Page 78 of Digging Up Love
And hey, Simone might forget about the whole thing by tomorrow.Pssh, yeah, right. Alisha said goodbye with a one-armed hug; then she and the butterfly convention fluttering in her stomach climbed into an Uber, eager to put family troubles aside for her second official very-much-definitely-a-date with Quentin.
CHAPTER 28
QUENTIN
“I see you found your shirt.”
Quentin glanced down at his T-shirt, cheeks aflame. “Yeah, you know.” He pinched the gray fabric and let it go. “No shoes, no shirt ...”
“No service?” Alisha grinned up at him, eyes alight. She tipped her head against his shoulder, fingertips brushing the inside of his elbow. By some trick of physics, his face burned even hotter, the heat spreading to the tips of his ears.
“Maybe not the best attire for a museum visit; I’ll give you that. But I had zero objections to the topless look.” Alisha twined her fingers in his, and a deep tug coursed through his core.
What had gotten into him this morning? He’d never sent a woman a picture like that, not even Mercedes. And he sent Alishatwo? But judging by the enthusiastic kiss she’d greeted him with on the front steps of the Field Museum a few minutes ago, and her current status, draped over his arm, his gamble had paid off.
“This is new.” She pointed up at the towering skeleton of the long-necked titanosaur that stretched up toward the skylights. “And if I remember correctly, last time I visited, thatT. rexhad a lot less meaton its bones.” She peeked over his shoulder at the full-scale model, complete with prey dangling from its jaws.
He laughed, seizing the chance to return to solid footing. “Yep. Pretty cool, right?” But nowhere near as amazing as their newfound ease with each other or Alisha’s open affection, something he’d never expected. “Sue’s skeleton got moved to a new exhibit upstairs. Wanna go check it out?”
Alisha nodded, and they headed toward the stairs. Families with kids of all ages crowded the expansive first floor. Hand in hand, he and Alisha navigated through the throng of couples and tourists wearing Nikons as necklaces, spinning in circles with unfurled maps of the museum like lost pirates.
Usually he came to the museum to work with the fossil collection or with a niece on his shoulders. But bringing a date? Yet another fragment of new pieced into his life. He watched her prance up the staircase in front of him, twists piled in an elaborate knot on top of her head, golden-brown fingers trailing on the carved banister. Bringing her here was a change he could get used to.
At the top of the stairs, a huge replica of the flying prehistoric reptileQuetzalcoatlusguarded the entrance to the dinosaur hall, and Alisha pulled him to a stop under its folded wings. “Yikes!”
A mom with a baby in a carrier bounced toward him with a smile. “Did you want a photo with your girlfriend?”
He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Alisha had stepped around him and was handing the woman her cell. “Sure!” She draped one arm around his waist, then looked up at him. “If that’s okay with you, Quentin?”
If that’s okay?She just accepted the title of “girlfriend” without even a blink, let alone ducking and running for cover.Okay?More like fantastic! He pressed a kiss on her cheek, and the woman held up the phone.
“Aww, you two are so sweet!” She snapped a couple of pictures, then handed Alisha back her cell.
Moving over to the side so other visitors could access the photo op, she thanked the woman, then lifted the screen to flick through the photos, stopping on the last one of them beaming toward the camera. “That beak is no joke! We should’ve pretended to be scared.”
But the first photo made the biggest impression on him: the one capturing his spontaneous kiss. Alisha’s eyes were tipped toward the side, her sumptuous lips lifted in a wide smile, their hips glued together. Her fingers gripped his waist, bunching the fabric of his tee.
She so clearlywantedto be there, to be withhim.
He trailed her through the exhibit, his light mood at odds with the dim, atmospheric surroundings and haunting music piped through hidden speakers. His mouth formed sentences on autopilot, leaving his mind free to bask in her nearness, her laugh, and the mischief dancing in her eyes when she mimicked the sinister leer of a small raptor.
“So, Dr.Harris, tell me more about you.” She walked backward toward the hulking stegosaurus skeleton. “Your best friend is a White Sox fan.” He nodded—he’d texted her once from a baseball game with Tre. “Good for him, because the Cubs suck. You’ve got a brother—just the one?” He nodded again. “Hector. Two nieces. You have a baseless aversion to sourdough—”
He laughed and interrupted her. “In cookies!”
She stuck out her tongue. “And you work at one of the most prestigious universities in the country. I’ve gotta say, I’ve been dying to know more about what you do on a daily basis when you’re not messing up my yard. I really hope it has to do with prehistoric DNA trapped in amber and a dinosaur theme park.”
Quentin grinned. “Well, I’m not authorized to say much. But you’re on the right track.” He checked over his shoulder furtively, then crooked a finger, and she leaned toward him, her perfume fresh and sweet, like a candied twist of orange peel.
“We purchased a large island off the coast of Cuba. The first crop of eggs is due to hatch anytime,” he whispered, then froze, tongue wedged in his cheek when a boy stopped and shot them a weird look. He waited for the kid to move on, then continued the act of secrecy. “But I’m getting shifty vibes from the slob in charge of security.”
With a soft laugh, Alisha brought her lips to his ear, and his abs tightened. “Maybe you oughta pay him more. I hear his currency of choice is Butterfingers and Barbasol,” she whispered, then straightened up with a grin.
“Yeah, but he’d just blow it all on pie.” He chuckled. “But really, what I do is much more boring.”
“Nope, that line won’t work on me. Remember, I’ve seen you in action.”
He hesitated, his father’s words reverberating in his skull, telling him no one really cared about dinosaurs or his stuffy world of academia. But Alisha stood in front of him, so expectant, like she really cared.
