She disconnected the call. “You want to put the address in my GPS?”
Allen snatched her phone from the center console and accessed her texts. He entered the address into her system. The car hit a bump and his finger hit the Internet. Her last search popped up on the screen. Al Gates. She’d been searching him. He shouldn’t be surprised, but somehow he was. After spewing the name Gates, he hadn’t thought to go home and search the name himself.
She snatched the phone out of his hands. “What are you doing?” She looked at the screen. “Do you often find the need to Google yourself?” she asked.
It was taking a risk, but he wanted to know what she’d found. Or thought she’d found. “Well, you did. I guess I should ask you that question.”
“Other than some Facebook pages and other social media sites and businesses, I couldn’t find any mention of Al Gates having to do with computer software. Want to explain that?”
Explain it? “I don’t have to prove myself to you. The work I do is highly competitive and therefore highly top secret. You’re not going to find my name all over the place in regards to my job.” Let her try and argue that.
“Bullshit.” Her grin carried all the confidence of a woman with a secret. “If you were the big hotshot you claim to be, I’d have found something on you. Hey, I don’t care, one way or the other. I don’t know where you get your money and I don’t care how you live your life, I just know you’re not who you say you are. You are no relation to Bill Gates so don’t even try to use that one again.”
If he hadn’t fooled her with the name, then why had she brought him on this trip? Decision time. Deny all of it or some of it? He needed time to think this through, and he didn’t have it. “You’re right. I’m no relation to Bill Gates, but I do have a game that’s going to make me millions.” He was certain about that.
“Al...” She stated his name. “Al...let me guess. Short for Allen?” She said his name softly as if she needed to run his name through her head looking for something. “You sent those flowers to Julie in the hospital, didn’t you?”
His skin prickled. His face flushed. He felt it heat from the neck up. She knew. Stall. “What?”
She glanced at him and smiled. “You sent her that giant bouquet when she was in the hospital. Oh, c’mon. Don’t be embarrassed. Don’t deny it. She loved those flowers. Couldn’t stop talking about them. They totally made her day. C’mon, be honest. You sent them. I know you did.”
She loved them? “Julie loved them?” he asked. “Really?” He grinned. He couldn’t help it. The fact that Julie loved his arrangement made absolutely every minute with this bitch worth it, especially knowing he was going to see Julie in just a handful of hours.
“Oh yeah. She went bonkers over them. They must have cost you a fortune.”
“They did,” he admitted. But he’d spend that money again in a second.
“And the second bouquet at her house. Gorgeous. She loved those too. Why didn’t you sign your last name though? You were so cryptic. Of course, she loved the mystery. She eats that stuff up.”
“Really?” Allen turned in his seat and faced Carrie Ann. “She liked that?”
“Oh yeah. Well, she’s such a drama queen. Anything with production value is right up her alley.”
“She never really struck me as a drama queen,” Allen said.
Carrie Ann huffed. “Totally. But I have to ask this question. Why the big lie? Why the neighbor routine? I mean, you’re a nice guy, no reason to hide yourself, right? What am I missing?”
“You’re not missing anything. I just think she’d be more receptive to a neighbor than a stranger. I may be a stranger, but then so is the neighbor at the top of the hill. I’m not nuts. I’m just a man who wants to meet her.”
This time Carrie Ann laughed. “I love this. Oh my, God, this is too much. I am such an idiot. Hell, we have a car full of idiots this trip. Ah, Allie baby. What am I going to do with you now?”
“For starters, don’t talk about me like I’m not here and listening to you. Do not call me Allie and do not include me in your idiot rant, because I’m the furthest from an idiot