Page 96 of Her Reluctant Hero
“Jonathan Montcroft.” She’d never noticed how pretentious his name sounded on her tongue. The man himself wasn’t, but Adrian would jump to that conclusion. Half an hour with her ex and she was already thinking like him again. “We work together at Allied Global. He’s a linguist.”
The raised eyebrow had her blushing even before he asked, “Better than me?”
She resisted the urge to tell him to grow up. “He speaks five languages.” But her remark didn’t erase the picture his double entendre brought to her mind.
“Five languages. Beats my measly three all to hell, doesn’t it?”
“It’s not a competition.” She was too tired to have this conversation.
“Let me guess.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “He’s the kind of man who wants the white picket fence and two point four kids.”
“Three, but yeah.” She watched him, so masculine it hurt to look at him. She squeezed her eyes shut. This man had been the joy of her life and her downfall.
“What happened to Smoller?”
She drew back. The animosity between the two former partners had begun with Adrian’s accusations that Valentine had taken the ivory casket Adrian and Toney claimed to have uncovered. The casket disappeared soon after and, despite in-depth searching, was never discovered in Valentine’s possession. The vehemence with which Adrian went after Valentine had stunned Mallory. She’d tried to reason with him, but that had only made everything worse. He’d accused her of taking Valentine’s side over his.
Their marriage had not improved from there.
“I haven’t talked to him in months. There was never anything more than friendship between us, Adrian. You know that.”
“Not before I moved out, anyway.”
She sucked a breath through her teeth. “Or after.”
Adrian scrubbed his hands over his face. He sat back, wiped his hands on his hips. “You have those papers?”
Shoulders sagging with relief, she turned away to the duffel at her side and drew out a thick sheaf of papers and a pen. Colorful little flags stuck out from the pages, indicating where his signature was needed.
The two bites of chili Adrian had eaten rose up in his throat and he leaned back to look up at her. Her face was drawn, her eyes anxious as she held out a pen.
Seeing her climb out of the truck dressed in her dig clothes had sent him spiraling back in time, had sent hope tumbling through him. Yeah, he’d known she was coming but sure as hell hadn’t expected to see her in her cargo pants and boots, blonde hair swinging behind her in a ponytail, looking like no time had passed.
“Are you happy?” She didn’t look it. He’d fallen in love with her enthusiasm and her passion for life, for archaeology. For him. Now something more than three years and a thousand miles separated them.
She almost dropped her pen in surprise. “I will be.”
With a nod, he took the pen. If she believed it, he would too. His name looked very final scrawled across the white paper.
He was letting her go. It was what she wanted, so it was the right thing to do. They could both move on.
He was just used to being married. He’d broken habits before. After almost three years apart, this one should be a snap.
“I’ll head back to the city first thing in the morning if you can spare someone to take me to the airport. Probably not Toney because he barely said a word to me. I think he was pissed off.” She took the papers and folded them neatly into an envelope before tucking them away.
“I thought you might want to dive, see what we’re working on.”
Mallory tugged at her ponytail and looked across the camp. “I don’t do archaeology anymore.”
“All right. Never mind, then.” He stood. “First, there’s someone I want you to see.”
He led her to a tent, situated away from the center of the camp, a little sturdier, a little bigger than the others. She cast a curious glance at Adrian, but he said nothing, only watched her face as he pushed open the tent flap.
A rush of joy engulfed Mallory at the sight of the old man in the camp chair. She dropped to the ground beside her mentor, Dr. Robert Vigil. He’d aged so much in the short time, his cheeks hollowed, his eyes sunken but still sparkling in delight at her arrival. He was so thin. He’d never been a large man, but now he seemed frail.
He tossed his familiar cloth dig journal on the floor beside her and closed his bony hands around her shoulders, pulling her up for a warm embrace. Just for a moment, she rested her head against his skinny shoulder, all her worries evaporating in the security of his arms. He’d been her anchor when she’d lost her parents, when her marriage had fallen apart. Now he was here—with Adrian.
She opened her eyes to see Adrian watching them and all those worries rained down again.
