Page 13 of Falling for the Enemy

Robyn read my thoughts. “You were thinking the whole ‘turtle scenario,’ too.”

We both laughed quietly into our hands.

Norm finally reached us. He dropped his pack to the floor with a huge sigh. There was an odd, pungent fragrance floating around him. It took me a second to recognize it. “Norman, are you wearing fly spray? Like the kind they use on horses?”

“I heard it was the best repellant for most insects. The mosquito sprays all had terrible reviews, but I saw this super potent fly spray for horses and decided that was the best route. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not coming home with malaria.” He sat down confidently next to us as if he’d just put us all in our place. He was already catching the nasal attention of everyone around us. Robyn immediately covered her nose and mouth. He’d sprayed it on so thick we could taste it.

“First of all, the area we’re traveling to in Costa Rica is more prone to dengue fever than malaria, and secondly, we’ve got a six-hour flight ahead of us. Norm, I’m sorry, you can’t expect people around you to breathe in that pesticide the whole flight. Go into the bathroom and see if you can wash some off. They might not even let you on the plane. And remember, a horse weighs 1,500 pounds. You probably weigh 150. That is some potent poison you sprayed on yourself. Go now. We board soon.”

Norm huffed as he got up. He left a terrible, toxic cloud behind him as he stomped across to the restroom.

“I never say it out loud, but it goes through my head a lot,” Ian said. “He’s a piece of work. Truly. How does he get through each day?”

Ten minutes later, Norman came out of the restroom holding his sweatshirt and wearing only a short-sleeved T-shirt. Hisarms were red from scrubbing. He stopped in front of me. I could still smell the spray, but it was at a much more tolerable level. “Better?”

“A bit. I have mosquito spray for when we get to camp. You cannot use that horse spray again on this trip.” I couldn’t believe I was having to give that order, but apparently, I’d taken on more than I realized with this adventure. I’d gone on expeditions with students before, but I was rarely in charge of them. It felt like I was a teacher who was about to embark on the field trip from hell. I hoped that was only silly nerves talking and not my intuition.

Some of the harshest odor had mostly worn off by the time we got in line to board. Robyn was standing ahead of us. She’d obviously calculated that if she sat with Milo and Ian, she wouldn’t have to sit next to Norm. Norman had gone to the restroom once more, so he was farther back in line. Evan was, too. It seemed he’d be the one stuck next to Norm, but Evan wasn’t the type to care or complain. He was the one person in the lab who seemed to have the most tolerance for Norm, so I was pleased they’d be sitting together. I, on the other hand, had only one person from our group standing near me. There were two women behind me who obviously planned to sit together and behind them was Pam. She was wearing an earbud and was talking rather loudly on her phone.

“I just hope the accommodations are nice. I mean, if you’re going to force someone to go on a trip, then at least offer a nice room.”

I glanced back in confusion, wondering if I’d overheard another conversation and not Pam’s, but it was definitely Pam talking about nice accommodations. I could only think that she was talking about a future trip—one she was also forced to go on.

She didn’t seem to care that she was nestled in a very tight crowd, one that kept pushing forward like people at a concert, as if that would get them on the plane faster.

“He’s playing hard to get, of course,” Pam continued. “But you know me. I don’t give up on my goals … ever.”

I smiled to myself. It seemed Jack was going to be fending off some of Pam’sgoalson this trip.

The line moved quickly. I found myself looking both ways to make sure all my little fledglings got onto the plane. It reminded me of a sixth-grade field trip to the history museum. Our poor teacher, Mrs. Keller, counted us ten times and kept coming up one short. Nicholas Yardley had gone to the bathroom, and his zipper got stuck, so he didn’t want to come out. I was sure Mrs. Keller was going to have a nervous breakdown right there in front of the T-rex skeleton.

The line on the plane didn’t move quickly as people worked their hardest to push carry-ons that were obviously larger than regulation size into the overhead bins. I could still hear Pam behind me, talking embarrassingly loudly. At least she seemed to be saying goodbye.

As usual on a plane with no assigned seats, all the front seats were filled. I could see Ian, Milo and Robyn had already found their seats. My gaze swept along the rows and landed right on a familiar face. Jack was sitting in an aisle seat. The window seat was taken by a rather rotund man, which was, no doubt, the reason for the empty middle seat. Jack smirked at me and then the smirk faded. As I reached his row, he grabbed my hand.

“Take the middle seat, Lo. We can—you know—talk about the expedition.”

It seemed I’d be stuck in a middle seat no matter where I landed. “Fine.” I shoved my pack in the bin but kept my smaller backpack with me for the trip. I always carried snacks andaspirin and anything else I might need for a long flight in the smaller pack.

Jack slid out so I could climb into the middle seat. The man at the window was already snoring with his head against the window. We both settled into our seats. I pushed my pack under the seat in front of me and sat up just in time to clash with Pam’s angry glare. She practically drilled a hole through me as she shuffled past.

I looked over at Jack. He was smiling in relief.

“You jerk. And here I thought we were going to have a scholarly chat.”

“Sorry to make you part of my evil plot, but there’s no way I could have her sitting next to me.”

“Aha. Too much temptation?”

A dry laugh shot from his mouth. He hadn’t taken the time to shave this morning, and there was a layer of dark stubble on his jaw. “Too much annoyance. You’ve got Norman. I’ve got Pam.”

“Why did you ask her along?”

“Believe me, she was a last resort. It just sealed the deal on this trip being the worst thing to happen to me this year.”

“Oh my gosh, do you ever stop whining? You think Norm’s bad? You should hear yourself. ‘This is the worst thing to happen to me all year,’” I said in a baritone voice.

“I don’t sound like that.”

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