Carry Me Home (Paradise, Idaho) Page 9

  “An excellent idea.” The president beamed. “We’ll be setting up that working group right away, and we’ll be looking for members who can give us the view from the trenches, as it were. I hope I can count on you to be one of them, Dr. Santangelo. Zoe, if I may. And please, call me Frank.”

  “Yes,” Zoe stammered. “Of course. Frank.” She didn’t dare look at Cal. “I’d be happy to.”

  “I was thinking about the high school as well,” Cal went on. “Get the students thinking about it ahead of time, get them aware of the opportunities out there, open up those AP Physics, AP Calculus classes to more of them. Ruin the curve for the guys, of course, just like I’ll bet Dr. Santangelo did. Isn’t that so, Professor?”

  She couldn’t help smiling. “Could be.”

  Dr. Oppenheimer looked at Luke. “Can we count on your participation on the committee as well? That’s an excellent suggestion, too. A real partnership.”

  “Sure,” Luke said. “How about mentoring? I’d love to have some of the engineering students over there tutoring, helping out.”

  “Nothing like teaching it to help you learn it yourself,” Cal said. “Don’t you think, Dr. Santangelo?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I do.”

  “Yet another good idea,” Dr. Oppenheimer said, actually rubbing his hands together a little now. “I hope you’re going to sit in as well, Cal. I’d love to have you steering this.” And pumping more money into it, he didn’t need to say.

  “I’ll come when I can,” Cal said. “Until spring work starts, anyway. Share a few ideas I’ve got going in. But don’t worry, I’ve got no plans to run the show. Give the money and go away. The ideal donor profile.”

  “No, no.” The president laughed. “Not true at all. Look how much you’ve contributed right here.”

  “Uh-huh.” Cal grinned. “Well, I’ll try to keep the . . . contributions coming. Now, if you’ll excuse me, the professor here had a few more insights she wanted to share with me.”

  “Of course.” Another smile, another shake of hands all around, and Cal was shepherding Zoe across the room with a hand resting lightly on the small of her back, a hand she was aware of right through her jacket and blouse. Luke came along, too, although the little procession kept getting stopped along the way, because it seemed like Cal—and Luke, too—knew half the room.

  “Phew,” Cal said when they reached the foyer. He gestured at the cloakroom, looked at Zoe. “Got a ticket?”

  “I do.” Zoe pulled it from her pocket and handed it to him. “But wait a second,” she realized. “Maybe I didn’t want to leave.”

  “Oh.” He looked genuinely taken aback, then grinned. “Yep. There I go again. Disregarding your agency, that what that’s called, Luke?”

  “I think that’s the buzzword,” his brother said. “And yeah, I think that’s exactly what you just did. You want to go back inside, Zoe, talk to professors and have another fine beverage, you go right ahead. Just tell this arrogant SOB where he can shove his assumptions and head on back there.”

  “Well,” she conceded, “as it happens, I’m ready to leave. But I’d rather have said so myself.”

  “Got it,” Cal said. “See, Professor, I’m trainable.” He held up the ticket. “So . . . coat?”

  She was going to do it. She was going to walk out of this building with him. And with his brother, of course, who was an educator, just like her. She tried to tell herself that that was why she was doing it, and she knew she was lying.

  She made her decision. “Yes, please.”

  ZOE’S LIST

  The shock of cold that hit her as soon as they stepped outside the building brought her straight back to reality. No snow now, but it was freezing. Literally. She was never, ever going to get used to this.

  “That pumpkin of yours somewhere in the lot, princess?” Cal asked.

  “No,” she said, willing herself not to shiver. “My perfectly fine car is at my apartment. I walked to work.”

  “Huh,” he said. “I would’ve thought you’d have been driving, being so safety conscious and all, but hey. Happy to drive you home. Or wherever. Because I know how you love to hit that ditch.”

  He grinned, and she laughed. He always made her laugh, even when he was teasing her. It really wasn’t fair.

