Page 15 of Drive Me Wild
He leads me into the kitchen and shows me where the glasses and some snacks are. The kitchen is just as simple and pretty as the living room. The cupboards are glass-fronted, and the stove and fridge are old-fashioned-looking. I run my finger down the metal of the old stove, and again, I see that the chrome handle is high-polished.
“You like antiques.”
“I do.”
“Me too.”
He’s standing close enough that my body registers his presence, and it makes it hard to concentrate on why we are here in the first place.
“I like fixing things—things that are broken or forgotten. I took this stove and fridge as payment from a guy who couldn’t afford to get his car fixed. He had them sitting in his garage with his broken-down rig, so I traded him.
And this—” he leads me back into the living room and points to an old radio. “This I found at a pawn shop in Port Stratton. The guy let me have it for a few bucks when he realized it wasn’t working anymore.”
He leads me back down the hall to the bathroom, and we pass two other doors. One is open, and I see a desk littered withmachine parts and what appears to be a tiny robot standing on top.
“I’ll write down the password. The network name is ‘buzz buzz,’ which is all lowercase, all one word.”
“Cute.”
“Not very inventive, but this is Buzz’s old shop, so…” He looks at me shyly.
“Hey Caleb,” I instinctively grab his arm, and I get a hand full of muscle. “Thanks for letting me work here.”
“Not a problem. Just don’t download a bunch of porn while you’re on my network.”
“Ha!” I bark out a laugh. “Very funny.” And yet the mere mention of sex zaps me in my vag and makes my body hum.
“Um, the thing is…” I feel like a jerk saying this to him, but I don’t want this opportunity to blow up in my face. “The thing is…I don’t want it to get back to Renée that I’m working here.”
He nods his head slowly but doesn’t say a word, so I continue.
“She’s always been like a protective big sister, and I think she would freak out if she knew I was here. On account of—”
“On account of my status as the town gigolo.”
“She didn’t saythat, but…”
“Look, Zoe. I’ve got no ulterior motive. I just want to help. But Cole warned me to stay away from you, so I get where you’re coming from. I don’t want to catch any shit from him either.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
We decided I’d tell people that I bought a hotspot in Port Stratton, and I’m working from a few places where I get a good signal. To keep up the ruse, I will sit in the Daily Dose for about an hour every morning doing off-line admin work, drinking coffee, and then at the sandwich shop by the park in the afternoon before heading home.
I set up my laptop while he writes down the network password. Then he bids me goodbye and stomps back down the stairs to the shop.
I log onto his network and open up several pages in my browser to try and work, but my mind keeps wandering.
I keep thinking about sex.
Chapter Eight: Caleb
Idon’t hear a peep out of Zoe all day until she leaves for the sandwich shop. She comes through the garage to thank me and then ducks out the side door so she can exit through the alley.
My high school dropout sidekick left after lunch, so I’m in the shop alone when she heads out. It’s good because the teenager kept asking me about Zoe all morning, and I didn’t want to talk about it. Or her. I just told him to keep it a secret about her being here if he wanted to keep learning from me.
That bought me a weird look and some welcome silence.
