‘Too busy to see me?’ she asked, voice low and husky. He pursed his lips.
‘Yeah, sorry Lucia.’ He didn’t sugar coat it. ‘But I’ll see you next weekend. You can meet Laurel.’
‘You have a girlfriend?’ Her voice was sharper than she probably would have wanted.
‘She’s a friend.’ Nate huffed. ‘Look, Lucia, I’m looking forward to seeing you. It’ll be nice to catch up, but I really am too busy to see you after. I’ve got a funding visit to prep for.’
And he had no attraction to her whatsoever. There was no need or desire to see her after next weekend.
A few years ago, he would have jumped at the chance to spend a few more hours in her bed, bathing in the golden glow of her beauty and success, but not now. He’d got over that infatuation a long time ago.
‘Okay, fine, well I don’t know if I could have fit you in anyway,’ she said airily.
‘But didn’t you—’ He cut himself off. ‘But didn’t you call me’ is what he was going to say, but whatever. ‘Never mind. I know Alex is looking forward to seeing you.’
Yeah, he was planting that seed.
‘Oh, Alex is always looking forward to seeing me,’ Lucia said dismissively.
What was he supposed to say to that?
‘Oh, okay.’
‘But anyway, I suppose I’ll meet your new lady love on the weekend,’ she said provocatively.
‘Lucia, she’s not…’ he trailed off. What did he care what Lucia thought?
‘She’s not what? She isn’t your new love?’ Lucia pushed.
‘No, she isn’t. Look, you’ve caught me at a busy time. I’ll catch up with you on the weekend, see you at Jess and Owen’s,’ Nate said, ending the call.
He was pissed off. No, correct that, Lucia had pissed him off. Why did she think that he would drop everything for a couple of days’ roll in the hay with her? Why did she think that he didn’t have a basic knowledge of world-famous archaeological sites?
Nate would definitely have to warn Laurel that Lucia was going to be there next weekend, and that she thought they were more than friends. If she didn’t want to come, then that would be fine. So why did his stomach drop a little at the thought?
‘Nate?’ He was jerked out of his reverie by the girl with the spidery eyelashes. ‘Nate’ was it now? What happened to ‘Dr Daley’?
‘Yeah,’ he said, elbows on the table, eyebrows up.
The girl twirled a lock of hair around her finger.
‘With this new house, surely it would be best if people shared? I mean, I’d be happy to share...’ she trailed off, biting her lip suggestively. What the actual fuck?
‘If you can find someone to share with you, then knock yourself out,’ he said, grabbing up his laptop and heading upstairs, leaving her by the table.
He didn’t want to deal with that shit.
Laurel
It was Thursday and she hadn’t seen or heard from Nate all week. Sylvie had given Robin’s keys to one of the students she had been flirting with all summer, and she’d seen some of them moving stuff over to her brother’s house from her office window, but no Nate.
Sure, she had been busy with the insurance company, who were taking their own sweet time despite her saying how urgent it was, dealing with the frosty weather from her father, and trying to sort out a social media campaign to close the Pick Your Own while also trying to entice people to come to other parts of the farm. But a text or two to see how she was doing would have been nice.
Her phone buzzed on the arm of the sofa and fell down the side of the cushion. She put down the bowl of crisps and wiped her hands on her shorts before retrieving it.
She really did not want to hear all about it, there were way too many things going on, but all the management magazines said that she should be a supportive boss. So, she would be. Fine.
Laurel scrolled to the chat between her and Nate and read through the messages.
