Fender Bender Blues Page 22

  Seizing a lock of her hair, he rolled it between his thumb and forefinger. She cared about him. The truth was in her eyes, in the way her voice had cracked. He leaned forward and kissed her, his lips moving over hers in a tender dance. As he laid her down on the soft, suede couch, the fire crackled and cast a glow over her face. Any life without her would be much too empty.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Rach had only been home one night after spending the last two playing house with Craig, so she hadn’t expected him to appear on her front porch, hair glistening wet and smiling irresistibly. But there he was and she wasn’t going to complain about it. The night before had been a restless one as she’d tossed and turned, missing his warmth.

  “I missed you,” he said and Rach flung herself into his arms. Her nightgown rode up past her butt cheeks, but she didn’t care. If any of her neighbors were watching, the scene would give them something to gossip about during the resurrected Bridge nights. Most of the people on the block needed the entertainment, so she was really just providing a community service.

  “I should drag you upstairs to your room.” He sighed, taking in the bronze nightgown clinging to her body. His eyes lingered on her chest before meeting her eyes. “But I have a surprise for you. Look.”

  She peered around him to the street and almost fell over.

  “Oh my God, that’s my car!” She gasped and stepped outside barefoot onto the wet cement. “And it’s so shiny, it looks brand new!”

  “So you like it?” He grinned and squeezed her hand in his.

  She sighed and smiled up at him. “It’s so pretty.”

  He wrapped his arms around her, and the nightie climbed higher on her thighs. She was too enthralled at the miracle that was her car to worry about the show the Jacobs were getting across the street as they rocked on their front porch with their morning coffee.

  “You want to take it for a spin?” he asked.

  “Yes!” She didn’t stop to go back inside for shoes, but padded across the wet grass to her car. Fluffy patches of dark gray clouds littered the sky and the rain fell lightly on her face as she blinked back at Craig. “Hurry up or I’ll have to leave you behind. I’m so damn excited. I can’t believe this is my car!”

  She smiled at the man who, in one fateful morning, had changed her life in ways she hadn’t been ready for and had tried so hard to fight. Her eyes were tearing up and she told herself to get a grip, except no man had ever done anything so nice for her before. It was hard not to get all sappy over such a huge gift.

  “It’s like a brand new car.” She marveled at how shiny red the paint was in the rain. The door opened without protest. Smiling, she slipped behind the wheel. The interior had been detailed. When she turned the key in the ignition, the stereo hummed to life and Prince flooded through speakers that no longer sounded crackly. Bouncing up and down in her seat, she squealed. “You fixed the speakers!”

  “You can thank my guys for that. They said the speakers sounded as bad as the CD in the player.”

  Ignoring his comment and lack of taste when it came to Prince, she ran her fingers along the shiny steering wheel. The transformation was incredible, it was five times better than when she’d bought it. No more Toronado, she wouldn’t have to borrow her mom’s van when her dad needed his car back for car club meetings. Rach sighed and put her hand on the shifter between the front seats, gently nudging it back into reverse.

  “You really are the best,” she told Craig and blinked back tears.

  He smiled and buckled his seat belt. “You’re welcome, Babe.”

  The endearment didn’t help stifle the tears. She wiped her cheeks with the back of her palm and slowly eased the car out of the parking lot and into the street. Overly cautious, but she wasn’t taking any chances. She didn’t want even the tiniest scratch on her baby, not after the makeover it had gone through.

  Craig’s eyes were fixated on her as she drove at a snail’s paces down the street with both hands glued to the wheel at exactly two and ten, just as she’d been taught in Driver’s Ed in high school. She glanced over at him quickly before focusing again on the street. “Quit staring, it’s making me nervous.”

  He chuckled. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you drive so good before.”

  Rach took her eyes off the road to glare at him. “I’m a good driver.”

  “Uh, huh.” His eyes traveled from her face to her bare legs, her nightie hiked up far enough to reveal the V between her legs and a hint of blush colored panties. “You are incredibly sexy driving in that thing.”

