she was giving Alec a chance to say something along the
