One-Off (29 page)

“It’s only a couple of blocks.”

“You’re not afraid to drive with a Brit in America, are you?”

“No.”

Her hand gestured to the open door. “Then get in.”

“It’s not necessary.”

“As much as you didn’t want me to walk to the car alone is how much I don’t want you walking back alone. Get in. I’ll drop you off. I might even slow down as we go by your house.”

I laughed and got in. I wouldn’t win and, for the first time with her, I didn’t care if I did.

Thirty-Eight

Everyone was clearing out of the auditorium by the time I got there. The disappointment of missing her lecture pricked at me. GWU wasn’t far from my office. I could have easily made it if the stupid daily news roundup show hadn’t had camera issues and a green screen blowout. By the time we moved them to the political talk show set and got everyone organized, the extra hour I’d set aside to make my way to campus at the end of the day vanished as did the next hour. I couldn’t remember feeling furious about my job before today. Sure, there were always days that were tougher than others, but today made me really angry. The moment one little thing went wrong, they came crying to me. When I was an EP, I would have solved the issue myself before going to the guy that had my job and asked him what we should do.

On stage, Ainsley was unplugging her laptop and chatting with two women. She had on those sexy-ass boots again, another professional skirt, and a blouse that was both professional and enticing. The folded hairstyle she’d worn to her last lecture was replaced by a ponytail tied back with a thick strip of leather. Her glasses tantalized anyone who wanted an unobstructed view of her incredible eyes. I could almost feel myself reaching to strip them from her face.

The women were chatting with Ainsley about a semester abroad one of them took. To Ireland, which they seemed to think Ainsley would want to hear about. Yeah, because Ireland and Scotland were the same thing. I held back the derisive sound rattling around in my brain. How would they feel if someone found out they were from the U.S. and started talking about a semester abroad taken in Canada? Ainsley caught my movement in the auditorium, did a double take, and broke into a smile.

“I missed it,” I admitted because I didn’t want to give her the wrong idea.

Her smile faltered a second before coming back. The two women, probably professors, turned to look at me and back to Ainsley.

“I’m Skye MacKinnon,” I said to them. They stepped down from the stage to shake my hand and introduce themselves. Yep, professors in the history department. They launched into a description of the trip the other woman had taken to London, again not Scotland, and I checked Ainsley’s expression. “Sounds amazing,” I cut them off and looked at my watch. “If we’re going to make that show, we’ve got about ten minutes to get to the car.”

Ainsley’s eyebrows rose for a split second before she nodded and slipped her laptop into a stylish bag. “We ran a little long.”

“We kept you over,” one of the professors said. “It’s just so nice to have a guest lecturer of your caliber.”

“It’s been my pleasure.” Ainsley shook both of their hands.

When they didn’t seem to want to stop talking, I stepped up and slipped Ainsley’s bag off her shoulder and onto mine. From years of experience giving the kiss-off to interview subjects at the end of shows, I’d learned that just making motions to leave was enough to get them to take the hint. My next move would be to place a guiding hand on the small of Ainsley’s back and gesture with my other, and the final move was always to start walking toward the exit. Eventually, people take the hint.

“Please keep in touch, Ainsley. As we said, our department chair would love to give you a spot for a whole semester. We lost our graduate European history professor to retirement this spring. It would be a real coup to have you in.”

My ears perked up and my heart started thumping. They were making the offer of a job, not just yammering about the lecture she’d given. Would she consider that? I knew she loved her university, but she’d lived in the States for four years already and this was a non-permanent way to revisit that. She could be close to her cousin. And me.

“I’ll give it some thought.” Ainsley used my trick of the guiding hand to get us moving.

Disappointment hit again. That was her kiss-off. They’d offered her a job and she wanted out of the room. Not that I expected her to alter her career path just to stay in town longer so that we could iron out exactly what was going on between us. And I was now convinced something was going on between us. It wasn’t just friendship, but she was leaving in two weeks. So what was it if we did anything? A fling? A way to get closure on an antagonistic relationship? I was pretty sure I wouldn’t gain closure by starting something even more meaningful.