  “Enjoy, I’m sure it won’t happen again. This is a special occasion.”

  The rain fell in thicker drops against the windshield and she flipped on the wipers. She glanced at the coffee cup in his hand. “Put the lid back on, you’re making me nervous.”

  “It tore and I don’t want to cut my lip on the plastic.”

  “You better not spill that coffee in my car.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He saluted then put both hands around the cup. “See? Careful.”

  “Mm.”

  Even the steering was smoother. Was it possible to love someone more than Christmas? He’d obviously done more to the car than the insurance check had paid for. She gave the car a bit more gas and got it up to the speed limit, enjoying the smooth ride beneath her.

  Then, like a horrible ending to a happy story, Tally appeared, running on the street beside the car. Startled, she jerked the wheel and swerved to miss Tally, who scampered sideways away from the car. The car jumped the curb and crashed into a tree next to the sidewalk. The familiar crunch of metal—the sound of the car once again being taken out of commission—brought frustrated tears to her eyes.

  They sat in shocked silence, Rach holding the steering wheel in a death grip of pale knuckles, and Craig, wiping at his pants where the coffee had soaked his slacks. She stared wide-eyed at the tree that had crumpled the front bumper of her car. This time, the hood was bent back toward the windshield and the pretty new paint had spider-webbed to the middle of the hood. She squeezed her eyes shut and the tears that had been welling at the corners of her eyes fell down her cheeks.

  Let this be a bad dream, please, please, please. Except it wasn’t, because when she opened her eyes her car was still wrecked. Craig held his head in his hands, shaking it back and forth in disbelief.

  “Tally.” Rach searched the yard, but didn’t see the puppy. She craned her neck to peer around Craig’s head and out the passenger side window and saw Tally prancing away down the sidewalk, back toward Rach’s townhome.

  “I don’t believe this.” Craig lifted his head from his hands to stare at the hood. “How is this even possible?”

  When he turned his head to look at her, his eyes mirrored the sick incredulity Rach felt. Rach sniffled and unbuckled her seatbelt. “My insurance company is going to drop me after this. Two accidents in just over a month—I’ve probably set a freakin’ record.”

  He unbuckled his seatbelt and put his empty coffee cup into the cup holder. “Red, I don’t think your car can be fixed this time. Looks like there’s a lot of front-end damage, probably the engine, too.”

  “And once again I have no car.” She shoved the door open and stepped out onto the wet grass. The sprinkle became a downpour and through the rain she spotted Tally who’d ventured back and now trotted in the yard across the street. She whistled and Tally paused to look back at Rach. “Tally, you get your butt over here right now.”

  Tally tilted her head in contemplation. Placing her hand on her hip, Rach fumed. Trying not to lose her cool, she told herself to count to five. Luckily, Tally loped across the street and parked her butt on the grass next to Rach before she’d gotten to the count of four.

  Mr. and Mrs. Petersen stepped out onto their front porch and gawked at the spectacle in their front yard. Mr. Petersen raised the coffee mug in his hand to his lips and took a slow sip while his wife clutched a wadded up newspaper to her chest.

  Rach waved at
them and mustered up a smile. “It’s okay, we’re fine.”

  The older couple stared back, speechless. Rach whispered to Craig, “I look freakin’ ridiculous out here in the rain…in my underwear.”

  Craig’s eyes twinkled down at her. “You look unbelievably sexy.”

  Rach could feel the blush on her cheeks despite the chill the rain left on her skin, and tugged self-consciously at the nightie clinging to her like a second skin, leaving nothing to the imagination. Craig reached down and brushed a strand of rain-matted hair off of her forehead and out of her eyes.

  “Sexy,” he insisted.

  “I don’t see how… And my toes are cold.” And I’m car-less again.

  Craig draped his jacket around her shoulders and placed her hand in the crook of his arm. “Shall we?” She smiled at his ridiculous gallantry, but leaned into him, drained and depressed and wishing she could be teleported to anywhere but there. She refused to look back at her car.

