Her Dirty Archeologists by Mika Lane
Chapter 29
DRAKE BANCROFT
“Fleur? Hey, Fleur, you up yet?”
There was rustling from inside her tent, and the door flaps unzipped and flew open. There she stood, surrounded by her mountain of suitcases, dressed a little more appropriately than she had been the day she’d arrived.
Seemed like a year ago, not just weeks.
In her jeans and sneakers, she was her usual gorgeous self, but there was a new confidence about her.
And a new sexiness, too.
Fuck, I was going to miss her.
She’d come to me the night before, explaining that her work here was done, and that she needed to get back.
“What about us?” I’d asked.
“What do you mean, us?”
I gestured toward Penn and Jonas. “All of us. The three of us.”
Avoiding my gaze, she looked down. “I… I don’t know.”
“But we want to be with you,” I’d said.
She finally looked up at me. “I know. And I want to be with all of you, too. But how? How would we make that work?”
I didn’t have an answer.
But I did have an idea. I just didn’t want to show my cards before it was a sure thing.
“I remember these suitcases,” I said, reaching inside her tent the next morning at the crack of dawn.
Careful not to disturb her sleeping roommate, Jonas and Penn, right behind me, grabbed the last two bags, and Fleur followed us to the Jeep.
I opened the back of it and started loading her things.
“What’s all this stuff?” she asked, pointing at someone else’s luggage.
Penn and Jonas smiled at each other.
“Darlin’,” I started, “you didn’t think you were getting rid of us that easily, did you?”
She looked from one of us to the other. “Huh?”
We’d truly confused her. Which we’d hoped we would. Makes for a better surprise and all.
“That’s our stuff, Fleur,” Penn said, throwing an arm around her shoulders.
Now she looked even more confused. “Wait. I thought you all were staying.”
I grabbed my own duffle, which I’d hidden out of sight, from the other side of the Jeep and threw it in on top of Fleur’s things.
“We got some good news for ya, baby,” Jonas said.
“Um, okay. What’s the good news?”
We looked at Drake. He’d made the arrangements, so he could share them.
I adjusted my sunglasses. It was going to be good to get out of the worst of the heat. Not that we were going to be completely done with it.
“I made a couple calls, Fleur. Thanks to your great find, the museum and the university are putting together a traveling exhibit as soon as the dig is complete. All four of us will accompany the artifacts and be on several speaking panels as we travel around the world. All expenses are paid, and it will look great on the resume of a new archeologist. You can work on your thesis while we travel.”
Her mouth dropped open, but nothing came out, then it opened again, like a fish gasping for air.
“What do you say?” I asked. “You want to join us?”
“We know you were really dying to go home. So this might not be your thing,” Jonas teased. “I’m sure the department misses you.”
Penn smiled at her, pretending to be cheery. But I knew what he was really hoping for. “If you decide not to come, we’ll understand. But word has it we’ll be at the best hotels and be wined and dined by all the movers and shakers in our field.”
“Wha… what…” she mumbled.
Jesus. I knew she’d be surprised but I never thought she’d be this surprised.
It was part of what I loved about her. No sense of entitlement. Just pure, unadulterated modesty.
And, yeah, I did say love.
She finally got her voice back. “Are you sure? I can come?”
The three of us guys burst out laughing.
“What do you mean, can you come,” Penn asked, throwing his arms around her.
He clearly didn’t give a shit about who might be watching.
“Um, well, I mean…” she stammered.
“Darlin’, there’d be no trip without you,” I said.
A slow smile spread across her face. “Well then, of course I’ll come.”
Penn whirled her around and when he was done, Jonas did the same.
But I pulled Fleur to me and laid a big kiss on her, something I’d been dying to do all morning.
Actually, I’d been dying to do that for a lot longer than just this morning, and I could say the wait was definitely worth it.
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