Chapter 1
***COOPER***
Cooper took the steps up to the front doors of the administration building two at a time, a sense of excitement building inside of him, the smile on his face the same one he’d been wearing when he learned he’d won the competition.
Now he was about to have his first meeting with the head architect, the man who would make his design come to life and hopefully make his dreams come true.
Striding through the lobby, he nodded at a few people he knew, telling himself to calm down, afraid that if he didn’t, he’d make a fool of himself.
He skipped the elevator and took the stairs, hoping to burn off a little more energy, and arrived on the third floor slightly winded.
After pausing for a second to catch his breath, he headed down the hallway, the tube that held his final version of the design for the repair on the stadium clutched tightly in his hand.
The door to the office was open, and he took that as a good sign and stepped inside, then found himself suddenly nervous when it sank in that he was really going to help fix the stadium.
“Hi, there,” the young woman behind the desk said, a big smile on her face. “How can I help you?”
“I’m here to meet with Mr. Baker,” he said, smiling back at her. “I’m Cooper McFarland, my designs won the student design competition.”
When the woman just stared at him a confused look on her face, he tried again. “You know, the designs to fix the stadium after it was halfway destroyed by that bomb,” he said, then stepped back from the desk when she still didn’t say anything. “Maybe I’m in the wrong office. Is this 303?”
The woman nodded. “We moved in yesterday,” she said. “I think maybe that’s the confusion.”
“I don’t understand, I just talked to Mr. Baker the day before yesterday,” he said. “I know he told me to meet him here; I wrote it down.”
“Do you have his number?” the woman asked. “Maybe you could call him.”
He shook his head, his perfect day suddenly vanishing in a cloud of confusion. “He was supposed to be here, his entire staff was supposed to be here,” he said. “I was going to be one of them, I don’t understand, someone should have called me.”
The sound of heels clicking on the tile out in the hallway caught his attention, and he turned to the door, hoping it would be someone who could explain what was going on.
A second later, a pretty blonde woman strode into the office, a pair of black rimmed glasses perched on her nose, her head buried in a stack of papers.
Mumbling under her breath and shaking her head, she didn’t see him and crashed into him before he could move, forcing him to grab her to keep them both from falling.
The stack of papers went crashing to the floor, and the woman reached out and wrapped her arms around him as she teetered on her high heels, a squeal of surprise coming out of her mouth.
For a moment he thought they were going to go tumbling to the floor, but he finally managed to get his balance, then slowly became aware of a strange tingling deep in the pit of his stomach.
He looked down at the woman in his arms, wondering if she felt it too, and was surprised to find her staring up at him, her blue eyes filled with what looked like attraction and a touch of fear.
“Oh dear,” she said, untangling herself from his arms and backing away from him. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
“No harm done,” he said, unable to stop staring at the woman. “I don’t suppose you work for Mr. Baker?”
“Mr. Baker…” the woman repeated, then shook her head. “I’m sorry, I can’t help you, I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“This used to be his office,” he said, his voice sounding a little funny thanks to the tingling that was slowly turning to attraction the longer he was close to her. “I really need to find him, it’s really important. My future is in his hands.”
“Oh, I’m sorry…I don’t know,” the woman stammered, then looked over her shoulder at the woman behind the desk. “Kendra, do you know anything about this?”
“Only what he told me, Dr. Warner, something about designs for a new stadium or to fix the old one or something,” Kendra said, shrugging her shoulders. “I was just getting ready to tell him about the ruins when you walked in.”
“Ruins?” he asked, confused. “What ruins?”
The two women exchanged a glance, then Dr. Warner looked over at him, “The crew working on getting the construction site cleaned up to start rebuilding uncovered a door that led to an underground passage,” she said.
“It led to a settlement that, as far as I can tell right now, dates back to at least the early eighteen hundreds. It’s going to take some time to prove it for sure, but this is one of the biggest finds in this area in decades.
I’m sorry, I think your project might have gotten cancelled.
It all happened so fast, I guess no one thought to call you. ”
He could only stare at the woman for a second, the attraction he was feeling draining away, leaving a feeling of desperation in its place.
“That can’t be right, it can’t be cancelled,” he said.
“This was my big break, I was going to get my name out there, people were going to know who I was, this can’t be happening. ”
“I wish I could give you better news,” the woman said, her face full of compassion. “I know this must be hard, but I’m sure this won’t be your only chance to…get your name out there.”
“You don’t know anything,” he spat at her. “Thanks for nothing.”
***Stephanie***
A bit stunned by the encounter with Cooper McFarland and her reaction to him, Stephanie could only stare at the empty doorway for a few seconds, then turned to look over at Kendra.
“Well, that was…interesting. This job is always full of surprises,” the other woman said, getting to her feet.
