Page 31 of Falling for the Enemy

“I sure hope this is the last calamity of the day.” The second I said it, the two-way radio started clicking. Jack was confused by the sound. “That’s the radio, and here goes that inkling thing again. You want to get it this time? After all, I’ve just suffered blood loss.”

Jack smiled as he stood up. “I really am ajackof all trades today. See what I did there?”

“Yep.” I got up and followed him to the radio. He sat at the desk and picked up the microphone. “Always love using these things. Makes me feel like a naval captain.”

Harold’s voice came through a few seconds of crackle. “Biological station to base camp one. Over.”

Jack pressed the button. “This is base camp one. Over.” He looked up at me with a beaming grin. I hated to admit it but when he was in a good mood, he was very attractive … and likeable.

“Oh good, glad you’re there. We’ve got an update on the storm. It will make landfall tomorrow and be in our area by midafternoon. It’s hard to say yet what kind of impact it will have. We’ll know more later this afternoon if we need to evacuate. Over.”

His voice faded in and out, and there was enough static in between the words that Jack looked back at me to double check the message. “He did say possible evacuation, right?”

“That’s what I heard.”

“Right.” Jack pushed the button. “We’ll wait for your update and then prepare next steps once we know more. Over.”

“I’ll contact you as soon as I hear from the weather service. Over and out.”

“Right. Got it. Over and out.” He put down the microphone. “Did I sound good? Cuz it felt like I sounded good. Very official and all that.”

“You really need to get out of that university office more, Sinclair.” I lifted my injured hand as I headed out. “Thanks again for the first aid.”

Chapter Twenty

JACK

Milo slept the rest of the afternoon. His rash was significantly reduced by the antihistamine, but he still wasn’t up to helping with the late afternoon chores of logging specimens, collecting wood for the fire and getting dinner ready. Pam hadn’t left her cot all day, and I was sure she was planning to leave in the morning. After the call from the station, it seemed she might get her wish. We might all get off the “island” early. A week ago, that prospect would have been welcomed, but I’d been enjoying the outing. It had been a long time since I got my hands dirty in nature. The sterile lab just didn’t give you the same sense of satisfaction as working in the field. And as much as I hated to admit it, working alongside Professor Lovely wasn’t nearly as irritating as I expected. We’d found a sort of neutral zone where we could easily tolerate and, I daresay, enjoy each other’s company. That was, as long as I didn’t open a new chasm by saying something overly sarcastic and if she avoided always jumping into defense mode. I had no idea how any of these goodwill feelings would translate or hold up once we returned to the confines of the science building, but out in nature, things felt congenial.

Ian, Evan and Robyn, and even Norman—Ava’s team—had such good luck finding specimens that they talked animatedly to each other as they worked on classification.

I cut up one of the guavas and sat on the log near the unlit firepit. Ava walked out with a cup of water. She sat down next to me. It was strange. Not long ago, we couldn’t even sit in the same lunchroom, but here she was, sitting next to me, looking beautiful and smelling incredibly good considering our crude shower system of rain from a cistern.

“I see my first aid held.” I handed her a piece of guava.

“I’ve been keeping my hand pretty still so far. My students are having so much fun with the samples they collected I decided not to intervene. Don’t want to be a mother hen watching that her chicks are doing everything correctly.”

“Did you ever think you’d get to that age—the age where you’d be the embarassing adult? I found out that ugly truth at Holly’s seventh birthday party. I took her and a few friends to the fair, and they wanted nothing to do with me. They walked way ahead of me, like teens embarrassed to be seen with their father. And I thought I was tossing out some of my better jokes, too. Of course, when it came time to ride the roller coaster, then I was the spot-on favorite for seatmate.”

“Sounds like you’re a really involved dad. Good for you. I would have liked to hang out with my dad more, but he just didn’t know how to handle us girls. Not that we were hard to handle.”

I gave her a side-eyed glance.

“All right, given the right scenario, we could be a handful. That was mostly because we were close in age, and the hormone surges sort of came in unison. My grandmother, Nonna, had no problem keeping us in check. She could be loving one minute and stern the next. It was a terrific combination.”

“Well done, Nonna,” I said. “That is not an easy balance to achieve. Now that I only see Holly every other week, I feel like discipline would take up our time, and I just want that time to be good and quality and leave her with nice memories. Gwen complains that I let her get away with too much, but I’m not going to change that.”

“It must be so hard to have to divide up time like that.” Ava put her hand out for another piece of guava. I couldn’t help but watch with great interest as she pushed the piece between her pink lips.

It took me a second to think about what she said. “Definitely not ideal but then neither is trying to live with a spouse you don’t get along with.” I took a deep breath. “New subject. One that usually excites me, but not out here in the land of beans and dried food. What should I make for dinner? I assume I’ll be in charge because your little fledglings are busy learning and researching and doing what we came out here to do, while mine are flaked out in their cots. Although I don’t blame Milo for resting. The rash has improved greatly.”

“Yes, I checked on him. Thank goodness it wasn’t worse. I can help. I’ll pull on one of the latex gloves we’ve been using for making slides. I guess no word yet from Harold.”

“Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.” I looked over at her. “What is your sixth sense telling you?”

There was a moment of defense in her posture.

“I’m serious. After your story about your sisters, I’m far less skeptical.”

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