by J. J. Bella
"That's perfect," said Evan. "I only have a little work to do today, so I can bring her to the site with me."
Lana nodded and left.
"Ugh!" said Darla. "Do I have to go to work with you? It's so boring."
Evan's gaze flicked to me, his blue eyes sparkling in the late morning sun.
"As you can see, interest in archeology isn't a heritable trait."
I smiled.
"Wait," I said, thinking, "we only have to do a couple of quick things on site today, right? Why don't I hang out with Darla today so you don't have to drag her to the ruins?"
"Yeah!" said Darla. "There was a pet store in town that I want to see. Can she take me there? Please, please?"
"Kid's obsessed with kittens," said Evan.
I looked over Darla's shirt which, sure enough, was covered in small drawings of cats.
"Why don't you introduce yourself to Roxanne, since she's offering to do something so nice for you?"
Darla scrunched her face and prepared to introduce herself.
"Hello," she said, her voice taking on a prim tone that was clearly practiced. "My name is Darla McCall. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Next, she extended her small hand towards me.
"Why, it's a pleasure," I said, flashing Evan an impressed expression. "My name is Roxanne James."
We shook, her hand tiny in mind.
"What a polite young woman," I said.
But Darla was quick to revert to her normal self.
"OK, daddy, can we go now?"
"Let's get you settled inside first," said Evan, grabbing her bag from where it sat on the porch and heading in.
After a few minutes, Evan and Darla were back out.
"OK," said Evan. "I'll be done by noon, so you won't have to play babysitter for too long. And here-"
He fished a credit card out of his pocket that had the Missouri State logo on it and handed it to me.
"Grab some lunch if you're hungry. But don't let her talk you into getting a kitten."
I smiled and slipped the card into my pocket as Evan turned to Darla.
"Be nice," he said, squatting down to her level. "What do I not want any of?"
Darla sighed. "No shenanigans, no tomfoolery, no nonsense," she said, repeating lines that it was clear she'd had to say many times before.
"Perfect," said Evan.
A little later, Evan was off, and it was just Darla and me.
"Can we see the cats now? Please-oh-please-oh-please!"
I was a little impressed that her desire to look at some kitties as greater than her need to eat or sleep after her long flight.
"You got it, kid," I said.
We took the spare car that Evan had rented in advance of Darla's visit and drove down the winding road into town. Darla looked at the passing buildings with eager eyes, anxious to get out and see these cats she was so obsessed with.
"I'm hungry," she said.
There we go, I thought.
"You want to grab some food before we look at the cats?" I asked. "Probably more fun when you're not starving."
"Yeah!" she said. "I want waffles, and pancakes, and cereal."
"What's a pretty carb-heavy breakfast," I said.
"What?" she asked, scrunching her little nose in confusion.
I smiled and shook my head as we pulled into the town center. I parked, and we made our way to a little breakfast place where Darla happily destroyed an entire plate of waffles with blackberry syrup. It was a nice day out, so we walked the length of the main road down to the pet shop, stopping at little shops here and there. My phone buzzed with a text from Evan, and I was surprised to see that he'd already finished on site and was asking where to meet up. I told him we were heading to the pet shop now, the text filled with plenty of cat emojis.
"They're so cute!" shouted Darla, looking on through the window of the pet shop and the kittens and puppies playing in their little pens.
We entered the store, and the shopkeeper, a woman in her thirties, helped Darla look at each kitten that caught her eye. After a time, the door chime sounded as Evan entered.
"Hey," he said, looking over the scene as Darla played with an adorable little Calico. "All good with the wild beasts?"
"You weren't kidding about her loving cats," I said, watching with Evan as Darla petted her kitten happily.
"It's a thing," he said. "One of these days she's going to wear down my defenses, but not when we'd have to bring the thing back in our carry-on luggage."
He walked over to the puppy pen and pulled out a small beagle puppy with floppy ears.
"How about a dog?" asked Evan, clearly trying to talk her into the pet he preferred. "This guy's pretty cute."
"I don't like dogs," said Darla, not even looking up.
"Girl knows what she likes," said Evan.
"Here, Dad," said Darla, handing the kitten to Evan.
"Um, I'm good, kiddo," he said.
"Come on! He likes you."
The little kitten reached out a small white paw towards Evan as Darla held it in the air.
"Sure, sure," he said, knowing he was beaten.
He took the cat and sat down on a small stool behind him, the little animal meowing and mewling as it tried to swipe up at him with little paws. I let out a laugh at the sight of a big guy like Evan holding such a tiny little animal. He dangled his finger in front of the cat, talking to it in a funny baby voice.
"OK, that's enough kitty-cats for one day," said Evan, clearly realizing he was close to getting talked into buying it.
The rest of the week flew by. I had fun with Darla around town, and Evan was more at ease now that his daughter was with him. It was clear that he loved her dearly, and seeing him with his little girl gave me a new appreciation for the man he was. But soon, the week was up, and it was time for Darla to leave. Evan's face was in an expression of restrained sadness when she left, and I soon missed the energy and fun that the little girl brought to our tiny cottage.
