by Linda Turner
“Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s talk about the different Indian tribes that once roamed Colorado,” he said, turning the subject to the topic of the day’s lecture. “What can we expect to find on our dig?”
As one of the other students spoke up, Natalie hardly heard the discussion that followed. She’d forgotten about the dig! Now what was she supposed to do? She either had to pay Smitty the thousand dollars it would cost to repair her car or she would have to buy another vehicle. Either way, she was going to have to use what little she had in savings and get a loan just to have transportation again. Considering all that, how could she possibly justify spending more money for a dig she obviously couldn’t afford?
Devastated, she could barely hold back tears. She’d been so excited about her archeology class, so psyched at the idea of actually going on a dig with the great Max Sullivan. And now that was out of the question. She’d learned a long time ago that it wasn’t the things you did in life that you regretted—it was the things you didn’t do. And this one was going to hurt for a long, long time.
She’d have to tell Max, of course. They had become friends over the course of the last month, and after he’d helped her so much with her car, the least she owed him was an explanation. She didn’t doubt that he would try to talk her out of passing on it, but he couldn’t. He’d just told the class that the dig had to be paid for by next week. She could work around the clock between now and then and she still wouldn’t have enough money for the dig. Like it or not, she had to accept that. And Max did, too.
The rest of the class passed in a blur. Even though she knew there was no need to take notes since this was the last time she would sit in on one of Max’s class, she couldn’t stop herself. Max was such a great teacher. He obviously loved archeology, loved teaching. He was one of the most popular professors on campus, and it was easy to see why. He could take dry facts and transform them into a compelling story that transfixed the entire class.
Caught up in his lecture, Natalie didn’t notice the passage of time. Then the bell rang, signaling not only the end of class, but of her time with Max. Pain squeezed her heart, but she refused to give in to tears. Instead she gathered her things together and rose to her feet as most of the rest of the class began filing out. Four other students lingered, however, collecting around Max at his desk like fans at a rock concert. They all had questions about their tests, and he quickly scheduled conferences for the following day.
By the time they left, his next class was starting to file in, and there was obviously no time to talk. “I was hoping we could talk now,” she said quietly. “I forgot you had another class.”
“What about this afternoon?” he replied. “Say around four? I don’t know when your other classes are…”
“Four’s fine. My last class ends at three-thirty.”
“Good.” He needed to start his next class and she should have left, but his eyes locked with hers, and neither of them noticed the other students filing into the classroom. “Are you all right?” he asked huskily. “I know you’ve got to be upset with the test and your car and everything. Just don’t panic. Everything will work out.”
She knew he meant well, but he just didn’t understand her circumstances. And how could he? He wasn’t a father and couldn’t possibly know what it was like to be the sole supporter of twin sons. “It’s just one of those little curves life throws you when you’re not looking. I’ll get past it.”
Promising to meet him at his office at four, she hurried to her next class, but she might as well have skipped it. She couldn’t concentrate. Disgusted with herself, she toyed with the idea of taking the rest of the day off and just going home, but she was already failing one class. She couldn’t take any chances with the rest. So she pushed images of Max out of her head and fished her English homework out of her backpack and turned it in.
How she got through the rest of the day, she never knew. Time dragged. In between classes she worked out what she was going to say to Max at their meeting, but there was no easy way to say what she had to say. Then at four o’clock sharp, when she arrived at his office and found him inside on the phone, all she could think of was that after today she would be lucky if she ever saw him again. And it hurt. When had he begun to mean so much to her?
Quickly covering the phone with his hand, he said quietly, “I’ll be right with you. Have a seat.”
Still reeling from the realization that he had somehow become much more than a teacher to her, she dropped into the chair in front of his desk and didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry. This was crazy! She couldn’t be interested in Max. He was eight years younger than she was, and not the least bit interested in settling down! There had to be another explanation for her yo-yoing emotions. Maybe she was going through a midlife crises. That had to be it. It was the only logical explanation. So what if she was only thirty-six? Her life was in chaos right now, and her subconscious was obviously looking for a way to escape the stress. There was nothing wrong with daydreaming about a tall, good-looking man who was young and fun and had a career that was full of adventure. And just because she suddenly found herself fantasizing about running off on a dig with him and making love in the desert under a vast, inky sky full of stars didn’t mean she had any intention of doing any such thing. She couldn’t. She had responsibilities. She had children. She was a mom!
Caught up in her musings, she paid little attention to Max’s phone conversation. Then she realized he was discussing the arrangements for the dig, and he was less than pleased with whatever figures he was getting. Scowling, he jotted down notes, then growled, “I think I can beat that price. I’ll get back to you.”
He hung up abruptly, muttering curses, then looked up to find her watching him. A rueful grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Sorry about that.”
“No problem,” she assured him.