  She’d been surprised, too, actually, that she’d felt safe walking. But Paradise did feel safe, even after dark, when she was walking through the busy campus, up the wide sidewalks of Maple Street with its line of, yes, maples, past the comfortable, historic houses with their expansive yards. Not many fences, not many walls, just lawns and gardens and brightly lit windows, and even other people walking home.

  “Uh . . .” Luke was looking a little bemused. “Guys. It’s cold. You two planning on standing around in the parking lot bantering all night? If you are, I’m leaving. Or am I leaving anyway, because three’s a crowd? That’s what I can’t figure out. Because if you’re trying to make points here, bro, all I can say is, you need lessons. Now you’re ragging on her driving?”

  Zoe was laughing, because Cal had his mouth open and actually looked at a loss for once. “All right,” she told him. “It’s official. I like your brother.”

  “Leaving your fondness for my brother strictly out of it,” Cal said, “because he and I are going to be having a little talk later, I’m hungry, and I know you’re freezing your pretty little butt off. I propose that we get into my nice warm truck and go get a burger, and then plan out the rest of your night. I’ve got a couple ideas there, too.”

  “I bet,” she said. “Did I mention that I like your brother?”

  By now, she really was shivering. Her laptop and files were back in her office, but she could always come back for them tomorrow. One night off wasn’t so bad. Maybe.

  Cal sighed. “Come on,” he told Luke. “Chaperone duty. I’m buying you a burger.”

  “Uh-huh,” Luke said. “This is looking like a whole new development for you.”

  “What do you think, princess?” Cal asked. “Dinner at one of our fine establishments with two upstanding pillars of the community, or a ride back to that basement of yours for some Top Ramen that you eat standing up at the kitchen counter? Just guessing here.”

  Luke was shaking his head. “Maaaannn . . .”

  “It wouldn’t actually be Top Ramen.” Zoe tried to say it loftily, as difficult as that was through chattering teeth as the wind wrapped her in its chilly fingers. “But otherwise, you’re pretty close. Sure. Thanks. I’d like to have dinner.”

  Cal looked at Luke. “Never doubt the master’s methods. Whatever works.” He ignored her indignant gasp at that, led the way across the parking lot to his big black pickup, and opened the passenger side door for her. “You all right sliding your fine self over to sit by me,” he asked, “or are you going to make Luke snuggle up to me while you hug the door for eight blocks?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said, and tried to make it sound more definite than she felt.

  But when she was sitting between the brothers, Cal’s thigh much too close to hers, his broad shoulder actually touching her own, she wasn’t so sure. Especially when he reached for the gearshift lever, and his arm very nearly brushed her breast. He didn’t seem to notice, so she pretended she didn’t, either, even when he was twisted around to look over his shoulder, his forearm resting on the back of the seat directly beside her face. His proximity, the smell of him, something about fresh air and soap and man . . . they shouldn’t affect her like this, and she wasn’t going to show him that they did, or who knew what could happen?

  He must have felt her stiffen, because he reached to shift again, looked down at her, and smiled. “Just think of it as a little more dancing,” he told her. “A little more . . .”

  “What?” she asked. “Foreplay?”

  She heard the words come out of her mouth, slapped a hand ove
r it, and groaned. “Please tell me I didn’t just say that.”

  Cal was laughing, and so was Luke. “Yep,” Luke said with satisfaction. “Definitely a new development.”

  Cal drove the circle to the lot’s exit, pulled into the street, and began to turn left, toward town.

  The car was around the corner and on them in an instant, its headlights flashing through the dark. A university police cruiser, Zoe barely registered in the split-second of time she had to see it. No red-and-blue lights, no sirens. But traveling much too fast, barreling down the quiet street, swerving at the last second, sweeping past Cal’s front bumper with inches to spare. Only because he’d already hit the brakes. Hard.

  His arm shot out across her in the same moment, catching her even as her upper body hurtled forward. She let out a strangled whoof as her chest hit his arm and bounced off it, and she slammed against the seat again.

  She sat there, too stunned to say anything. Too stunned to move.

  “Damn,” Luke exclaimed from her other side. “What the hell was that about?”

  Cal didn’t answer. “You okay?” he demanded of Zoe.

