Authors: Delphine Dryden
“No,” Drew said with much more confidence than he felt, “not
if I take you home and you change outfits in between.”
“Okay. Assuming I accept that, what makes you think I’ll
agree to a second date with you, just like that? Much less a third. I only went
out with you in the first place because I lost a bet.”
“And it still stings, doesn’t it? But the dinner was pretty
good, I think. And besides, you’ll come with me this time because you’re
curious now.”
She regarded him for a moment, her expression unreadable.
Drew found he was holding his breath.
“All right,” she said at last. “Impress me.”
Chapter Three
“Are you out of your damn mind?” Eva asked, not for the
first time since they had started the climb. “How is this legal? This cannot be
legal!” She gripped the iron rungs firmly, and Drew noticed she was actually
having no trouble with the ascent up the spare, metal scaffold.
“Wanna bet?” he called up to her over the singing wind.
“Not particularly,” she retorted. “Not now that I know you
only make loaded bets.”
“I’m more risk-averse than I let on,” Drew corrected her. “I
only like to bet on a sure thing.”
“Death and taxes, Mr. Brantley,” Eva reminded him. “The only
two sure things.”
“You sure are good with the light banter,” he said, slightly
winded with the effort to keep up with her. “Jesus, how fit are you? You’re not
even out of breath. Here, take that ladder to the right, next.”
From the narrow catwalk they crossed to the next ladder, the
last leg of their climb. Drew’s hands were chilled to the bone despite his
insulated ski gloves, and he could only imagine Eva had to be even colder,
slender as she was. He admired her for not complaining. Almost as much as he
admired her for the extremely fine rear view she presented as she climbed
nimbly up the ladder above him. Her parka only came down to mid-hip, and the
jeans she had changed into were strategically faded. God, he loved it when jeans
were strategically faded. Not that the ass in question needed any highlighting
to look stunning.
“Almost there,” he reassured her with a shout.
Then they were there, Eva hitting the top platform with a
visible sigh of relief and Drew crowding up the ladder behind her.
“Okay, now don’t turn around yet. And close your eyes.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she grumbled, but gripped the
back rail on the narrow ledge they were standing on, squeezing her eyes shut.
Carefully, Drew turned her around by the shoulders and then
slid his hands down her arms to help her find the front rail. He pulled his
hands back only as far as her waist, telling himself it was to help steady her,
and that the two or three inches of down padding in her parka covered
everything really interesting anyway.
“Okay. Tilt your head back a tiny bit and open your eyes.”
He tried to see it as Eva would be seeing it, for the first
time. The panoramic view of the surrounding farmland, silver in the light of
the sinking half-moon, and then the infinity of stars overhead. The cold front
had passed, leaving only fresh snow on the ground and a bit of ice in the newly
clear air. They were just far enough away from any severe light pollution that
the lights of the night sky could be seen in all their sparkling glory.
“Oh…” she whispered, and then let her head drop back against
his shoulder as she took in the astonishing view. Each star, crisp and clear as
if seen in a textbook, something one couldn’t see in Indianapolis or even in
the middle of a small suburban town.
After a few minutes of silence, which Drew hated to break,
he bent close to Eva’s ear—the bottom half, with a delicate pearl earring she’d
been wearing since the beginning of the evening peeking from beneath her black,
fleecy ski cap.
“Let me know when you get too cold,” he murmured.
“I was already too cold when we started,” she admitted. “But
it was worth it. This is beautiful.”
“Did I impress you?”
Eva laughed. “Yes, you impressed me.”
“You want to see something else impressive?”
“Please tell me that isn’t a
double entendre
. Okay,
what?”
“This way.” He pulled her by one hand down to the opposite
end of the platform, to a door Eva hadn’t seen before, apparently leading into
the dome-like structure they had climbed.
“I thought this was a water tower or something,” she said
with an embarrassed smile. “In the dark, you know.”
“Nope. Observatory. We didn’t exactly come in by the front
gate.” He opened the door to reveal a round room occupied by two bespectacled
astronomers and the biggest telescope Eva had ever seen. The sliding roof was
open a wedge, but a space heater warmed the desk area somewhat.
