was no avoiding it—she had to look at him, and the instant their eyes met, she was totally tongue-tied. He seemed to know every button to push and he pushed them liberally. But that was what womanizers did, right?
“You are evil,” she said.
“Nah, just irresistible.” He stood and held his hand out to give her a boost. “We’d better get back on the floor before someone misses us.”
Without thinking, she took his hand, realizing as he pulled her up how insanely stupid it had been. Though they bumped elbows and shoulders occasionally, other than a handshake when she met him, they had never deliberately touched each other. And while she didn’t actually see any sparks arcing between them as his hand wrapped around hers, boy did she feel them. And so did he.
“Interesting,” he said, with a slight arch of his brow. “Very interesting.”
That single word spoke volumes. But mostly it just told her that she was in big trouble.
Her arms loaded with bags of donated clothes, Clare trudged through the brisk February wind to her car in the staff lot. It had gotten so cold the puddles of rain from earlier that day had turned to patches of ice. All she wanted now was to go home, take a long hot shower, crawl into bed and forget today ever happened. Although mostly she just wanted to forget the part with Parker.
Janey had begun to show very slight signs of improvement over the course of the day, but she was nowhere close to being out of the woods. Fragile as she was, her condition could turn on a dime. Until they could figure out what was wrong, they were treating the symptoms, not the cause.
Clare left the night staff very strict instructions to contact her if Janey went into distress again. She wasn’t obligated to come in on her off hours, but this wasn’t about obligation. And hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
Shivering, Clare popped the trunk, dropped the bags inside and then unlocked her car with the key fob and slid onto the icy-cold seat. Shivering, she stuck the key into the ignition and turned...
Nothing happened.
“Are you kidding me?” she grumbled.
She tried again, and again, but the engine was dead.
She got out, pulling her collar up to shield her face from the icy wind. She popped the hood and looked at the engine for anything obvious, like a loose battery wire. She’d watched her brothers work on cars her entire childhood and she had learned a thing or two. Her car was almost fifteen years old and malfunctioned from regular wear and tear. She had been planning to look for a new one next month when the weather was better, but it looked as if she might have to do it sooner.
With her aunt away for a week she really had no one to pick her up. She would just have to call a tow truck and wait around. Hopefully it wouldn’t take long.
She dialed the garage and was informed that they would be there ASAP. Which meant no more than an hour.
“I’m supposed to wait in the freezing cold for an hour?”
“Just leave your keys in the glove box.”
Grumbling to herself, she hung up. Now she would have to call a cab to get home. But she would do it inside the hospital where it was warm.
She put her keys in the glove box and shut the door.
She was getting ready to close the hood when she heard a vehicle pull up behind her car. She knew before she even heard him call out to her who it was. Because that was the kind of day she was having.
“Looks like you could use some help, angel face.”
There he was, in his sporty import, grinning at her. She wanted to be exasperated but she couldn’t work up the will.
“Car’s dead. I called for a tow.”
“Need a lift?”
It sure beat waiting for a cab, though she knew she was asking for trouble. But she was exhausted and frustrated and she just wanted to get home. “If it’s no trouble.”
Oh, that smile. “Hop in.”
“Can I put something in your trunk?”
“Is it a dead body?”
She opened her trunk. “Well, not the whole thing.”
He grinned and popped his trunk. “In that case, absolutely.”
She tossed the bags inside, closed the trunk and climbed in the passenger’s side. The interior was soft black leather and her seat was toasty warm.
She took off her gloves and held her hands in front of the heat vent.
“Where to?”
She told him her address, and how to get there, but as he pulled out of the lot he went in the opposite direction. “Hey, genius, my house is the other way.”
“I know. But dinner is this way.”
She blinked. “Who said anything about dinner?”
“I just did. If I don’t eat something soon I’ll go into hypoglycemic shock.”
“You really think I’m going to fall for that?”
His grin said that she didn’t have a whole lot of choice.
Damn it. She should have known better than to get in his car. But she was too exhausted to argue. She let her head fall back against the seat rest.
“You can’t tell me that you’re not hungry. I know for a fact that you didn’t get to eat your lunch.”
Of course she was hungry. She was starving, but he was the last person she wanted to be seen with in a social setting. The way gossip traveled in the town of Royal, people would have them engaged by the end of the week.
“No offense, but I really prefer that we not be seen together outside of work.”
“So, not only do you not date coworkers, but you don’t dine with them either? Is that why you always eat lunch alone?”
“That’s not why I eat alone, and no, I have nothing against dining with coworkers. It’s just something I don’t do often.”
“So then having a meal with me shouldn’t be a big deal, right?”
She was pretty sure he already knew the answer to that question. And as he pulled into the parking lot of the Royal Diner, the number one worst place to go when trying to avoid the prying eyes of the town gossips, she found herself wishing that she’d called a cab instead.
“I can’t risk someone seeing us and getting the wrong idea.”
“We’re just two colleagues sharing a meal while you wait for a tow. Not to mention that I’d like to talk about Janey. Bounce a few ideas off of you. Think of it as an offsite work meeting.”
Well, if it was a work meeting...
“Just this one time,” she said. “And I mean that.”
He grinned, shut the engine off and said, “Let’s go.”
Since he was the type of guy who would insist on opening a car door for a woman, she hopped out before he could get the chance. And when he reached past her to open the diner door, she grabbed it first. She didn’t want anyone getting even the slightest impression that this was a date.
The hostess showed them to a booth near the back. It was after eight so most of the dinner rush had already cleared out. Which could only be a good thing. “What would you two like to drink?”
“Decaf coffee,” Clare said.
“Make that two,” Parker told her.
“Enjoy your meal,” the hostess said, laying