“But he sure was cute, I don’t usually go for redheads, but those green eyes, I could have gotten lost in them.
He had my heart going crazy, and I wasn’t even the one he had his arms wrapped around. ”
Stephanie felt her cheeks turning red. “He was cute, wasn’t he?” she asked, a little grin on her face now that she knew her response was perfectly normal. “Nothing like that has ever happened to me. I don’t usually end up in strange men’s arms, and it kind of freaked me out at first.”
Kendra laughed, then came out from behind the desk and began picking up the papers. “It was like something from a romance novel,” she said, shaking her head. “Wouldn’t it be crazy if you two ended up together because of that one encounter? You could sell the story to Hollywood or something.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” she said, shaking her head, the thought both intriguing and frightening. “I’ll probably never see him again.”
“You never know,” Kendra said. “Fate is a funny thing.”
“I don’t believe in fate, we all make our own destinies,” she said, dismissing the idea. “Besides, I’m not in the market for romance. I finally have a chance to prove myself; the last thing I need is a bunch of distractions.”
“If you say so,” Kendra said, shrugging her shoulders. “Only time will tell.”
With a sigh, she bent over to help pick up the papers, instantly realizing that between the pencil skirt she was wearing and the heels, it was almost impossible to bend her knees.
“I hate wearing these clothes,” she complained.
“I can’t wait until all these meetings are over and I can go back to my jeans. ”
Kendra looked up at the clock. “Speaking of meetings, you’d better leave, you’re supposed to be in Dean Proctor’s office in fifteen minutes, and it’s all the way across campus,” she said. “I’ll get this cleaned up and sorted out, you go on, you don’t want to be late.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, picking up a few more sheets of paper. “I hate to leave you with this mess; it was my fault for not looking where I was going.”
“I’ve got it, Dr. Warner,” Kendra said. “No worries, it’s my job.”
By the time she got to the dean’s office, she was cursing the high heels and limping just a little thanks to several blisters that had appeared where the shoes rubbed her feet wrong.
Wondering if it would be too much to call Kendra and have her drive over to pick her up after the meeting, she went inside, wishing she could take the horrible shoes off and go barefoot.
The first thing she noticed was the look of disappointment on Steven Proctor’s face when his assistant introduced her, and she couldn’t help but sigh.
She was in no mood to deal with one of those men, but braced herself for the barrage of insulting questions, followed by his inevitable attempt to take over the entire project.
It wasn’t the first time she’d had to deal with a man like the dean, and she could only hope it would be the last.
“Is there something wrong?” she asked, deciding to get right to it; the sooner she showed him who was boss, the better.
He didn’t answer right away; instead, he let his eyes roam over her body again, then shook his head. “No, I just... well, I was hoping we could take a tour of the site today,” he finally said. “But I can see by the way you're dressed that’s not on the agenda.”
"Oh... I’m sorry, but we can’t, not yet anyway,” she stammered, realizing that she’d read him wrong.
“No one is allowed inside until the engineers have a look to make sure that it’s safe, and that will take two or three days.
I’ve barely had a chance to take a look myself, but as soon as it’s safe and we know our way around, I’ll take you down, that’s a promise. ”
“That’s a deal,” Dean Proctor said, then gestured to the chair across from his desk. “Have a seat. I’ll have Mindy get us something to drink.”
“Oh, I’m fine. I’ve been in meetings all day. If I drink any more coffee, I’ll never sleep tonight, but I appreciate the offer,” she said, sitting down. “I assume you’d like to talk about timelines and the logistics of how we’re going to do our job in the middle of the campus.”
Yes, I was hoping you could answer a few questions along those lines.
At the very least, I’d like to know if we’re talking about months or years,” he said, settling back in his chair.
“It’s clear that we won’t be able to rebuild the stadium or do anything with the land, but I’ve still got half a football stadium sitting there, and it’s a hazard.
College students don’t always make the best decisions, and I’m afraid someone is going to get hurt. ”
“I understand, and I don’t blame you for wanting to expedite the process, but it’s going to take a bit of time to figure out how to tear down the old stadium safely,” she said.
“But I’m sure the engineers will come up with a plan as soon as they’re done with their assessment of the cave and surrounding land.
I’ll speak to them myself to make sure that it’s included in their final report which is due in a week. Will that work for you?”
“I think we can keep everyone safe for another week,” he said, smiling at her. “Now let’s talk long term. How long are you and your team going to be here?”
“At least six months, maybe longer if the settlement is as big as I think it is,” she said, then paused.
“Dean Proctor, you do understand how important this discovery is? Nothing like this has ever been found in New York. People are never going to stop wanting to study it, and I think you should prepare for this to become a part of everyday life.”
“I was afraid of that,” he said, then shook his head. “This little college is never going to be the same.”