Elda rolled her eyes. “No chance of that. He’s been like this since we were at school. At least Eli and Arlo are out of earshottonight.”
“What a slur on my name. Those boys adore me.” Jack protested with a wave of his hands.
“Of course they do. No one else will indulge their passion for breaking the rules,” Charlie said, swallowing a yawn and evidence of her parental candle-burning at both ends. “I think we’d better head back soon.”
The bar was beginning to close around them. Sylvie wished she’d asked Ade to join her. A night in London together would have been perfect. She said her goodbyes to old friends and took herself to bed with her fantasy that next time she booked a hotel for the night, Ade would be sharing her bed. Whether or not she could share her life—or her future—was another question.
A bigger, thornier, harder question. And one she didn’t have an answer for. Not yet.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Ade bounced into campus.With a newfound confidence, she no longer shrank into her jacket and retreated to her comfort zone at the marine center. In fact, she’d accepted a whole slew of back-to-back appointments with her students, all of whom seemed to have entered the Spring semester with a bag of worries and a list of ailments.
Scott hovered at her classroom door. “Good morning. I brought you a coffee.”
“Really?” Ade eyed him suspiciously. The gesture was uncharacteristic. “How come?”
“I went by the coffee shop and figured you might be in need of a caffeine fix too.”
She took the cup. “Thanks. I appreciate it.” She sat in her usual spot and gestured to the seat opposite. “How’re things with you?”
“It’s not me I’m here for actually. I know Madison’s in hot water because she faked some reports. I’m low-key worried about her.”
Scott’s concern about the well-being of another student demonstrated some real growth. Maybe Ade had underestimated the jock. He sat with his arms folded. She’d come to learn this signaled his discomfort with the subject. But he’d had the balls to come and see her about it. “If you’re worried,I’mworried.” Ade chewed the inside of her cheek. “Tell me more.”
“She skipped a bunch of classes last week. We had a joint assignment, so I messaged her but got the brush off.”
“Has anyone else heard from her?”
“Not that I know of.” Scott shrugged, his familiar nonchalance poking through. “I could ask, I guess. But she’s been acting reallyweird. When she does show up for class, sometimes she’s been drinking or something.”
That was news. Madison was fast becoming Ade’s number one priority. “Thank you for telling me all that. I’ll check in with her today.” She made a note on her laptop. “Will you let me know if you hear anything else?”
“I guess.”
That would have to do. “How about you? How’re things going?”
Scott wrinkled his nose. “Classes are tough, man. The language barrier is like doing the pole vault sometimes.”
“Yeah, I know.” Ade sympathized, but her sticky brain was better with languages than all of her students put together. “Just focus on the practical classes. Spend more time at the lab.”
“And less time in the Latin class. It’s crazy that anyone’s learning that shit these days.” He ran his hand through his hair, which had dulled with the lack of winter sun these past few weeks. “Anyway, I’ll let you get on with it. Later, Ade.” He laughed. “Sounds like Gatorade.”
“Thank you for coming by, Scott.” Ade blinked away her confusion as he left. “How’re you doing?” she asked as Greg strode through the open door.
“All good. I recalibrated some of the instruments back at the lab. Everything should be in order.” He grinned and sat down.
“Sounds great. Thank you for your work on that.” She loved his enthusiasm for lab time. His passion almost rivaled her own. “Tell me how your other studies are going.”
“Fine. I’m on top of the assignments and ahead in marine biology. I’ve asked the professor for some extra credits to do during this semester’s reading week.”
Ade nodded. “You can pick up some extra maintenance shifts too, if you’d like.”
“Absolutely. I’d love to. Just say the word.”
Ade frowned; she’d just done that, hadn’t she? But she let it pass because she liked Greg, and she didn’t want to make him feeluncomfortable.
Their conversation wound up, and she handled two more appointments: one of the students had damp in her room that she needed help with, and the other couldn’t work out how to pay their phone bill.
