Cool, sparkling relief flooded through Laura as the Bonneville contingent left the room. She felt it slide through every part of her, settling her anxious stomach and zipping along her arms and legs. The feeling was so palpable that she sagged against one of the conference chairs, letting out a breath on a weak laugh.

“Thank God,” she said, shaking her head. “I thought Howie was out of his mind to give those letters to me so late in the game, but the man certainly does have a flare for the dramatic.”

“Howie gave those to you?” Ted asked. He stood and took a step toward Laura.

All at once, the prickling, nervous feelings that Ted always gave her—good and bad—shoved in, pushing her relief aside. He looked so good. He was wearing the same outfit he’d worn on their first date—an outfit he’d peeled off in spectacular fashion before diving into her bed. He was smiling for a change too, smiling with hope in his eyes.

And why shouldn’t he look hopeful? The bank couldn’t pursue their efforts to claim ownership of the fossil, which meant that the Flints owned it completely. And as far as she knew, the offer from The Field Museum still stood. That wasn’t even counting any other offers that might be made. Ted probably knew he was about to become a multi-millionaire. Of course he would look hopeful.

It had nothing to do with her.

“Howie was sitting on those letters this whole time?” Sandy asked, prompting Laura back to reality.

“Yeah.” She blinked and mentally shook herself, turning to Sandy. “Well, the case hasn’t been going on for that long. I do think he planned his timing specifically so that I could swoop in and save the day.” She rolled her eyes, but also snuck a peek at Ted.

Sandy made an impatient growling noise. “Drama is all well and good for television, but I wish that man would take the boring route sometimes and keep us all from tearing our hair out.”

“He wouldn’t be Howie if he did that,” Ted said.

He’d inched over just enough that he was standing next to Sandy. To Laura’s view, they made a cute couple. They were close to the same height, and at the moment they were both dressed to perfection. Meanwhile, she was standing there in a rumpled knit dress, leggings, and loafers, her hair a mess from running all the way from the PSF campus.

“Well, I’d better get back to work,” she said, backing slowly toward the door. “It was nice to see you again, Roscoe.”

“Mmm hmm.” Roscoe wore a smile that said he didn’t buy her disappearing act for a moment, that he knew exactly what she was thinking and was inwardly shaking his head.

“I’ll see you around, Sandy.” Laura continued to back toward the open door. She bumped into the corner of the door and jumped like a startled cat before continuing her retreat. After too long of a pause, she dragged her eyes up to meet Ted’s. “Uh, bye, Ted,” she all but whispered.

She turned and started to flee.

“Wait just a minute.” It was Sandy who rushed after her, not Ted. That was enough to stop Laura in her tracks.

She turned back as Sandy stepped out of the room. “Yeah?” she asked, her heart thumping a mile a minute. Laura considered Sandy a friend, but at the moment, she was terrified of her. Especially when Sandy marched across the hardwood floor in her three-inch heels and hooked her arm through Laura’s.

“You and I need to have a little talk,” she said.

“Oh. Um, I don’t know if I really have time.” Laura tried to wiggle out of the confrontation, but Sandy marched her down the hall and into her office. “I need to get back to work. Howie just wanted me to deliver those letters. We’ve got a lot on our plate today.”

“Uh-huh,” Sandy said, unconvinced. She shut her office door as soon as they were in, pivoted to Laura, and crossed her arms. “I am not interested in Ted. I was never really all that into him. I will not be into him any time in the future. And for the record, yes, we dated, but we figured out pretty quickly that we’re just friend material.”

“What?” Laura felt her cheeks burn hot as her face contorted through half a dozen expressions in an attempt to pretend she didn’t know what Sandy was talking about. “I…uh…I didn’t….”

“So help me God, Laura Kincade, if you let a good thing get away because you used me as an excuse, I will make your life a living hell.”

“I didn’t—” Laura’s mouth hung open and genuine fear struck her. She’d always suspected Sandy could be terrifying, but unequivocal proof now stood in front of her.

“I will never tell you when you have broccoli in your teeth,” Sandy went on, her expression fierce. “I will tell you that you look fat in every pair of pants you try on. I will recommend all the wrong shades of lipstick. And I will be absolutely certain to spill wine on your favorite skirt at every single party we go to.”

The light of teasing glowed in Sandy’s eyes, and she suddenly had a hard time keeping a straight face. Her posture softened to that of a good friend…a good friend who was desperate not to let Laura make a terrible mistake.

The problem was, Laura had already made the mistake.

“That’s how we met,” she whispered, shoulders sagging.

“What?” Sandy let her arms drop and moved closer to Laura.

Unwelcome tears filled Laura’s eyes. “That’s how Ted and I met.” Her throat squeezed, making it hard for her to talk. “It was at Scott and Casey’s engagement party. He spilled food on me, and then he helped me clean it up.” Her eyes stung. Her whole face stung. “It was such a dorky, sweet move.” She barely got the words out before bursting into a sob. “And here I thought I was a dork. Ted’s a dork too.”

