But Ron didn’t have any evidence to back up his assertions. Just theories based on incomplete data sets.
He might’ve read her papers, but he didn’t have day-to-day access to her work.
All he had was his own arrogance.
But she was putting him behind her. Moving forward. Getting out of the office for the day so she could answer him in a dignified manner tomorrow.
She pushed out of the physics building and into the bright fall sunshine. The leaves on the southern maple and pecan trees hadn’t yet turned their fall colors, but the green wasn’t as lush as it had been a month ago. A cool breeze hinted that the best summer days had already passed.
The cracks in the sidewalk passed in ablur as she charged toward the parking lot, alternately composing a response to Ron in her head and ordering herself to forget about him. She was halfway across the lot before she realized something wasn’t right.
And all of that not-rightness simultaneously flooded her veins with panic and made her heart do a swoony number no self-respecting physics professor would ever admit to.
Before she could fully process what she was—and wasn’t—seeing, Zada waved from the other side of the parking lot and jogged toward her. “Dr. Boudreaux!” Her chin trembled when she drew to a stop beside Kaci. “Dr. Boudreaux, did the Gellings Fall Fest pumpkin-chucking organizers disqualify that other team?”
Kaci eyed the lone man sitting in the bed of a truck where she swore she’d left her Jeep this morning, then angled away from him and lowered her voice. “Not that I’veheard. Their webpage say something?”
“No, but…” Zada lifted a delicate finger and pointed toward the student center down the way. “The bookstore has credit for all of us on the catapult team. The exact amount of the prize money.”
Kaci opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
A foreign heat warmed her cheeks.
With all the distractions from Ron, Lance, and Gertrude, she’d forgotten about the bookstore.
“Don’t know anything about it, but I know y’all did an amazing job with Ichabod. My momma would say the angels were watching.” She steered Zada back toward the building. Because even if she wanted to discuss this—which she didn’t—she didn’t want to do it with an audience.
While her Jeep was missing.
And with Lance in the bed of his truck rightin the very spot where she’d parked this morning.
“Did y’all get my message about setting up a booth for the Physics Club at Spirit Week?” she asked Zada.
“Yes, but?—”
“Great. Let me know what you want to do for demonstrations, or if you need ideas.”
“Dr. Boudreaux?—”
“You don’t want to do Spirit Week?”
“We do, but?—”
“Oh, good. Y’all will have fun with it. How about you bring a sign-up sheet to our meeting tomorrow, and I’ll bring that binder of ideas we put together for our high school visits last year. Bound to have something good in there.”
Zada stood there a moment longer as though she were debating pressing for more information about the bookstore.
But Kaci needed her game face.
Because her brain was coming up with all kinds of ugly reasons why her car was missing and why Lance Wheeler was parked in her spot, and she needed to find out the truth before she panicked for no good reason.
Or before her redneck side paired up with her feminine side and overruled her common sense. Because if that happened, she’d be offering to mud wrestle him for her Jeep.
And even with her car missing, she couldn’t deny the thrill of anticipation at the prospect of touching the man again.
As far as pranks went, she was facing the losing side this time.
