“Oh, please!” She almost bounced on the cushion, her eyes wider than normal as she clasped her hands together. “I’m having a hard time seeing you be so goofy, and I need proof.”
“I’m goofy, sometimes.” I used to be, that was for sure. Hearing her say it was like a sledgehammer to my mind. When did I stop being goofy? Samantha? After or before her? It didn’t matter. I’d lost a part of myself, and if being an idiot in front of Nora Atwood helped me find myself again, I’d do it.
And it had nothing to do with how happy she looked or the fact I might make her smile. I stood, grabbed the remote like a microphone and made my voice high and whiney as I went to the window. “Good evening, this is Wet Willy on Channel 4, and I’m reporting on the incredible rainfall we have in Champaign.”
Nora covered her face with her hands, and my face heated like I’d shoved it in an oven, but I channeled my inner dorky self, the one with way too much confidence and nothing better to do than entertain my sister. “It’s raining buckets! Buckets, I say!”
I pressed one hand to the pretend earpiece and nodded. “Hope you’re not made of sugar because you will melt. Wet Willy has seen it happen before, I swear! You need a raincoat made of rubber so the water will bounce right off you! Can’t have someone as sweet as you dissolve from a little rain, no sirree.”
Nora cackled a full belly laugh, throwing her head back and releasing the most obnoxious sound in the world, like a goose and a car horn combined into one sound. That was her laugh. “Fritz. Oh shit. Oh shit.” Water came out of her nose, and she stood, covering her nose with a hand. Her eyes watered, and she still let out that awful honking laugh sound, and I smiled so much it hurt my face.
“The restroom’s right there if you need to clean up.” I pointed to the door, not at all checking out her ass when she ran in there. God, that was freeing. Hearing that horrible laugh, not taking myself too seriously, it felt good. More than good.
“Uh Fritz,” she said. “I didn’t bring the light.”
“You need that, huh? You need Wet Willy to bring it over there?”
She snorted like I’d wanted her to, and I brought the flashlight to the bathroom, sliding it inside for her just as the power kicked back on. The air conditioner started, the lights above the stove and cable box blinking at me, signaling the end of Nora being over here.
I sighed, the pang in my chest growing heavier. I couldn’t recall the last time I didn’t want the night to end like this. I turned the lights on and paced the living room until she came out.
“Yes!” she said, bursting out of the door with a huge smile on her face. “The power is on, Wet Willy. Can you believe it? The storm must have passed. The forecast says this is the last time it’s going to rain all year, but I drought it,” she teased.
My lips twitched, but I was too knotted up inside to fully appreciate her pun. If it’d been hard to keep my eyes off her in the dark, I was screwed with the lights on. So very screwed. Her thin shirt showed the outlines of her pebbled nipples, and her face was clear of any makeup and so pretty. Smooth skin, large eyes, long lashes. Full lips that got more distracting each day.
“Fritz,” she said, the smile leaving her face, and she frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”Get it together, asshole.“Maybe just a bit embarrassed you saw Wet Willy’s return after fifteen years.”
“I’m glad I was here for it. He’s a swell guy.” She smiled again and chewed on the side of her lip as she placed one foot on top of the other, making her look a bit like a flamingo. “I’ll get out of your hair. Thanks for letting me stay.”
“Of course.”
She walked up to me, and I froze, my gut tense.
I waited for her to reach out and touch me, but she never did. She gave me a shy smile, the same one I had seen her give Dave. My growing erection was becoming a problem.
“Keep the flashlight,” I snapped, hating how my control dissolved around her.
She narrowed her eyes, and she hit the flashlight on her chest twice as she walked by me. “Thank you. I’ll get my own and get this back to you.”
“No rush. I have a few. I need them for camping.”
“Camping?” she said, her eyes going wide as she turned to face me again. “Oh. You camp?”
“Yes.”
Mental images of her in a tent, asking what a fire pit was for, and trying to sleep in a sleeping bag made me cackle. God, that would be a trip. She clicked her tongue, and fierce determination came over her face.
“Camping.”
“It’s this thing where you sleep outside in tents. Hike, swim, eat s’mores. You’d—” I took a shaky breath. “It’s not your thing, Doc. I swear.”
She let out a deep sigh, like she, too, was trying to find ways to delay her leaving my place. Once she got to the door, she tapped on the frame with her pointer finger before giving me one last look. A million questions swirled behind her dark-brown eyes, but she didn’t ask a single one.
Her floral scent lingered in the air even after she’d shut the door behind her.
I had no idea what to do with my attraction to her, but at least she wasn’t spending the night with Dave. But in two nights from now, after their second date, she might be. Unless I doubled with them like she’d suggested.