“Aw, honey.” Sandy closed her arms around Laura and pulled her into a hug.

That only made things worse. Laura burst into a soggy, slobbering mess. She didn’t deserve Sandy’s friendship or support, not when she’d been thinking such nasty things about her. “I blurted out all sorts of stupid things about dinosaurs and all the places I’d traveled in the Army and stuff. He thought I was interesting because he’d never traveled anywhere.”

It didn’t make any more sense to her now than it did then, but telling the story reminded her that Ted hadn’t thought he was interesting enough for her at first. It was incomprehensible that someone as hot and funny and nice as Ted could think she was too good for him. But she wasn’t. They’d worked so well together those first few weeks of the excavation. They’d worked well together in bed too. Better than just good. And she’d gone and thrown all that away for no reason.

“Why don’t you go out there and tell him how you feel.” Sandy gave her back one final pat, then nudged her to stand straight. “He and Roscoe probably haven’t left the building yet.”

Laura sniffled and shook her head and wiped her nose on the back of her hand. Sandy made a scolding noise and reached over to her desk to hand her a tissue. That only underscored for Laura how hopeless she was. She blew her nose, grabbed another tissue, and wiped her eyes.

“I can’t,” she said at last.

Sandy pursed her lips and rested her weight on one heeled foot. “Don’t make me lecture you again. I sound like my Grandma Dori when I lecture people, and Grandma Dori was one of the meanest, toughest old broads you’d ever want to meet.”

Laura couldn’t help but laugh. She blew her nose one more time and made a weary sound. “Maybe I need your Grandma Dori right now. But no,” she went on before Sandy could say anything. “What’s done is done. I screwed things up, said things I shouldn’t have, and now I’m way too embarrassed to fix it.”

Sandy shook her head. “Honey, with an attitude like that, you’re digging yourself some very deep holes in life.”

“Good thing I have a whole excavation kit to find my way out of those holes,” Laura joked.

“Then do it,” Sandy urged her, taking her words seriously. “Break out of whatever cycle you’re stuck in. Ted loves you. He’d understand whatever it is you’re going through, I’m sure.”

“I don’t even know what I’m going through,” Laura argued.

“That makes two of us.” Sandy sent her a lop-sided smile and squeezed her arm. “I don’t understand you, Laura Kincade, but you’re my friend.”

“Really?” Laura’s face lit up.

“Girl, where have you been this past year?” Sandy teased her. “Of course you’re my friend. And as a friend, I’m not going to let you drop the ball with Ted. One last time—” She straightened to her full, imposing height and put on a lawyerish expression. “—I am not interested in Ted.” She paused. “If you must know, I’m kind of interested in someone else.”

Laura’s brow flew up. “It’s Jogi, isn’t it? Have you guys been out on any dates yet?”

Sandy pursed her lips, a dark flush splashing across her mocha cheeks. “We’re talking about you here, not me.”

“It is, isn’t it?” A new blossom of romantic hope unfurled in Laura’s chest. She told herself that it was excitement for the decidedly odd coupling of someone as sophisticated as Sandy and a normal old IT guy like Jogi Sandhu. The voice in the back of her head was pretty sure she was just using them as an excuse to feel hope about her own romantic prospects.

“Go,” Sandy ordered her, pointing toward the door. “Get out of here and go talk to your man before he gets away.”

Laura took a step toward the door. “I could say the same to you. The orienteering thing was months ago, and I haven’t seen you and Jogi stepping out at all.”

“I’m not talking about this,” Sandy said, trying not to smile. “Get out.”

“Time waits for no woman,” Laura called over her shoulder as she walked toward the door. “I’ll probably see Jogi later, since he’s been upgrading all the computers on our floor. Want me to drop a hint for him to ask you out?”

“Out!” Sandy shouted, blushing harder than Laura had ever seen her. “And don’t you dare.”

Laura was actually giggling by the time she reached the hall and Sandy playfully slammed the door behind her. Giggling! She was pretty sure her eyes were still red from sobbing, and now she was giggling. Anyone looking at her would be sure she was deranged.

That thought sobered her as she walked back along the hall to the conference room. She couldn't believe she was actually going to talk to Ted. She had no idea what she’d say. The prospect of eating humble pie and asking him to start over with their relationship was enough to glue her feet to the floor. But she had to do something. She couldn’t go on feeling miserable and embarrassed all the time.

She took a deep breath and rounded the corner, heading to the conference room.

The room was empty.

All of the hope and excitement Sandy had built up in her fell flat. Laura let out a breath and looked around the room, as if Ted and Roscoe would be hiding in a corner. The room was definitely deserted.

