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Chapter Thirty-Three

AVA

I pulled into the university parking lot. The sugary smell of pastry filled the car. I stared down at the bag with the two cheese Danish. Isla had attached a note.

Dear Professor Sinclair,

Thank you so much for saving our sister’s life. I’d like to offer you a free bakery treat whenever you come to the store.

Yours truly,

Isla Lovely

I’d planned to avoid the man all day, and now I was in charge of delivering Isla’s treat. If I timed things right, I could get to his office and drop off the pastries unnoticed. It was our first day back under our new neutrality agreement, and this felt way out of the terms of the agreement, but Isla wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. After Aria left, Isla and Ella pried the details out of me about how Jack saved me from both a crocodile and drowning in the river. They were both flabbergasted and in tears, and that was when Isla devised the “free pastry for life” plan. She said Jack had to be thanked, and there was no way I could argue.

I didn’t see Jack’s car yet, so it seemed I had a clear shot at getting the pastry to his desk without running into him. I laughed to myself as I skittered inside to conduct my secret mission. It was truly comical that we’d come to this now, where we were no longer able to acknowledge each other. It was going to make me nostalgic for our pre-trip contentious relationship.

I stepped into the building, and instead of heading to my office, I made a beeline for Jack’s office. It was locked, of course. I didn’t know why I thought I could just sneak in, drop off the pastries and dash back out. I walked down the hallway and glanced into each room. I was in luck. The custodian, Derek, was mopping the floor of a nearby classroom. I knocked on the propped open door. “Hello, Derek?”

He looked up from his task. “Yes, Professor?”

I held up the bakery bag. “I wanted to leave a surprise on Professor Sinclair’s desk. Do you think you could let me in?”

“Sure thing. I’ll be right there.”

It took him a few minutes to finish the floor he was working on. My stomach twittered with nerves as I watched the double door entrance for Jack. It was so silly to be this nervous about possibly running into him. I wasn’t sure why I felt that way. After all, we were two colleagues who’d agreed to avoid each other. The whole thing was mutual, and while I couldn’t say it was without hard feelings, it was still something we both agreed would work best for our situation. The big question that always seemed to hang in the air—what exactly was our situation? We were supposed to bond during the trip, but it seemed our relationship had only grown more convoluted.

I followed Derek down the hall to the office. “Here ya go. Just turn the knob on your way out, and it’ll lock itself.”

“Thanks so much, and I’m sorry to interrupt your work.”

“No problem at all, and that smells good. Professor Sinclair is going to be pleased. He’s such a great guy. He deserves it.”

I looked at him to see if he was serious. And his expression confirmed it. “Professor Sinclair?” I asked to make sure I hadn’t misheard.

“Yep. My son, he’s a real star on the pitcher’s mound. The travel league coach thinks he has a real chance for a baseball scholarship. Just needed some professional coaching, but that kind of coaching comes with a big price. My wife and I couldn’t afford it. Professor Sinclair heard about it through some of the staff—” Derek smiled. “You know how the gossip flies around here.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Well, Professor Sinclair paid for my son’s training, and now he’s the youngest member on his high school varsity team.”

“Wow, that’s a wonderful story, Derek, and I wish your son the best of luck.”

“Thank you, Professor Lovely.” He started to leave. I was anxious to drop off the pastries and get out before Jack arrived, but it seemed Derek had one more thing to say. “Probably shouldn’t gossip, but there’s a lot of rumors around that the two of you, Professor Sinclair and you—well, that the two of you—” His cheeks darkened, and he shook his head. “Shouldn’t listen to gossip. That’s what my wife always tells me.” Derek walked out.

I shook off his last comments. He was right—it was just gossip. I circled around Jack’s desk. A sweet photo of his daughter smiling and holding a baby chick sat next to his computer. I put the pastry bag and note in the middle of his desk, hurried back to the door, turned the lock and left the office.

Jack’s office was in the main hallway with a view of the entrance. No sign of him.

I walked quickly down to my own hallway. As I turned the corner, Brimley was stepping out of his office at the opposite end of the main hallway. “Professor Lovely, there you are.” Brimley looked past me. “Sinclair, you’re here, too.” I froze but didn’t turn back to look at Jack. “Great. Let’s meet in my office in fifteen minutes. I need a debriefing on the trip. I hear we had a student injury. There will need to be a report. Glad you’re all back safely.”

