Satellite of Love (4 page)

Bear put his elbows on his knees and buried his hands in his hair. He’d promised Marc he would do a drop-in next week. He was going to have to be a rock star for one day in the middle of playing regular guy. Greatest job in the world.

* * * *

Maureen scrubbed the makeup off her face. It looked ridiculous and she didn’t know where they were going. Studying herself in the mirror, she discovered she’d splashed water all over her shirt. Super. Any second, he was going to be here and she’d gotten herself drenched.

She ran into the bedroom, yanking the yellow, long sleeved knit shirt over her head as she went. Her second choice was a turtleneck with tiny flowers all over it that screamed elementary school teacher. Most of her clothes screamed elementary school teacher. They might explain her dating track record. What man wanted to spend time with a woman who dressed like she might launch into a lesson on fractions at any moment? She pulled on the back up and ran her fingers though her hair, which promptly stuck up in all directions.

The phone rang in the kitchen. At least she hoped it was in the kitchen. She kept forgetting to put it back on the charger.

“Hello?” she answered it.

“Hey, how did the date go last night?” Linda asked.

“Oh my God, last night was fantastic.” Eyes closed, she recalled Michael sitting across the table from her, drumming his fingertips together and saying
excellent
just like Mr. Burns.

“Really?” Linda sounded dubious. Why?

“Oh wait. I didn’t actually meet the guy you fixed me up with. I had car trouble.”

“And car trouble was fantastic?”

“Yeah. I met my mechanic’s brother. He was at the garage working late.” On the Satellite of Love.

“Your mechanic’s brother?” Now Linda sounded more dubious.

“My brakes were making a horrible noise so I stopped in and he said they weren’t safe to drive on so he offered to take me out for pizza and drive me home.”

“Oh, please. You fell for that?”

“For what?” Maureen smoothed her shirt over her hips. The clock said straight up noon, but he had said around noon.

“Every mechanic in the world uses that it’s not safe to drive line. That’s how they get you for more money.”

Maureen twisted the ends of her hair around her finger. “He showed me the thingy and it looked really bad. Besides, if he just wanted to get more money out of me, why did he take me out to dinner?”

“Let’s see, you wore the blue dress. Do you think he might have been trying to get a look at your cleavage?”

Well, her turtleneck would be a test then. Cleavage didn’t exist in it. “I thought that was the point of the dress.”

“It is, but do you really want to waste it on a grease monkey?”

“I didn’t happen to be using it for anything else. That guy you fixed me up with wasn’t too upset when I called him to tell him I couldn’t make it.”

“Greg isn’t the type to show his emotions. I know he was looking forward to meeting you. You ought to give him a chance.”

A shape slowed on the street, but she couldn’t make it out through the sheers. It wasn’t dark enough to be the Satellite. Nobody else was supposed to drop by today. “Listen, I hafta go.”

“Another clandestine meeting with your mechanic?”

“I’ll call Greg and try to reschedule for next weekend.”
If I remember his name long enough.
“But I really have to go right now. I’ll see you Monday.” Before Linda could get in another zinger, she hung up the phone. Michael walked past the front window and her heartbeat stammered. He wasn’t just a grease monkey but funny, sweet and interesting. Sexy. Mustn’t forget sexy.

When she yanked open the door, he had his hand poised to knock.

“Hi.” He raised one eyebrow. “Waiting long?”

“No, I was on the phone and saw you through the window so I figured I’d just get it before you knocked and—” And babbling like an idiot. What was it about this grease monkey that made her gibber like a teenage girl?

He held up her keys. “I brought your car. I got the brakes done this morning. It needs a tune up, but I didn’t have time to get to that. The garage is closed tomorrow, but say the word and I’ll take care of it for you.”

“That would be great. Did you bring the bill? I can write you a check if it isn’t ruinous.”

“No bill,” he said with a shake of his head. “I took care of it.”

“You took care of it?”

“Sure. The part was cheap and I did the labor myself.” He grinned, and the way his eyes sparkled did funny things to her insides. “Of course, I would take a kiss in payment.”

“A kiss?” The memory of their kiss last night assaulted her. Her body throbbed as she remembered the moment she would have given in and a split second later when she’d known she couldn’t. Did he remember it as clearly? Especially the couldn’t part?

Michael turned his cheek to her and tapped it. “Come on. I think I earned a kiss. It was a lot of work.”

Okay, maybe he did remember the
couldn’t
part. Laughing, she pecked his cheek. “Alright, but we’re going to have to establish some rates if you’re going to continue to work on my car.”

He caught her around the waist, hauling her against his hard chest. “I’m willing to negotiate on a case by case basis.” Then he dipped in, gave her a quick kiss on the lips and released her.

She tottered backward. There was way more to this guy than grease monkey and whatever it was short-circuited her decision-making abilities. Like right now, she should be annoyed that he’d grabbed her, but wasn’t. Last night she should have been more careful about going anywhere with a stranger in his car, but hadn’t been. In a few minutes she was going to head off to who knew where with the same guy even though logic, good sense and Linda told her it was a bad idea. “So where are we going?”

“I was hoping you’d have some ideas. I’m not very familiar with the area.”

Maureen clasped her hands. How was he going to take this idea? If he didn’t like it, he’d probably endure the day and never talk to her again. Outside of tomorrow when he was tuning up her car. He’d already committed to that. How much did she care? He wasn’t permanent date material. He wasn’t even local. But he was really— Interesting. Regardless, this dating option didn’t carry the same weight it might have. It wasn’t like she was destroying a perfectly good specimen with a really stupid choice. “How do you feel about dinosaurs?”