  “Sh-sh-sure,” she managed. “I’m fine. Fine.”

  “Thinking Idaho’s not that safe a place to drive?” he asked. “Want to get on back to the freeways?”

  “The thought had occurred.” Her body was still trembling, her heart still beating too fast from the near miss, but she did her best not to show it.

  “All right,” Cal said. “We’ll shake it off, then. So much for the university’s finest keeping the streets safe. Onward. Burger Barn okay by you, Zoe? We’re a little light on French cuisine in Paradise.”

  “Of course,” she answered automatically. She felt a little steadier, her heart rate returning more or less to normal. “You’ve got quick reflexes. I would’ve hit him.”

  “Well, that was kind of the job for a while there,” Cal said. “Keep your eyes peeled and react fast. Get hit, get over it, make them pay later on. Comes in handy from time to time, even now.”

  “I should tell you,” Zoe told Cal fifteen minutes later. “I know what you did back there. And thank you.”

  They were sitting in the cozy leatherette booth inside a warm, bright space, painted yellow and cheerfully decorated with antique farm implements hanging on the walls. At least Zoe assumed they were farm implements.

  They were in the Burger Barn, in other words, with three more beers in front of them. Somehow, she was next to Cal again, with Luke facing them. Well, really, no somehow about it, because Cal had stood back to let her slide in first, and then had slid right in after her.

  “What?” Cal asked. “Catching you? I told you. Instinct.”

  “No.” Zoe traced the rim of her glass with a finger, then looked up at him again. “Making Dr. Oppenheimer put me on the committee. That’s going to be a high-visibility spot. It’s a real coup to get on it, especially for somebody as new as I am, who wouldn’t normally have had a hope at it. I know you know that, and I know that’s why you did it. I still don’t know why you did it, but . . . thank you.”

  Cal exchanged a look with his brother. “You don’t know why I did it?”

  “Some joke of your own, probably,” she said. “It all seems like it’s a joke to you, but I don’t believe it really is. People don’t give away that kind of money, not for something serious like that, for a joke. And you had good ideas about it, too. You’ve thought a lot about it, and I can tell you care. I can’t figure you out at all,” she admitted. “Maybe the part about me was just to tease me. I can’t tell.”

  “Maybe if you stick around,” Cal said, “you’ll start to get an idea why I want to tease you.”

  Her eyes flew to his face again. His smile started in the laugh lines around his eyes, extended down to that firm mouth. Slow, and sweet, and sure. She tore her gaze away at last and took a hasty sip of beer.

  “Is it hot in here?” Luke asked of nobody in particular. “Or is it just not me?”

  Their waitress bustled up with a tray, brown hair swinging in a ponytail that matched her brown uniform dress. “Double-bacon cheeseburger, cheeseburger, plain burger,” she announced, setting the plates down. She added the big paper-lined red plastic basket of skinny-cut fries to the center of the table. “Going to have to start watching that cholesterol pretty soon, Cal,” she added. “That’s a heart attack on a plate.”

  “Aw, thanks for your concern, Terri,” he said. “All my vital signs are real good so far. It’s all that healthy living.”

  She gave a ladylike snort. “Yeah. Well, you watch yourself. You grow a gut, and life around here just got a whole lot less beautiful.”

  “Where’s the love?” Luke complained. “It’s all about the prodigal son, huh? Here I am, beautifully single, eating right, looking good, a full head of hair, and all my own teeth. Fully employed, too. What am I, chopped liver?”

  “Nope,” Terri said. “Grade A prime cut, just like your big brother. But with that boy of mine coming home with two detentions last month, I’m scared to flirt with you.”

  “You can always flirt with me,” Luke said. “I’ll give up a lot for this job, but that’s one privilege I’m not about to lose.”

  She laughed. “You’re both a menace. Your mama ought to keep you on a leash. You all good on beer?”

  “Yeah,” Cal said. “I’m holding the professor here back. She tends to get a little frisky after more than a couple.”

  “Hi,” Zoe told the waitress ruefully. “Zoe Santangelo.”

