Chapter Fourteen #3
“Oh, it didn’t bother me, but I’m surprised that you would let her think you got this with anything other than your intellectual prowess.”
“No, I wanted her to think I got it with my body. Because it’s hilarious.”
“Less hilarious than you think. Believe me when I tell you I would make some pretty wild bargains right now.”
Her face flushed. “I was bragging,” she said.
“Were you now?”
“Yes. Shamelessly. Because I really did want her to think that I could do the same thing she does. And anyway, she can’t judge me for it.”
“Oh, she can. I’m sure she’ll come up with a way that what you did is different than what she does. Or, she doesn’t even need to do that just because she doesn’t like you, so she can just be unfair about it in her head.”
“I wish I could be unfair in my head. I’m always fair. It’s really annoying.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be unfair on your behalf. It was satisfying to see her that angry.”
They were silent for a moment. “She’s really pretty,” Ernestine said. “And now that she thinks she might be able to trade sex for digging rights…”
“Do you really think she would try to do that?”
“Yes. Because I don’t think I can put anything past her, and I didn’t even think about the fact that I was telling her that might be a method she could use against you when I decided to kiss you.”
“It wouldn’t work.”
“It wouldn’t?”
“No. What do you think?”
“Well, you and I are to be done once I move out of the glass cabin. Surely you’ll need…”
“Are you kidding me? You think that just because our situation is done I’m going to sleep with your sworn enemy?”
“You don’t have any obligation to me, and she’s very pretty.”
“A lot of women are pretty. She’s not… She doesn’t appeal to me more than you do. Take Rowdy and Dakota. Good-looking men, right?”
“Objectively.”
“Do you want to sleep with them?”
“No,” she said quickly.
“I don’t want to sleep with her. I don’t care if she’s aesthetic.
She’s not a good person. And I could read that vibe immediately.
I don’t even think I would’ve needed to know you and have all the intel to pick that up.
But beyond that, I just don’t feel anything when I look at her.
When you got out of the truck, it was like the sun came out from behind the mountain.
And that’s the view that I like best. That’s the thing.
The world is full of beautiful places. Cities that people find perfect and beaches that they think are glorious.
Mountains that take your breath away, canyons and rivers and deserts that feel like the pinnacle of natural wonder.
One’s not really better than the other, it’s all about what gets to you.
You get to me. The sun on the mountains gets to me. And that’s what you are.”
As romantic declarations went, it was possibly the most intense one he’d ever made. He hadn’t really meant to do that. But something about her had pushed him there. To that place.
He wanted her to understand. He had a lot of physical-only flings, and this wasn’t that. It could never be that.
He heard the back door open, footsteps coming through the house. “Did we just have a visitor?” Dakota asked as he walked into the room. Rowdy was a few steps behind him.
“No. Not a visitor. We had an opportunist. That was Ernestine’s rival. She was trying to gain access to this place. Which means she knows that Ernestine is here—well, she for sure does now, but she must have before, because something brought her here.”
“What did you tell her?” Dakota asked.
“To pound sand.”
Ernestine beamed. “He did. Well, not literally, but essentially.”
“Good. We don’t need more weird bone scientists cluttering up the place. The one’s enough.”
He could see Ernestine took that with no small measure of affection. He was glad.
“Ernestine has the idea that we might want to open a museum here.”
Rowdy and Dakota exchanged glances. “A museum? On our property?”
“Yes. On our property. We can make it easier to access from the main highway, open to the public, and she thinks it’s possible that the museum might partner with us. Fund the actual museum bit.”
“Well, I don’t really see a downside,” Dakota said. “Mind you, I haven’t thought about it for more than two seconds.”
“Deep thought has never served any of us all that well,” Rowdy said. “We’re spontaneous. So we might as well be spontaneous about this. Let’s see if we can get it off the ground.”
“Yes,” Ernestine said, nodding enthusiastically. “It will take time. A few years, I’m sure. But we can get the ball rolling.”
That was strange, because it meant that he and Ernestine really would be tied together for more time than just this. Of course, only in the sense that she was heading up the beginning of the project. That’s all.
“I’m going to inform my director that I’m going to return to the museum for a few days, to provide her with an update, and also to pitch a couple new projects.”
“Would it be…helpful if I went with you?”
She looked at him, and blinked rather intensely. “Yes,” she said. “I think it would be.”