“Brantley! Where you been, man?” The younger of the two men
greeted Drew warmly with a handclasp and a slap on the shoulder. “And who have
we here? Good evening,” he said, dropping his voice and shifting gears
instantly when he got a good look at Eva. “Welcome to the Brantley-DeWitt
Observatory Facility. I’m Dr. Davis, and if there is anything I can do to
assist you while you’re here, anything at all, please don’t hesitate—”
“Yeah, yeah, she’s got it, Ed,” snarked the older scientist.
He nodded at Eva from his seat at the view screen for the giant scope. “Ma’am.”
“Guys, this is Eva Godfrey. Eva, this is Ed and Fred.” Drew
gestured to the two scientists in turn. Ed gave a gracious demi-bow, while Fred
had already returned his eyes to his task. “So what’s happening tonight?”
“On tonight’s agenda, we are once again looking for
supernovae,” Ed reported. “And mainly, Fred’s doing something technical with the
calibration on the spectroscope.”
“Exciting times.”
“The fun never stops, man. You want to use the small scope?
Hayden’s not here tonight, nobody’s up there.”
“Nah, we mostly came in to warm up and take the shortcut
back to the car. We were doing naked-eye observations tonight.”
Ed winked broadly at Eva. “Naked eye is still my favorite
way to look at the stars too.”
“That’ll do, Ed.” Drew offered Eva his arm and bid the
astronomers good night as he led her to a door across the long control room.
From there, a featureless beige hallway led to a stairwell, and down a few
flights of stairs they came to the front entry of the building. Exiting, Eva
noticed the tidy brass sign by the entrance, reminding her of Ed’s welcome.
“Okay,” Eva said as they started following a walkway by the
narrow road, aided by a flashlight Drew procured from his coat pocket. “So why
is your name on this thing?”
“My grandfather’s name, actually,” Drew admitted. “He was an
amateur astronomer, and after he retired he threw all his attention and a lot
of his money into funding this place for the university. Hank DeWitt was
another alum who worked on getting the big telescope built.”
“Your grandfather was a scientist? So I guess you didn’t
follow in those footsteps?”
“Turn down that gravel path, it’s a shortcut,” Drew said,
using the flashlight to point out the way. “No, he wasn’t actually a scientist,
except as a hobby. He was a lawyer, and then later a law professor. My dad’s a
lawyer too. My brother and I are the black sheep.”
She laughed. “I just realized, Drew, I have no idea what you
actually do for a living. I mean I knew you didn’t only help Danny tie girls
up, but I never thought about what you were doing the rest of the time.”
Drew took her hand, ostensibly helping her pick her way down
the rough path. “I’m an enterprise architecture consultant.”
“Oh. I see.”
“We’re almost to the car. Watch your step. You still have no
idea what I do for a living, right?”
“No idea, that’s true.”
“Say a company wants to find out what kind of technology
they might need to implement their business plan. I go in and help define their
goals and then help figure out what hardware and software they’d need for that.
Work out sourcing options and all that. Mostly my minions go in now, though. I
mainly supervise. And spend as much time as possible out of the office playing
computer games and tying up pretty women.”
The path ended at the edge of the rough gravel parking lot
where they’d left Drew’s car. The huge observatory dome was nearly invisible
from this vantage point, showing only as a faint silhouette against the starry
sky. In the darkness, Drew’s car and the handful of others would have been easy
to miss without the flashlight.
“That sounds nice. The part about having minions, I mean. I
could use some of those. What does the other black sheep do? Your brother?”
“Economics professor. Here at the university.” He opened the
car door and held it for her, smirking.
“Your poor parents must be so ashamed,” she said coolly as
she slid into the seat.
“We’re a source of constant disappointment,” he agreed, then
shut the door and jogged to the driver’s side to get in and start the car. “So
can I interest you in stopping somewhere for some fancy decaf latte or hot
chocolate or something before I take you home?”
“God, yes,” Eva said, rubbing her hands together and then
placing them in front of the quickly warming vents with a relieved sigh.
“Awesome.”
“That’s still on this same date, though.”
Drew sighed, resigned. “Gotcha.”
