He’d read it front to back a least a dozen times. A few passages he could even recite by memory. He remembered sitting there in the audience of her dissertation defense in awe—hidden in the back, of course, so as not to piss her off and screw her up. Had Dr. Crawley seen her defense, there was no way Ford would ever have gotten his job. In that moment, she’d earned that title of Dr. Socorro Mejía. She was the whole package—brains, beauty, fearlessness. A pang had shot through his chest. Regret possibly? And questioning whether he’d made a mistake.
Her eyebrows raised as she stared at his Frankenstein version of her paper. Okay, now he was embarrassed.
“Yeah... I might have read it a few times,” he said, lowering his head and rubbing the back of his neck.
“I guess so.”
Cringe again.
“Don’t worry, I’ve read yours, too, andalsotook notes. I mean, my notes are more like holes in a giant bull’s-eye, but the overall tattered effect is about the same. I’ll let you see it sometime. You know, like if I ever askyouto joinmeon a dig in Peru.”
Ford winced and thought back to his dissertation on the lives of the Incas in Machu Picchu. If he’d ever learned that Corrie had been hired for a dig there, and not him, it would have more than stung. “I deserve that.”
“Yeah, you do. But I’m still grateful for the after-the-fact invitation. If I’d heard that you’d come here and found Chimalli without me, I would have murdered you.” She smiled. God, why did Ford find it so sexy despite the fact that she was joking about killing him?
“Then I guess it’s a good thing for me that I wasn’t digging in the right spot.” He smiled back, and a silence fell over the room as they stared at each other. Searching each other’s faces.
What was happening here? Were they... getting along? Engaging in playful banter? Not wanting to murder each other?
The curled corners of Corrie’s dissertation thrummed through her delicate, slender fingers. What was she thinking? He could see something was on her mind. Something she wanted to ask him. Her lips twitched and she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. Ford fought to keep from looking at her mouth, but it was like a beacon begging for his attention.
“Ford,” she said, finally breaking the silence, “is everything okay with you?”
This wasnotwhere he thought this would be going.
“What? Of course. I’m fine.” He shifted in his seat.
“What did the investor want?”
He tilted his head. “What do you mean? I haven’t talked to him in a few days.”
“Then thatwasn’twho called you on the sat phone this morning?”
His mouth opened and then he shut it. He didn’t want to lie, but he also didn’t want to get into all that.
“That wasn’t the investor. It was a call about my mom.”
“Is she all right?” Corrie asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
“Yes, she’s fine. She’s being moved to another facility.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
“You sure? You seemed off after that call. Sometimes it helps to get things off your chest. I mean, maybe I’m not the best person for you to talk to and all, but maybe you can talk to someone else about it. Maybe call Addison or something?”
“Addison?” He pulled his face back. Addison was thelastperson he’d want to talk to about all this. “Why would I call her?”
Corrie blinked rapidly, clearly unaware what she walked into. “I... I guess I assumed you’d open up to your girlfriend about things like this. But I suppose every relationship is different.”
Ford laughed, but not a fun, jovial laugh. No, this laugh—or, rather, this scoff—was accompanied by rolling eyes and disbelief.
“I see you haven’t been keeping tabs on me. Addison and I broke up two years ago.”
“Oh,” was all she said. Three solid beats went by before she opened her mouth again. “Well, are you seeing someone else? Maybe you can talk to her?”
“No, Corrie, I’m not.”
