“We love you, Noelle!” her youngest brother screamed from the top of the slide.
“I love you, too,” she screamed right back. She did. They were awesome. In small doses. She would be on a plane first thing in the morning and back to her super-quiet apartment where she would watch TV that wasn’t a cartoon and sip adult “juice” boxes. She looked to her stepmom. “I have to get back to work. I normally wouldn’t have taken this time off, but they shut down the lab after the accident. I got the word today that we’ve been given the all clear to work again.”
They’d spent a week ensuring the lab was safe after the accident that probably wasn’t an accident, but she wasn’t about to tell her stepmom she intended to play Nancy Drew. After all, she’d mentioned to her dad that she was a little suspicious about a couple of things that had happened at work lately, and now she had a meeting with a security company.
“She can’t stay,” Lisa said. “Did you forget she’s got that appointment the day after tomorrow? The one Armie set up because he’s a crazy, paranoid freak.”
Her stepmom’s brow arched. “Like your husband isn’t? Who do you think he called when he found out someone might be stalking his baby girl? Three answers, and the first two don’t count.”
“I don’t think anyone is stalking me.” She simply thought someone might be trying to get a look at her work. She’d mentioned it casually to her father and the paranoia had set in.
Lisa shrugged and ignored her. “I always knew Remy was crazy. Why do you think I married him? You, sister, were supposed to be the normal one.”
Lila laughed at that one. “If I wanted normal, I shouldn’t have moved to Papillon, where we have our very own gator mascot.”
Sometimes she missed Otis. But she also loved living in a city. She loved having her own place and being independent.
Probably because only a few years before she hadn’t thought that would be possible.
Her stepmother tucked a piece of dark hair behind her ear and gave her the look that let Noelle know she’d been thinking about a problem and was now ready to face it. “I know it feels like your dad is overbearing, but it’s because he cares. You know he’s worried about you, right?”
Noelle shifted in her seat, stretching her legs. It was a gesture she was well used to since her legs were so often the painful center of her universe. If she didn’t get up and move soon, her calf might cramp. “I’m fine. I’m getting plenty of exercise. If I overdo it, I use my chair the next day. And I’ve got a great physical therapist in Dallas.”
“I’m not talking about being worried about you physically,” Lila corrected. “I was talking about the stress you’ve been under since your friend died.”
Noelle shook her head. Had she not explained this properly? She mostly tried to be nice, but there was no way she was pretending Madison had been her friend. “Oh, she was not my friend. She was always trying to get me fired. It was weird since I’m super nice and everyone loves me. But Madison took one look at me and decided we were some weird enemies or something. I never figured out what I did to deserve that. We came in at the same time. We worked on the same kinds of projects. We were the only women on most of those teams. We should have been friends.”
“Or she’s one of those women who can’t stand having other women around,” Lisa offered. “I’ve known lots of those. Did she get along with the men?”
“Oh, yeah.” She flushed as she realized how that could be misconstrued. “I mean she didn’t date them or anything, but she was nicer to them. Only the ones in charge, though. She was pretty mean to the men who worked under her.”
It was why the techs liked to work for Noelle. If they were given a choice between the chick who baked them cookies and the one who yelled at them and called them morons, they usually picked cookies.
“Lisa’s right, and I should know. Women in STEM don’t merely take crap from men,” Lila explained. Her stepmom had worked in the medical field for years. She now ran Papillon Parish’s only clinic. Noelle remembered how hard it had been on her in the beginning. “Women can be incredibly competitive and not nice about it. But I wasn’t really talking about that. I want to make sure you’re taking this seriously. Do you truly believe someone might be trying to get your research?”
She was desperately worried that what had been happening to her and what happened to Madison were connected, but she wasn’t going to mention that part to her stepmom. Her parents were already freaked out enough by the fact that someone had stolen some samples from her lab, and she was almost certain someone had been on her laptop. They didn’t need to know that she thought someone had murdered her rival. “That’s why I’m going to meet with these people you want me to talk to. But I can’t exactly afford a security team, you know.”