Rainier Drive (Cedar Cove #6)(52)

“I don’t even play chess,” Teri muttered.

“That makes you all the more attractive to him. Chess is his entire life. It’s all he knows. You’ve opened up a whole new world to him. Plus, you’re fun and sassy, and he doesn’t intimidate you like he does everyone else.”

Again and again Teri had examined her memories of that Saturday in Seattle, when she’d bullied her way in to see Bobby and cut his hair. She’d done crazy stuff before, but this was a new high—or maybe a new low. Even after analyzing the incident to death, Teri still couldn’t explain what had driven her to do it. Now she was paying the price and as with every other relationship in her life, the price was too high. She was falling in love with this geek and it wouldn’t work. Not in a million years.

“Anytime you want to talk,” Rachel said, standing up, “I’m available. Just remember the advice you gave me about Nate.”

Sharing her problems wasn’t something Teri did often. She was closer to Rachel than practically anyone, but talking about Bobby, even with the person she considered her best friend, was difficult.

“Thanks,” she said, dumping the rest of her fries in the garbage. Anyway, there was nothing more to say about Bobby, since she hadn’t heard from him in two days. Painful as it was, she’d made her point; he wouldn’t call her again.

Nevertheless, Teri was sitting by the phone that evening, just in case Bobby had a change of heart. At exactly seven, her doorbell rang. Irritated, she grabbed her portable phone and carried it to the door.

There, standing directly in front of her, holding a huge arrangement of bright red roses, was the ever-courteous James. The vase probably weighed more than he did. “Good evening, Miss Teri,” he intoned.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Would you mind opening the door a little wider so I can bring these in?” James asked breathlessly.

Teri unlatched the screen door but she wasn’t letting him inside her home. No way. “I’ll take them,” she insisted, placing the phone on her small hallway table. She accepted the display from him and instantly regretted it. The vase had to weigh a good fifty pounds. She lugged it over to the coffee table and set it down, sloshing water as she did. “How many roses are there?” she asked, utterly astonished.

“Six dozen.”

Teri groaned. They must’ve cost a fortune. Six dozen roses? No man had ever given her more than a single rose.

“I hope you like chocolates,” he said next. “I have ten pounds from the top six candy companies around the world. Bobby didn’t know if you had a preference, so he wanted all the bases covered.”

“Ten pounds of chocolate?” No man had ever bought her chocolate. Men generally knew not to give an overweight girlfriend candy.

“They’re in the car, along with the perfume.”

“Perfume?” Hands on her hips, Teri studied Bobby’s driver. “What’s this about?”

“Well, Miss Teri…” James removed his driver’s hat and exhaled. “Bobby asked a colleague what women like, and his friend said flowers, candy, perfume and sentimental cards.”

“Where’s Bobby?”

“In the car,” James told her. “I’m double-parked outside. Bobby’s in there signing the cards.”

“Cards?”

“The sentimental ones. He bought a dozen.”

Sure enough, the stretch limo was parked in a lot reserved for the occupants of the apartment complex. Several of her neighbors had stepped outside to gawk at it. Her neighborhood wasn’t accustomed to seeing cars that required uniformed drivers.

Teri marched past her neighbors and opened the passenger door. Without waiting for an invitation, she climbed inside. Yup, there was Bobby Polgar, pen in hand. Boxes of chocolates were stacked beside him, as well as a pile of sealed envelopes and a stack of expensive perfume boxes.

“Why are you here?” she asked, sitting across from him. She tried to sound stern, and yet she couldn’t deny her thrill of happiness.

“You asked me not to phone you again,” he answered, eyes widening behind the dark-rimmed glasses. “I didn’t call.”

“But—”

“I would’ve arrived two days ago but I was in the middle of a match.”

“Bobby.” He made it so difficult to be angry. “Why are you here?” she repeated, at a loss to understand this man.

He didn’t speak for a long time, and then he blurted out, “I need a haircut.”

“Anyone qualified to cut hair can do that. You didn’t have to fly halfway around the world for me to do it.”

“I didn’t want anyone else.”

“Why the roses and the chocolates—and everything else?” She gestured toward the perfume. According to James, Bobby had solicited advice on the gifts women preferred, and been given these generic suggestions. The real question was why he felt he needed to present her with gifts at all.

He shifted uncomfortably as he glanced around the vehicle. He seemed to look everywhere but at her. “I didn’t know what I’d done that you’d ask me not to phone. I liked talking to you. I looked forward to it.”

“I did, too,” she reluctantly confessed.

“You did?” He wrinkled his brow. “Then why did you make me stop?”