“We’ll see,” she said mollifying him and handed the earnest little boy a sippy cup full of water he didn’t have to ask for.
With eyes wide, he took the cup, wrapped his pink Cupid’s-bow lips around the straw and began taking long draws.
“It has to be a lake that has different water than this kind.” He held up his cup as illustration of his point.
“What do you mean different water?” Margo was wheeling them to the kitchen table where she opened the cookie jar and passed the little boy a treat.
Danny was engrossed in peeling apart his cookie to get to the creamy center for a moment, but he was deep in thought.
“Salty,” he finally said.
“No, honey. Cookies are sweet.” She gently corrected taking a bite of her cookie and chewing.
“The water, Mommy. The water has to be salty.”
Margo stopped chewing and turned to look at the small son curled on her otherwise useless legs. He chewed happily, now that he’d relayed his dream to her.
He swung his little feet and hummed a tune as he finished his cookie before he looked up innocently into Margo’s silent, surprised face and nodded reassuringly. “My dream told me the salty lake will help me fix your legs, Mommy.”
Chapter 69 Miss Monroe
“It was you, wasn’t it?” a girl’s voice chirped from beside Evan. He’d been so engrossed in his work as he peered through the microscope at the Rat Specimen #3’s brain he didn’t even know he was no longer alone in the lab. Three days passed since his nightmare that turned him into a sleeping fire starter. The rumors and excitement had already died down. The students at the working university hospital were too busy to be bothered for long by superstition.
Evan had been lying low, ducking back into the lab only in the middle of the night when all rational people would be sound asleep. He’d gotten away with checking his rat specimen and his workbench project without running into a soul, until tonight.
“It was you, right?” the girl repeated herself—a mischievous smile pressed her lips as she pointed directly at his face, nearly tweaking his nose playfully. Evan’s brows raised in absolute surprise at her accusation.
“What was me?” he asked, trying to keep the squeak out of his voice.
“You’re the one who cleaned up this place! You organized the scrub room and set these annoyingly lax lab students on the right track!”
“Oh, that,” Evan tried not to look visibly relieved, though he was. “It was nothing.”
“Don’t belittle your work. I’m seriously thankful for the much improved working conditions of this lab. I can trust my findings not to have foreign contaminates fudging up my results.”
“No problem,” he shrugged humbly then turned to look back into his scope.
“I’m Kylie Monroe,” she nodded politely to his gloved hand, acknowledging they couldn’t shake as they were both sterile before continuing. “I’m a first-year resident-exchange student from the US. And if you couldn’t tell, I’m kind of a phenom. I’m only sixteen.” She said matter-of-factly. “You are, too, aren’t you? How old are you?”
Evan looked at the girl suspiciously. “If you’ll excuse me, Miss Monroe, I’ve got to take notes while my sample is fresh.” He returned to his scope but felt the girl still standing quietly in place. Minutes passed and she didn’t move. Evan regarded her with what he hoped was an obvious look of annoyance.
“What are you working on?” she asked, her handsome, wide-set green eyes sparkled with curiosity. Evan couldn’t have been more annoyed.
“I’m sorry, Miss Monroe, but my project isn’t open for discussion.” He turned away from her big green eyes so he wouldn’t see the hurt he was sure his words would have put there.
“Okay,” she said pleasantly enough. “I’m just studying the effects of healing scar tissue using some really exciting combinations of aloe and other homeopathic herbs.”
“Scar tissue?”
“Yes,” she smiled earnestly.
“I’m sure that’s why you’ve come to bother me.”
“Excuse me?”
“You must have noticed my scars,” he glared at the blonde who looked petite and powerful—as though she had trained as a gymnast before she started studying medicine.
Her eyes searched his face, “All I see are some dark circles under your eyes. Haven’t you been sleeping well?”
“Ironic that you’d ask me that considering it’s three forty-five in the morning.”
“I just assumed you got up early, not that you’ve been up all night.”
“Look, Kara—”
“Kylie,” she corrected easily.
“Kylie, I’m sure you’re a nice enough person, but I’m just—not. Please excuse me if I seem rude. I have a lot of work to complete and not much time to accomplish said tasks,” he frowned as though deep in thought.
Kylie watched his troubled face, “I’d be happy to help you. I’ll just put the lotions on my specimen, take a few notes then I’m all yours. I bet we could finish your work in half the time together.”
She turned to busy herself three tables over.