I wasn't freaked out by the near concussion. It was Will. Being that close to Will. He'd actually caught me and lifted me. In his arms. I inwardly sighed, desperate to hide my girly feelings from the others.
“Amanda,” Will asked, sounding worried. “Are you okay?”
“I'm fine.”
Grandma didn't look convinced. Christie watched me with too much interest. I tried to sell it with a smile, but Will winced, and I knew my smile had hit “pained” instead of “reassuring.”
Searching for a distraction, I sputtered, “What's for dinner?”
“Good question,” Grandma said. “I'm starving.”
Will, Grandma, and I turned to look at Christie. She bit her lip and avoided eye contact.
Yeah, she hadn't given it the first thought.
“Chinese takeout,” she finally said. “I'll call it in.”
“Yes,” Will said with a fist pump. “I was afraid Grandma would cook.”
Grandma raised her hand and smacked him on the back of the head.
“Ouch.” He rubbed his head. “You promised to stop that.”
“I pulled my punch,” she said. “You know that's how I honor Gibbs and DiNozzo.”
“You promised Mom.”
Grandma rolled her eyes.
I giggled.
Christie whipped her cell phone out of her pocket. “I should have let Nic be the family man and taken the driver job for myself.” She walked back to the fridge and pulled a menu from the top.
“We should behave,” Grandma cautioned. “We can't risk accidentally killing our suspects. She can't go undercover as the driver.”
“No way. Riding with her is like riding with Vin Diesel after four pots of coffee,” I answered. “And he's blindfolded.”
Grandma nodded. “And if he drops below one hundred miles per hour, the car is going to explode.”
“Exactly,” I agreed, beaming at Grandma.
“Should we demand some input on the Chinese food, or is it safe to let her order?” Will asked.
Uh oh.
Christie lowered the phone and hit a button as we turned her way. Too late.
“It's probably okay,” I said.
“Twenty minutes and dinner is served,” my aunt said walking over to the sofas.
“We realized we should have asked for input on the order. Did you order something that will set my tongue on fire?” Grandma didn't shy away from a challenge. Except for riding with Christie.
“Did you order my usual?” The mission was going to be all the excitement I needed. Culinary torment was not on my to-do list for tonight.
Christie reached out to tousle my hair. “I got your Beef and Broccoli and Will's General Tso's.” She turned to Grandma. “As for you and me, I ordered three different dishes that I've never heard of. We should be in for a treat!”
Will turned to his grandmother. “I don't care if they give you eel eyeballs and snail slime, you aren't getting any of mine.”
“Eel eyeballs?” I asked.
“Yeah. That would be gross.”
I raised a brow. “And eyeballs from, oh, anything else aren't gross?”
He grinned. “Eel eyeballs sounded grosser.”
“Because eels are creepy?” I smiled back at him.
“Oh, for heaven's sake,” Christie groaned. “I should have realized using both of you for this mission would subject me to endless flirting.”
Heat rose in my cheeks.
Will averted his gaze. Thanks for nothing Christie.
“Well, I don't know,” Grandma said. “I thought you and Nic were behaving fairly well thus far.”
“Wh-what?” Christie stammered. “Me and Nic?”
With a devilish twinkle in her eye, Grandma added, “If the kids don't mind the flirting, I can put up with it.”
“Nic and I do not flirt!” Christie had regained her balance. “We are partners. Nothing more.”
Thank you, Grandma, for saving us from Christie's teasing. I didn't want her to spook Will. I liked Will. I liked him too much.
“Whatever,” Grandma said.
Will cracked up, and I started laughing too. I'd almost stopped when I glanced at my aunt again. She had her hands on her hips and was giving Grandma an evil glare. “I should have ordered you some eyeballs,” she muttered.
Then she stomped off across the loft, and the three us of collapsed in another fit of laughter.
“This is going to be fun,” Grandma said putting an arm around each of us.
“There's nothing like Chinese takeout in NYC,” Christie said, laying back into the couch cushion and rubbing her tummy.
“I have no idea what this is,” Grandma said, grasping another bite with the wooden chop sticks, “but I like it.”
We'd had a contest to see who could manage eating with their chopsticks. Christie, of course, was a ringer, and she scarfed hers down as if she used the awkward utensils every day.
Luckily beef and broccoli came with big, easily grabbed bites. The rice, not so much.
Grandma held her bite in front of her mouth long enough for me to get a good look. What did Christie order? Ew.
Will had been watching her too, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the hunk of rice tumble off his chopsticks and onto his lap. I grinned.
He looked me over. “How are you eating yours, Amanda? I don't see any rice on your clothes.”
I figured that this was one of those important moments for us. I could tell the truth, or I could lie. I smirked at him while I made my decision.
“Seriously? How?”
With a shake of my head, I admitted the truth. “I haven't tried yet. I'm saving my rice for dessert.”
Will reached into his takeout container with his fingers and then tossed a sticky ball of rice at me.
Ignoring him, or pretending to, I searched my dinner for another bite of beef.
He threw another chunk. So now I had rice in my hair. I found the beef and ate it as if nothing were going on around me.
“They might actually pull off this brother-sister thing,” Christie said.
