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“Maybe we should head inside then.”
I opened the door and David glanced down at the spatula lying by the front door.
For the first time since I’d started my tale, a smile cracked his lips. “Were you planning on flipping it over?”
I laughed. “Shut up. At least I cleaned it up. You just watched.”
He shook his head with a derisive grin. “Why do I have a feeling you’ll never let me live that down?”
“Probably because I won’t.” I picked up the spatula and tossed it into the sink after we walked back into the apartment. “I’m going to go clean up. I feel disgusting.”
He set his bag on the coffee table. “Don’t worry about me. I have some unfinished work to tend to from before I left Chapel Hill.”
I held onto the doorknob of my bedroom door. “You’re welcome to help yourself to anything in the kitchen, although I have to warn you that there isn’t much there.”
“Thanks.” He sat on the sofa and pulled out his laptop.
I struggled with the strong desire for a shower versus the need to make my tattoo last as long as possible. In the end, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer to shower because I needed to wash my hair. I put on a pair of shorts and a tank top and wandered out to the living room to find David focused on his laptop.
“You’re still here,” I said.
He looked up at me and lowered his reading glasses.
It struck me again: David Preston was a very good-looking man. I wondered how all those college girls ever took notes in his class during his lectures.
“You think I would miss the chance to meet an Algonquian god?” There was a teasing lilt to his voice, but his eyes were serious.
I picked up the wine glasses and took them into the kitchen. Thank God I’d cleaned the apartment up a few days ago during one of my bouts of insomnia.
“I e-mailed my friend, and he’s agreed to FedEx the books to your mother’s bed and breakfast.”
“Oh.” I stopped wiping the counter. “You remembered.”
“Honestly, I almost forgot with all the excitement. He’s also promised to thumb through some passages to see if he can find the symbol before he sends them off.”
“Thank you.”
He shrugged. “I figured you were pressed for time. One day could make all the difference.”
“So you believe me now?”
His eyes locked with mine. “I’m getting there.”
I offered him a tight smile.
“I’ve been searching for anything about a badger in the Algonquian legends.”
I shook my head. “I’ve searched every which way on the Internet, and there was nothing.”
He grinned. “I’m a professor. I have access to papers online that you wouldn’t have been able to find.”
My eyes widened. “Really?”
He put his glasses back on his nose. “Do you have any coffee? I’d like to stay up awhile and spend more time on this.”
I finished cleaning the kitchen as the coffee brewed. I poured us both a mug and took them out to the living room, setting David’s on the coffee table.
“Is that it?” he asked, looking at my shoulder blade.
