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Silence stretched between them again. Nestling back into the seat, he watched the activity on the street. Meredith wiggled around another moment and finally settled in. Two minutes passed.
“My God, this is boring. Do you do this often?” she finally asked.
He shrugged. “This is nothing. Try lying undetected on your belly for sixteen hours in scorching hundred-plus temperatures while waiting for insurgents to leave a safe house. This is like a day poolside in Key West.”
Another minute passed before she spoke again. “I almost forgot. I had a visit from my neighbor earlier.” She briefly relayed what the woman told her about the neighborhood stalker. “Do you think it’s possible this guy could be the one Bryce saw with Darcy? And if so, why was he watching my house?”
That’s what he’d like to know.
He really wanted to get his hands on that Matt kid. He had to be the key.
Meredith wiggled around on the seat again, and he willed himself not to glance at those full breasts that bounced with every motion. Imagine their fullness in his palms, teasing them with his mouth.
Oh, Shit.
The last thing he needed in his life was fantasies about hot and torrid sex with the queen bee herself.
Hadn’t he learned anything since high school?
…
If Meredith needed a cure for insomnia, sitting in a car in temperatures in the upper eighties without air-conditioning with nothing to do but stare out the window as people passed by was just the ticket.
Sometime after the first hour she nodded off, dreaming that she and Darcy were in Allie’s English class. Travis was there, too, sitting in the back wearing that damn tight T-shirt.
Meredith heard the mean words coming out of her mouth but couldn’t stop them. Something about Darcy’s hair smelling like something died in it and how she needed to take a shower every once in a while, which earned everyone’s laughter. Save for Allie’s. And Travis’s. He’d shaken his head. Disappointment sketched across his face.
A sharp barking sound came from his lips, filling the classroom. Had he just snored? He did it again but…
Wait.
She bolted upright suddenly, looking around. Humiliation and horror flooded through her.
Maybe it was just the dream.
She wiped the side of her mouth for drool—clean—and hazarded a glance at Travis.
“Don’t worry. You didn’t set off any car alarms. But you may want to undertake one of those sleep studies. There’s surgery for that.”
Just when she didn’t think she could be more mortified, he finally looked over and held her gaze. Then smiled. Wide. Revealing actual teeth. She slugged him. This time he chortled.
“Must have been some dream. You kept saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ through most of it.”
She didn’t say a word. She couldn’t. “Just a dumb dream.”
“It’s nearly two a.m. I don’t think anything’s gonna happen. I’ll take you back home so you can try to catch some real sleep.”
“No, thanks. I brought my car.”
The incredulous look on his face gave her her first feeling of unease at her choice. “You left your car—your Mercedes—somewhere in this neighborhood?”
“It has an alarm and state-of-the-art theft protection.”
“Well, unless it’s the Batmobile and that theft protection includes a bulletproof armor, then I think there might be a problem.” Leaning forward, he twisted the key in the ignition and pulled away from the curb. “Show me where you left it.”
Five minutes later, they were back where they started. Sure enough, her car was gone. Not even a piece of glass from a broken window as proof she’d parked there.
“You want to call the police?”
