“We should ride to the airport together.”

My mind shifts from the images I was cataloging on my computer to Dr. Hudson. “My girlfriend is dropping me off.”

Her mouth tightens. “You’re still dating her?”

Pushing away from my desk, I turn to face her. “I am.”

She shrugs. “I suppose I’ll see you at the gate then.”

Before I can say anything, she spins on her heel and leaves.

The door clicks behind her. “She wants you.”

Moving back to my desk, I shake my head. “She does not.”

He tuts. “Don’t be surprised if she makes her move while you’re at the conference.”

“She’s technically my superior and knows I have a girlfriend. The idea of her hitting on me is absurd.”

A loud bang has me turning my head in his direction only to watch him bang his head on his desk.

“You’re being immature.”

He lifts his head. “You sound like my wife.”

Focusing on my work I decide against telling him his wife was right.

“Will you tell me if she hits on you?”

Annoyance makes my eyelids feel heavier. My eyes close and I pull in a breath. I have six more folders of images to catalog before I can leave. Then, I need to finish packing since Abby is picking me up at five to take me to the airport. The only thing stopping me from getting noise canceling headphones is the fear of offending Duncan.

Though, considering the things that come out of his mouth I’m not sure offending him is possible.

“I’ll take your silence as a yes.”

I could really use those headphones right now.

“And, if you could take a picture of her right after you turn her down, that’d be great.”

My silence doesn’t stop him.

“I wonder why she’s never hit on me.”

It’s too much. “Probably because you’re married.”

There’s a pause, then, “Oh, right.”

When he doesn’t say anything else, I settle back into my work.

The silence is short lived. “Knowing you’re with Abby hasn’t stopped her from hitting on you. I don’t see why marriage would stop her.”

I can’t dispute his logic so I continue to ignore him.

Unfortunately, I’m unable to completely ignore the things he said. I may not have replied to him, I’m too busy trying to work out his theory.

Getting attention from the opposite sex is not something I’ve dealt with my whole life. Being a late bloomer or ugly duckling, for as long as I was could have skewed my ability to detect when someone was coming on to me.

But Dr. Hudson?

The very idea is ludicrous.

“I need to focus on this right now.”

He huffs but thankfully leaves me to my work. I manage to complete the cataloging of all my files in a timely manner.

After I print my notes for the conference, I grab my messenger bag and head for the door. “See you Monday.”

“I’ll expect a full briefing.”

If there weren’t students on the other side of the door, I’d have rolled my eyes. Instead, I nod in their direction and head toward the main hall.

“Bye Professor Hill,” one of them giggles out.

I lift my arm and wave but don’t turn around to see who it was.

On the ride back to my parents’ house, I listen to AAA, an anime podcast. Abby’s addicted to the stuff so I might as well try to learn more about it. Besides, everything she’s made me watch so far has been cool.

As I park in front of my folks’ place, I’m reminded just how much I need my own space. With neither of us having a place of our own, our opportunities to get physical have been limited. Abby is not comfortable with having sex at my parents’ house, even when they’re not home. She also feels weird hooking up at Sam’s place since the walls are thin.

While I’m not with her just to have sex, having sex with her is a bonus to being with her, a bonus I’d like to enjoy more often. It’s been two weeks since our weekend at the cabin. If I wasn’t going to this conference, we could have gone back up there this weekend. Since Noah and Finley are getting married on Asher’s property next month, people will be up there setting things up starting next weekend.

I’m toying with the idea of asking Abby to go away with me somewhere just so we can have some privacy.

My mom is walking on the treadmill in the living room when I walk in.

She pauses the audiobook she’s listening to. “How was work?”

“It was good, but I need to go pack. Abby will be here soon to pick me up.”

“I don’t know why you’re making her take you. Your father or I could have easily driven you to the airport.”

With Abby’s help, my relationship with my parents is much stronger now. Sure, living at home helped but Abby also pushed me to make a point of spending time with them and actively being engaged in their lives. I’d joke and say her advice worked a little too well but I’d rather have my parents too much in my life than not at all.

Even times like this when I’d rather take a cab. Now I have three people vying to be the one to take care of me.

“We already talked about this Mom. She’s taking me because she wanted to.”

“Pack a couple granola bars in case you get hungry.”

“Will do. I’m going to go pack. I’ll say goodbye before I go.”

She gives me a finger wave and unpauses her book. Once I’m in the basement, I pull out my rolling carryon bag. Since I’m only there for two nights, I’m not checking a bag.

Conferences are an infrequent nuisance. I don’t enjoy traveling unless I am actually staying somewhere long enough to enjoy it. The information shared at them is always interesting, and it’s nice to catch up with colleagues. Our work is specialized enough that we all know or know of each other. We’ll congratulate anyone who managed to have work published, or who made any noteworthy advances. Someone will drink too much and go off on a tangent about alien life in another galaxy.

“Abby is here!”

Shit.