“Ta, thanks for that.” Ainsley reached to pull her bag off my shoulder when we made it outside without the professor entourage.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get away to listen to the whole thing.”

She pursed her lips and tipped her head. “You’ve heard it before.”

“You promised a special section and I missed it. Colin and I will have to persuade you to come back for another some time.”

“I could do a whole lecture on the Isle of Skye.”

I felt a smile crawl across my face. There seemed to be a double meaning in that.

“The show you mentioned was a diversion, yeah?” She paused when I opened the passenger door for her. Her lips curled and her eyes glimmered before she got into the car.

I went around to slide into the driver’s seat. “I can find one if you want.”

“Not tonight. These lectures really take it out of me.”

“I have a stop to make if you don’t mind.”

“I didn’t have any other plans tonight. What did you have in mind?” She reached up to undo the leather strap holding her hair back. Her fingers spread through the tresses on each side, shaking it out to its full volume. I watched the motions as if hypnotized. Before she could catch me staring, I turned back to switch on the engine and pull into traffic.

“I was hoping to see your lecture then give you a ride home so you wouldn’t have to take the Metro. That’s about as far as I got. I’m not up for working on the wedding pictures tonight.”

“I’m with you on that.”

“Then we’ll make my stop and decide if we have the energy for anything else after that.”

She turned in her seat to face me as I drove. Her hand reached out and tapped my shoulder. “Did you have another knock in your day?”

I smiled and felt the start of warm tingles in my belly. She was beginning to read me well. “Two cameras and a green screen stopped working on one of the sets. We had to move the show to another set, which meant the set designers were working overtime to get the same design in place.”

“Seems like a lot of work for one show.” She didn’t even work in television and she could understand the logistics better than some of my seasoned colleagues.

“If it were up to me, they would have moved up to the other set without changing anything. Just explain it away. It’s only an hour program.”

Her brow crinkled. “Why wasn’t it up to you?”

“Because their executive producer is the network president’s son-in-law. He called Daddy to tell on me.”

Her mouth dropped as her hand came back to grip my arm. “How did that go?”

“He ordered me to replicate their set on the other one and chastised me for interrupting his vacation. Then he hung up and went back to diving with sharks.”

“Sharks?” She laughed in disbelief.

“That’s his idea of a vacation.”

“Americans.”

“Hey,” I mock protested and would have said more if I hadn’t spied a rare parking space. I needed all my concentration to parallel park.

Ainsley looked around and spotted Morgan’s shop. “You need flowers for someone at work again?”

“Nope.” I got out and opened the trunk to retrieve the gift bag. “Are you okay with kids?”

Her eyes rounded when she met me on the sidewalk. “In general or specifically?”

“Poppy’s four and a lot of energy, but her bedtime isn’t far off.”

“Morgan’s girl? Is it her birthday or something?”

“Just a quick drop in.” I checked to make sure she was walking with me and not planting herself by the car. It wasn’t an intended test, but I was happy to see Ainsley stepping into place beside me.

The doorway next to the shop had an intercom for the two units above the flower shop and the dress shop next door. Morgan buzzed us in and we climbed the steps to knock on her door.

“Auntie Skye!” Poppy screeched as she flew at me and jumped into my arms.

She was already in her favorite Olaf the Snowman jammies. She’d had a bath and her wheat blond hair felt a little damp as she snuggled against me. I squeezed her sides before starting to tickle her. She squirmed and pleaded with her mommy to help her.

“Welcome to the mad house, Ainsley,” Morgan said and shot a knowing glance at me. “This is my daughter, Poppy. Honey, say hello to Aunt Skye’s friend.”

“Hello,” she said shyly.

“What a pretty name ya have, Poppy. I like your cool sleepers, too.”

Poppy’s eyes bulged. She practically climbed up over my shoulder to get face to face with Ainsley. “Princess Merida?”

Morgan and I chuckled. I should have guessed she’d be enchanted with Ainsley’s accent.
Brave
was her favorite movie. Ainsley shot me a confused look.

“But you’re hair’s yellow not red. Are you in disguise?” Poppy asked her.

“Honey, Ainsley’s from the same place as Merida, but she’s not her,” Morgan said.

