Excavated by Noelle Adams Read Free Book Online

her voice now. He wasn’t sure what it was.
    He
didn’t have time to find out before she turned around and walked into her room
of the trailer, closing the door behind her.

Four
     
    “So…”
    Lucy
blinked at Dana. “So what?”
    “So
are you going to tell me about that hot archaeologist or not?”
    Lucy
actually felt her cheeks flushing a little—which was absolutely ridiculous—but
she couldn't help but laugh at her assistant's wry impudence. “There’s nothing
to tell.”
    “Don’t
give me that. You knew him before. I know that much. And I’m definitely sensing
some chemistry.”
    Lucy
pulled on the jacket to her vintage suit. It was a dusty lavender color with a
pencil skirt and a fur collar. It was feminine and flattering and entirely
impractical, which was the point, of course. “If by chemistry you mean I’d be
happy to claw his eyes out most of time, then guilty.”
    “Did
you go out with him before?”
    “No.
I knew him when I was in college. We were sort of friends for a while, and then
we were nothing. That was it.”
    “Are
you sure?” Dana asked, bringing over a choker of braided pearls she’d picked
out for Lucy to wear for the shoot that evening. “Because it seems very
sparkish between the two of you.”
    “It
is not sparkish,” Lucy insisted. “I don’t even like him, and he was mostly a
jerk back then. I was a teenager, and he was in his twenties. There was
definitely nothing romantic between us.”
    She
checked out her appearance in the mirror and then put her pearl drop earrings
on. As she thought about her foolish feelings for Philip in the past, she felt
all of the old hurt and humiliation simmering back up.
    “What
did he do to make you hate him so much?” Dana obviously noticed something in
the way Lucy was glaring into the small mirror.
    Lucy
shook her head. “It’s a long time ago.”
    “It
still seems to bother you. Did he break your heart or something?”
    He
had. She’d thought she was in love with him. For a while, she hadn’t thought
there was any sort of hope, but gradually they’d gotten closer. He’d seem to
open up with her.
    She’d
let herself dream. Even after the kiss and his immediate, urgent attempts to
make it clear it was an accidental aberration, she thought she would have
gotten over it if they could have remained friends. Whether or not he wanted a romantic
relationship with her, she’d still thought she genuinely meant something to
him.
    But
he’d dropped her. He’d gotten a new girlfriend, and he’d forgotten she even
existed.
    One
day they were friends. Then he’d kissed her.
    And
the next day she was nothing to him.
    “I
was stupid,” she admitted. “I thought I meant something to him. Not
romantically—but just...just as a person.”
    Dana’s
expression had changed. The teasing faded, and her eyes reflected sympathy and
deep understanding. “And you didn't mean anything to him?”
    She
shook her head with a long sigh. “I was a girl. I was stupid.”
    “I
can’t imagine you ever being stupid.”
    Lucy
laughed for real—the bitterness fading into the background of her mind where it
belonged. “I was a model of stupidity. Believe me. But at least I learned my
lessons young.”
    “What
lessons?”
    Lucy
bit her lip. She’d learned not to be led around by her feelings, not to trust
that—just because a man acted like he cared for her—he actually did. She’d
learned that it was better to hold back her heart until she knew for sure it
was safe.
    After
one failed marriage and three failed engagements, she was still convinced those
lessons were valid.
    It
sounded too bitter, though, and she didn’t want Dana to think she was like
that. So she grinned brightly and said, “I learned that just because a man
gazes soulfully at you, just because he kisses you, doesn’t mean he actually
wants to hang out with you.”
    Dana
laughed, as she was supposed to, and Lucy was relieved that the subject had
dropped.
    It
would have been nice