I jog over to the base of the stairs. “I’m running late. I’m finishing up packing right now.”

Hoping she heard me, I go back to shove more stuff into my bag. I’m not normally this unorganized. Normally, I’d have packed the evening before, but last night I was with Abby.

“Can I help?”

My favorite distraction walks into my room. She’s wearing a navy blue dress that fits her like it was made for her. What I’d like to do is peel it off of her, not pack.

I move to her and give her a too short kiss. “There’s a black toiletry bag in the bathroom. Could you grab it for me please?”

She gives me a salute and takes off. Given the way that dress fits her, it’s a shame I don’t have the time to watch her as she walks away.

Making sure my notes are packed I glance around my room to see if there’s anything I’m forgetting.

Abby comes over to me, my bag in hand. “Here you go.”

“I wish you could come with me.”

Her eyes bug as she shakes her head. “No way. I’d feel like I was intruding. Besides, I have an open house tomorrow.”

“Is Sam going to be with you?”

She shakes her head and offers me the bag. “No, but Gideon will be.”

That’s even better. I’ve never liked the idea of the only person protecting Abby at one of those open houses being Sam. She’s great, and could hold her own if something was going bad. Still, she doesn’t instill the same type of fear Gideon or one of her other brothers would.

Once my toiletries are packed, I zip up my bag. “I hope you have a bidding war of offers.”

“That’d be nice. And, speaking of offers, did you have a chance to look at the link I emailed you?”

I cringe, making her laugh.

“I was buried at work. I’ll look at it once I’m at my gate.”

“You keep dragging your feet on checking out new listings and I’m going to start wondering if your plan was to stay in this basement all along and you only asked me to find you a house as an excuse to be near me.”

Her tone is playful enough to show she’s only teasing me.

Dropping my bag, I scoop her up into my arms making her squeal. “Believe me, I want out of this basement so I can sleep next to you again.”

She catches her breath and presses her palm to my cheek. “Then let’s find you a place. Or, I might beat you to it and buy a place before you do.”

My body goes rigid. “Have you started looking?”

Her brows come together. “Occupational hazard. I’m always looking. Why? Is there something wrong with me looking for my own place?”

Carefully, I lower her back to the ground. “There’s nothing wrong with it. I asked because this is the first time you’ve mentioned it.”

She squares her shoulders. “I love Sam, and I owe her so much for bailing me out the way she did. I just miss having my own space and maybe I would like to sleep with my boyfriend on a more regular basis.”

Dropping my mouth to hers, I reply. “I like that plan.”

When I raise my head, she’s beaming up at me. Christ, even leaving her to go away for a two-day conference sucks.

She glances down at her watch. “Hey. We better get a move on in case we hit traffic.”

Picking my bag back up, I motion for her to lead the way. I get to enjoy how fitted that dress is the entire way up the stairs.

We have no time for a long goodbye when we reach the airport. Instead, I give her a quick hard kiss on the curb before I dash inside. I reach the gate as they begin boarding first class.

Dr. Hudson stands when she sees me. “You sure like to cut it close.”

“We hit some traffic on the way.”

Her smile tightens. “That’s right. Your girlfriend drove you.”

The way she says girlfriend as though it left a bad taste in her mouth makes me raise a brow. Could Duncan be right about her?

Instinctively, I shift away from her.

She doesn’t seem to notice.

“Do you have any plans for tonight?”

Her question is innocent enough since we are traveling together. “I thought I’d head to the hotel restaurant after I get checked in.”

“That makes sense and will probably be the best place to see other attendees from the conference. Do you know anyone who will be there?”

My body relaxes since she’s given no indication of hitting on me. “Yes, a few people.”

Her eyes drop to the floor in front of us.

“Do you know anyone who will be there?”

She lifts her gaze to me and gives me a small smile. “A few as well.”

They call our boarding group and we walk together to join the line to board. When we reach our seats, I lift both my bag and hers into the overhead.

“Do you want the window?”

I motion for her to go ahead. “No thanks, I’m fine.”

After we both are seated, I pull out my phone to text Abby. When I feel eyes on my phone, I glance out of the corner of my eye to see Dr. Hudson watching what I’m texting.

While rude, her behavior isn’t damning. As soon as I’m done with my text, I slip my phone back into the pocket of my blazer.

She fidgets in her seat, her thigh pressing against mine. With the aisle on my other side, I don’t have far to go to avoid her touch. Once she settles, she doesn’t move her leg back to her side.

“Excuse me, Dr. Hudson—”

She interrupts me. “You can call me Nadine.”

I nod and clear my throat. “Nadine, could you move your leg over. I don’t have much space here and as soon as they come by with snacks and drinks I’m going to get hit by the cart.”

Her eyes widen in surprise and she quickly moves her leg. “I’m so sorry.”

“No need to apologize. The leg room on planes these days is a joke.”

She nods in agreement, her features softening.