He was obviously busy, and she should have immediately told him she was going to drop his class, then left him to his work. She certainly shouldn’t have asked him anything about the phone conversation she’d overheard, especially since she wasn’t going on the dig. But this was probably the last conversation she would ever have with him, and the fantasy that kept playing in her head wouldn’t let her just say what she had come to say, then walk out. Not yet. She needed more time.
So she said instead, “I hope you didn’t cut your phone call short because of me. Are you having problems with the travel arrangements for the dig?”
“Something like that,” he said in disgust. “But we’ll talk about that in a moment. First we need to discuss your test. What happened, Natalie? I know you know the material. In fact, you’re one of the few students who’s always prepared. Did you panic or what? I know it’s been a long time since you’ve been in school—”
“It’s not that,” she said huskily. “I just didn’t get a chance to finish studying. There was a problem at home.”
“With one of the boys? What happened?”
“The boys are fine,” she assured him. “A pipe broke when I was studying. There was water everywhere—”
“And you had to fix it, of course,” he replied, frowning in concern. “So how long did it take you?”
“Hours,” she said in disgust. “It was after midnight by the time I got back to my studying again, and I was so tired, I guess I just fell asleep.”
“You should have told me before the test.”
“Then I would have been making excuses, and I don’t like doing that. If I’d been prepared and studied more ahead of time, the broken pipe wouldn’t have made much difference.”
“You still should have told me,” he insisted. “I’m not unreasonable. I know life happens when you least expect it. I would have let you take the test the following day.”
“It probably wouldn’t have mattered,” she admitted honestly. “The second I started reading the test, my mind went completely blank. That had nothing to do with the pipe breaking or studying as much as I needed to. I jus
t froze. You couldn’t have postponed the test for me for that.”
She had a point. “No, but it’s easy to understand why you shut down the way you did,” he replied. “College is tough for eighteen-year-olds, and they haven’t been out of school for eighteen years. You panicked. That doesn’t mean you have to flunk. You can take the test again—I just can’t give you a higher grade than a seventy.”
“Are you serious?”
“Of course I’m serious,” he said with a laugh. “I do it for all my students on the first test. Some of my colleagues think I’m crazy, but this is a freshman course, and college is an adjustment, even for kids right out of high school. So I give anyone who fails the first test a break. After that, you’re on your own. So when do you want to retake the test?”
He expected her to schedule the test for some time the following day. Instead, she said, “I’m not going to retake it. In fact, I’m going to drop the class. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. After everything you’ve done, I couldn’t just drop the class without saying a word.”
Max couldn’t have been more shocked if she’d told him she was going to join the army and leave the boys with friends while she went overseas to fight terrorists. Scowling, he growled, “This is a joke. Right?”
Dead serious, she shook her head.
Swearing, Max had never been so mad, so quickly, in his life. “Dammit, you can’t do this! I know the test threw you for a loop, but you’ll do better now that you know what to expect next time. You’ve just got to give yourself a chance. And if you still feel like you can’t handle the material, I’ll help you.”
“I appreciate that,” she said quietly. “And if that was the only problem, I’d take you up on that. But it gets worse. I can’t go on the dig.”
“Why not?” But even as he asked, he knew. “Smitty got back with you on the repairs on your car, didn’t he? How bad is it?”
“A thousand dollars,” she said flatly. “If I decide to get it repaired. It’s not even worth that much, so it seems dumb to spend the money on it.”
“You’re thinking about buying another car?”
“I think it would be the smart thing to do, but that’s going to cost me even more. Whatever I do, I’m going to have to use what savings I’ve got and get a loan for the rest.” She’d never been one to whine about her personal life, and she never talked about her finances, but the words just came tumbling out. “I hate doing this! I love your class and I’ve been looking forward to the dig from the moment I first heard about it. But I don’t get any child support from my ex-husband. When something goes wrong, I’m the one who has to find a way to fix it.”
He winced. “I can’t begin to imagine what that must be like for you.”
“It’s tough,” she said honestly. “When I enrolled in your class, I knew I’d have to watch every penny in order to go on the dig, but I thought I had it covered. I never dreamed I’d have to use it all for the car.”
When he’d made the dig a requirement in order to pass, he’d known there would be students who would, for one unexpected reason or another, be unable to go on the trip and would, consequently, have to drop the class. He’d convinced himself that he was prepared for that. But that was before he’d met Natalie, before he’d become friends with her, before he’d kissed her. Something squeezed his heart at the thought of her dropping out of his class, and for no other reason than that, he should have told her how much he enjoyed having her in class and how sorry he was to lose her. It would have been the smart thing to do, but at that particular moment, he didn’t give a damn about playing it smart. He wasn’t ready to tell her goodbye.
“I understand money’s tight,” he told her. “That doesn’t mean you can’t go—”
“Of course it does! How am I going to pay for it?”