“Dinosaurs?”

Linda’s expression while talking to her on the phone a few minutes ago had probably looked a lot like Michael’s did now. Textbook dubious. “Yeah, dinosaurs. The natural history museum has a special exhibit. Some recent finds from China. If you’re interested.” She chewed the inside of her cheek. He didn’t. Look interested, that was. If anything, his expression had shifted to baffled.

“Dinosaurs,” he repeated.

“The exhibit is going to be there for another month so if I don’t make it this weekend, it’s no big loss. Besides, I’m going on a field trip with the kids in two weeks. I was just hoping to get a preview.”

“No, that actually sounds fun.” Michael frowned like he couldn’t believe he was saying it. “I haven’t done anything like that in ages. Do you want to take your car or stop at the garage for the Satellite? I’m afraid it still has a mismatched trunk, but it purrs.”

If he was going to give on the museum, she could give on the funny looking car. “That’s fine. I’ll grab my coat and purse and we can go.”

Muttering about the timing and the transmission, and finally extracting a promise from her that she’d bring it in tomorrow for a tune up, he drove to the garage. He parked around back and she followed him to the bay where the Satellite was parked. Tony stood behind the car with his arms folded.

“Hello, Miss Donnelly.” His barely pleasant tone turned hard when he spoke to Michael. “Where are you going?”

“A museum.” Michael’s voice was equally tense.

“A museum,” Tony repeated.

The two men stared at one another. In the garage, Rusty peeked around the hood of the car he was working on. Maureen stuffed her hands in her pockets. What was it about this that bothered Tony? Did he disapprove of his brother taking her out? Or of her going out with his brother?

“You be home for dinner?” Tony asked.

“I doubt it.” Michael reached back and took Maureen’s arm. “See ya tonight.”

As she let him escort her to the car and open the door, panic crawled through her chest. Tony had a son going into second grade next year. If he didn’t like her dating his brother, he might talk to other parents. If enough of them decided they didn’t want their child in her class the school board might not renew her contract. That was probably a lot of wild paranoia, but having a class full of kids with hostile parents wasn’t. Linda had a pack of them this year in third grade and they were making her life hell. Two years ago Jenny Gilchrist had six kids fail and those kids’ parents drove her so crazy, she’d ended up in the hospital with panic attacks and had quit at the end of the year.

Without a word, he backed the car out of the garage. By the time he’d pulled onto the street, she couldn’t bear spinning scenarios anymore. She turned sideways in her seat. “What’s going on?”

“What?” Michael stopped at the light and glanced at her.

“With your brother.”

“Nothing.”

His features were set in hard planes. Had the question or the incident spawned his irritation? Since she didn’t have a lot invested in this relationship yet and it might be too hot for her to handle anyway, her need to know was more important than his delicate ego. “It didn’t look like nothing.”

“Trust me. It was nothing.” The light changed and he turned onto the main road.

“Really? Because I saw something and I’m still seeing something. Something really grumpy. I’ve never dated any of the seven dwarves before, so I might be wrong, but it really does look like Grumpy.”

He struggled to hold on to his stiff, annoyed expression for a few seconds before caving and grinning at her. “Grumpy?”

“Yes. So are you going to tell me what was going on or do I have to reference a few more kids’ movies?”

“My brother doesn’t think I should be seeing anyone local since I’m not going to be around long.”

Hands clutching steering wheel. No effort made to meet her eyes. Carefully chosen words. There was at least half a lie in there. Instinct demanded she run it down, but that could be another reason her first dates so rarely turned into second dates and those almost never turned into third dates. Michael was not nine and her natural suspicion needed to take a hike. “You’re going to need to go over a block. This street doesn’t have an exit onto the highway.”

Now he made an effort to meet her eyes. “You don’t care that I’m...not local?”

See, this was where she was growing as a person. That little hesitation should be driving her nuts, but it wasn’t. Or it was and she was ignoring it. Personal growth. “It’s a date not a courtship. Besides, I’m not sleeping with you.”

Michael turned onto a side street, but didn’t hit the gas. Instead, he let the car coast. A wise decision since he was staring at her. “You’re not?”

“No. Were you under the impression I would?”

The car drifted to the right, but he corrected it without looking. “I was still working on where we were going to eat lunch.”

“Anywhere’s fine with me. There isn’t a lot around the museum though and it’s going to take almost an hour to get there, so we should probably eat before we get out of town.” Maureen fixed her gaze out the windshield. He still stared at her with about the same expression he’d had when agreeing to go to the museum. He stopped the car at the end of the block without looking at the sign or the traffic. When he made no effort to pull out, she turned to him. “There’s a Subway about a block that way. If you’re in the mood for a burger, there’s a great local place called The Station, but it’s kinda out of the way.”

“I don’t mind out of the way.”

“Then go straight to the next stop sign and turn right. We have to go over the highway to the other side of town.”

* * * *

Bear squeezed Maureen’s hand and studied the artistically arranged bones. Definitely a dinosaur. He had to take them at their word that it came from China. That she’d wanted to go to a museum still warped his mind a little. A museum. He hadn’t been in one since he got out of school. More proof Maureen wasn’t your average, ordinary, everyday girl.