Lance’s fingers curled around his mouse.
His brain was heading back into not-smart territory.
Dr. Kaci Boudreaux haddistractionwritten on every inch of every one of her curves and lingering in every undertone of that sassy voice. And it looked like he suddenly only had six weeks to kill before he was out of here.
Six weeks could be a long time.
Or six weeks could be interesting.
“How much are they?” he asked Pony witha nod to the screen.
“At least a hundred.”
A hundred bucks.
Huh.
He logged in, glanced at the weather, and then opened a blank document.
He wasn’t flying until this afternoon.
Which meant this morning, he could have some fun.
Kaci was wadingthrough a stack of research papers Thursday afternoon when there was an authoritative knock at her office door. “Come on in,” she called.
She looked up, expecting to see one of her Physics Club students or one of her grad students or maybe a freshman with a question about today’s lecture on centrifugal force.
Instead, Ron Kelly stood framed in thedoorway. “Got a minute?”
For the man who told her that if she didn’t have his babies, he’d divorce her, then followed her across the country to invade her new life? Nope. “Office hours for students are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from nine to eleven, and otherwise by appointment. Office hours for ex-husbands are never.” She flicked a finger at the hallway. “Shut the door on your way out, sugar.”
He shut the door.
But he stayed inside the room.
Usually the eight-by-eight, white-walled space was big enough, especially with the window letting in natural light.
With Ron standing before her oak door with his legs wide, hands tucked behind his back in parade rest position, the whole stinking physics building wouldn’t have been large enough to put enough distance between them. “It’s been over two years, Kace. Can Iplease have ten minutes of your time?”
He was handsome in a distinguished way—dark hair threaded with the right amount of gray and subtle wrinkles that could’ve been mistaken for laugh lines about his blue eyes—but he’d put on a few pounds since his retirement and his suit coat didn’t fit just right.
“Don’t know that we’ve got ten minutes’ worth of talking in us,” Kaci said. “I can give you three, and that’s only on account of my momma raising me to have manners.”
“Being here the last few months has made me realize life’s been boring without you,” he said.
“Sorry to hear that. Don’t you have a lecture soon?”
“May I?” He gestured to the utilitarian blue plastic chair she kept in her office for students, then lowered himself into it without waiting for a response. “I didn’t mean to hurtyou.”
She assumed he probably hadn’t. Even her injured pride couldn’t work up the argument that Ron had ever been mean-spirited. Not to her, anyway. “But you still meant everything you said about me not being a good wife.”
“I didn’t say?—”
“It’s neither here nor there, because I’m not your wife anymore.”
“I’ve been in counseling.”
Her chin slipped down. The Ronald Kelly she knew didn’t need counseling, and even if he had, he wouldn’t have admitted it.
