“Of course you have. Are we ready to go?”
“Yes, I’ll just grab my handbag,” Meg said hurrying past Arkdone’s watchful eyes and back to her room. Once the door was shut, she forced herself to breathe slow, deep breaths. She hadn’t realized how much she depended on Gideon’s sweet, protective ways until she lost him.
She moved to grab her matching handbag and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She’d gathered her wild curls into a loose bun at the back of her head. Small locks of curls had escaped their capture and rained down lightly around her face and at the small of her neck. And that’s when she shivered at the memory of Keegan’s hands on her.
“Get it together, Meg. You have a job to do. Keep focused on the plan,” she muttered to herself. She took a moment to rub the lingering goose bumps off her arms, took a deep breath, lifted her chin into the air and pulled her shoulders back. She strode decisively back to the foyer where everyone was waiting for her performance. She would just have to get through this on her own after all.
Chapter 73 Doughnuts at Dawn
“So that’s how I got into studying scars. If my dad hadn’t been injured in the fire at the lab back home, I would never have gotten into the study of stem cells helping regenerate skin. It’s fascinating work!” Kylie took a quick sip of her coffee and watched the quiet boy sitting across from her pick at his food.
“Do you not like the way they cooked your eggs?” she asked, scooping up a forkful from her plate.
“Oh, the food is fine. I was just thinking about what you said. So you think the stem cells could help heal wounds? What limitations have you noted in your studies?”
“The usual suspect variables like the extent of damage to the epidermis or dermis, the size of the injury, the age of the patient and therefore the production of collagen. Then, of course, there’s the age of the injury.” Kylie smiled widely, happy to be sharing her passion with a fellow student of science.
“Hmm,” was the only response Evan offered.
“You mentioned,” Kylie began carefully, “that you have scars. Would you like to discuss them? I mean in a purely scientific manner, of course.” Her earnest green eyes showed concern as she waited for Evan’s response.
“Let me think about it,” he said after a long pause, his left hand tightening in his lap.
“Sure thing.” Kylie beamed looking as though Evan’s “maybe” was a “yes” in training.
She watched Evan in silence for a while then decided silence was annoying. “I’ve gone on and on about my family. Tell me about yours.”
Evan flinched, and though Kylie was a whirlwind of activity, she was a very astute observer. She saw so much more than people thought. Her observation skills made her a phenomenal scientist.
“You don’t have to talk about them if you don’t want to,” she offered graciously.
“No, it’s okay. It’s just complicated.”
She leaned in and whispered, “Families usually are.”
Chirp, chirp. Chirp, chirp
“Speaking of family,” he nodded toward his phone. “Excuse me.” He stood to step politely away from the table.
“Mom? Is everything okay?”
“Evan, please come home. We’ve gotten news and it affects all of us.”
“Is it Meg? Is she all right?”
“We still don’t know about your sister, but we’ll be able to find much more information in a couple of weeks.”
“Why?”
“Our names are being cleared by the US government. We’re going to be able to go home!”
“What? How did that happen?”
“We can talk about it when you get back to the house. Oh, Evan! We’ll be able to go back to our home!” Evan could hear the excitement in her voice and imagined her holding the phone so tightly to her cheek that she was about to accidentally disconnect the call.
“I’ll be home soon, Mom. That is very exciting news.” He added the last part for her. Inside he was thinking he had a lot of work to finish before they left and he was afraid he wouldn’t have enough time to complete it.
When he walked back to the table he saw that Kylie was on the phone too.
“Yes Dad. I understand. I’ll be right home. Bye.” She touched the end call button before saying, “Speaking of family, my dad wants me home ‘ASAP’ so I can help him. His TA this semester is a complete loser and has fallen behind on grading, so he’s asked for my help.”
Evan was only half listening as his mind was racing over the possibilities concerning their miraculous amnesty. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure Meg had something to do with it.
He glanced up at Kylie who was looking at him expectantly. “Excuse me?” Evan asked. He realized he’d missed the last thing she said.
“I asked if you could give me a lift back home. I usually walk or take the bus, but it would be faster if you could help me.”
Evan frowned.
“I live just off campus.”