“Well, she’s got someone else.”
“But she’s not married.” Ayden sounds certain. “I didn’t see a wedding band, and she acts…”
“Lonely,” Cam finishes.
“That’s because she is,” I say roughly.
I take a breath and tell them about our arrangement.
“You agreed to help her prepare for her first dance with her husband?” Ayden says incredulously.
“Her fiancé sounds like a selfish bastard,” Cam says.
I frown. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Cam stares at me hard. “You fucking like her.”
“I would never hit on someone who’s taken.”
“Not saying you would, but you want her all the same. And you can’t have her. You can’t use your Brayden Wild moves to woo her, either.” He says it jokingly, but the heaviness behind his words is weighty.
Ayden’s eyes flash with sympathy. “Sucks, man.”
I exhale. They’re right. I’m fucking screwed.
Chapter Fifteen
Leleila
Phillip and I spend all of Sunday in our pajamas, going over his research. My courage from last night has disappeared, and I don’t tell him about Noah. I also don’t ask him about his new friendship with Mindy. His bike race is Tuesday, and he’s anxious about everything. He keeps asking me if I think he has enough convincing evidence to support his claims regarding poisons in the ecosystem and how they negatively affect life on the planet, including humans.
“Yes,” I say with a confidence I don’t quite feel. “I definitely think you have enough evidence.”
“Don’t be influenced by your emotions,” he says to me, his eyes bloodshot from the hours of reading and re-reading. “Just because you want me to be right doesn’t mean I am.”
I stop in the middle of my train of thought and stare at him. I don’t know that I’ve ever thought about it in those terms before.
“What you need to do is get your emotions out of the way,” Phillip continues. “Pretend I’m a stranger and you’re hearing these results for the first time. Would you believe it? Or would you think it was forced?”
I reach over and touch his cheek, which is chapped from his bike rides.
Looking for a way to get his mind off his own worries, I tell him about the container at the ranch. “It’s right by the reservoir,” I say. “I mean the land backs to it. It could be a really big deal.”
“You alerted the ranch owners?” he asks me.
“First, I’m sending a sample out to be analyzed.”
“Leave it alone, Lei,” he says. “Don’t get involved where you don’t belong.”
“It’s not that simple,” I say. “The owners of the ranch are going through a tough time, and Brayden doesn’t want to alarm them unduly…”
“So you’re doing it all yourself?” Phillip frowns. “Honey, you’re being naïve. I’m sure it’s nothing, anyway. Just because a container says something doesn’t mean it’s truly dangerous.”
“I just have a bad feeling in my gut.”
“It should never come down to your gut,” Phillip says. “Not as a scientist. Because then you’ll be influenced by your emotions, and science must come from the brain.”
“Speaking of me and science,” I say. “I ran into Gerry at the store.”