10
I spent the week after Darla left quite despondent; seeing her leave affected me more than I was anticipating. I felt thankful for Roxanne being at the cottage; though I didn't want to admit it, being alone during this time might've been a little much.
The work at the site was more than I could've hoped for, but I found myself counting the days when I could be back in Missouri with my little girl.
A discovery on the site, however, provided just the distraction that I was looking for.
We stumbled upon it by accident; it was a deeper chamber to one of the main buildings at the site, a tunnel that led down to a small storeroom where artifacts from an even older civilization had been stored by the people who were studying. This gave the work a new dimension, and the book that I'd been forming in my mind about the work here now had the makings of an exciting new chapter.
"I hope you're ready to have a busy last couple of weeks," I said to Roxanne as one of the other students brought up yet another haul of ancient tools.
"More than ready," Roxanne said.
I smiled at this; it was a real pleasure to have a girl like her who was so interested in the subject.
And I couldn't help but think about how she'd been with Darla; Roxanne had a natural way with her, and Dee really seemed to taking a liking to her. But I filed this information away for later, choosing instead to focus on the work at hand.
We began spending many late nights at the town library. I grew to love that old place, which had the look of what one would imagine in an old-world library, rather than the boring, functional one on campus that seemed to be nothing more than a big warehouse full of metal shelves. Roxanne and I settled into a routine of working at the site during the day, grabbing a quick meal in town, then going to the library for another few hours at work. Occasionally, we'd head to the local pub on the way back for a pint.
It was a nice routine. I'd realized that I'd been so busy with work that I'd forgotten what it was like to have a woman around.
> "So," said Roxanne one night at the library, the steam from her coffee swirling around her face. "I had something to ask you."
My gaze hung on her face, and I paid special attention to her narrowed, sensual eyes, the way her hair lay draped on the sides of her face, the redness of her lips as she crinkled them into a conspiratorial smirk.
I snapped myself out of this; my attraction to Roxanne was growing by the day, and I hoped that the trip would be over before it became too difficult to ignore.
"Oh?" I said, looking up from my notes.
"I was thinking that I might be able to help you with this book you're putting together."
"You are helping," I said. "That's what all the work at the site is for."
"No," she said, tracing the rim of her coffee mug with the tip of her index finger. "I mean something a little more substantial. Like, um, helping you write it."
My eyes widened at this. That was quite the request for an undergrad.
"You want to help write it?"
"Sure. I mean, I know this material just as well as you do by this point. And I think I could add some good stuff. I'm not asking for my name on the cover, just a little ‘thank you' in the back or something, something I can put on a transcript."
It seemed fair. She had been quite the help this summer, and giving her an acknowledgment in my book along with my reference would really help her stand above the crowd when it came time for grad school.
So I agreed. It didn't hurt that I was mildly mesmerized by her beauty as she asked.
The next week or so passed in much the same way, the key difference being our time in the library becoming closer and closer…literally. I found us frequently sitting only inches away from one another, our eyes flicking up to one another's as we looked over a piece of data or an underlined passage in a book. I enjoyed being so close to her, especially when I could feel the slight warmth radiating from her body. I often found us touching one another, her hand landing on my own as she laughed at one of my stupid jokes, her mouth wide open in a toothy smile, her laugh cutting through the silence of the library.
"Feel up for a pint?" I asked one night, feeling about ready to close the books for the evening.
"I thought you'd never ask," she said, stretching her willowy limbs as she stood up, a small strip of her stomach showing as she stretched.
We gathered our things and headed out, arriving at the pub soon after. Our conversations from the library continued, us both talking in excited terms about our recent discoveries at the site. Soon, just like at the library, we found ourselves sitting close to one another, our arms nearly touching.
"It's a nice night," I said after taking a swig of my pale ale. "Why don't we go out onto the back patio?"
"Let's do it," she said.
We went out back, where we found ourselves alone on a small, wooden patio that looked out over the back stretch of grass and the buildings being us. The space was illuminated by the same soft, orange lighting as the rest of the bar, the only difference being the stringed lights that gave the space a somewhat festive air.
"I still can't get over how different you are outside of class," she said, curling up in her chair and taking a small sip of her beer.
"I could say the same thing," I said. "You're actually pretty charming when you're not trying to be a know-it-all."
She playfully slapped me on the arm.
"Besides," I said. "There's plenty that you don't know about me."
"Oh yeah?" she asked, scooting her body closer to mine, as though we were about to hatch a plot. "Some secret side of you that I still don't know about?"
"You never know," I said.
At that moment, my gaze flicked up to her eyes. I became lost in them for a moment, feeling as though I was falling into those beautiful, grass-green circles. There seemed to be something like a crackle of electricity between us, and I realized that all I wanted to do at that moment was to kiss her hard and deep.
And if I wanted to, well, there was no time like the present.
But I didn't. Instead, I rose and drank the last bit of my beer.
"I think it's time to get back," I said, hurriedly heading back inside, my mind swimming with what had nearly just happened.
