Page 23 of Teach Me Your Ways

I groaned and downed the last of the wine before reaching for the bottle and refilling the cup. “He’s attractive.”

Mom hopped out of her chair and disappeared inside. When she returned she had her phone in her hand. “What’s his first name?”

“Mom—”

“Just give me the name. I need to see what kind of academic tyrant my daughter’s working for.”

I sighed, then muttered, “Grady. Grady Stone.”

She typed faster than any grandma should be able to. A few seconds later I heard her suck in a breath.

“Well, damn,” she said, tilting the screen toward me. “That’s not a professor; that’s a thirst trap. Are you sure he’s actually a doctor?”

“Mom, don’t.”

“I’m just saying. If I was ten years younger⁠—”

“Only ten?”

She sipped her wine with a wicked smile. “He seems like a man who could appreciate things with a few years on them.”

“He does appreciate fossils,” I said.

Her burst of laughter said she didn’t mind the insult. “He’s more than welcome to check out my⁠—”

“Mom,” I groaned. The last thing I wanted was to think about Grady checking out anything on my mother. That was just a little too much for me. I wasn’t a prude but I was never going to share a man with my mother.

“Stop pretending you didn’t notice he’s hot. If he looks like that in field gear, I can only imagine what he looks like⁠—”

“Nope. Nope! Boundaries, remember?”

She cackled, clearly enjoying herself way too much. “Hold on. I need to see this image on a bigger screen.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Mom.”

She disappeared inside once again, giggling. At least she was having fun.

This time when she returned, she had her laptop in her hands. It was hard to miss the picture of Grady on her screen. I felt my ovaries squeeze at the sight of him wearing khakis, a flowing white shirt unbuttoned and drifting in what must have been a breeze. His tanned, hard chest was on full display.

She clicked the mouse and another shot of him grinning and holding up a fragment of a clay pot. I had to stifle the moan that threatened to escape my lips.

I stole the laptop and snapped it shut, but not before one last glance at the image. His eyes had been squinting against the sun. A line of sweat cut through the dirt on his cheek. He’d looked capable, commanding, a man who knew exactly what he was doing in the field and probably in the bedroom, but I wasn’t going to think about that.

More like, I was trying not to think about it, but now that the image was there, it wouldn’t budge.

“Just be careful,” Mom said. “Don’t fall for him. I mean, he’s hot, but he’s your teacher, right?”

I rolled my eyes. “There’s no falling. No tripping. No flirting. I don’t have time for any of that stuff. I’ll worry about dating after people start calling me doctor.”

“A fine piece of man meat like that? It’s only natural to take a shine to him.”

“He’s not man meat.”

She gave me a look.

“He’s my boss,” I said. “And a professor. And the university has rules about this sort of thing. And Dean Carver is watching him like a hawk. So no, I’m not falling for him.”

“You’re sure?”