“Are you her sister? You have the same hair, not the same color, but it looks the same.”

I looked at Ainsley, who didn’t seem to know what to say. “I take it you haven’t seen
Brave
?”

“Afraid not.”

“You haven’t seen it?” Poppy screeched. “It’s the bestest movie ever. We have to watch it right now. Mommy, can we?”

“It’s almost your bedtime. Maybe some other time, sweetie.”

“But she has to see it. She could be Princess Merida’s sister and not know it.”

We laughed again. That was the great thing about coming here. Forget how horrible it was to get yelled at by the network president because his son-in-law didn’t get what he wanted. Forget that I missed hearing Ainsley’s lecture when I’d really wanted to. Five minutes with this ball of sunshine and things always looked brighter.

“You can show her your favorite scene, but that’s it, okay?”

Poppy scrambled down from my arms. “I will.” She grabbed Ainsley’s hand, completely abandoning her shyness around strangers.

“You want some coffee?” Morgan asked.

“Love some,” Ainsley said and I nodded.

Morgan’s eyes landed on the gift bag I was carrying and shook her head. She seemed to think that I spoiled her kid. Our compromise was a small dollar limit once a month max. “She hasn’t even noticed that. There’s still time to tuck it away before she does. A Merida sound-alike is gift enough.”

“This one’s for both of you.” I set it on the counter and went into the living room where Poppy already had the DVD out and was feeding it into the player. Her shelf had a lot of other movies, some more current than
Brave
, but she loved the tough character. Before that, she’d been into
Mulan
. No
Sleeping Beauty
for this girl, nothing but kickass chick movies. “Which scene do you want, doll?”

“I can do it.” Poppy took the remote from me and pressed a lot of wrong buttons until she found the right one and the scene began to play.

“My, my,” Ainsley breathed out her pleasure and turned to me. “She’s sublime.”

Poppy giggled, happy that Ainsley liked the scene. I laughed, recognizing that she wasn’t talking about the scene but the actress. I guess I should be glad it was an animated film or she might be drooling right now.

Morgan placed the coffee mugs on the table and stopped Poppy’s attempt to keep the film playing by pressing pause on the remote. “Another time, baby girl.”

“Did you like it? Don’t you think you look like her?” Poppy asked Ainsley.

“I did like it, and I do sound like her.” Not really, though. Ainsley’s accent wasn’t nearly as thick, but she was nice to play along with Poppy.

“Maybe you could come back and see the whole thing.”

Ainsley looked at me first before she checked with Morgan. “I’d love to.”

“Yippee!” Poppy bounced around in a circle. On the third twirl, her eyes landed on the gift bag and she came to a stop. “What’s that?”

“For you and your mom,” I said.

Morgan tsked in mock annoyance but helped her daughter bring the bag back to the living room as we settled on the couch. Poppy knelt on the floor and tore into the bag. She pulled out the package and ripped through the wrapping. Another squeal as she lifted first the pajama bottoms in all black with stars and clashing light sabers and then the shirt with Darth Vader’s helmet face on the front. We’d watched the original three movies on our last few babysitting gigs and she loved them. Not as much as
Brave
, but she enjoyed them because I liked them.

“Darth Vader jammies, Mommy.” She shoved them in her mom’s face and turned back to me. “Thank you, Auntie Skye!”

I winked at Morgan, knowing that her problem of getting her daughter out of the PJs she wanted to wear to wash them wouldn’t be an issue anymore. It wasn’t so much Olaf that she loved, it was that I’d given them to her and told her they looked cool.

“Now you’ve got another pair of cool jammies,” I told her when she flung her arms around my neck and tried to climb into my lap.

“I want to wear them.” She started pulling off her top before anyone could stop her.

“Hold on, baby girl.” Morgan stopped her little exhibitionist. “Let’s change in your room.” She scooped her up and grabbed the package, mouthing a thank you to me before taking her daughter for a quick change.

“She’s adorable,” Ainsley commented.

“She thinks you’re a real life version of a cartoon character.”

“That’s all right by me.” She glanced back at the paused scene. “My hair’s not that crazy, is it?”