“If he were her brother, steam would be coming out of her ears by now. Instead, she likes the attention and she's trying not to grin.”
Darn Grandma and her uncanny ability to read me.
Will smiled and winked at me. Fine. I liked it.
“Well, crud,” Christie said. “You're right.” She sat up straight on the couch, suddenly alert. “You two are going to have to work on toning it down.”
“Toning what down?” I asked.
She gestured from me to Will and back. “This palpable attraction thing you two have.”
I was about to slink under the couch when I realized that she wasn't only calling me out for drooling over Will. She was also busting him for his attraction to me.
“We should get back to studying.” Will jumped up from his seat on the ottoman. “We were going to quiz each other on our covers for a while.”
“Right.” I popped up from the couch so fast the food container almost flew out of my hands. “We do. We are. We—”
“Need to get started.” Will reached out and took my food and then carried both containers to the kitchen island.
I scrambled after him.
“This conversation isn't over,” my aunt called after me.
“Hey, Bro,” I shouted in partial desperation. “I bet I know it better than you do.” When I reached him, I made a fist and socked him in the shoulder. Ouch!
“Ow! What the freak, Amanda,” he said, clutching his shoulder. “That hurt!”
Christie and Grandma apparently found it hilarious. I scowled at them. “Sorry. I misjudged.” Christie's threatened talk had triggered my flight or fight response. I thought I had chosen flight, but my body was keyed up for fight.
Will stared at me for a second. Then he turned and called to Christie, “Mom! Amanda hit me!”
I smiled at him. “Nice save.”
He winked at me. “Let's go study.”
<
br /> Chapter Five
Two hours later, Will raised his fist for me to bump. “We nailed it,” he said.
“We did.” I touched my fist to his. “Thank goodness. I am going nuts with all this sitting and reading.”
“Me too.” He pushed back from the kitchen table. “We've been slugs today.”
Will stood and stretched toward the ceiling.
“I wonder if we could take a walk, or go for a run?”
Grandma overheard me from her chair by the Christmas tree where she'd been working on her tablet. “That's not a good idea,” she said. “But you could try the gym downstairs.”
“There's a gym downstairs?” Will's face lit up at the news.
“I thought Christie would have mentioned it. It's open 24 hours for tenants. The code is 1-2-3.”
“I'll go change.” I couldn't wait to get some blood flowing. I ran up the steps to my room and changed into a pair of shorts, the cutest T-shirt I owned that wouldn't look out of place in a gym, and my cross trainers.
When I went downstairs, Will was wearing a pair of black shorts with white piping and a Chicago Bulls T-shirt.
“Nice shirt,” I said.
“Christie left it for me. I guess it's part of our cover.”
“I didn't get a shirt.” I looked around for Christie. “No fair.”
“You got a closet full of skirts and dresses,” Grandma said. “I helped pick them out.”
They knew skirts were not my thing. “So not fair.”
“Take that up with your aunt.”
“Where is she anyway?”
“She left. Met up with Nic for something.”
“C'mon, sis. Let's go work out.” Will held out his hand.
“No hand-holding,” Grandma said. “No family is that close.”
Will's hand dropped. I led the way out the door. Stupid cover story!
We took the weird hallway to the elevator, and exited at the ground floor.
The foyer was small compared to the rest of the building. “Do we go outside?” Will asked as we glanced around.
Since we didn't see any other options, we stepped out onto the sidewalk.
Goosebumps were immediate as the cold air hit my bare legs and arms. “We should have asked where it was.”
“I didn't notice it when we pulled up, so let's try this way.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Will started walking in the direction he'd indicated.
“Yeah, forget walking.” I broke into a run. “The faster, the better.”
Will caught up with me and we jogged along the side of the converted warehouse. We rounded the corner without any luck.
“Guess we're getting that run you wanted anyway,” Will said.
I motioned like I was going to smack him, and he sped up.
“I'm not letting you beat on me again,” he called over his shoulder.
“What's that, brother? You scared of a girl?”
Now he broke into a full-fledged sprint, and I had to concentrate not to trip over my feet. “You can run, Will, but you can't hide!”
Man, the boy could run.
I'd almost caught him when we approached the next corner. I was running so hard that I didn't have full control of my limbs. I felt like Phoebe running on Friends. I hoped I didn't look like Phoebe too, and if I did, that Will wouldn't turn around.
He was five feet from me when he disappeared around the corner. “Scared of a little girl, Will?” I taunted once more. I made the turn without falling and tearing the skin off my knees.
I momentarily lifted my eyes skyward in thanks and barely looked in front of me in time to see the figures ahead of us on the sidewalk. Will slowed up suddenly and I struggled to avoid losing my balance. I couldn't reduce my speed enough to avoid crashing, and I selfishly decided to slam into Will instead of the concrete in hopes that he could manage to save us both. “Will!”
Ooomf! I smacked into his hard back, propelling him forward and knocking the breath out of me. Next thing I knew, Will had landed on the ground on his hands and knees, and I was hurtling towards him. I was going to hit him again. I could either smash into him and flatten him into the ground or I could try to leapfrog over him and save his handsome face from certain doom.