Now, I’m torn between putting in my headphones to listen to the next podcast I downloaded, or waiting to see if Dr. Hudson wants to discuss the conference before we get there.

When she takes out an e-reader I take that as my signal and pull out my headphones.

“Oh, are you going to listen to some music?”

Turning my head, I observe that while she did take her e-reader out, she did not turn it on. “I was going to listen to a podcast.”

“I’ve never listened to one of those. Are they any good?”

Shifting my phone so she can see the screen, I point to the app. “They have them for anything. I’m not joking, want to learn about cooking, sports, money management, even Neil Degrasse Tyson has one called Star Talk. My girlfriend is really into anime so I’m listening to one about that.”

“Anime, as in cartoons?”

The shock mixed with disdain in her voice makes me wonder what she would dislike more, a podcast on anime or one on Star Wars.

“While they are animated, they are not cartoons.”

“How old is your girlfriend?”

The implication of her question is unsettling. “What does her age have to do with anything?”

She purses her lips but doesn’t say anything.

Annoyance has me saying more than I should. “I hope you’re not implying she’s immature because she likes anime.”

When she doesn’t say anything, I go on, “That would also imply I am because I’m not watching it only because she enjoys it, I enjoy it as well.”

That strikes a chord. “No, I wasn’t implying that at all. It’s something I don’t know much about so I was curious. And, I only asked her age because when I met her she looked so young I assumed she was a student.”

“She’s one year younger than I am.”

Not caring if she wants to talk more, I put in my headphones and press play. Our conversation lingers in my thoughts, making me only half listen to the show. If she wasn’t sitting next to me, I’d put my phone away by now. Thing is, I don’t want to give her an invitation to start talking to me again.

While she is the head of my department, I don’t actively work with her. I’m grateful for that now. If I had to deal with her on a daily basis I’m not certain I’d be happy staying at Woodlake U.

Now that my personal happiness is dependent on staying in Woodlake, my employment opportunities are limited.

When the flight attendant comes by with drinks I get water and am surprised when Dr. Hudson asks for a cocktail.

She meets my gaze and shrugs.

I make no reply, verbal or otherwise and continue to listen to my show. The lower the amount of liquid in her glass gets, the closer her leg creeps back toward mine. When we’re fifteen minutes out, it’s back to the original position I had first asked her to move it from. There’s nowhere for me to go without putting my legs in the aisle.

Yes, I’m learning it’s a good thing I don’t work with her on a regular basis.

All I want now is to be off this plane. The close quarters and her behavior have me craving space and fresh air. The landing is routine, as is the crush as people attempt to get off of the plane all at once instead of waiting for their row.

Neither of us checked any bags so once I pull them down from the overhead we make our way out of the terminal. The hotel, as with most of the conferences I’ve been to, is near the airport.

A taxi has us there in less than twenty minutes.

At the hotel, familiar faces greet us the moment we walk in.

A former colleague from California is the first to approach me; hand outstretched. “Long time Spencer. How’s New Hampshire treating you?”

“Hey Geoff. December wasn’t an ideal month to move back, but otherwise the move has been great. How’ve you been?”

When I see Dr. Hudson engaged in conversation with someone else, I use the opportunity to make my escape by motioning for Geoff to walk with me to the front desk.

“I’m doing good. Sharon, my oldest has been accepted to University of Pennsylvania.”

“That’s a great school. Congratulations.”

He waits until I’m done checking in and have my room key to reply. “We’re so proud of her. Laura and I are coming to terms with Sharon being so far away. We’re considering getting a place out there to be closer to her.”

I press the button for the elevator. “Would you move?”

The doors open and we both step on. “No, the schools where we live are great, and we don’t want to disrupt our other two kids. We’re thinking of getting a one or two-bedroom condo that we could use to pop in and visit her. “

Since his wife Laura works for the airline, being able to fly free or at a discounted rate on standby has allowed them to travel.

“If you needed a place in New Hampshire I could have hooked you up with a realtor.”

“Have you bought a place?”

I shake my head. “Not yet, but my girlfriend is my realtor.”

The elevator stops on my floor and he follows me to my door. “A girlfriend, when did that happen?”

Once we’re inside my room, I set my suitcase on the luggage rack. “We’ve been dating since March but I’ve known her since high school.”

My phone buzzes with an incoming text message from Dr. Hudson asking if I’d like to have dinner with her.

I look back to Geoff. “Have you eaten yet?”

He shakes his head.

“Want to join Dr. Hudson and me for dinner?”

When he accepts, I text her to let her know I’d meet her in the lobby.

When I arrive, with Geoff her face falls.

She’s changed from the flight and is now wearing high heels and a low cut blouse. “You didn’t mention anyone would be joining us.”

Keeping some distance between us, I reply, “Geoff is an old friend. I hope you don’t mind that I invited him to join us. I assumed since it is a work dinner you wouldn’t mind.”

She swallows hard when I say work.

My choice of words and the intention behind them is clear.