Page 54 of Love in Tandem
“First off, I’m nothing like my brother. Secondly, you weren’t bleeding to death. As I recall, your exact words were ‘Two stitches. No biggie.’ So don’t make this sound like it’s anything remotely equivalent to my father’s death. You were embarrassed, that’s all.”
“Zach, you saw me in nothing but a towel. A very tiny towel.”
“Now, we’re getting somewhere,” Jon said, turning onto the road to the park.
“Shut up, Mr. Uber,” Charlotte and Zach both said.
“So what?” Zach flung his palms up. “It wasn’t on purpose. It was an accident. And besides, it’s just me. Zach. It wasn’t like I was some stranger. Besides, you’re a beautiful woman. You have nothing to be embarrassed about.”
Charlotte seemed to sink into herself. Maybe none of that had come out right. Women were hard to talk to sometimes. You tell them they’re beautiful and you get slapped. You tell them they’re neurotic and flawed, and they tear up and kiss you.
He braced himself for the slap. Two minutes later as they returned to their camping site, it still hadn’t come.
Mr. Uber slowed to a stop in the parking lot. Maybe she was waiting until after they’d gotten out of the car and she had more space to swing her arm before she whapped him across the face.
Nobody said anything, not even Mr. Uber, as they opened the doors and climbed out.
“Hope you work everything out,” their driver finally said as he began pulling away. “Good luck with that foot.”
Zach watched the car’s taillights until they disappeared up the road. Charlotte hadn’t moved and he wondered if she was waiting for him to do something. Like carry her. Or at least offer an arm to lean on. He took a step toward her.
“Did it ever occur to you . . .” She spoke so quietly, he had to stop moving to keep the sound of his footsteps from muffling her words. The hoot of an owl echoed from the trees and a flying insect buzzed next to his ears. He held still, waiting. “. . . that I felt the same way?”
The dim yellow security light from the bathroom glowed just enough to reveal the earnestness on her face. “I get that, after your dad’s death, Ben felt shaken. In a way, maybe exposed and naked. But it was me, Zach. Me. Ben didn’t have to hide. Not from me. But that’s what he did.”
She turned from him, limping as she stepped on the ball of her injured foot to walk. “I think you’re more like your brother than you want to admit.”
It’s not that Sophia wanted to appear as a crazy stalker, but when a cute guy holds her sister’s future in his hands and promises to call “soon” with news about that future, then lets over twenty-four hours pass without sending any word whatsoever, well . . . What else is a girl to do but sneak back to his house late at night in search of answers?
Sure, there’d been a lovely write-up in the paper today about A. P. Hopkins’s life, including his recent donation for the bike path and the couples challenge he issued to go along with it. And sure, learning he’d once been married, then watched that marriage fall apart, shed some light on why he might have issued this particular challenge.
But if everything was all fine and dandy with the challenge, why hadn’t Joshua called to say everything was all fine and dandy with the challenge? Something along the lines of “Found the promised prize money right where he told me to find it. No need to worry. Everything’s all fine and dandy with the challenge.”
What if Joshua wasn’t the Clark Kent type after all? What if all along he was actually the Lex Luthor type? For all Sophia knew he could have taken the quarter million and split town hours ago. Sure, he’d been all too happy to take her phone number. But had he offered Sophia his number? No.
So see? She had no choice but to return.
After getting her car towed yesterday afternoon, Trusty Rusty, who never missed an opportunity to spout off a good movie quote, informed her the car was only mostly dead. “And mostly dead is slightly alive,” he’d said in his best impression of Miracle Max from The Princess Bride.
Maybe she ought to start calling him Miracle Rusty. Ever since she’d picked up her car this morning, it purred like a kitten. Good thing, too, since she was in the middle of a covert operation here.
Sophia dimmed the headlights as she approached the hidden driveway entrance. Then wished she hadn’t when she nearly ran over Joshua and his dog.
“Oh my!” She jerked the steering wheel hard. Too hard. She crashed into the mailbox. Wood splintered and glass shattered before she finally remembered how to use the brakes.
“Oh my,” she whimpered again, really hoping Rusty didn’t have tomorrow off. From the sounds of it, she was going to need another miracle. This time for her left headlight.
On a positive note, Joshua hadn’t fled town. He was still here. And still very cute. But again, probably not the best time to be noticing things like that. Maybe later. After she received confirmation of the prize money. And fixed her car again.
Rolling down her window, Sophia draped a casual elbow over the door as if she were placing an order at the drive-through. “Sorry about that. Any word on the money for the challenge?”
Joshua snagged D’Artagnan’s collar to keep him from stepping on glass. “Does your mechanic’s shop hand out punch cards or something?”
“If only. I’m sure I’d be due for a free car by now. For the record, you really shouldn’t go for walks in the middle of the night.”
He pulled D’Artagnan a few more steps back as he glanced at his watch. “It’s not even nine-thirty. And I was checking the mail. I forgot earlier.”
She didn’t want to be rude, but it looked like he’d forgotten to change clothes again too. He was still wearing the vintage Superman shirt. Obviously he was still caught in the “I’m a little overwhelmed” stage. Crashing into the mailbox probably didn’t help matters for him.
