“I still say you’re underselling yourself.” Liam knew the argument was futile. Despite his brilliance and good looks, Bran was convinced women weren’t truly attracted to him.
“I could say the same for you.” Bran sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
“Except I wasn’t rich when Elle and I were dating,” said Liam. “Her problem wasn’t that she was pretending so she could bag a billionaire. She had the same issue I’m afraid Carly has.”
“What’s that?”
“She liked the top half of me, but the bottom half was too much to handle.”
“What’s your evidence that Carly is anything like Elle?”
“For starters, she shot out of that plane like she was relieved to be rid of me and refused to even make a date for lunch at the convention. Yet, I’d have sworn she was flirting with me before that.”
“Hmm...” Bran rubbed his jaw. “Has she told you what her doctoral research is about?”
“No. She said she didn’t want to talk about it on vacation.”
“Vacation?” Bran’s brows drew down over his eyes. “She did tell you she’s here for the convention, right?”
“She’s going to the convention, but she came early to have a vacation. She was hoping to see the fall colors until this crazy blizzard hit.”
“Then you don’t know about her research?”
“Will I be that interested? It’s not in my field, is it?”
Bran turned his head toward Liam and mimicked locking gazes in his uncanny way. “It’s about nano-regeneration of the spinal cord after injury.”
Liam’s throat felt like he’d swallowed a cup of flour. “Is it promising?”
“Very promising,” Bran said with a sharp nod.
“Why wouldn’t she tell me that?”
“It’s a long way from lab mice to reality in a human subject. And it may not apply to a sixteen-year-old injury. Maybe she didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
Was he right? Was she protecting him? Or was it her way of shutting him out?
“I have to know.” He wouldn’t let her leave without an explanation. “But she clams up every time I broach a subject she doesn’t like. I don’t have enough time to win her trust.”
“I can buy you a little extra.” Bran sat back in his chair. “The convention doesn’t start until next week. And even if the snow stops tonight and the highways are clear, our private road won’t be plowed until at least Wednesday.”
“You have a private snowplow service on standby, right?” Liam said. “They cleared for us tonight. Won’t they be available tomorrow?”
“Not if I tell them not to come.” His devious smirk wasn’t lost on Liam.
“And what am I going to owe you for this?” Liam’s spirits lifted.
“Not much. Just join me for my workouts every morning while you’re here.”
“But you exercise for two solid hours! That’s cruel and inhuman!” In reality, Liam’s normal routine took at least an hour and a half, but he liked to tease Bran about his excess.
“Quit complaining. You can hook those electrodes to your legs and sleep through half of it,” Bran teased, as if Liam could possibly sleep through his functional electrical stimulation.
“Please tell me you don’t still exercise at 4:30 a.m.”
“For you,” Bran said, “I’ll postpone it until 5:00.”
CHAPTER 7
CARLY
The chances that Carly’s roommate was actually worried about her were somewhere between none and negative. Not because Nora didn’t care, but because she was oblivious to little things like tornados, blizzards and such, even when she was in the midst of them.
Nonetheless, Carly called her to make her little fib closer to the truth.
“Girlfriend, you just interrupted a Stranger Things marathon. This had better be good.”
“Ewww, Nora! I can’t believe you would watch something that scary by yourself.”
“It’s not that scary the third time through.” Intense music in the background indicated that Nora had restarted her show. “What’s up? Why are you calling?”
Carly hesitated. She could use some advice, and Nora had a fairly level head about most things, if not about her choice of entertainment when staying alone at their apartment in Houston.
“I kind of met a guy.”
“What! Wait a second!” There were rustling noises, and the music stopped. “You met a guy? Are you saying you met a guy your age of eligible dating status? Or some old professor who wants you to do a post-doc next year?”
Carly chuckled, despite her anxious state. “A guy my age.”
“Whoa! Is he hot?”
