Chapter 17 #3
“Hello to you, too, Julia,” Henry said.
The woman turned, laughing. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there. I was lost in thought.” Julia looked to be in her mid- to late thirties. Her braided hair was pinned neatly, and her navy dress was modest, though the cut was in fashion.
“Lizards again?” Henry asked playfully.
“It’s always the lizards,” she replied with a smile.
“This is my friend, Elisabeth Beaumont. I’ve brought her in to show her the new specimens. Liz, this is Julia Wane. She’s a lab assistant for a couple of the herpetologists.”
“Hello, how do you do,” she said, shaking my hand.
I was surprised by the gesture. Evalyn and her circle would be appalled by such a masculine display of manners, but I liked Julia and her manners instantly.
We exchanged a few pleasantries, and when she excused herself to return to her work, I was disappointed she had to leave so quickly.
I’d never met a female scientist or lab assistant other than Ken Davis’s wife, Maye, and I found myself wanting to ask Julia a dozen questions.
“She’s great, isn’t she?” His gaze lingered on her retreating form. In only one meeting, I could see that Julia Wane was intelligent and passionate about her work, something I knew he found appealing.
I watched him watch her, my stomach clenched, and yet I had no claim on him, and he had every right to seek the affections of another woman. Even if I couldn’t stand the thought of it, I also couldn’t deny Henry happiness. He meant too much to me, despite everything.
When he realized I hadn’t answered him, he arched his brow at me in expectation. “Well?”
“She is great,” I said. And what I didn’t say was that I envied Julia in other ways, too. How lucky she was to be doing the kind of work she loved in such a magnificent space.
He eyed me curiously for an instant and then said, “I have something else to show you. Come on, this way.”
I swallowed my unexpected jealousy and followed him to the back offices. I was making too much of things. Probably. Maybe. I glanced at him. He was thankfully oblivious to my line of thinking and fully focused on his task.
“Here we are,” he said, showing me inside an office where a massive collection of stones was spread across a long table next to an assortment of tools, microscopes, and various other instruments.
The scientists were clearly in the process of identifying and labeling the stones.
I looked around, admiring the space, wishing fervently that I were a part of the team.
Sketches of the stones were mounted on the wall, and a special case displayed hundreds of labeled specimens.
Others were so large they occupied floor space.
“Look at these,” he said. “Jack has been studying meteorites found in Missouri, Texas, and Florida. This is—”
“Peridot,” I said, bending over the table to peer at it more closely.
It was a gorgeous darker green, which meant its iron content was quite high.
Peridot was one of my favorite stones, though its value was lesser in the eyes of the market.
What made it so unique was that it was either formed by lava in the mantle of the earth, rather than the earth’s crust like almost all other stones, or formed inside a certain kind of meteorite.
In other words, it could be a stone from outer space.
Something about its otherworldliness appealed to me.
I looked past Henry at a magnificent amethyst geode that was nearly as tall as me. The crystals were a deep purple in the middle, while its outer fringes were lavender and violet as the traces of iron within the crystals’ structure lessened and became a crust of sparkling, clear quartz.
“Magnificent,” I breathed. “I’ve never seen such a large geode intact before.”
“I’ve missed you,” he said. “I’ve missed this, spending time with you, especially here.”
My eyes darted to his face. Pain etched lines around his mouth and made grooves in his forehead. He missed me. What could I say to that? I didn’t want to think about how he felt, how I felt or didn’t feel, or what came next.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” he asked softly.
I met his gray-green eyes. “What do you want me to say?”
“That you miss me, too?”
“Henry—”
A cloud passed over his features. “You don’t have to say anything.” Anger tinged his voice. “I thought there was something special between us, but maybe I was mistaken.”
Didn’t he feel the guilt I did? How could he move on as if nothing had happened, as if we weren’t partly responsible for Julien’s death? As if we had a right to keep living when my brother—his dearest friend—was gone.
“Don’t you feel guilty about what happened?” I asked, brushing off his anger.
“Of course I do,” he said. “He was like a brother to me. I would give anything to go back to that night, but I can’t.” He ran a hand through his hair. “And I don’t regret how I feel about you. I wouldn’t change that, no matter what. How could I? And yet it seems you would.”
I shook my head. I didn’t know how I felt about Henry in this moment, but how could I not regret that night? We were too late to save Julien. We were too late. I looked away, and when I didn’t reply, Henry blew out a steadying breath.
“Let’s not talk about this now,” he said. “Let’s enjoy the afternoon. Come on, I want to show you the dinosaur skeletons. They’re almost finished assembling them.”
“Can we tour the anthropology exhibits, too?” I asked, relieved he respected my limits. Despite how things had evolved between us, I’d always be grateful for his friendship. I only wished I could bring myself to say it.
“Of course.” He held out his arm so I might take it.
Hesitating, I bit my lip and looked up at him.
As he read my expression, his smile faltered, and without a word, he withdrew his arm and ushered us down another long hallway.