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I let her race away, content to watch her ass as I followed her into the hotel. Finally, she stopped at the registration desk, giving me time to catch up.
“Hi,” she said to the attendant. “This is Savva Mazanov, and I’m his assistant, Damaris Lawton.”
“Welcome, Ms. Lawton. We’ve been expecting you.” The attendant’s gaze roved over her as he handed her our name badges, forcing me to push down a surge of jealousy. “The opening speeches are down the hall, first door on the right.”
“Thanks!” She slipped the lanyard around her neck and grabbed my hand, nearly running in her excitement.
“Hey, cowgirl!” someone shouted. “Are you too posh to say hello now?”
She spun and a brilliant grin lit up her face at the sight of a man in a wheelchair. “Saul!”
After hurrying to him, she bent forward to give him a hug, then laughed when he pulled her into his lap and spun his chair in a tight circle.
“Fancy seeing you here,” Saul said. “I thought you were working for your dad this summer.”
“Cleaning toilets in Agafonza paid better than spending the summer flying stock surveys and cutting calves.” She gave him another tight hug, then squirmed out of his lap. “Let me guess. You’re Dr. Needmore’s assistant.”
“Yep, and we both need to get in there before they start.” He winked at her, then added, “Too bad we can’t use the ramps for parkour this time.”
“Heck no!” She giggled and walked next to his chair, seeming to have forgotten all about me. “Last time we tried jumping over that flowerbed in your chair, we crashed on the stairs, and I ended up with a concussion.”
Unable to control the unwelcome spark of jealousy at their shared laughter, I cleared my throat as I wrapped an arm around her waist. “I’m Savva Mazanov. How do you do?”
Saul grinned as he shook my hand, then cocked his head toward Damaris. “Girl, I gotta know how you went from cleaning toilets to stepping out with a prince.”
“I’m not stepping out with anyone, dork.” She tipped her nose in the air and sniffed. “His regular assistant had an emergency, so she asked me to take her place.”
His brown eyes flashing with mischief, Saul laughed. “If you say so, cowgirl.”
“Ugh! Stop it. You need a keeper.” She moved behind him and pushed his chair toward the meeting room. “Speaking of keeper, where’s Kim? Don’t tell me you left her in Texas.”
“She’s out sightseeing with the kids.”
“Cool! Maybe we can catch up over supper tomorrow.”
With a last promise to meet later, Saul veered toward a statuesque woman in the front row and parked next to her. His teasing demeanor vanished as he opened his laptop and focused on the podium.
“Come on.” Damaris dragged me to our seats and pulled out her laptop. “Have you been to one of these things before?”
“I attend every year.”
“Good.” She brought up a document with several graphs and typed questions. “My job is to take notes and make sure I have relevant background information for the seminars.”
“And what’s my job?”
“You get to sit and look pretty while the real work is done in the background.”
I let out an abrupt laugh, drawing attention to us as Alwin Sieger, the director of Agafonza’s observatory, stepped behind the podium. As usual, he ignored my presence entirely. We’d never gotten along well, but his professionalism was beyond reproach.
“Welcome, colleagues. It is my hope you all find this year’s symposium of value to your work.”
As he spoke, Damaris took copious notes, dividing her time between websites and her document. When he finished, she tugged a tablet from her bag and thrust it into my hands.
“I’m going to sit in on black holes with Dr. Needmore. I need you to hit star classification with Dr. Kopp, okay?”
“I—”
“You just need to record it. I’ll listen to it later. We good?”
