Running Back (New York Leopards 2)

Anna just scoffed. “It’s totally ridiculous anyway. But it’s probably good to make Mike worry a little. He’s way too sure of himself.”

Obviously a family trait. “I should head out. Work to do.”

“Wait.” Anna bolted to her feet. “I’m coming with, just let me grab my stuff.” She was out the door.

Lauren raised her brows. “You’re going without eating?”

“Well.” I gestured at the soggy mess. “I have a banana and sandwich in my bag.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Uh-huh!” And then I fled too.

* * *

I stayed in a mood all week.

This sucked. The O’Connors were off touring Ireland, and even if Lauren had been here, she wasn’t exactly prime material for discussing my romance problems. Cam was in California for a conference, which meant the sun always set on the Camille-Natalie Empire. I shot her off an email that night, after a fairly cool goodbye from Mike. It’s not like I was saying I didn’t want to date him! Is it my fault that I think biology is a bigger factor than cultural pretenses?

I’d woken with a response in my inbox, which said: Maybe you shouldn’t TELL A DUDE YOU’RE DOOMED TO BREAK UP AND YOU’D BE BETTER OFF WITH ANOTHER GUY.

Huh.

At least I could kill my energy shoveling units and throwing buckets full of dirt through the sifting screen. Simon Daly, the eighteen-year-old holding the other side of the screen, looked at me cautiously. “You all right, Professor Sullivan?”

Slightly better now that he’d called me professor. “I’m fine.”

“Bad luck with Mike?”

I stopped sifting. “Excuse me?”

“My great-aunt Eileen told me you’re back in your own room.”

There were so many things wrong with that. Particularly—why the hell did Eileen have to spill our beans? “Who else knows that?”

He shrugged. “Everyone, I suppose.”

Great. Just great. All of Kilkarten knew about my sex life.

“Thought he was supposed to propose to you here.”

I almost wrenched the screen completely out of his grasp. “What?”

“Just talk I heard.”

“Well, don’t. Anymore. No more talk.”

He looked at me like I was crazy and gently began to push and pull the screen again. “All right.”

I took a deep breath. “All right.”

We broke for lunch around noon, settling down in circles and pulling bags out of backpacks. A bottle of sanitizer was passed around, so the amount of dirt we consumed would be slightly lessened. I generally attempted to hold my PB&Js by their tinfoil wrappers, but by this point eating dirt just didn’t faze me.

Jeremy stopped by later as I violently scooped dirt from the unit into a heap beside it. “Are you okay, Natalie?”

I paused to suck in some air, leaning against my shovel as I squinted up at him. The sun glinted white and sharp behind him. “I’m fine! Don’t worry about me.”

“Err. Did you have a fight? With...” He hesitated. “With Michael?”