about to be defeated now.
“But I want something different from the men in my life,” she continued. “Maybe my tastes have matured, but I’m looking for someone smart and funny-but normal-smart. Not brainy. I could never marry another genius. We’d have a mutant child, for sure.”
He chuckled. “Your own version of genetic engineering?”
“Sort of. I made a list of characteristics that are important to me. I used to have a whole program I wrote one weekend, but that seemed so calculated. A list is more ordinary.”
“Not if you wrote it in binary code.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. I’d never do that. C++ maybe.”
He was going to guess C++ was another computer language, but he could be wrong.
“Not that I needed a computer program to know Andrew is a great guy.”
Jack stared at her. “Andrew?”
“The man I’ve been dating for a while now. He checked out great, and things are getting serious.”
Jack didn’t remember hearing about any guy named Andrew. Not that he got personally involved unless things were heating up-which, apparently, they were. Why hadn’t he been told?
“How serious?” he asked as he heard the sound of a truck heading toward the house.
“I’m probably going to marry him,” Meri said, then ran out of the kitchen. “You hear that? They’re here!”
Marry him?
Before he could react to that, he found himself following her to the foyer and beyond that to the front of the house. A shuttle van pulled to a stop in front of the porch, and the door eased open.
“Who’s here?” he asked, but Meri wasn’t listening.
She bounced from foot to foot, then threw herself into the arms of the first person off the shuttle. He was short, skinny and wearing glasses thick enough to be portholes. Nothing about him was the least bit threatening, and Jack immediately wanted to kill him.
“You made it,” Meri said, hugging the guy again. “I’ve missed you so much.”
The guy disentangled himself. “It’s been a week, Meri. You need to get out more.”
She laughed, then turned to the next person and greeted him with exactly the same enthusiasm. Okay. So nerd guy wasn’t Andrew. Good to know.
Meri welcomed all eight visitors with exactly the same amount of enthusiasm, then she turned to Jack.
“Everybody, this is Jack. Jack, this is my team.”
“Team for what?” he asked.
She grinned. “Would you believe me if I said polo?”
Judging from their pale skin and slightly peering gazes, he was going to guess none of them had ever seen a horse outside of the movies or television.
“No.”
“I didn’t think so. This is my solid-rocket-fuel team. We’re working on ways to make it less toxic and more efficient. There’s a technical explanation, but I don’t want to watch your eyes glaze over.”
“I appreciate that. What are they doing here?”
“Don’t freak. They’re not all staying in the house. Only Colin and Betina. The rest are staying at nearby hotels.”
Jack didn’t like the idea of anyone else hanging around. He needed to concentrate on work. Of course, if Meri were distracted by her friends, she wouldn’t be such a problem for him.
“Why are they here?” he asked.
“So we can work. I can’t leave the mountain, so they agreed to a field trip.” She leaned toward him and lowered her voice. “I know you’re going to find it difficult to believe, but this is a really fun group.”
Most of her colleagues were squinting in the sun and looking uncomfortable. “I can only imagine.”
She walked over to the oldest woman in the group-a slightly overweight, stylishly dressed blonde-linked arms with her and led her forward.
“Jack, this is my friend Betina. Technically she’s a liaison-she stands between the team and the real world, taking care of all the details the scientifically gifted seem to be so bad with. In reality, she’s my best friend and the reason I’m just so darned normal.”
He eyed the other woman and wondered how many of Meri’s secrets she knew.
“Nice to meet you,” he said as he shook hands with Betina.
Betina smiled. “I’m enjoying meeting you, as well,” she said. “Finally.”
Finally?
Meri grinned. “Did I tell you or what?”
Tell her what? But before Jack could ask, the group went into the house. He was left standing on the porch, wondering when the hell his life had gotten so out of his control.
Meri sat cross-legged in the center of the bed while her friend unpacked. “He’s gorgeous. Admit it-you saw it.”
Betina smiled. “Jack is very nice-looking, if you enjoy the tall, dark and powerful type. He wasn’t happy about us arriving.”
“I know. I didn’t tell him you were coming. It was fabulous. I wish you’d seen the look on his face when I explained why you were here. Of course, it was right after I told him I might marry Andrew, so there it was a double-thrill moment for me.”
Betina unpacked her cosmetics and carried them into the attached bathroom. “You know you’re not marrying Andrew. You’re baiting Jack.”
“It’s fun and I need a hobby.” Meri flopped back on the bed. “Why shouldn’t I bait him? He deserves it. He was mean to me.”
“He was in college. At that age, men are not known for their emotional sensitivity. Actually, they’re not known for it at any age. But the point is, you bared your heart and soul and he reacted badly. I agree some punishment is in order, but you’re taking it all too far. This is a mistake, Meri.”
Meri loved Betina like a sister…sometimes like a mom. There were only twelve years between them chronologically, but in life experiences they were light-years apart.
Betina had been the project manager’s assistant at the think tank that had first hired Meri. The second week Meri had been there, Betina had walked into her lab.
“Do you have anything close to a sense of humor?” the other woman had asked. “I don’t mind that you’re brilliant, but a sense of humor is required for any kind of a relationship.”
Meri hadn’t known what to say. She’d been eighteen and terrified of living on her own in a strange city. Money wasn’t an issue-the think tank had hired her for more than she’d ever thought she would earn and she had a family trust fund. But she’d spent that last third of her life in college. What did she know about furnishing an apartment, buying a car, paying bills?
“I don’t know if I would qualify as funny,” Meri had said honestly. “Does sarcasm count?”
Betina had smiled. “Oh, honey, sarcasm is the best.”
At that moment their friendship had been born.
Betina had been turning thirty and on her own for over a decade. She’d shown Meri how to live on her own and had insisted she buy a condo in a good part of D.C.
She’d taken care of Meri after both her surgeries, offered fashion advice, love life advice and had hooked her up with a trainer who had pummeled her into shape.
“Why is getting revenge a mistake?” Meri asked as her friend finished unpacking. “He’s earned it.”
“Because you’re not thinking this through. You’re going to get into trouble and I don’t want that to happen. Your relationship with Jack isn’t what you think.”
Meri frowned. “What do you mean? I totally understand my feelings about Jack. I had a huge crush on him, he hurt me and, because of that, I’ve been unable to move on. If I sleep with him, I’ll instantly figure out that he’s not special at all. He’s just some guy and I’ll be healed. The benefit is I get to leave him wanting more.”
Betina sat next to her and fluffed her short hair. “I hate travel. I always get puffy.” Then she drew in a breath. “You didn’t have a crush on Jack. You were in love with him then and you’re still in love with him. You’re emotionally connected to him, even if you refuse to admit it. Sleeping with him is only going to confuse the matter. The problem with your plan is that, odds are, the person left wanting more could easily be you.”
