Page 34 of Flirting in Traffic

“What do you mean?” Esa asked.

Carla nodded pointedly. “Here comes your stranger.”

Esa looked in time to see Finn vault over the concrete barrier at the side of the road with athletic ease. He wasn’t going to—

He was.

She stared in wide-eyed disbelief as he walked straight into four lanes of traffic, his eyes fastened directly on her.

Chapter Eleven

Finn glanced at the now rumpled issue of Metro Sexy magazine that lay on his paper-stacked desk. It held no answers for him so he wasn’t sure why he kept staring at it.

Work had kept him mind-numbingly busy all week. Now that the air was cooling outside the truth could no longer be denied by Jess or the rest of his crew that winter was coming, making the deadline loom large for their claim on the hefty bonuses Finn had offered for bringing the project in on time. He’d gotten home near midnight every night this week, but they’d managed to finish a long, satisfying stretch of road northbound into the city.

He’d been so busy that he hadn’t had much of an opportunity to think about Esa or her second abrupt departure from his condo.

Or maybe he’d kept himself so busy so that he wouldn’t take the chance to stew on the matter. The realization that her dramatic exit last Sunday had bugged him even more than Julia’s equally dramatic entrance left him unsettled, to say the least.

Despite his weariness, thoughts of Esa would creep into his awareness in the wee hours of the morning. He’d think of that calm yet exultant expression on her beautiful face as she sped down Lake Shore Drive at dawn. It seemed that his body had been programmed to become aroused every time he merely glanced at his whirlpool tub and thought of Esa there, whimpering in pleasure as an orgasm shuddered through her body.

He’d tried to contact her. One time he’d even been desperate enough to call the number for the corporate offices provided in the small print on a glossy page of Metro Sexy. But that had been as useless as calling the numbers Caleb had provided him via the Department of Motor Vehicles. A perky receptionist had explained that Kitten Ormond was out of town on business this week, and would he like her voicemail?

Finn had said no. He’d had enough of Esa’s seven-word recorded requests to leave a message and she’d get back. She hadn’t got back. Not once. He’d left two messages for Esa on Sunday—one on her cell and one on her home phone. Just a half hour ago he’d stifled his pride with extreme effort and made a third call, saying that he’d like to see her tonight so that he could explain face-to-face about what had happened with Julia in his condo.

He doubted anything good could come from chasing after Esa Ormond when she obviously had decided she’d gotten everything from him that she required. Maybe he possessed some kind of inherent deficiency, something that made him lust after women who belonged to organizations like the Junior League or the City Club and considered where you attended school to be more important than what you were made of.

Not that he thought Esa was like Julia. Not really. Problem was, his confidence in his ability to judge a person’s character had taken a brutal blow after Julia had walked out on him. How could anyone really know another person’s true personality until a crisis occurred, something like his father’s unexpected death?

Esa confused the hell out of him. He’d read the column she wrote for her magazine. Although he could give a rat’s ass about social and celebrity gossip, he had to admit her intelligence and wit came through loud and clear in her writing.

Still, there was something strange about reading her words, as though they didn’t quite fit the woman who he’d come to know over the weekend. Close…but not quite, as though he tried to focus on Esa through a pair of somebody else’s glasses.

He tossed down the magazine in a burst of irritation. Come to think of it, that pretty much described his entire experience with that annoying, prickly…incredibly sexy woman. Maybe part of his attraction was associated with the fact that it was clear as bold print that she was holding back from him. As opposed to his experience with Julia, where he’d thought he’d known her as well as he knew himself.

And in reality knew jack shit.

His head came up when the trailer door swung open.

“Hi,” he greeted his sister Mary Kate. “You leaving?”

Mary Kate took off her hardhat, allowing a thick blonde braid to fal

l down her back. “Yeah, I’m already running late. I promised Grandma Glory I’d be over at the house an hour early to get things ready for the party. Adam said he’d pick up Cory from basketball practice and take all three trick-or-treating while I help out. Little monsters are more excited for the party than they are to be begging for free candy.”

Finn grinned as he recalled the manic childhood excitement created by Grandma Glory’s annual Halloween Party. Halloween rivaled Christmas in a Madigan child’s affections. “I can understand why. We were always the same way.”

“Yeah. It was a lot better when I was the one getting hepped up on sugar, begging our uncles to play Wolf Man and getting scared witless while we ran around like savages and trampled the neighbors’ gardens.”

“No doubt,” Finn chuckled. His mirth quieted after a moment.

“I guess Mom told you about Grandma Glory’s physician’s suggestion that they consult a neurologist in regard to these spells Glory has been having?”

Mary Kate looked angry. “Yeah, she told me. That’s ludicrous. Grandma Glory is one of the sharpest women I’ve ever met in my life. She is not getting Alzheimer’s—or any other kind of dementia. So she’s getting a little moody and testy sometimes, so what? Doesn’t a woman deserve to get pissy once in a while after she’s lived seventy-five years?”

Finn held up his hand in a defensive gesture. “Hey, I’ll be the first to agree that I sincerely doubt Glory has dementia. But I saw for myself when one of those spells struck her a few days ago. Mom’s right. It is concerning. She seems like…I don’t know, like she’s having a personality change or something. She wasn’t just testy, Mary Kate. She was downright mean. I’m glad she’s going to the neurologist, especially since Glory has pretty hazy recall about the incidents afterward.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Mary Kate said doubtfully.

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