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“Whatever.”
“Idolike you.”
Surprised silence for an instant before she muttered another, “Whatever.”
But this time, there was a smile in her voice. Okay, not exactly a smile, but…less of a frown.
His shoulders relaxed. Even though she was irritating, he’d always felt at ease with her. Aside from being a no-bullshit straight-shooter, Rory was one of the few women who hadn’t hit on him over the years or, worse, tried to finagle something from him. She didn’t want anything…except to see him get rid of his singing fish, which was probably one of the reasons he kept the piscine warbler around.
He started toward the coastal highway leading north. He’d called his mother to tell her he was bringing a date to the wedding, and her response on his answering machine had been predictably delighted.I cannot wait to meet her!
If his mother hadn’t been preparing to ambush him with a barrage of eligible women, he might have felt guilty about lying to her. But with Rory as his buffer, he’d not only keep his mother happy, he might even enjoy himself.
He breathed in her smell, something like coconut and bananas. Last night, her scent had been masked by the aromas of cooking. He hadn’t expected the sun-averse Rory to smell warm and tropical.
Then paper crinkled, and the odor of processed beans assaulted his nose. He shot her a narrow look as she slathered the soggy burrito with packaged sour cream and crammed a bite into her mouth.
Grant shifted, tightening his grip on the wheel. The “food” was disgusting, but just a glimpse of Rory eating caused heat to collect in his lower body. It was so damned sexy the way she licked her tapered fingers, made little chewing noises, and darted her tongue out to catch a smear of sauce on her lip. She was making him hungry in more ways than one.
“Want some?” She waved the burrito under his nose.
“No, thanks.”
“You know, food snobbery is kind of elitist.” She pursed her lips around the straw of her drink.
“I’m not a food snob. I just want people to eatgoodfood. Trust me, I can make a burrito that will turn you off of all other burritos. Especially fast-food ones.”
“Oh, sounds like another challenge.” She popped the last of the burrito into her mouth and unwrapped the enchilada. “Though I don’t really like the idea of being turned off.”
He chuckled. “In this case, I’d recommend it.”
“Okay, so prove it the next time we’re in the kitchen.” She took a bite of the enchilada and spoke around the mouthful. “But I’m actually quite nondiscriminatory when it comes to Mexican food. Or any food, really.”
“After you eat more of my food, you’ll develop some actual taste.” He slanted her a glance. A smear of sour cream decorated her cheek. “That’s the second challenge for me. When do you get one?”
“Isn’t pretending to be your girlfriend a challenge?”
“It’s an agreement. Giving up your cell phone would be achallenge.”
She laughed and sucked up more cherry coke. “I’m not giving up my cell phone.”
“What do you think would happen if you did?”
“Nothing wouldhappen.” She crumpled up the enchilada wrapper and stuffed it into the bag. “I just need my phone.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a woman who lives in the twenty-first century. And if you have such issues with my phone, you should’ve asked Madeline Fox to go to the wedding with you.”
“Third time you’ve mentioned Madeline.”
“So?” Irritation edged her voice.
He shrugged. “You still sound jealous.”
“Well, I’m not. I know what you’re doing. You asked me because your parents will be somewhat mollified by the fact that you brought a computer geek home. Even though I’m not in the rightsocial sphere, I work in the right industry and know about things like algorithms and mainframe databases. You’ve probably never brought home a girl like me before, but your parents will approve, right?”
Grant didn’t know what to say. Of course she could talk shop with his father and most of the other wedding guests, but he hadn’t asked herbecauseshe was a computer geek.