  “It’s a beautiful morning,” Craig called out to Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs, who gawked from the cover of their porch. Rach sniffled. Craig stopped her on the sidewalk leading up to Rach’s porch and smoothed her hair from her face. He gave her a soft kiss on the lips and she tasted rain. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure this out.”

  There wasn’t much to figure out, as far as she was concerned. Hopefully her insurance would cover the cost of totaling the car the second time around, and if not, she was screwed. And she’d be driving her dad’s car for an indefinite amount of time while she looked around town for a beater that cost less than a thousand bucks, because that’s all she would be able to afford if her insurance dropped her and refused to pay the tab. She swallowed against the knot in her throat.

  No more crying. It didn’t do any good, anyway.

  “You realize there’s never been a dull moment in my life since I met you?”

  Despite the situation, she returned his smile with a weak one of her own. “I suppose.”

  She wasn’t sure what to think of it, either. Since they’d met, she’d wrecked her car twice, which couldn’t be a good omen. If she were Leah, she’d be freaking out right now and slamming the front door in his face.

  The corners of her lips twitched, but she fought against the frown. She’d just have to suck it up. At least she was healthy, had a roof over her head and her dad’s Toronado in the parking lot.

  They walked up the sidewalk to the porch where Tally waited, shaking off her coat. Rach patted her head as she passed. She opened the front door and Tally bounded in. Too preoccupied to worry about Tally tracking water all over the house, Rach headed straight for the stairs, silent and contemplative.

  Behind her, Craig said brightly, “Now we can go car shopping.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She let out a disheartened sigh and stepped into her bedroom. “But it was so pretty.”

  Craig frowned in her bedroom doorway. “I’m sorry, Red. It’s my fault, I must not have shut the front door all the way and Tally got out.”

  “It’s okay.” Except it didn’t sound okay, even to her own ears. She sounded about three seconds from losing it in a hysterical bout of tears. The clothes she yanked out of her dresser in search of a pair of sweat pants made a disheveled pile at her feet. “It’ll be fine, really. I’ll figure something out.”

  “I’ll get it towed back to my shop,” he promised, already heading out the door. He paused in the hallway to look back at her. “You don’t even need to report it to your insurance. I own a dealership, remember? If it can’t be fixed again, you’ll get full retail for it. I’ve got this under control, it’s what I do.”

  She shook her head at his generous offer. “I don’t know. I’m just your…girlfriend, not your wife. You can’t be pulling any strings for me.”

  “It’s not pulling strings, it’s accepting responsibility for an accident I caused. No more discussion.”

  And then he was gone. She turned back to her dresser and wondered how her dad would react once he heard the news. Maybe I’ll just keep this little accident to myself. It was probably better for all of them involved if he didn’t ever know how close he’d been to getting his Toronado back for good.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  While Rach dressed for Craig’s housewarming-party-turned-celebration for his latest accolade, Man of the Year, awarded by the city’s Community Foundation, she considered faking a migraine, the stomach flu, anything to get out of attending. Not because she didn’t want to support him, but because she didn’t want to meet his parents for the first time at a party full of strangers.

  When Craig had asked her to be there with him, he’d been so genuinely excited for her to meet his parents, she hadn’t had the heart to tell him no. So instead of bowing out with a fake illness, she zipped herself into a conservative pale green satin dress, slipped on a pair of cream high heels and smoothed her long auburn hair into submission. At a quarter past six p.m., she rushed out of her townhome to Leah’s waiting SUV.

  A few hours later, standing alone on the patio next to a table decorated with fresh cut flowers and silver plates of hors d’oeuvres, Craig’s ex-girlfriend stared at Rach with icy blue eyes. If Rach had known Maggie would be in attendance, she definitely would have faked an illness. Rach shifted uncomfortably under the woman’s penetrating gaze, pretending great interest in a fern beside the table.

  “Lynette went all out for this one.”

  Rach looked up from the table and smiled at Leah, now standing beside her. The ten minutes she’d been alone while Leah went in search of Rick had been excruciatingly uncomfortable. Fingering a light blue linen napkin, she said, “I can’t believe his mom managed to pull this all together in a week.”

