Destiny Undone: The Complete Series Box Set by Amanda Heartley Read Free Book Online Page A

Lab employee,” I quickly added, “If you have an interest in marine biology, that is.” Tracee smirked at Pepper, but she didn’t seem to notice.
    I used my laptop to give a quick overview of the facility—when it opened, what challenges we faced and what our plans were for the future of Sea Lab, including our various renovation fundraisers on the summer calendar. In the middle of my presentation, I glanced around and noticed Pepper tapping away at the screen on her phone. Even though that wasn’t cool, I would have ignored it, but it seemed to bother Tracee and Martin. David laughed and Pepper looked up, surprised to find us all watching her.
    “I’m sorry. It’s my boy… I mean, my friend. He’s supposed to pick me up for lunch. What time is lunch by the way?”
    “Actually, we’re serving you lunch here today, but it’s just for the interns. Hope that your friend won’t be too disappointed.”
    “No, that’s fine. Let me just text him back,” and she tapped away on her phone again, oblivious to her disruption of the meeting, while we all watched.
    “When you’re done with that message, Miss Anderson, I’d appreciate it if you’d put your phone away, at least until lunchtime. I’m going to need your undivided attention for this next part.” Tracee snorted and Pepper swung around to face her.
    “Do you have something you want to say to me?”
    “If I did, I’d say it.” The silence between them grew awkward. Pepper appeared ready to come back at her, but she rolled her eyes instead and smiled at me.
    “All done,” then she tossed her phone back into her purse. I was glad things hadn’t escalated since I’d never had people argue in a training session before—that would’ve been a new one on me.
    Martin raised his hand, “Is it true that you started working here when you were seventeen, Gabe?”
    “Yes, that’s true. I’ve been here for eight years and I’ve loved every minute of it. I hope you all do too.” I pressed the button on the remote and said, “Okay, this is a map of the facility. Here’s the Science Center, where most of the research takes place. As you know, living here on the Gulf Coast, we have a unique ecosystem—one that should be protected and studied. Now, this side of the facility is our park area and this is where the visitors interact with the animals. You’ll be spending most of your time in this section, in a limited way, of course. We don’t expect you to interact with the animals yet, other than feeding them and demonstrations, unless you’re comfortable with it.”
    “What kind of animals are here, besides fish?” Pepper asked as she sipped her melting iced coffee.
    “That’s a good question, but probably nothing you haven’t seen before. We have sea turtles, sharks, dolphins, shellfish and hundreds of different species of fish—you name it, we have them.”
    “That’s cool,” she smiled. I grinned back at her and kept going. By the time the presentation was over, Bobbie Jo had returned with the ID badges and we got ready to go out into the park.
    “I hope everyone brought a bathing suit, because we’ll probably get wet in the park. Let’s meet back here in fifteen minutes and wear your badges too, guys. You’ll need yours to access some of the locked facilities as it’s not just an ID card—it’s a slide key as well.”
    We walked to the locker rooms and I showed the interns where they could keep their things, and where they could change then we waited a few minutes longer for Pepper to finally walk out of the locker room and join us.
    “Yuk! It’s fishy in there.” She still had her heels and big glasses on and she wore one of the smallest bikinis I’d ever seen. She had an evenly tanned body, flat stomach, beautiful round breasts and a wonderfully curvy behind. Although I appreciated a pretty woman as much as the next guy, she wasn’t dressed appropriately for work. We were going to be meeting the animals and feeding them, not