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‘You don’t mean your parents’ house, do you? I can’t come there.’
‘It’s ok, they’re out. Dad’s gone fishing, he’ll be away all day and Mum’s out for lunch with friends. I don’t expect her back for ages.’
‘Hmm.’
Rhona could almost hear his brain ticking over the idea. Maybe inviting him to the house wasn’t just unprofessional but downright crazy.
‘Ok, I’ll come over, but I’m at my office so it’ll take me half an hour.’
He would? ‘Great!’ Rhona did a jig on the spot as she ended the call. Nelson looked her up and down, then licked his paw, almost tutting. ‘It’s still work, I swear.’
So much for keeping away from him. But this was business. She itched to pick stuff up and tidy it away, but Judy kept the house so spotless, there was nothing to do. She paced, leapt to the windows for any sign of anything, and chewed on a cuticle. This might go horribly wrong.
A knock on the door. What? No cars had pulled up. She checked out the window. Nothing indicated anyone was there. She bounded downstairs to open the door. Through the frosted glass, she could tell it was Calum from his broad-shouldered outline before she pulled the handle.
‘Hi.’ She tugged open the door. ‘Where’s your car?’
‘I left it on the verge round the corner in case your parents come back.’ He stroked his hand over his neatly trimmed dark hair, disturbing the air and generating a cloud of expensive body spray that tickled her senses.
She stepped aside to let him in, admiring another of his trademark outfits: the tight dark skinny jeans and Converse-style boots, today paired with a grey t-shirt that clung to hidden ridges of muscle, and a navy blazer. ‘They won’t be back for hours.’
‘Yeah? It’d be just my luck.’ Calum scanned around. ‘I haven’t been here for years. What is it you want me to see?’
‘Come up to my bedroom.’ Rhona tucked her hair behind her ear, cringingly aware of how that had sounded. The whole situation could be misconstrued as a setup. Was it? Had her subconscious tricked her?
‘Seriously?’ Calum arched an eyebrow, the tiniest smile playing on his lips. ‘Is this legit?’
‘Why wouldn’t it be?’ Rhona attempted to sound innocent but it came out too fast and too defensive.
‘No idea.’ Calum glanced at the stairs. ‘Up we go then.’
Heat fired in her cheeks as she climbed the stairs and opened her bedroom door.
‘Are you sure I’m allowed in here?’ Calum’s tone was even more sceptical. ‘The last time I was in this house, a giggling teenager lived in this room and I wouldn’t have dared look in the door.’
‘Yeah. Thankfully she’s grown up.’ Rhona crossed the room to her dressing table where she’d set up her laptop.Why didn’t I move the bloody thing downstairs?The subconscious was working overtime today. ‘You can sit on the bed. Just watch Nelson. He scratches and bites.’
Calum and the cat glared at each other for a few seconds. ‘I’ll stand.’
‘Ok.’ Rhona sat on her stool and pulled up the site reconstruction. ‘This is what I wanted to show you. Once I get it on the screen, you can take this seat and have a look.’ She waited for it to load, then stood.
Calum took her place, frowning at the screen. Rhona hovered behind him, tapping her toes inside her fluffy slippers, wishing he would say something. He navigated around, his eyes narrowing, but didn’t speak. Was it that bad? Was he offended? Had she crossed some boundary? After all, this wasn’t in her contract, it was something she’d done because she wanted to.
Had she got this all wrong? Was this another epic fail? If he would just speak. Or stand up, walk out and say she was fired… She’d deal with it.
‘What are you thinking?’ She couldn’t hold it in any longer.
Calum shook his head. ‘This is unbelievable.’
‘Good unbelievable or bad unbelievable?’
‘Good. Amazing.’
Rhona covered her mouth as her muscles relaxed. He didn’t hate it. And better, he liked it. She lifted her chin and let out a little laugh. ‘I thought you were annoyed that I’d done it instead of going to the dig.’
‘Is this the kind of thing you usually do on a dig?’
‘No.’ Rhona flopped onto the edge of the bed. ‘I’ve never been involved in this kind of thing. I’ve always wanted to but it’s above my paygrade usually. The software isn’t mine. It belongs to the company I’m doing the research work for, so I won’t be able to keep any of this.’
