“All I could smell was his vomit when he hurled in the backseat of my car,” she says, grimacing. “Thank you for cleaning it up…and for being the one to look after Ben.”
“No prob— Scratch that. Yeah, the Benny thing kind of sucked.” I stop at the light. “You want me to keep straight?”
“Yes. But we’re almost there. It’s the second lot on the right.”
I take in the area, knowing it’s mostly made up of rich old people, then look ahead. “Hold up. You’re at the senior center?”
“It’s not a senior center.”
“Don’t old people live in that place?”
Oh, lookee here. There’s that blush again. “They’re retired, but most are still quite active,” she says, sounding nervous.
“I don’t doubt it.” I remove my hat and scratch my head. “Saturday nights must be hard core. Bingo must get all crazy up in this bitch.”
Tess laughs out loud, but then covers her mouth and hurries to settle. “They do enjoy quieter activities, but that’s fine by me. With school and everything I have going on, living here helps keep me focused.”
I don’t believe her. Like I said, I could read faces even long before I was trained to do it. But it’s as if these words aren’t her own. I mean they are, she said them, but it’s more like she’s repeating something that was told to her.
Tess quiets upon catching my frown, and she doesn’t say anything more until we pull into the lot. “You can park anywhere there’s an opening,” she tells me.
“Okay.” I pull into a spot close to the building and cut the engine. “Here. Let me help you out.”
“No, it’s fine. Really.”
She throws open the door and loses her footing the moment her feet hit the asphalt. I run to the other side of the car to find her squinting in pain. This time she doesn’t fight me and lets me haul her up. “Shit. You okay?”
She holds tight to her side. “Yes. The maintenance staff is usually good about keeping the area clean, but I suppose with all the sleet that’s fallen, they need to put more salt down.”
I pull her closer to me. “You suppose? Hell, had it been one of your neighbors, EMS would be responding to a broken hip. Who do I need to talk to in order to get this taken care of?”
She pushes her disheveled hair away from her face and adjusts her glasses. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll phone the super and let him know what happened.” She smiles at my scowl. “Really, it’s okay,” she says quietly.
Her eyes latch on to mine, and something in her expression changes.
My frown fades. Damn, she’s smokin’. Perfect heart-shaped face with full pink lips and a set of long, thick lashes to go with those doe eyes. I watch her for a beat, much like she’s watching me. Any other time, with any other woman, and I’d be pulling her in for a long, lazy kiss.
But here I am, standing in full uniform, trying not to kiss the one woman I’m not supposed to touch.
Those full lips part like she’s surprised, and maybe something more. My cue to break eye contact. “Sorry,” I tell her. “Let’s get you inside. It’s colder than a yeti’s butt crack out here.”
“It is rather chilly,” she agrees slowly, clearly taken by my wit.
I offer her my arm. “Here. Hang tight until we get inside. I don’t want you landing on your ass again.”
“Um. Thank you.” She motions forward. “This way.”
We cross the lot, and she slips two more times, but I easily keep her from falling.
“Got anything going on tonight?”
“Like a date? No, I’m single.”
It’s not what I mean. But that doesn’t mean I’m not glad to hear it. I mutter a curse when I realize where my thoughts are headed. Stay on task, asshole. “So you’re just gonna watch TV or something?”
“I don’t watch TV.”
“You serious? That’s un-American.”