She stood there for a minute, biting her lip and wondering what she should do. There was a chance Ted and his dad were still in the building, but for some reason, her feet were a thousand times more reluctant to move now than they had been walking over from Sandy’s office. She swayed on her spot for a few seconds before pushing herself into motion.

Ted wasn’t anywhere in the hallway of Sandy’s law office. Laura walked out through the corridor and into the lobby, but they weren’t there either. Every step she took sapped her confidence. What if Ted hadn’t stayed around because he didn’t want to talk to her? What if he’d seen Sandy drag her off and figured that was the end of that? There was no reason for him to stick around, no way that he would have known Sandy was giving her a pep-talk. What if he’d already moved on and that was the end of that?

She stopped near the office’s front door and blew out a breath. This is silly. This whole thing is silly. Stop letting a guy distract you and go back to work where you belong.

She hated to admit it, but her inner voice had the best idea she’d heard all day. She rolled her shoulders and pushed on through the law office’s front door and out into the streets of Haskell. She’d done what she’d set out to do, and there was no point in hanging around to get herself into even more trouble. Ted was gone anyhow. She’d gotten her hopes up for nothing.

* * *

“So I guess that’s that.” Ted sighed as he walked by his dad’s side down the street to where they’d parked the truck. “We won.”

Never had those two words been uttered with such a lack of enthusiasm.

“Yep,” Roscoe agreed. Probably on both accounts.

Ted thrust his hands into his pockets and kept walking. He wished he had his cowboy hat with him. There was a world of comfort in something as simple as a hat. A hat with a brim that he could hide behind. Because he couldn’t shake the feeling that the whole world could see the disappointment on his face, in spite of the fact that he’d beaten the Bonnevilles and secured the rights to a multimillion-dollar fossil.

He hadn’t won the prize that really mattered.

“You should have let me say something to her,” Ted muttered, trying not to sound resentful.

“The timing wasn’t right,” Roscoe insisted.

“Yeah, but she was right there and she looked so happy,” Ted argued.

Roscoe nodded. “She was, but you can’t launch a rocket without going through all the proper checks first.”

Ted glanced to his dad, grinning in spite of himself. “Since when do you use rocket analogies?”

“Since Laura tried explaining her job to me.” Roscoe grunted, which for him was a laugh. “I still don’t understand the first thing about what that woman does.”

“Neither do I,” Ted laughed. That moment of fond feeling quickly twisted around his heart until his whole chest ached. “The way she looked at me, Dad….” Ted sighed. “For a minute there, she looked so happy to be able to save the day, just like Howie wanted. But then she looked….” He ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. “I wanted to get up out of that chair and hug her and tell her she’s perfect and everything will be okay.”

Roscoe grunted again as they reached the truck, but in an entirely different way. “You want her back or do you want to scare her away for good?”

“I know, I know,” Ted sighed, even though he wasn’t sure he did know. How could it possibly hurt things to tell a woman he loved her? Wasn’t that what women always wanted from their men?

He unlocked the truck and hopped inside. Laura wasn’t like other women. And as much as he hated to admit it, his dad was right. Until she worked through whatever was holding her back, he’d probably just make things worse by trying to make them better.

He started the truck, checked for oncoming traffic, and pulled into the road, heading home.

“Okay, so what do I do next, Dad?” he asked with renewed determination, willing to do whatever his dad thought was best. “What do I do to win her back?”

This time, Roscoe’s grunt was a laugh. “You’ve got the best lure you could possibly have for that girl,” he said. “And it’s all yours now.”

It took Ted a second to catch up. “You mean the fossil?”

“Yep.” Roscoe smiled. “As long as that thing is on our property, she’ll keep coming back.”

Ted tilted his head to the side, considering. “I’m not sure I want to wait until she comes all the way out to the ranch to work on the dig. I know I’m supposed to be taking things slow, but I’m worried that there’s such a thing as too slow.”

Roscoe rubbed his stubbly chin, gaze fixed out the front windshield as they drove through the cozy shops and quiet neighborhoods of Haskell. “You know,” he said at last. “There might be a way to bring the dinosaur to her.”

“It’s a gigantic piece of rock that weighs several tons, Dad. I don’t think I can bring it to her.”

“No.” Roscoe nodded in agreement. “But just the other day, she was telling me that there’s all sorts of other fossils in the area where the big guys came from.”

“True.” Ted nodded, an idea already beginning to form in his mind.

“Of course, the other thing is….” Roscoe paused and turned to Ted. “Now that we know the bank won’t interfere with the ownership of the fossil, we might want to consider giving Laura her due.”

His dad’s hint was such a good one that Ted felt as though he’d already been considering it, considering his next move and how to integrate it all together with a bid to win her back, for ages. “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?” he asked.

Roscoe’s grizzled, old face broke into a smile. “Yep.”

Ted grinned. His heart suddenly felt lighter than it had since walking out of Sandy’s conference room. Strange, considering how much he was about to give up.

“All right, then,” he said. “Let’s do it.”