“The university has agreed to let me hire a student assistant to help with the trip,” he fibbed. “It’s a lot of work. I hadn’t hired anyone so far because I turned the arrangements over to a tour group. That, unfortunately, isn’t working out, so I’m going to need an assistant, after all. I thought you might like to apply for the job.”
Another woman might have jumped at the opportunity, but Natalie was far more cautious than that. Examining him through narrowed eyes, she studied him suspiciously. “Let me get this straight. I tell you I don’t have the money to go on the dig, and just like that—” she snapped her fingers “—you offer me a job out of the blue. Why does this smell fishy to me?”
“I don’t know,” he retorted, making no effort to hold back a grin. “Maybe you’re just a bit suspicious, and for the life of me, I don’t know why. I’m just trying to do you a good deed, and all I get is grief.”
“You’re laying it on a little thick,” she said dryly. “Is there really a job or are you just making this up?”
She’d caught him red-handed, but he had no intention of telling her that. She’d turn him down flat if she thought he might be creating a job just for her, and he couldn’t say he’d blame her. She was a proud woman who obviously didn’t like to ask for help. But she wasn’t asking—he was offering—and he really did need an assistant.
The more he thought about it, in fact, the better he liked the idea. She wasn’t like the rest of his students—she was an adult, not a kid, and she knew how to manage money and her home. If she could take care of twin boys and all that that involved with no help from a husband, she was more than capable of helping him with all the details of a dig. And in exchange for her assistance, he could help her. Not only would she be able to go on the dig, she wouldn’t have to drop his class, and the salary he paid her would help pay for the repairs to her car.
It was a win-win situation for both of them, he reasoned. What difference did it make if the job wasn’t funded by the university? Now that he’d come up with the idea, he was sure he could convince the dean to pay for an assistant in the future. In the meantime, he’d pay for it himself this year, and Natalie would never have to know the difference.
“I’ve never been more serious in my life,” he said honestly. “I never should have brought in a tour group. It’s turned out to be a disaster.” He told her about the letter he received from the tour group informing him that they had filed for bankruptcy. “According to my attorney, I might as well kiss that money goodbye—I’ll be lucky if I get a hundred dollars of it back through the courts.”
“Oh, no!”
He shrugged. “There’s no use crying over spilt milk now. I trusted the wrong people. All I can do is regroup and start over again. I’m sure there are some honest tour groups out there, but I can’t afford to risk any more money. So I’ve decided to take care of the arrangements myself. That’s where you come in. If you’re interested.”
Interested? she thought incredulously. Was he kidding? Of course she was interested. This was the answer to her prayers! “What do you need me to do?”
“Everything,” he said promptly. “We have six weeks to put this all together. I’m talking everything—transportation, tents, food, equipment—and it’s going to take two of us to do it. You’ve already got a lot on your plate with the boys and your other classes and your waitressing job. Do you even have time for this? I guess I should have asked that first. If you don’t, I understand, of course.”
Time wasn’t a commodity that she had a lot of, but the same could be said of money. And this was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up. “Oh, no,” she assured him. “I can do this! It’s not forever, just until Thanksgiving. And I don’t have to drop your class! When can I start?”
He laughed. “How about right now?”
Since she’d made arrangements to pick the boys up at Susan’s at seven, Natalie had planned to use the time after her meeting with Max to study at the university library. Instead, she spent it with Max in his office, working on a list of everything he needed her to check out for him. It was quite a daunting list.
“I know it’s a lot, but it’s not that bad.” He laughed when she looked it over
and lifted a skeptical eyebrow at him. “Between the two of us, we’ll get it done.”
“Yeah. Maybe by Christmas—of next year!”
Far from worried, he said, “We’re going to do fine. I know time is short, but so is money, thanks to Mountain Adventure Tours. So we’re going to do some serious comparison shopping before we buy anything. While you get started on the supplies and see what kind of discounts you can get us, I’ll check out transportation costs. It’d be great if we could rent a bus with a driver, but that may be too pricey.”
“Then what’s the other option?”
“Renting a fleet of vans,” he replied promptly. “The problem with that is that then some of the students have to drive, which means I have to check their driving records. And there’s insurance, of course, which is going to add to the cost.”
“But aren’t three classes going?” she said with a frown. “Wouldn’t renting two buses be cheaper than an entire fleet of vans?”
“You would think so, but the cost of each bus also includes paying for a driver for the entire length of the trip.”
“But the buses would probably have more room for the gear.”
He grinned. “You don’t have to sell me on the idea—I’m all for it. Unfortunately, it all comes down to dollars and cents.”
“What about the tents? Do you want to buy or rent? If you buy, you’ve got to have some place to store them after the dig. But then you wouldn’t have to rent tents again next year, which could save you a lot of money—if you don’t have to pay a lot of money to store them. I’ll look into both options and see which works out to be the cheapest.”