“Yes, Professor Brimley,” I said and disappeared down my hallway.

“I’ll just put my stuff down.” Jack’s deep voice floated down the corridor I’d just left. Hearing it sent a few unexpected sensations through me. Not bad ones, either. Like the kind you got when you answered your phone, and it was your school crush on the other end. This was going to be a lot harder than I thought.

Hearing his voice had flustered me plenty, but seeing him as he stepped into Brimley’s office sent a lot of confusing shockwaves through me.

“Sinclair, sit there next to Ava.”

We didn’t look at each other even though we were literally five feet apart. I could smell his soap and hated to admit I liked it.

Brimley put on his wire-rimmed glasses, squinted at a paper on his desk, then removed his glasses to talk to us. “Of course, the grant committee is asking to recoup part of the grant money because the expedition was cut short. We’ll have to comply. A bad storm, I hear.”

“Strong winds and rain,” I said. “Made the camp basically unlivable, and Mia and Harold, the couple who run the biological station upstream, insisted we evacuate. It was a good call. The river tributary that bordered the camp was close to flood level. Fortunately, the rain stopped before it washed past its banks. It took the bridge with it though, and so a few of us were left behind.”

This was my grant, so Jack had apparently decided to sit by like an innocent bystander. I was fine with that. It was my expedition. I wished Brimley hadn’t felt the need to invite him. Having him so near was distracting. I inadvertently looked to the side, and he’d done the same. Our gazes crashed and held before we yanked them apart. Brimley caught the clumsy, obvious exchange.

“And so, tell me, did my diabolical plan work? Are you two on speaking terms, so we can count on teamwork and cooperation in this department?”

Jack spoke up first. “Like two peas in a pod. Thick as thieves. Birds of a feather. All quiet on the front.”

I turned to look at him and had to hold back a laugh. He shrugged lightly and faced Brimley again.

“Well, good to hear.” Brimley lifted a cynical brow. “Not getting that vibe from the two of you right now. You’re sitting next to each other, but you might as well be sitting in different buildings.”

We had to do better than Jack’s comical string of idioms. It was a last resort, but it was going to be my job on the line. I reached over and patted Jack’s arm, admittedly patronizingly. “We’re just fine now. You had a good idea. I guess that’s why they put you in charge.” I added a smile, which always seemed to work with Brimley.

“Well, that’s good to hear. Now I spoke to Norman Plimpton this morning. He came in to let me know he intended to leave the biological sciences for computer science. He was on crutches.”

“He twisted his ankle during the storm,” I explained.

“I’ll need a complete report about the incident by the end of the day.”

I nodded. “I’ll get right on it.”

“Well then, it’s a shame the expedition was cut short. I trust there were some successes?”

“Yes. It was going very well right up until the morning that the storm blew through.” I stood up and Jack followed.

“Glad you’re back, and I’m glad the two of you found common ground. After all, it’s for the good of the school.”

We both nodded like chastised school children and walked out the door. I thought we’d part ways without another word, but Jack chuckled. “Interesting how the fiercely independent, strong-willed Professor Lovely doesn’t hesitate to pull out her secret weapon, that devastating smile, whenever she wants to make nice with Professor Brimley.”

I spun around to face him. “Someone had to swoop in and clean up after your disastrous idiom parade. Did you forget ‘joined at the hip’?”

“No, that would have just been stupid. Clearly, we’re not joined at the hip.”

“This means we’ll have to be congenial whenever Brimley is around. Are you all right with that? It doesn’t cut into your plans to pretend I don’t exist?”

He looked annoyingly handsome as he rubbed his chin in thought. “Not sure I used those exact words. Besides, it’ll be hard to miss each other now when I visit your sister’s bakery. I assume you left the pastries and note on my desk?”

“Yes, that was me. And that little note and deal is strictly between Isla and you. It has nothing to do with me, so do not expect me to deliver your free pastries every morning.”

“Not at all. I’ll go into the bakery and introduce myself. Your sister seems far friendlier than you. Is she pretty?”

“You’re hilarious. She’s beautiful and very much taken. Now can we get back to our plan to avoid each other like a plague?”

He shook his head. “Now, I know I didn’t say that, and look who’s using idioms now.”

“Argh, this version of you is so annoying. Why don’t you find that Scrooge guy again? Much more enjoyable,” I grumbled as I walked away.