“Is it Blake’s?”
“No, mine.”
“Well, what’s it doing in the back seat?”
“Um…” Long pause. “I didn’t realize it was missing from my purse.”
Not an answer, and Caroline went quiet. Blake thought sure Vi had shoved it into her bag after she’d fixed her hair. Not that he’d paid much attention. Blame that on the powerful kisses they’d traded. “How’d it get back there?” he asked, feigning ignorance.
“I have no idea,” Vi answered. He guessed she was blushing and was glad for the darkness hiding it.
“Can’t think of a good answer, is that it?” Grandpop said. “Don’t bother—us old people weren’t born yesterday. We’d know if you tried to feed us any bull. Here’s what I think—you pulled the brush from your purse and it dropped on the seat. You were in the back and I’m pretty sure Blake was there with you.” Grandpop stroked his chin as if in deep thought. “Now, what could you two have been doing in the back seat before you strolled into the restaurant?”
Blake was momentarily struck speechless. Vi, too, was silent. “Where did you come up with that idea?” he finally managed. He wasn’t about to explain about Vi’s bad case of nerves or the massage he’d given her to help, and for sure not going near those kisses that’d all but wiped his mind clean of anything else.
“Console in your way, was it?”
Damn, the man was sharp. He never missed anything. “Cut it out, Grandpop,” he warned.
“I knew it!” Gran chimed out in the silence. “Vi was flushed when you two came in. And a good ten minutes late, which she rarely is. And Blake, explaining that the color in her face was due to the cold. You’re a clever one, not so different from your grandfather.”
“Stop it, both of you,” Vi ordered in a no-nonsense tone.
Grandpop ignored her. “You kids didn’t waste any time, you pair of chips off the old block.” He cackled, then abruptly broke off and groaned. “It hurts when I laugh.”
The pair of chips off the blocks comment made no sense, and Blake slanted the man a curious frown. He wasn’t about to ask about it, though. Why give the man a chance to say more of what he didn’t want to hear?
They pulled into the parking lot of the 709, and the conversation turned to getting Malcom and Caroline out of thecar. Inside, they greeted the night staff person, who’d been briefed about the situation.
The four of them rode the elevator to the sixth floor. Blake helped Grandpop to his room, a slow process due to the pain, and Vi took care of Caroline. By the time he got Grandpop settled with water and aspirin tabs within reach and a button to notify the medical staff if he needed help, which, of course, the man stubbornly resisted, he was more than ready to take Vi home and crash.
As soon as she stepped into the lobby, they left.
Wornout after the traumatic events of the evening, Vi yawned as Blake pulled onto the highway and drove toward the townhouse. “This is a night I won’t soon forget.”
“You can say that about the entire day.”
By his quick glance at her mouth, she knew what he was referring to. “I nearly keeled over in embarrassment when Malcom talked about my brush being in the back seat. How did that lead to his figuring out exactly what we did?”
“I wasn’t happy about it, either, but it was pretty funny.” His lips twitched.
He had a point. “Looking back, I get that. Now, anyway.”
They shared a smile, and Blake went on. “Knowing him, he figured you’re a female, I’m a male, and we were alone together in the car. We wanted to fool around where we had more room.”
“That’s not why we were in the back.”
“He didn’t know that.”
“I wasn’t going to say I was desperate to calm down and you needed space to work on my neck and shoulders. To clear up any misunderstanding, I had no intention of kissing you more thanonce as a gesture of gratitude.” She doubted he would’ve kissed her in the first place if she hadn’t been so impulsive.
“You’re not attracted to me?” He sounded disappointed.
“Of course, I am. You’re a good kisser,”verygood, “but don’t let that go to your head. It doesn’t mean I expected us to go on the way we did.” She frowned at him. “You’re smiling again.”
“Because you’re attracted to me,” he said, gloating like he’d won a prize.
Men.“And that makes you happy? I have no idea why, when we both know the feeling isn’t mutual.”
