“Ha! By now they not only know your name but probably your Social Security number.”
Gemma laughed. “This town couldn’t be worse than a college campus. We know who’s researching what before the first book is opened.”
He was standing by the front door and looking out. To the left, under the deep roof overhang, were several little tables, and they were full of young mothers with their children. One of them was the woman whose baby both Colin and Gemma had held. “That sounds like a scary place,” he mumbled.
“And you look scared.”
“Terrified. They know I can change diapers.” Obviously, he wasn’t talking about the academic life.
“Give me your car keys.”
He looked at her. “What?”
“Give me your keys and I’ll drive to the back and pick you up.”
“My Jeep is a standard shift.”
“Gee whiz. With a clutch and everything? However will I manage?” She batted her lashes at him in mock helplessness.
Colin gave her a one-sided grin and handed her his keys. “See you in a minute.”
Gemma gave a nod, then sauntered out the front door. She could feel the eyes of the mothers on her, but she didn’t turn to look at them. When she reached Colin’s car, she quickly got inside and started it. The man her mother had hired to teach her to drive had insisted that she learn on a standard shift, and now she was glad of it.
The moment she put the Jeep in reverse, she knew that something had been done to the engine to escalate its power. Colin might say that he wasn’t involved with his family’s car dealerships, but he owned a vehicle that was far from being standard issue.
Gemma had a moment
of panic when she put the gearshift in first, let up on the clutch, and the car leaped ahead as though it were a cheetah taking off after prey. When she went around the corner of the grocery, even as slow as she was going, she was sure she was on only two wheels. She barely had the car under control when she saw Colin outside waiting for her. He was talking to two young men who were wearing aprons and unloading a pickup truck. She managed to bring the Jeep to a smooth stop, put it in park, then she slid to the passenger seat.
Colin got in beside her and put the food and drinks in the back. “Have any problems?”
“None at all,” she said, then they looked at each other and laughed.
“Does this thing take jet fuel?” she asked.
“See that red button?” He pointed to the cigarette lighter. “That makes the wheels retract and I start flying.”
“I can believe that. The brave sheriff jetting away to escape dirty diapers.”
Chuckling, he drove out of the parking lot and turned a corner that took them back to the square. “If we sit anywhere in this town to eat, it’ll be like it was at the grocery. In Edilean, I’m a fairly public person.”
“I feel a ‘but’ coming on,” she said.
“I have a secret. Like to see it?”
“Sure,” she said, but there was caution in her voice. She didn’t know him well enough to predict what kind of secrets he had.
“Last week I closed on a house, and no one in town knows I bought it, not even my family.”
Gemma let out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “An old house?” There was hope in her voice.
“No, sorry. New by Edilean standards. Built about 1946 or 7, and fairly recently completely remodeled.”
“Oh.” Her voice showed her disappointment.
“It looks a bit like a Frank Lloyd Wright.”
“Oh.” Gemma perked up.