  Lynette Larsen had transformed her son’s backyard into a photo shoot for Better Homes and Gardens with white tents, round tables decorated with fresh flowers and a string quartet playing soft music on a raised platform under the furthest tent. Rach had been more comfortable with the idea when Leah had described a backyard barbeque with a few close friends and family.

  Leah plucked two champagne flutes off a passing waiter’s tray and handed one to Rach. “Would you like to know what Craig’s mom had to say about you?”

  Rach smiled. “Only if it’s good.”

  Leah’s eyes twinkled. “Well, she told Rick and me that you’re a peach and she can’t wait to plan a double engagement party. I informed her that you and I would like nothing more than a double engagement party, double wedding, double everything.”

  Rach nearly choked on the chilled alcohol she’d just swallowed and stared wide eyed at Leah. “You said what? You did not.” Leah’s wide grin left no question about it. “Of course you did.”

  “She thinks it’s so cute that her boys are going to marry best friends. I told her that Rick and I nearly had to tie you and Craig together before you both finally admitted how much you really care about each other,” Leah said and danced out of her grasp before Rach could smack her. “She mentioned a few times she wants grandbabies as soon as possible. Rick turned bright red. It was adorable.”

  “I’m sure little Ricky was super duper cute,” Rach teased but she quickly dropped the smile and made a short nod of her head in Maggie’s direction. “She’s kind of freaking me out. I don’t think she’s taken her eyes off me since she came sashaying through the patio doors.”

  Leah didn’t care to be so discreet and instead turned to stare right back at Maggie, wiggling her fingers in a mocking wave. “I think Rick might be right; she might be a little whacko in the head or something. He calls her the Ice Bitch Stalker.”

  “Eeekkk.” Rach giggled, resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at Maggie. “I told Craig I’m going to leave early, but I promised to wait until he’s done talking to his dad. They went inside to Craig’s office a little bit ago, so I hope they don’t take too long.”

  Leah turned to study the trays of hors d’oeuvres behind them on the table. “I’m ready to go, too. I have an early dy
e in the morning so I need my beauty sleep.”

  Rach rolled her eyes. “You and I both know you don’t need beauty sleep. You roll out of bed and look adorable.”

  “True,” Leah said with a shrug. “But still, my pjs are sounding pretty good right now.”

  “I’m sure Craig will be out shortly.” She hoped so. Her feet hurt and so did her face from hours of smiling. Mostly, she was tired of trying to steer every conversation with every person she’d met that evening away from what she did for a living. Discussing the last year of job hopping with a bunch of doctors, lawyers and business owners wasn’t exactly pleasant. She hated the feeling of inadequacy; it wasn’t her.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed someone hate you so much.” Leah tapped her own glass to Rach’s in cheers. “Well, except for Jackie.”

  “I’m a popular girl, ya know.” Rach took a small sip of champagne. There was no point in being subtle—the other woman wasn’t—so she turned her gaze out across the pool, looking straight into Maggie’s eyes. Rach whispered, “So weird. I mean, she’s not even trying to hide that she hates me.”

  Leah shrugged and made a small circle in the air with her pointer finger next to her ear. “Cuckoo.”

  Maggie’s face tightened in outrage.

  “You think anyone else besides you and I can tell she’s imagining hitting me with her car after the party’s over?” Rach asked. They both looked around at the guests mingling. Laughter filled the air and booze flowed freely. Not one person noticed the invisible daggers Maggie chucked at Rach from across the patio, and if they did, they weren’t obvious about it by staring.

  “Hm,” Leah drawled, “I think by now everyone’s pretty liquored up and no one gives a hoot either way.” She looked up at the sky, turning shades of pink and orange and shadowy blues as the sun began its descent to the horizon. “It’s getting a little chilly, don’t you think? Is it supposed to storm?”

  The breeze had picked up, caressing Rach’s skin and causing her to shiver. The sunset was a clear pallet of beautiful colors, but living in Nebraska, one learned not to take for granted the unpredictable summer storms.