Love Handles (Oakland Hills #1)(43)

“And sleeping here will prove this?”

“At least I won’t have to worry,” he said. “You didn’t have the sense to go get a hotel room, and though I sympathize about not going over to my mother’s, I am related to the woman and have to obey her on occasion or I don’t get my favorite dessert on my birthday.”

“You don’t have to stay. I know you’re not the one trying to keep me out of the house.”

“Ah, but you weren’t so sure earlier. Part of you has some doubt. I should let you think I’m capable of such a thing, but I have my chivalrous side and can’t bear the thought that you think I might do you harm. I guess I’m old-fashioned.”

Bev was quite sure he could do her harm just by sitting there looking like that. He had a frayed hole over one knee, and she imagined touching the bare skin underneath. “If I thought you might hurt me, I wouldn’t let you sleep right down the hall from me.”

“Good. Then we’re on the same page.” He yawned, not seeming to notice her staring. “One reason I was such a strong competitor was that I always found the shortest distance between two points. Efficiency. Adjust my stroke, shave my hair, wear the new suit—whatever worked. To hell with convention or expectation or pride.” He slid down onto his back and cupped the back of his head with his hands, exposing a sliver of bare abdomen above the jeans and a tantalizing peek of green underwear. Boxers. With white stripes. “Me sleeping on your couch is the most efficient solution to our dilemma.”

She frowned. He could not sleep here. “No dilemma. I’ll go to a motel.” She turned to walk away.

“Too late now,” he called after her. “I need you to give me a ride to BART in the morning.”

She stopped. Turned around. “Where’s your car?”

“My sister took it. Just a few minutes ago.”

“I’ll give you a ride now. BART runs late, right?”

He closed his eyes and sank lower onto his back. “No.”

“No?”

“You don’t mean it, anyway, or you’d be gone already. You’re glad I’m here. You don’t want to pay for a motel. You don’t want to be at my mother’s.” Then he peeked up at her out of one eye. “And you don’t want to be alone.”





Chapter 10

The way he looked and spoke like he saw right through her made her stomach hurt. “And I don’t want to be with you.”

“Sure you do,” he said. “Now you can turn off a few lights. Save the East Bay grid a few megawatts.”

“I was just about to do that before you barged in.”

“Liar. Nice girls don’t lie so much.”

Her body flooded with heat. “You come in here babbling about efficiency, and now you’re calling me names—”

“Don’t get upset. Upper-level managers need to control their tempers. Your aunt had such a problem with that. But then again, you two have so much in common.”

She pointed a finger at him. “I am not upset. I am calmly instructing you to get your ass off my sofa and get the hell out of my house.”

His grin widened, and she chided herself for falling into his trap. “You talk like that in the preschool, Bev?” He had wriggled deeper into the couch and showed no sign of getting up. All those muscles would make him too heavy to lift.

“There’s nothing efficient about you being here,” she said. “It is, in fact, a waste of your time.”

“No, actually, it is not, or believe me, I would be happily snoozing in my own bed instead of having to lie here thinking about my promiscuous, parasitic sister taking advantage of my clean sheets.” He rolled to the side, pulled up his knees, and tugged a corner of the sleeping bag over his shoulder. “If I hadn’t promised my mother I’d sleep on your couch tonight, she would have insisted on being here herself until you were forced to go back to her house and meet my brother, who, incidentally, is lonely.”

“Lonely?” The way he had said it, and the unfocused look in his eye, suggested he was not entirely sober. “Unlike you?”

He laughed, not a cynical nasty laugh, but big and relaxed. “Very unlike. He might even be a—” he stopped himself and closed his eyes. “Never mind. But trust me. Not alike.”

“And meeting him would have been inefficient? How?”

“Women make him nervous. If my mother took you in, he’d probably end up sleeping at my place. As if I want more company. This way, I suffer for one night and Mark can continue his studies at Mom U.”

“Mom U—?”

“Any chance you have something figured out for tomorrow night?” He kicked at the sleeping bag and flipped onto his back. “Because this couch sucks.”

“Good. I don’t want you tempted to stay.”

“I so know what you mean. I should buy it off you for my place. Maybe my sister will get the hint.”

Bev stared at him, his eyes closed and his long legs draped over the cushions, and consoled herself that Kate would be driving up the next day. Turning off a few lights would be good. If bad guys broke in, they’d go for him first. She’d leave the lights on near the sofa to make sure they’d see him there.

“All right then,” she said, finally relaxing enough to yawn. Her nerves had been frayed all week, and the shock of the break-in had charred her dwindling composure. Having him there did make her feel better. She walked over to retrieve the remains of her ham sandwich on the coffee table. “I guess I’ll see you in the morning.”