Page 68 of Digging Up Love
Alisha frowned. “I was telling Bridget, I have a good idea who let the cat out of the bag.”
“Well, doesn’t make a difference now.” Frustration clipped his words. Best-case scenario, public interest would blow over during their week away. But if people’s curiosity escalated to trespassing on the Blakes’ property or messing with the site ... he dug his fingers into his temple.
Alisha pulled her phone out of her pocket and tapped it against her palm. “I know this is a huge headache for all of you, but I really need to head in and call my grandparents. Figure out a game plan.”
As he watched her tense movements, Quentin’s heart twisted at the worry they showed. All because of him. “Of course. Go ahead.”
“Thanks.” Alisha disappeared inside, the bang of the screen door against the frame like the shot of a starting pistol to his fears.
His mind raced with potential repercussions of the news segment, from neutral to devastating. He’d promised Alisha they’d fly under the radar, not bring press to her grandparents’ doorstep. And now it was more crucial than ever to get the ilium and femur out of the ground and safely back to the university, just in case this tranquil patch of land turned into Grand Central Rubbernecking Station.
CHAPTER 25
ALISHA
“You don’t have to stay here and babysit us.” Granny frowned at her, face flushed from the scorching July sun, and pushed her wire-framed glasses higher up her nose.
Alisha ducked her head away from her grandmother’s piercing gaze. After an hour spent kneeling in the dirt weeding the front garden, she regretted turning down Granny’s offer of a foam mat.
The Hawksburg rumor mill had kicked into high gear after the segment aired on last night’s evening news. Grandpa had spent this morning making the rounds of all his friends and local business owners, doing damage control on the dino situation. His biggest worry was people being mad about the story they’d fed them, but so far everyone’s interest in the bones seemed to outweigh any grudges.
Ever the opportunist, he’d been talking about renaming their menu items to capitalize on the find, like Brontosaurus Brisket and Mosasaurus Mac and Cheese. The worst of the bunch? Cretaceous Coleslaw. Even Hank had told him to pump the brakes on that one. But Grandpa’s reaction had confirmed Alisha’s fears. He’d gone full steam ahead, not even considering how Granny might fare.
Gardening and canning tomatoes were supposed to be the biggest excitement in her life, not fending off news crews and the legions of townsfolk who’d stopped by “Just to say hi” and “Oh, by the way, mind if we go round back?”
All the buzz was building up behind a pressure valve inside Alisha, twisting so tight she thought she’d burst. “Now’s a terrible time to leave, Granny.”
A drone buzzed over the house, punctuating her statement, and she leaped up, but Granny moved quick as lightning, picking up a megaphone and then barking into it.
“Joshua Ames, don’t make me call your mother!” At the edge of the tree line stood a figure on a four-wheeler.
“Sorry, Mrs.Blake.” The drone zipped away, and a few moments later, the four-wheeler raced off toward the main road.
“See? This is why I can’t leave you here on your own.” Alisha knelt back down with a groan. She dug a spade into the mulch and uprooted a spiny weed from under the marigolds. “That might work with the neighbor kids, but what about if more reporters show up?”
Hand on the porch railing, Granny sank down on her stool, looking pleased with herself. She rested an elbow on her knee, catching her breath. “I think you overestimate the wow factor of a dinosaur bone. People in town are just excited ’cause it happened here. But it’s not like Lady Gaga’s camping out in our backyard.”
Alisha chuckled, mostly at the idea of Granny playing host to the pop star. She poked her spade around another weed. “Still, I planned the visit before all this blew up. I can just as easily go another weekend.”
“Worst-case scenario, what happens, Ali?”
Stomach roiling, she yanked out another weed and threw it into the bucket. “I dunno. I just feel better being here, just in case.” She wouldn’t say the words, let alone think them.
“I’m not gonna keel over dead because of a little excitement, Ali.”
Her eyes snapped up.
“C’mon, child, you think I don’t know what you’re worried about?” Her grandma leaned forward on her stool to wrench out another weed and then shook off the dirt. “But I’m not fragile—a little fun won’t break me.”
“That’s what this is? Fun?”
Hefting up the megaphone, Granny put it to her lips. “Heck yes, it’s fun.”
Laughing, Alisha covered her ears. “Okay, I get it.”
“Not that I’m not upset my best friend couldn’t keep her dang trap shut for once.”
Last night Mrs.S had chugged over with a Bundt cake and admitted to spilling the beans in a Facebook post. She laid on the drama with a tearful apology as thick as the stodgy glaze on top of her lemon poppy seed confection. Not like Alisha hadn’t guessed who’d let the cat out of the bag the moment she’d seen the news van peel out of the driveway.
