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“Brady, what’s up man? How’s the wilderness?”
“If you have a development, what is it?” I asked, irritated that Cade always wanted to engage in small talk before getting to his point. The guy was way too nice and was basically rural Idaho’s own Steve Rogers.
“You’re so charming, Brady. It’s what I like about you. Okay, I wanted to draw this out and make your whole year, but whatever. We got the green light from U of U to use their new 3T. Carte blanche.”
I stood, my heart thumping. “Seriously?”
“Right in our backyard. Our initial research caught the eye of Dr. Fontel and he wants to peer review when we finish, so now it’s in their best interest to collab.”
“You’re joking.”
“You know I wouldn’t joke, Brady. Full access.”
This was so much better than getting a machine in Colorado. I’d known that the University of Utah had purchased their own MRI 3T machine, but it cost money to use it by the hour, and our funding hadn’t justified that cost, yet. “That’s amazing.”
“Well, you can thank my girlfriend for that. She searched ‘MRI 3T,’ and when it came up with the U, she literally emailed Dr. Fontel our preprint and straight up asked if we could finish our research in their facility.”
That stunned me into momentary silence. “Yourgirlfriendcold-called a renowned research facility?”
“She’s smarter than I am. Anyway, we need to go over scheduling. You available tomorrow? I’m already clearing half my schedule to get over there.”
“Yeah, I can meet you,” I said, glancing down at June who stared up at me with unabashed interest. “Tomorrow, nine AM? My office?”
“I’ll be there.”
I hung up, hardly believing our luck. The problem with our preliminary research report was its lack of concrete imaging data. The MRI 3T technology was finally catching up, and now we had the chance to utilize it properly.
“What happened?” June asked, setting her paintbrush on the edge of her easel.
“We just made a huge break in our research. We’ve needed specific facilities to get the data we need to,” I hedged, trying to find the right words, “basically to back up our claims. Cade just called and said we’ve been given full access to the equipment.”
She beamed, standing. “That’s amazing!”
“Yeah,” I breathed. I tugged on one of her curls gently, watching it spring back up around her temple. “I’m sorry to leave.”
She waved a hand. “Are you kidding? Of course you have to go! I’m so happy for you.”
“Don’t forget your meds and take it easy for the rest of the day,” I reminded her.
“I know,” she said, rolling her eyes.
A terrifying string of possible “June episodes” that could happen while she was still at the camp suddenly clicked through my head like an arcade game spitting out a full roll of tickets. She could get drunk again and do something stupid. She could get lost hiking. She couldgohiking, period, and that had its own subcategory of horrifying possibilities. I stared at her, not sure what to do with my traitorous mind that had gone from calm and uncompromisingly logical to batshit crazy.
“What?” she blinked.
“I, uh… your car is still stranded. Do you want to come back to the city with me? I can drop you off at home and we can send a tow—”
“Amos,” she frowned, turning to plop back in her camp chair. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m fine. We’re leaving tomorrow morning, anyway. Use the extra day off to work on your research.”
She was right, of course. I had to go. And she would be fine. Totally fine. She was a full-grown woman. I sighed through pursed lips, letting my cheeks billow out. “Yeah, I hear you. Okay, I’ll get my stuff. See you on Wednesday?”
“Good luck!” she smiled.
Ignoring my misgivings, I folded up my camp chair and then hurried back to my cabin. As I did, my mind rolled over into research mode, and the process took over my thoughts.
Thirteen
June
