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I frowned. “I can’t help it if I’m hungry.”
“Neither can I, so go eat. I’ll be home in a while.”
“Okay.” I got up.
“Oh, by the way,” he said. “There’s a new scientist here at the park doing research on the dolphins for the university.”
“A marine biologist?” My eyes grew wide. Marine biologists were like rock stars to me.
“Yep. I haven’t really talked to him yet, haven’t told him about you, but I’m sure he could probably use an assistant while he’s here.”
“That would be awesome.”
“And from what I heard, he’s got a daughter your age. She might be attending the same university as you.”
I shrugged. I could care less if he had a daughter. I just wanted to work with him, to learn. “It’s a possibility.”
“Who knows, maybe you’ll make a new friend.”
“I have friends,” I said defensively.
Dad looked at me as if I had no friends at all. “You can never have too many friends, Jan.”
I rolled my eyes and said, “Whatever.”
I didn’t exactly think that was true, but I knew my Dad was just saying that because most of my friends had left to go to college in other states, and he was worried about me being lonely.
He didn’t have to worry.
I was perfectly fine being all by myself.
CHAPTER FIVE
“I’ll have Shrimp Lo Mein, Kung Pao Chicken, egg rolls and fried rice.” I rattled off my order to the small Chinese woman behind the take-out counter. She jotted my order on a pad using what looked like hieroglyphics.
“Hungry girl,” she said, smiling as she punched my order into an old-timey cash register.
“You gonna eat all that by yourself?” someone asked from behind me. I turned to find Rob Adams, a guy I’d gone to high school with.
“I am going to eat it all myself,” I said, forcing a smile. “How you doing, Rob?”
“I’m awesome,” he said, flashing a perfect smile that should have been used in an orthodontics commercial.
Other girls would have had their breaths taken away or their hearts pounding with that smile but not me.
I’d fallen for a guy before, right at the start of high school, and after getting what he wanted from me, he vanished.
Basically, he ruined all faith I had in men. I seriously doubted Rob could restore that faith.
I looked at Rob’s uniform and the delivery bag he was holding. “So, you’re working here?”
“I am,” he said, a little embarrassed at the question. “What did you get? The Kung Pao Chicken is pretty good.”
“I know. That’s what I ordered.”
“Good.” He paused, awkwardly and gave me a dopey smile. He rocked b
ack and forth on the balls of his tennis shoes. I got the feeling he was trying to gather his courage.
