Page 6 of Harrison Hyde and the Runaway Bride

Harry’s smile came out like a beam of sunlight. “I’m not any kind of a cowboy. I’m a scientist. I’m going to Silver City to demonstrate my project to a bunch of potential investors.”

“Oh. Like a Silver City Shark Tank,” she said. He looked at her in surprise, and she shrugged. “Sorry. Go on. What did you invent?”

“It’s uh— in that box you tossed out of your seat, earlier.”

She frowned, spotting the box in the back, just lying there loose. She reached back, leaning up over the seat to do so, and brought it up front. “Jeeze, I didn’t hurt it, did I?”

“It’s pretty well-cushioned in there.”

“Can I look?”

“Sure.”

She opened the box, and he said, “It’s a solar tile. It can process as much energy as a four-by-four-foot panel.”

She looked at him, then back at the inch-square glass object nestled in foam inside the box. Its frame and backing were bright yellow, its glass center black. She said, “Wait. What?”

“It’s a?—”

“I heard you. I understand, I just— I mean, that’s pretty huge, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

"I don’t know much about renewables,” she said. “But I do know solar doesn’t have a very efficient space-to-power ratio.” She didn’t miss the quick flash of surprise in his eyes. “It’s a hot topic down here. Oil country, you know.”

“Ah. Well, yeah. You’re right. It’s been a major issue. A ten-acre lot full solar panels can only power about a hundred homes with today’s technology.”

“Right.”

“So, it’s controversial down here? Solar power?”

“A fifty-acre solar farm in our county was sabotaged a few weeks ago,” she said.

“Really?”

She nodded. “Explosives. A fire. And two weeks before that, a wind farm, about thirty miles north, same thing.”

“That’s awful.”

“My dad and uncle will get to the bottom of it,” she said. “Uncle Garrett’s the sheriff, and Dad’s his chief deputy. Willow’s even a deputy now. My cousin.”

“That’s a lot of family in law enforcement.”

“It’s a blessin’ and a curse,” she said. “Sounds to me like there’s a far better thing to replace that solar farm with, though, or soon will be.” She replaced the box’s lid. “I’m gonna put this somewhere safe.” She looked around the back of the car.

“You can tuck it into my dad’s old tackle box, for luck,” Harry suggested.

She climbed back and opened the tackle box, admired a few of the lures, then tucked the black box into the bottom. “Fits like a glove.” She closed it up and returned to her spot in the front. “That’s pretty amazin’, Harry. I didn’t know I’d carjacked a genius.”

“I don’t deserve all the credit,” he said. She thought it was cute that he blushed. “I worked with three other scientists at Cornell.”

“They goin’ to the Shark Tank, too?”

“Yeah. They’re flying out. I’m meeting them there. I had to travel to Florida with my father, to look at a retirement community he’s considering. And I thought driving out would give me some time to… well, it doesn’t matter.” He glanced her way quickly then turned on the radio.

She reached up and snapped it off again. “You drove because you wanted a long, solitary journey.”

He looked at her sideways. “Yeah.”

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