LITMIR.BIZ

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group left, leaving Isabelle and Matt alone. “Where’d you come from?” she asked.

      “Didn’t think I’d let you eat alone, did you?” He flashed a sheepish grin. “I realized I was hungry, and you looked uneasy. Did I overstep? Is it okay if I join you?”

      Relief coursed through her body. “Yes, please.” She finally sat, keenly aware the men in the group were making their way out of the restaurant. Her pride wouldn’t leave Matt’s gesture alone, though. “I mean, I would’ve been fine, but...thank you.”

      Darren and Robert stopped at the entrance doors. Through the window, the lights from above highlighted what looked like a tense interchange. “I wonder what they’re talking about.”

      “Who are they?” Matt’s gaze remained on the menu.

      “The older man runs a company I would’ve killed to work at fresh out of college. He leads Endangered Robotics. They use drones to keep poachers away from rare animals, but the cool thing is they’re expanding to underwater operations.”

      Matt’s eyes widened. “And the other?”

      “His company just landed a defense contract worth thirty million dollars.” She glanced over her shoulder. The interchange seemed to be done. “I shudder to think just how much he makes.”

      “I take it not as much as you.”

      Isabelle laughed aloud. “Please. You saw the hotel room my institute could afford. We’re a bare-bones outfit. But I hope to change that by luring some investors with my research.”

      The waiter came and took their orders. Matt leaned on his elbows. “This is an oceanology conference, right? What could be worth millions of dollars?”

      “You’ve heard about dolphins being trained for the government? Well, that guy, for instance, invented an underwater autonomous vehicle that does the work of the dolphins, only better.” For the briefest of moments it seemed the estranged years disappeared, and she was sharing everything with her best friend again.

      Matt raised an eyebrow. “So, what about you? What are you working on?”

      “Application of fish swarm behavior in an intelligent transportation system.” The familiar pulse of electricity when she talked about her passion made her sit up taller and talk faster. “I’ve developed a new algorithm that takes in new factors of thermodynamics, fluid dynamics and currents in a way never done before with the potential of driving systems with bottleneck and obstacle avoidance.”

      Matt’s mouth parted slightly. His eyes flickered. “Uh... I don’t suppose you could repeat that in English?”

      She deflated in her chair. “Drones. Think underwater drones.”

      His eyebrows rose. “Oh. Cool.”

      “My boss had to pull a lot of strings so I could present here. The goal is to network and share just enough of my research to get investors to partner with us.” And if she failed, who knew how much longer the institute, and therefore her job, would even exist?

      Sure, she felt confident another company would hire her, but it was the last thing she wanted. Finally having a permanent home meant something, and she would do whatever it took to hold on to it. Her coworkers had become like family to her—with the exception of Hank, who already was—and she wasn’t about to give it up.

      The waiter placed salads in front of them. Matt’s forehead creased in concern. “Is that why you wanted your laptop in the safe? Do you think the hotel-room incident could have something to do with it?”

      “It’s probably silly to think someone would be after my research. My boss has taken every precaution to make sure no one even knows enough to want to steal it, but—”

      “After the day you’ve had, you want to play it safe.”

      “Exactly.”

      They ate in awkward silence. He cleared his throat as the salads disappeared and the meals came. “Since I don’t know if we’ll have another chance to talk, I’d like to clear the air.”

      She fidgeted with her silverware. “It’s not necessary. It’s not like those things you said were lies.”

      “Izzy, I didn’t mean—”

      “No, really, Matt. I get the Bro Code and all that. You were looking out for Randy. Besides, the whole thing was stupid. At the time, I wasn’t even interested in Randy.”

      His mouth dropped. “You weren’t?”

      “Nope.” What was she doing? She needed to stop her mouth, but the adrenaline from the evening and the combined exhaustion made her mouth run on and on. “I actually liked you. And then my girlfriends convinced me to try that stunt to make you jealous. But you know what’s the craziest of all? I ended up with Randy anyway. He said he never would’ve known who I was if it wasn’t for you. Isn’t that funny?”

      Matt stared at her, his expression unreadable. “You what?”

      “Randy and I ended up at the same college. He had a football scholarship.”

      Matt pursed his lips. “Huh.” He coughed and rearranged the food on his plate.

      “And he assured me the stuff you said about me didn’t bother him. So, see? We can move on.”

      “Well, uh, that’s, uh...a relief. Are you still—”

      “No. Don’t worry. My crush on you is gone.” She put a hand on her chest. “No threat here.”

      He cleared his throat. “I was going to ask if you were still with Randy.”

      “Oh.” Her face heated. “No. He got offered a job as a pharmaceutical rep. I just couldn’t do that kind of life.”

      Matt’s eyes softened. “The traveling?”

      His question caught her off guard. She managed to nod. “A long-distance relationship and moving are off the table. I want to stay somewhere for the long haul.”

      Isabelle stared at her empty plate. She’d talked and eaten so fast, it didn’t register what the food had tasted like. The reminder that Matt knew enough to understand her desire without clarification rankled her for some reason. So much so, she wasn’t fast enough to pay for the check before he’d already taken care of it.

      He escorted her to the door. A breeze wove through the River Walk. She shivered. The temperature must’ve dropped twenty-some degrees since the afternoon. In a heartbeat, Matt took off his suit jacket and handed it to her.

      “For the walk back.”

      She accepted. The jacket did more than provide warmth. It somehow made her feel safer, as if wearing armor. She looked like someone’s girlfriend. She hadn’t been one of those for over a year now.

      Her ankle hurt less as she joined the throng of tourists. The ice and rest had done the job. Matt had to step behind her, single file, as there wasn’t enough room to walk alongside each other and still allow the traffic to flow from the opposite direction. The jumble of tourists merging onto the sidewalk separated them by a couple of people.

      A hand snaked around her wrist and yanked her off the walkway and into the darkness. A glint of metal appeared at her waist. “Scream and you die.” The man pulled her up an incline and pushed her into a shadowed area behind a tree.

      * * *

      Matt nearly fell into the water when someone shoved past him. A woman grabbed his shirt and helped him upright. His focus had been elsewhere...specifically, on the fact that Isabelle had ended up with Randy after all. The incident in high school had been an immature ploy to get his attention? How ironic that he had responded with his own ploy by trying to drum up bad things to say about her.

      So she’d come clean, but why couldn’t he? Why hadn’t he interrupted Isabelle and admitted he had liked her? Why hadn’t he told her he never meant

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