AllFreeNovel
Share Us
You’re really cute. And way sexier than I remember.
He was tempted to tease her, but all thoughts of joking evaporated when Grant emerged from the classroom and charged over to them like an angry bull.
Shit. If the guy had come out fifteen minutes ago, he would have seen them working. Instead, they were relaxing and eating figs. Not a good look. Rick braced himself for a blistering takedown.
But Grant directed his fury at Olivia. “Miss Sanchez. Is there a reason you’re still out here with Rick?”
She sat up straight and cleared her throat. “He was helping me with the GPS unit. Even though I’ve had some practice, I don’t have the years of experience Frida does. I wanted to make sure I was up to speed before we train the students.”
Grant narrowed his eyes at her. “I assumed you were up to speed already.”
“She had less than two weeks’ notice to prepare,” Rick said. “Cut her a break.”
Grant kept his focus on Olivia. “Given your experience, it might be best if you worked with me on my survey team. That way, I can keep an eye on you.”
Asshole. If that bastard assigned her to his team, he’d make her miserable and chastise her for every mistake.
Knowing he was digging himself deeper into a hole, Rick spoke quickly. “Dr. Roth is aware of Olivia’s lack of expertise in this area. That’s why he put her on my team.”
“On your team? The one person on the staff who isn’t working toward a graduate degree?”
“I’ve been on more surveys than anyone here.” Not only had Rick traversed mountainous territory in three different countries, but he also had an uncanny sense of direction. “Besides, Dr. Roth made the assignments yesterday. Unless you want to rearrange his entire setup, you should leave things as they are.”
Rick sustained a calm facade, hoping to hide his growing tension. If Grant called his bluff and insisted on retrieving the list himself, then Rick was sunk.
After staring him down, Grant threw up his hands in frustration. “Fine. I’ll be bringing the students out in fifteen minutes. Go grab the list of teams from Dr. Roth.” He stalked back into the classroom, shutting the door loudly behind him.
Once he was gone, Olivia let out a whoosh of air. “Shit. You didn’t have to do that for me.”
“You’d rather be on Grant’s team?”
“Hell, no.” Her mouth quirked up in an adorable smile. “I’d rather work with you. But you have enough issues with Grant.”
“I can handle it.” He stood up. “I should go to talk to Roth. Make sure the list is…exactly how I said.”
She grinned. “Thanks. I owe you one. Remind me to buy you a drink at Spyros some night.”
Gladly. As Rick walked over to the lab, he swallowed back his uneasiness. Despite what he’d told Olivia, he shouldn’t be pushing Grant’s buttons. The guy didn’t need any more excuses to hate him. Even if he didn’t have the power to fire Rick, he could still make his life miserable.
Rick found Dr. Roth in the largest of the classrooms—the one they’d set aside as the main lab for processing their finds. The professor was setting up three tables with artifacts from last year’s survey. The tables were laden with broken bits of pottery from every era, as well as a smaller selection of stone tools, like grinding stones, arrowheads, and scraping rocks.
In Rick’s mind, Roth perfectly fit the image of a stereotypical male archaeology professor—sturdily built, bearded, giving off the faint aroma of pipe smoke, his skin weathered from countless summers spent on dig sites.
“Dr. Roth?” Rick asked. “Do you have a minute?”
The professor moved a few pieces of pottery into a larger pile. “Certainly. First, can you look over the display and make sure I haven’t left anything out?”
“Is this for the afternoon session?”
“It is. I thought the students might appreciate a hands-on demonstration so they can see the types of artifacts they’ll encounter when they’re on the survey.”
Rick examined each table. “Do you have any more Cypro-Geometric ware? It’s not as common, but you mentioned wanting to find sites from that era.”
“Good call. I’ll see what we have in storage. Anything else I should add?”
“Nope. Looks good,” Rick said. “I’m here to get the list of the survey teams.”
“Right. I have it made up. Was Grant asking for it?” Dr. Roth went over to a desk at the front of the classroom, piled high with papers. He shuffled through them until he found a sheet of lined paper filled with hand-written notes. “Kind of a mess, but I was still fiddling with it this morning. Can you give it a once-over?”
