Page 23 of A Discovery: Love and Other Things

“I don’t remember much of him, because he passed away from cancer when I was little.”

“What type of cancer?”

“A brain tumor.”

His lips tightened, my story clearly affecting him. “Any relatives on his side?”

My shoulders sagged. “No. I know that he had a brother in Egypt, but I don’t know where he lives.”

“Have you tried searching for him?”

“That’s what I was doing at the café. I was trying to search forums.”

His brows furrowed as he stared off into the horizon. “Maybe you’d have better luck with a private investigator.”

I chuckled. “I can’t afford that.” I wished I could because it would certainly make my search a lot more efficient, but a PI was far too expensive.

He turned to face me. “What if your uncle isn’t alive?”

My smile fell. My deepest fear gripped my body like a starving python. Itwasa possibility, even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself. If my uncle weren’t alive, it would mean my best chance of a connection to my dad, to all his childhood stories and history, would have died with his brother, too. And I couldn’t accept that.

His eyes scanned my face. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

I tried to shrug off the anxiety that squeezed my chest, but instead, my attempt at blinking back the tears produced the opposite result. Trails of liquid streamed down my cheeks.

Angry at myself for crying like a hot mess in front of my mentor, I swiped furiously at my tears, desperate to erase them from view. “God, I’m sorry for losing it like this.,” I said, trying to chase away my embarrassment.

Dr. Campbell’s large hand wrapped around my forearm. “Hey,” he crooned, his deep voice coating my ears.

I cut him off before he could console me any further. “I feel so dumb right now.”

But then he pulled me into his body, his arms surrounding me in a haze of warmth. I should have been startled by his action, but instead, his embrace lifted ten tons of weight off my shoulders. Weight that I had been carrying since the time I could process that my father would never be a family with Mom and me again.

More tears fell as I buried my face in his chest. I kept mumbling, “I’m so sorry,” over and over again.

“Sanura, stop apologizing.” Dr. Campbell’s hand was rubbing large circles on my back. “I don’t know what I touched on here, but I should be the one apologizing.”

“I’m so stupid to have come here.”

Dr. Campbell let out a soft chuckle. “You didn’t have much of a choice. I dragged you here.”

I shook my head, my forehead rubbing against the soft jersey material of his shirt. “That’s not what I mean. I shouldn’t have come to Egypt.”

“Why not?” His hand moved slower against my back, giving me time to elaborate. Every so often, his fingers would tangle between loose strands of my curls, the soft tugging sensation registering at the base of my scalp.

I exhaled a huge puff of air before pulling back from his chest. His deep cobalt eyes studied mine as I mustered the courage to explain myself. “Part of the reason I came here was in hopes of reconnecting with my dad’s family. It sounds silly saying it out loud, but I thought I could somehow reclaim my heritage through this internship. I grew up with just my mother, and even though she did her best to keep my heritage alive, I still never felt Egyptian enough.”

I sniffled and my body shuddered, causing his hands to slide a little further down my back as he held me. He made no attempt to move them back higher, nor did I attempt to pull away from him completely. His touch grounded me. The man I had previously only known as a hard ass was enough to soothe me. It was bizarre, but I didn’t dare question it.

“It’s not silly,” he assured me. “You grew up feeling lost, like a connection had been severed, and it’s normal to try to regenerate it, just like your body would do if a nerve was severed.”

I clutched at his shirt. “He has to be alive. I don’t know how to explain it, but I just feel like he is.” Maybe I was just desperate to kill this lonely feeling inside, but I truly believed my uncle was alive and that I would find him if I looked hard enough.

“He’s alive. If you feel it in your heart, then he is.”

Dr. Campbell cupped my face, using his thumbs to dry the remnants of my breakdown. His calloused touch held some sort of unearthly power that alleviated all my fears and worries.

I leaned into his touch, wanting to feel more of it. It was so wrong to be this close to my professor, but I didn’t care. I was selfish, and I just wanted more of whatever this feeling was.

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