Blind Date Disasters & Eat Your Heart Out Read online

  “Let’s skip all the crap,” he suggested. “And get right to the part where you express your gratitude for my rescue.”

  She pushed his hand away from her mouth. Her lips tingled at the loss of his touch. “I most definitely do not need rescuing.”

  “Really? You’re going to walk home then?”

  She studied the sky with great intensity, hoping he’d just vanish because it was easier than swallowing pride.

  “Have it your way,” he said after a moment. “See you back at the lake. Whenever you get there. Did I mention it was twenty-two miles from here to there?” With that, he turned on his heel and started walking away.

  “Wait!” she cried, then watched him stop and slowly turn to face her. “Okay, I need a ride to Truckee. But not a rescue. Let’s be clear on that.”

  Leaning against his truck, he crossed his arms. “Oh, you’ll have to do much better.”

  “Or what? You’ll leave me out here? I don’t think so.”

  A blast of wind hit her, raising the skirt on her dress. Before she managed to shove it down, a passing truck honked in appreciation. “Oh, sure, now people notice me standing here,” she fumed, trying to keep her dress down and her hair out of her face at the same time.

  “Maybe he could give you a ride,” Tanner said, unmoved.

  “A ride from you will do,” she said between her teeth.

  He didn’t move.

  “What are we waiting for?”

  He just stood there.

  “Tanner!”

  “I was hoping you could ask me nicely. Maybe even lift your thumb and smile hopefully, like you did for that other guy before I pulled over.”

  She gaped at him.

  His smile went positively wicked, making her stomach leap. “And if you wanted to wait for another breeze to lift your skirt again and show off those pretty pink panties you’re wearing, I wouldn’t mind one little bit.”

  “You’re sick,” she declared, storming around the side of his truck, slamming the door after she plopped into the passenger seat. “Really sick.”

  “Just a thought.” He started the truck and took a quick look at her. Better. She had some color in her cheeks and she didn’t look close to tears anymore. In fact, she looked downright furious.

  She wouldn’t thank him for that, but he was relieved. If she’d broken down and cried, he wouldn’t have known what to do. Tears always baffled him, especially when he was the only one around to soothe them.

  Not that holding her against his chest, running his hands up and down her slim back would have been a hardship. But he’d gotten quite the view of what she had beneath that skirt. Hips that begged for his hands to grip them. Creamy thighs meant for openmouthed kisses. And what those pink panties covered made his mouth water.

  Holding her now would be a definite mistake. It would take her about one second to realize he had more in mind than mere comfort.

  “Who’s Dimi?” he asked.

  “My…sister.”

  “You don’t seem too certain.”

  She let out a tight smile. “She is. She’s just…a lot like me,” she finished lamely. “I don’t like to talk about it.”

  Big surprise. “Did you really have seven stepmothers?”

  She turned on him, horrified. “You listened to the entire conversation?”

  “Your entire conversation with yourself, yes, I listened. Which is why I’m here right now.”

  “Oh.” She sat back. “Yeah.”

  “So…do you?”

  “Have seven stepmothers? No. I don’t think Brandy, Lulu or Cherry qualify as stepmothers, as they’re the same age as I am.”

  “And have bigger boobs.”

  She ignored that. “My dad lives in Europe, so I didn’t see much of them, anyway.”

  He glanced at her and saw past the little smile that was supposed to assure him she didn’t care. He saw a woman who’d probably never had half the love and support from her father that he’d had. He wondered where he’d be without it, and figured maybe he’d be far worse off than having gone out on a stupid blind date. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t you dare feel sorry for me,” she growled. “I’m sure lots of people had pole-dancing stepmothers, and fathers who forgot their birthdays and mothers who set them up with dates from hell who ditch them in a broken-down car for the night.”

  “Cami—”

  “Say one more word and I’ll slug you.”

  The silence grew, except for the loud, pulsing rock on his radio. When the song ended, a commercial for one of the big phone companies came on. A soft, warm voice told everyone if they were under eighteen and wanted to call home, they could call collect. Free. They could mend fences, speak to a loved one, get help without cash.

  The ad was purposely designed to tug at the heartstrings, to let everyone know how much this phone company cared to offer such a service. It was a bunch of baloney, in Tanner’s humble opinion, because the only the thing they really cared about was their bottom line.

  And yet from the passenger seat came a suspicious sniff.

  Accusingly he turned his head and found to his horror that her eyes had filled.

  “Oh, no,” he said.

  “Shut up.”

  “It was just a commercial!”

  “I know.” She sniffed again, swiped at her cheek and glared at him. “Don’t you say a darn word. I’m just hungry and cold and…and I have to go to the bathroom!” With that, she burst into tears.

  “Dammit!” He pulled over to the side of the road and stared at her. “I don’t have any tissues.”

  She used the shirt he’d given her, his shirt, wiping both her eyes and her nose. “Just dr—drive.”

  Oh, sure. Just drive. He could no more do that than shoot off his own foot. “Come here,” he said, resigned, and unhooking her seat belt, he pulled her against him.

  She was as warm and soft as he’d feared. More. “I’m sorry about last night,” he murmured into her hair, which tickled his nose. “If I’d have known sooner, I would have been there.” To avoid hair up his nose, he shifted so they were cheek to cheek and tried not to notice how wonderful she smelled. “I can’t believe he left you by yourself.” He knew exactly what could have happened to her, and it turned his blood cold. “I think we should look good old Ted up so I can slug him.”

  He felt her watery smile. She burrowed closer, and his hands tightened on her back as he ordered them to stay still. What they really wanted was to do some roaming. Serious roaming.

  “I’m not crying because of him.”

  Whoa. Having her talk against his skin, having her lips slide over his flesh… Not good. “Um, Cami?”

  “And I’m not crying because I had to sleep in his car,” she said, winding her arms around his neck and pressing closer to his body. “Which is really uncomfortable, by the way.”

  She was nearly in his lap, but she was still shivering, so he didn’t have the heart to push her away. He suffered from the biggest erection he’d ever had in utter horny silence.

  Then she lifted her huge, wet eyes to his. “It was the commercial,” she admitted. “Those long-distance commercials always make me cry.”

  Her mouth was a fraction of an inch from his, and he found himself leaning toward it until what she said sunk in. Long-distance commercials made her cry.

  She rescued spiders.

  She wanted everyone around her to be happy, to the point of risking her own neck on a stupid blind date. She was sweet, whimsical and funny.

  And she was his biggest nightmare, because not only was his body clearly attracted to her, she would be higher maintenance than any woman he’d ever met.

  And any woman he’d ever met had complained about his maintenance habits.

  6

  CAMI TRIED to forget what happened.

  Denny’s. Being ditched by Ted. Then rescued by Tanner. How she’d mortified herself afterward by crying all over him.

  And she might have managed, if she could have jus