Page 98 of Digging Up Love
Bridget rolled her lips together, her brow creased. “Okay, first of all, don’t freak out.”
“Prof, c’mon. Of course she’s freaking out.” Dev patted her shoulder with all the finesse of a sea lion.
This was bad. Very bad.
“I’m freaking out.”
He quirked an eyebrow toward Bridget. “Told you so.”
Cait stepped up and put her arms on Alisha’s shoulders. “Deep breath in. Attagirl. And out.” While Alisha exhaled, Cait went on, “Someone leaked a photo of you and Dr.Harris making out at the dig.”
Alisha gagged on a lungful of air. “WHAT?”
“And Lawrence took him off the project for compromising the integrity of the university’s image.” Forrest reached for another cookie while he said this, but Dev smacked his hand.
“Quentin’s been fired? Because of me?”
Cait shook her head. “He hasn’t been fired. He just can’t work on this find anymore.”
“Because of me.” Alisha shoved the tub of cookies into Forrest’s hands so she wouldn’t drop it. Her worst fears were coming true. She’d let someone in, and being with her had destroyed him. But maybe shecould fix this. Issue a statement or something. Maybe the photo wasn’t that bad.
“Have you seen it? The photo?”
Another look. “Seriously, stop it with the herd mentality, and will someone just pass over their phone?” Alisha swallowed. “Please.”
Dev dug his phone out of his pocket and tapped at the screen. Handed it to her. She sat down, hard. “I—we ...”
Bridget settled down next to her, cross-legged. “I think the words you’re looking for are ‘a gross invasion of privacy.’”
“Or possibly”—Forrest took another bite of cookie—“‘coopting private behavior for public consumption.’”
“Voyeurism,” added Cait.
“But ... this isn’t what it looks like. I mean—”
“No need to explain, Alisha. What happened between you and Quentin is y’all’s business.” Bridget raised golden-brown eyes to hers, earnest. “He never let it affect his work. If y’all found happiness with each other, more power to you.”
Happiness? Yeah, for all of two minutes, before she’d pushed him away, the ashes of her involvement in his life still volatile enough to torch his career. Happiness? All she’d brought him was a walloping dose of misery.
“But how can Dr.Yates take him off the dig? You and Quentin ran point on this!”
“For one thing, he doesn’t have tenure. And even if he did, it’s not as rock solid as you might think. Misconduct could still be grounds for disciplinary action. He could even be let go for something like this.”
“Which is why we’re wondering, Who took this photo?” Dev’s eyes turned cold in the shadow of his hat brim.
Alisha’s mouth fell open. “Are you accusingme? I’m in it, for gosh sakes!”
“Yeah, but your follower count has grown by over ten thousand since last week.” Cait’s eyebrow went up. “What? You think I didn’t follow you once I found out you were a low-key baking celeb?”
It had? Talk about bad timing for a social media hiatus. “No, Cait. I would never orchestrate something like this. For one thing, I know how much the dig meant to Quentin. For another, my grandparents ... oh my gosh. My grandparents!” She stood up on shaky legs, but Bridget hopped up and grabbed her arm.
“Slow down there, hon. They’re not going to expire from shock at the sight of their granddaughter kissing.”
Grandpa might, but that wasn’t the real issue. “You don’t get it. My job was to protect them. Now there are strangers lurking on our property, taking photos. What if our address gets leaked?” She raised an elbow to her mouth, swallowing the bitter taste of bile.
“Well, if it wasn’t you, who was it?”
Forrest’s question got cut off by the high-pitched whirr of a motorized scooter.