  “Up at the university.” Terri nodded. “I heard you and Rochelle were over at the Cowboy Bar last week with Cal. Welcome.”

  Zoe was gaping again, but Terri had bustled off with her tray to the song of a furious couple of dings from the bell on the counter leading back to the kitchen.

  “I didn’t realize I was news,” she said.

  “Maybe not you so much,” Luke said. “But Cal’s news. Welcome to Paradise.”

  Cal didn’t seem to be listening. He had his eyes closed, was working on his first bite of double bacon cheeseburger. He opened them again with a sigh. “I swear, that’s what I missed most, all those years in the wilderness. All that tiny food in California and Seattle. Seems like it’s not gourmet unless you can put it in your mouth in two bites. I just decided on my number one criterion for dating a woman from now on. Must Eat Hamburgers. Not rabbit burgers, not salmon burgers, and definitely not portobello mushrooms pretending to be burgers. Just a great big, juicy, American, aneurysm-inducing slab of ground beef on a great big soft bun, with lettuce and tomatoes and even some onion, if both parties are prepared to brush their teeth afterwards. And for the record,” he told Zoe, “you’re doing real good, though you could put some cheese on there next time for full points.”

  “Full points?” she gasped. “Full points?”

  “Maybe we’d better hear Zoe’s dating criteria,” Luke said, after working his way through a couple bites of his own. “I have a feeling this could get interesting.”

  Cal waved his burger at Zoe. “The floor’s all yours, Professor.”

  “Okay.” She set her own burger down, wiped her hands on her napkin. “Item One.” She ticked it off on her index finger. “No jocks.”

  “Aw, shoot,” Cal said, not looking all that crestfallen. “Fortunately, as we know, I’m a farmer. But why don’t you like jocks? Got something against a man with a physique and a game plan?”

  “Well, yes,” she said. “I do. A bit.”

  Luke cleared his throat. “Moving on. Since Cal’s a farmer and all, hasn’t knocked himself out of the running.”

  “Item Two,” Zoe said, shaking it off. “Good sense of humor. Three—kind. A kind person. Four—intelligent. Five—can talk.”

  “So no mutes, then,” Cal said. “Or mimes. That’s a good one. I’m putting that on my list, too.”

&n
bsp; “You know what I mean,” she said. “Can have a conversation about . . . subjects.”

  “I’ve got subjects,” Cal protested.

  “You’ve got a subject, anyway. And all right, yes, you can talk. Boy, can you ever.” She took another sip of beer, and then another, because it was tasty.

  “And?” Cal prompted.

  “And what?”

  “That’s the list?”

  “Well, I don’t really have a list. I mean, I’m not looking. But if I were looking, that would be my list.”

  “So good-looking doesn’t matter,” he said dubiously. “Or at least looking good to you.”

  “I was going to say,” Luke said into his own beer. “Because, bro. Broken nose.”

  “No,” Zoe said determinedly. “Looks are overrated. Good smile, though. That matters.”

  “Good in bed?” Cal suggested.

  She choked a little on her beer. “That’s supposed to go on my list? How am I supposed to know?”

  “You don’t think you can know?” Cal asked. “By how he touches you, how he looks at you? By how you feel when he does?”

  “I think that can be deceptive,” she said, trying to ignore the tingle as he, yes, looked at her. At her mouth, specifically, as she ate another fry, licked the salt off her finger. She realized what she was doing, flushed, and reached for her napkin. She ate alone too much.

  “Deceptive, huh?” Cal said softly, still watching her. “How? I think it’s a pretty damn good test. How I feel when she looks at me. How I feel when I touch her, and when she touches me. How much I want it. How much I can feel her wanting it.”

  Everything in her was trying to lean into him, to respond to that. But she needed to answer this. She needed him to know. “Guys can lie, though,” she told him. “You know they can. They promise what they can’t deliver. Or worse, they promise, and then they just . . . hurt. Because they want to win, and that’s all. That’s why no jocks, because it’s just a game to them. It’s all about winning, and when you need everything to end in a win for you, that means you need the other person to lose. I don’t want to be the loser. I don’t want to be the tool for somebody else to get another win.”