I moved slightly to the right, sprung off the ground, swung my legs out to each side, and planted my hands on his back to propel myself the rest of the way over. I flew through the air toward the other people, having lost enough momentum to land in a low crouch, barely on my feet and run a few steps to a wobbly stop.
I turned to check on Will, relieved to see he was already climbing to his feet.
“Oh my God, Will! I'm so sorry. Are you okay?”
His face was unmarked, and his eyes were wide as he asked, “Did you just leapfrog over me?”
I was two seconds from leaping into his arms and begging his forgiveness for almost killing him when I heard the sound of clapping from behind me.
“That was unbelievable,” a deep voice said.
“Did you guys rehearse that?” another asked.
Oh no. We'd had an audience. With my luck, they were probably the teens we were supposed to be buddying up with.
Will put his hands on my shoulders and spun me around to see who had joined us. He immediately let his hands fall to his side.
There were three guys. All about our age. Oh crud.
“Seriously,” one repeated. “Twenty bucks says you can't do that again.”
I shook my head. “No. No way are we doing that again.”
They were dressed in jeans and each of them had a black leather jacket. One of the had a cigarette, and he took a drag from it as he studied me.
“You're the new kids in the building,” the tall one said. “Your grandmother mentioned you the other day.”
This was not how I wanted to meet our unwitting informants.
“I'm Will. This is my twin sister, Amanda.”
“I'm Ethan.” He nodded to his right. “This is Logan.”
“And I'm West,” the guy to his left said, his eyes sweeping over my body in a way that made me want a giant parka to cover up with. “You sure don't look like twins.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “We're fraternal twins. We aren't supposed to look alike. He's a boy, and I'm a girl.”
West grinned. “You're a girl all right.”
“Dude,” Will said, stepping in front of me. “Quit leering at my sister.”
Nicely done.
“Yeah, man,” Logan said punching him on the arm. “Cut that out.”
The third guy, Ethan, said, “You're supposed to be into Logan's sister, West. Not the new girl.”
I was happily going to let Logan's sister have this guy.
Now that my blood wasn't pumping as fast, the cold began to penetrate. I rubbed my hands over my arms.
“Were you guys out running?” Ethan asked.
“Not exactly,” Will answered. “We started out looking for the gym. Then we,” he glanced at me, “started arguing and ended up here.”
“The gym's down from the freight elevator. You do know where the freight elevator is, don't you?”
“Not really,” I admitted. “Can you guys show us?”
They turned around and we followed them to an entrance about halfway down the side of the building, on this side of a loading dock. We were directly across the building from the front entrance.
“The freight elevator is through here.” Ethan paused while West took a last puff off the cigarette and flicked it into the dark street. Then he pulled open the door, which I now saw had been propped open.
He pointed at the elevator, actually more of a cage, a remnant from the building's past as a warehouse perhaps. Then he motioned for us to follow, and walked down a narrow hall off to the left. I guess I was used to seeing hotel gyms because I was surprised to see a brick wall rather than a window revealing the gym. He hit the code on the door keypad and opened the heavy metal door. “Here it is.”
Will motioned for me to go first. Once I stepped inside, I saw the expected mirrors and free weights and the treadmills, bikes, and ellipticals. Two TVs hung on the wall. “Not bad,” Will said.
“It's okay,” Logan said with a shrug. “But if you want to have fun, you should come up to our place. We just beat level 14 of Seal Team 139.”
Will gave me a smug look. Yeah, he was good.
“You have to see the television his dad bought,” Ethan said.
“You play, Amanda?” West asked.
Seriously? “Not really.”
“You can hang out with my sisters if you want. They have friends over.” Logan scowled at his friend. “Keep you from getting groped by Mr. Toe-Cheese here.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn't want to blow our cover by taking this guy out, or worse, having Will beat him to a bloody pulp. Normally, I would have gone with the whole, I-have-a-boyfriend routine to keep a guy like this away. In this case, I needed to leave the boyfriend thing open in case I had a chance to get information from any of these guys.
Will tapped me on the wrist and gave me a look. I knew he was asking if I thought we should go. I didn't particularly want to spend time with West, but we didn't have a choice. We had to get a foot in the door and these guys were our in. “Sounds good,” I said. “We can work out tomorrow.”
That's how I found myself sitting with a group of girls who were wearing skirts and tights or at least jeans while I wore nothing but short shorts and a T-shirt. Uncomfortable. Way uncomfortable. “We were going to work out,” I said, tugging at the hem of my shirt.
“Yeah, that's what your brother said,” the girl in the glittery gold top said. I followed her gaze to find her checking out Will. Uh oh. I couldn't let the green-eyed monster screw up our assignment.
Logan's sister, Leah, hadn't been overly friendly. She had the long blonde, perfectly straight hair and big green eyes any model would envy. At least she hadn't started flirting with Will. She glanced over at the guys where they played their game on the biggest television I'd ever seen. There were two more guys waiting when we got up here. And Will had already fully assimilated, holding one of the controllers and somehow communicating in the secret language of boys.
Undercover with the Hottie (Investigating the Hottie) Page 4