Page 67 of Conrad

Yes. She’d misjudged in epic leaps and bounds.

One of the teams scored, and the period ticked down. The rest of the team had trickled out, some throwing snowballs at each other, others watching the game. A few remained inside, playing on their phones.

Conrad caught her eye. “Simon wants to head back.” He shoved his hands into his coat pocket, his mouth a line.

Oh. Um. . . and then—wait.“Do you want to ride back withme?”

He narrowed his eyes, glanced at the sky. So maybe the forecasters hadn’t been all wrong. A few darker clouds hovered to the west, blowing in from North Dakota. “I don’t want you driving alone.”

She cocked her head.

He held up a hand. “I know. You can take care yourself. But . . . you have a couple sandwiches left. I might get hungry.” He smiled.

Oh, wow,she simply had no defenses against Mr. June’s smile. No wonder they’d doubled their sales this year.

“You can catch me up on your research,” he added.

“Research?”

“The pictures you sent to Janet?”

“Oh, those. She said that none of them were the guy, so . . .” She lifted a shoulder.

“Sorry.”

“That’s okay. I had to prep for my podcast anyway.”

She waited for him to suggest that he’d listened to it, but he just nodded.Oh.A small ding landed in her heart. Not that it mattered,hello.

The team had started to gather their gear. He walked over to the bus and she followed. He helped Simon load the bags, then shook his hand and turned to her.

And maybe the ding in her heart healed a little when he said, “Let’s listen to your podcast on the way home.”

“I’ll recap,” she said. “I can’t listen to my own voice.”

“Right? I hate my interviews.” He got into the car and moved the seat all the way back to make room for his legs. Funny, he hadn’t done that before.

The bus pulled out, but she needed gas, so she took the route into the town of Crystal Lake and bought a couple coffees while he pumped gas. Like they might be on a road trip.

She got back in and handed him a coffee as he climbed in the passenger side.

Snow had started to peel from the sky, fat snowflakes that melted against her windshield. She pulled out.

“So, you met my dad.” She didn’t know why she’d started there, but . . .

Okay, she wanted to know if her heart was right about Conrad.Please,let her father not be part of the game.

“Nice guy. Interesting. Smart, clearly. We talked about investing. I looked up the company he sits on the board of. Quantex Dynamics. They’re up over 44 percent just this year. Crazy.”

“Yeah. Apparently it’s some sort of AI software company?—”

“Software, hardware. They develop GPUs that are used in AI research for deep learning and computations. They’re big in the gaming world. They had a big competitor a few years ago—an electric car company developing AI autonomous-vehicle technology. But their AI software is years behind Spectra and they’re struggling.” He took a sip of coffee. “This is like tar.”

“Don’t be such a diva. At least it didn’t cost a kidney.”

He laughed. The entire car filled with the robust sound of it, and it seeped right into her, warm, smooth, sweet, like chocolate. “I’ve never heard that phrase before.”

“I had a friend in college who said it.”

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