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“Sounds reasonable.” Lando wasn’t quite sure how other teams worked, but she suspected it was similar. “Who takes the data?”

“Violet does most of that—and our other team members.”

It all seemed simple enough, though Lando still couldn’t fathom why Diane was there in the first place. “How did you get my name?”

“Violet shared it with me after you left her office.”

“Shared it for what purpose?”

“Not this.” Diane blushed, a gentle pink rising to the pale skin. “In fact, I’m not sure she’d be too pleased that I’m asking you this.”

“You haven’t asked me anything,” Lando countered.

“Not yet.” Diane lowered her gaze, acting coy, but Lando suspected it was just that, an act. “I don’t think she’d like it if I took you from your schoolwork.”

Lando didn’t answer, because the truth was, she didn’t have schoolwork to go back to. She couldn’t make the payments for the classes, and without her grandmother and those extra funds, she had no idea when she’d be able to do that. She’d been far too embarrassed to mention that to Professor Myers the day before, so she’d pretended like she would be there in the fall.

“I’d like to offer you an internship.”

“What?” Lando’s eyes widened, dragged back to the conversation at hand.

“You have the approval, yes?”

“I do, for two quarters of field education.”

“So you could come with us. It’ll be an excellent learning experience. You’ll get to work one-on-one with one of your professors.”

“Are you serious right now?” Lando frowned, thinking it couldn’t be real. Never in her life had things just fallen into place when she needed them to. She was always the one who struggled to get from point A to point B without backpedaling sixty times in between. It was just the story of her life.

“Completely.” Diane’s lips curled upward again, this time the smile slightly predatory. Lando would have to learn to read these moods of Diane’s rapidly before she felt comfortable enough revealing anything of herself.

“You want me to join your team.” Lando clenched her fists, still not quite sure she could believe this dream might be coming true.

“Yes. I do.”

Grinning broadly, Lando bounced in her seat. “This is amazing. Thank you!”

Diane looked pleased with herself and with Lando’s reaction. She held out her hand, and Lando readily took it. “So does that mean you’ll join us?”

“A thousand times, yes. But wait…didn’t Professor Myers say there wasn’t room on the team?” A stone grew in the pit of her belly, as though this dream come true was about to fall through the cracks again and she wouldn’t be able to have it. That was how it so often worked. One minute the dream was within her grasp and the next it was snatched back.

“We have room on the team. Though, I would like to talk to Violet before you show up, so please don’t talk to her about this.”

That uneasy feeling deepened. If she was going to be working closely with her teacher for the next six months, shouldn’t they talk about that first? Get some sort of game plan in play for what was going to happen and when? Still, it was an opportunity that Lando wasn’t sure she could pass on. She needed the income, but to have income and advance toward the career she wanted at the same time? It would be damn near perfect.

“All right,” Lando replied. “When will you talk to her?”

“Soon.” Diane patted Lando’s knee. “I promise. We’re leaving tomorrow—got delayed a day but that can’t happen again—so I need you ready to go.”

“Oh.” Cold washed through Lando. She hadn’t expected to leave so soon, but she supposed that was what Professor Myers had talked to her about at some point, if she recalled the many conversations they had about it over the past quarter.

“Will that work for you?”

“Yes. Isn’t there some paperwork we need to fill out or something?”

“Don’t worry about that.” Diane waved her hand in front of them. “I’ll take care of everything.”

“Okay. When do we leave?”