11
Before I knew it, the two months had flown by and it was nearly time to go back to the States. Sitting in my cozy little room that last evening, I thought about just how great my time had been here. I'd learned a lot, and working with Evan and the rest of the archeologists from other schools has given me plenty of useful experience that I know will come in handy as I continue along in my career.
I couldn't stop thinking about that night at the bar, that night that it seemed like Evan wanted to kiss me. I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't thought about what it would be like to kiss him, some nights even secretly hoping that we'd have one drink too many at the pub, then come back to the cottage to have a quick nightcap of a couple of glasses of wine, only for us to want to keep the night going…
But he was my professor; it would be insane for me to jeopardize our working relationship by getting involved like that. Not to mention the fact that I was still a virgin; I wouldn't even know what to do even if we did end up in bed together. But I'd never felt this strongly about a man before. Guys like Paul, the guy that I'd been seeing the last few weeks of fall semester, the one who I'd used Evan to ditch, they were fun for a time, but I'd never felt the urge to…go all the way with them. Evan, on the other hand, made me want to just give myself over to him. I couldn't explain it; we hadn't even kissed and I was already fantasizing about him taking my virginity.
It was stupid, though. A guy like him with a great career and a wonderful daughter probably wasn't the slightest bit interested in an undergrad like me. The best thing to do would be to just put all of that out of my head and go our separate ways once the trip was over.
"You about ready to go?" asked Evan from the hallway.
I got up and walked over to my door. To my surprise, Evan was standing at the entrance to his own room, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. His sculpted body of wide, strong shoulders and sculpted, tight abs was on full display, and his jet-black hair was slicked back behind his ears. As soon as he saw that I'd seen him, his blue eyes went wide and he ducked back into his room.
"Sorry," he said, "I thought you were just gonna yell from your room."
"Um, uh, no problem," I said, my face hot as I ran back into my room. "Yeah, I'm almost ready!"
That was…a hell of a body for a professor, I thought. He must be really putting that free campus gym membership to good use.
I couldn't believe that I'd seen Evan like that. Aside from the shock, now I had another mental image to fight off when thinking about him. Catching my breath, I finished getting ready and headed downstairs, where Evan was waiting for me. He was dressed in a sharp outfit of black jeans, a well-tailored white dress shirt with the top two buttons undone, and a pair of black Chelsea boots. He looked extremely handsome.
"Ready?" he asked.
Soon, we were at the bar, where the rest of the site team had planned a last-night get-together to celebrate the successful summer. The place was rented out for the evening, and as we stepped in, we saw that it was already packed full of the two dozen or so professors and interns that I'd worked with over the last few months.
"The usual?" asked Evan, gesturing towards the bar.
"Sure," I said.
He went off to grab our pints, and I scanned the room. As I did, I caught the attention of Sam, a dusky-haired intern from Iowa State. We'd gotten along over the summer, and I felt like there might've been a little something between us, though I never acted on it- was too busy with work, not to mention occupied by thoughts of Evan. But the smile he flashed me sent the signal that he might be interested in getting to know me a little better this last evening in town.
Evan soon arrived back and handed me my beer. But before either of us could say a word, a tall, strikingly beauti
ful blonde woman approached us, a wide smile her face, her brown eyes locked onto Evan.
"Professor McCall," she said in a posh English accent, throwing her arms around Evan.
"Professor Aldington," said Evan, his eyes slightly wide in surprise.
"Fancy meeting you here," she said, letting him go and looking him over.
"No kidding," he said, "I thought you'd be in Wales this time of year."
"I was, but I was actually in town to meet Professor Williams; we're heading to Scotland tomorrow for another dig."
The woman's eyes flicked over to me, giving me a judgmental once-over.
"Ah, this is Roxanne James, my intern," said Evan. "Roxanne, this is Professor Elizabeth Aldington from Oxford."
"Oh, nice to meet you," I said, extending my free hand."
"Charmed," said Elizabeth, clearly not impressed with me.
"These Midwestern girls are just so…cute," she said, her emphasis on the word making it clear that it wasn't a compliment. "Anyway, we must catch up. Come have a drink with me on out back."
Evan turned to me as if to ask, "do you mind?"
I nodded, and they were off, already in lively chatter as they left. I sighed, Elizabeth's class and beauty fresh in my mind. And Oxford. She was the type of woman that I would expect Evan to be interested in, not some young nothing like me.
I made my way the bar, finding the group of students from Stanford and passing an hour or so with them. But as time went on, I couldn't help but want to talk to Evan. I was so used to his company that being away from him, even for a little while, was strange. Not to mention the little pangs of jealousy that I was feeling towards Elizabeth.
Finally, my curiosity got the better of me, and I went looking for the two. Pint in hand, a buzz swimming in my mind, I set out for the back porch. There were a handful of people out there, and I peeked my head past the door.
My heart sank when I laid eyes on Evan.
He was sitting with Elizabeth, her hand on his thigh as she leaned in close him as they spoke. She was clearly flirting, and little peals of laughter sounded out from her every now and then. They looked to be about five minutes from getting it on then and there.