* * * * *
They had just sat down with their coffee when Drew got the
call from Sheila. The reception was spotty, and he had to ask her to repeat
herself to make sure he’d heard correctly.
“Hang on,” Sheila said, and Drew heard rustling and a lot of
noise he couldn’t identify, before the signal cleared. “Is that better? I had
to get near a window.”
“Yeah, it’s better. Where are you?” He held one finger up at
Eva, who was mouthing an inquiry about who was on the phone. “Is everything
okay?”
“At the hospital,” Sheila said. She sounded exhausted.
“Danny’s hurt. He’s going to be okay,” she reassured Drew, “but his left hand
and wrist are broken in about three places.”
“Holy shit! How did that happen?”
“He fell off his bike,” she said, with a faint note of
incredulity. “Lost his balance right at the corner while he was waiting for the
light to turn. You know how he likes to balance and see how long he can stay up
before he has to put a foot down? Well, he didn’t know his shoelace was caught
on the pedal. When he realized he was tipping too far, he couldn’t get his foot
free. Fell straight over and caught himself on his hand.”
Drew winced, picturing the accident all too clearly. “Jesus.
What do you need me to do?”
“Well, we still have a ton of work to do on the new book,
and Danny can’t operate the camera properly or do much tying with only one
hand. And not even his good hand. You know he’s left-handed, so I’m going to
have to be the photographer for the rest of the shooting,” Sheila said. “Which
means I won’t also be able to model.”
Drew could hear the hesitation in her voice, the hedging
around. “And…” he prompted.
“And I need you to help me talk Eva into modeling in my
place.”
Drew looked over at Eva, wondering if she could hear any of
Sheila’s part of the conversation. But the coffee shop was crowded despite the
lateness of the hour, and the steady clamor was enough to afford him at least
that much privacy.
“Uh, hang on, Sheila.” He tipped the phone away from his
mouth and addressed Eva, who was still looking at him with growing concern.
“Danny fell off his bike and broke his hand. Sheila’s calling from the
hospital. I think he’s okay other than that.”
“Is she there?” Sheila asked. Drew returned his attention to
the call.
“Yeah. We’re at Benito’s, having coffee,” he said casually,
as though such a thing were an everyday occurrence. “We went out to the
observatory and it was a little cold, so we’re just warming up.” He realized he
was using “we” an awful lot and wondered how Eva felt about that. Her face,
still full of concern for Danny, gave nothing else away.
Sheila chuckled. “Listen to you, being all smooth. Well,
maybe this will be easier than I thought, if you guys are a thing now. How long
has this been going on under my nose without my knowledge?”
With Eva still eyeing him curiously, Drew decided against a direct
answer. “If you weren’t aware of it, why did you think I’d have any particular
success in doing you this favor?”
“I can’t tell you.” Sheila made a snorting noise that
sounded suspiciously like a stifled snicker. “It would violate the sisterhood
code. But I thought if anybody could talk her into letting herself get tied up
all pretty and photographed, it would be you. And it has to be Evie, is the
thing. She’s the only one I know with the exact same coloring, even the same
body type as mine. If we don’t show her face, people won’t be able to tell it’s
not me in the pictures. We really wanted a consistent look for the book and we
don’t have time to reshoot the whole thing with a different model. Not to
mention we can’t afford to hire a different model. Oh, hey, I have to go.
Danny’s talking to the doctor again. I’ll call you tomorrow. Work on her,
okay?”
“Okay. Good luck. Tell Dan he’s a bonehead.”
“Already done.”
Sheila hung up, and Drew put his phone away with a
thoughtful gaze in Eva’s direction. She was sipping her cappuccino cautiously
and had a very faint mustache from the froth on top. Drew wanted to lick it off
but suspected he wasn’t quite on solid enough footing yet to try it.
“You have a little…” He gestured to his own lip, and Eva
took the hint and dabbed at her mouth with a napkin.
“So what happened?”
“He fell off his bike. Sheila said his hand is broken in
three places, or maybe it was his hand and wrist. Anyway, he can’t work a
camera. Which is a problem, obviously.”
Eva knew the couple well enough to know what a problem it
was. “Their book! How are they ever going to make their deadline?”