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There’s a million reasons why she should book a flight back to Washington D.C. She’d created a life in the bustling city on the East Coast. She had a fiancé that adored her—who had helped get her settled into a great teaching gig at George Washington. Mark had managed to give her the normalcy that she had been craving since seeing extinct monsters on Isla Nublar.
Ellie Sattler should get on the next flight out of Dallas.
She should, but since she already signed her name on the dotted line to lease a car for two days—she won’t.
Her next location was only an hour and some change away from the downtown area which meant that her evening flight would put her in Glen Rose by 6pm.
It had been nearly impossible to track him down without direct contact, but Ellie had kept in touch with some of their peers. From there, she had narrowed down what digs were active and surviving off federal funding.
A part of her hated the lies that she had to tell to get into southern America.
To her friends.
To her job.
To her fiancé.
She simply couldn’t go through with her wedding in two weeks if she didn’t see him. She’d sent out invitations—emails—letters to all of her former co-workers and peers, but she hadn’t heard anything back from him.
Perhaps, that should have been her answer.
They’d split on amicable terms. She had wanted to settle down in a home. He hadn’t been able to narrow down when he’d be ready for that next step.
He had buried himself as deep as the fossils they were trying to dig up—desperate to learn every fact about them in hopes that it’d piece together his love for all things pre-historic after the park.
She had been trying to hold together their relationship and her own sanity. Ellie had never been able to feel completely clean until she stepped out of the desert. She had needed therapy—someone who didn’t feel guilty for her own trauma.
Somehow their relationship had crumbled under the pressure of figuring themselves out after a life threatening event.
Why would she continue to try and tempt fate to cause their friendship to also crumble?
—
The Glen Rose State Park had old fencing that needed mending, but it managed to still guide her towards the familiar sight of a dig site. The bustle around the site proved that she had been correct. They were preparing to stop for the evening. Soon, the temperature would drop (to slightly below boiling) and the winds would begin to pick up in the lowest valleys of the dig.
There were a few people that she felt she recognized, but most of them were strangers to her. It was a comforting fact that allowed her to weave in and out of the crowd.
She remembered the thrill of being on site with Alan. They had worked effortlessly together—each day felt like peeling off another layer of a complex puzzle to find even more things to discover about the man she had grown to admire. Their personalities had meshed within weeks of working with one another.
Did one of the people that she passed by now compliment him?
Had he found someone else to conspire with until early morning? Did he stutter through an explanation as he offered them a drink or some time away from the dig site at a nearby bar?
It was a stupid thought. It was stupid jealousy—jealousy that she shouldn’t feel with a diamond on her left hand. If he had moved on, then she was happy for him. In fact, it was only fair. She had moved past the life that he was clearly holding onto.
Of course, there were moments where she missed being in middle of nowhere—on a dig—sometimes. There had always been a sense of adventure when you were covered in layers of dust and grime, but she had wanted a break from adventure after the events of Jurassic Park.
Ellie had longed for the normalcy of an overpriced apartment in a metropolitan area. She had wanted him to follow her, but they had both known that it wasn’t going to happen. He had been scared of holding her back and she had been scared that he’d come to regret a life that he wasn’t enthralled with to begin with.
It felt natural to be back on-site.
Ellie knew that the interns would be the ones ensuring the dig site was safe for the night. He’d already be back at his tent—hovering over the day’s findings.
As she moved past the RV and campers, she watched the tented areas slowly start to come into focus. The tents had to be new or at least on some sort of loan from a local shop. They were holding up better than she remembered. The dull brown color had been traded in for a white material. It was better suited for the heat of Texas.
All except for one.
He was a creature of habit and Ellie knew him all too well.
—
“Do you feel up to company, Alan?”
Her back was turned against the setting Texas sun. The heat rays pounding into her white linen shirt, but her focus was strictly on the man in front of her. His fedora was pulled low on his head while he bent over the metal desk in the middle of his tent. Except, her intrusion had caused him to straighten up and turn towards her.
“Ellie?”
She had heard his voice over the phone plenty of times, but there was something nostalgic about hearing his tone when he was so close that she could take only a few steps to touch him. They hadn’t talked nearly as much as she had wanted, but they weren’t strangers. Still, there was something emotional about seeing him again.
“Alan Grant,” she murmured. “I was afraid that I had missed you for the day.”
Ellie had taken the steps forward so that they were standing across from one another. He was clearly unsure about what was happening, but Ellie couldn’t take the awkward moment any longer. Her arms reached forward to wrap around his neck to pull him into a hug.
“Uh, definitely—not. I can’t believe you’re here. You’re here…in Texas.”
“…In Texas,” she repeated. When did they become so aloof with each other? Alan’s hand slipped down to hold onto her lower back. It was a familiar position between them. Their words may remained tense—but their bodies seemed to fit together effortlessly.
“I’m happy—if not a little confused—about why you’re here.” Alan buried his face against her neck. The hot breath against her skin encouraged her hands to tighten and bring him closer.
His body relaxed as she gave a finally squeeze, effectively tightening the hug. It’d been years since she had felt his familiar touch. It didn’t have to be sexual, but the intimate knowledge that Alan had her in his arms again somehow seemed enough.
“Ellie?”
His questioning broke her attention as she brushed off the sand from his blue flannel. While planning this trip, she had planned on telling him that she just wanted to see him. Hundreds of miles later, it seemed ridiculous.
They didn’t talk regularly, but they especially didn’t try to meet up for a casual conversation.
She pulled away from him to put some distance between them. The tone of his voice was already proving that he was worried for her—worried about a woman who had left her fiancé across the country weeks before her own wedding.
“I waited for your response to the wedding invitation.” Ellie stated. She had sent him an invitation to the event after weeks of deliberating. Mark knew that they had history, but she wasn’t sure he fully understood how impactful the relationship with Alan had been for her late twenties. “I thought that I’d get some sort of comment. A congratulations or maybe a phone call? Or even a ‘sorry, I can’t make it’ email. I haven’t heard anything from you. I’ve heard congratulations from Hammond’s estate—Ian Malcolm—people from our old dig site. At the least, you could have made an excuse about needing to stay on site.”
“I do need to stay on site. We have limited funds and especially limited time to use them. If I step away from that, then I’m wasting resources—” It was an impossible conversation to have with a man who had been married to his work for his entire adult life.
“Alan,” she groaned. She knew how things worked for the digs. If Alan had said that he had to focus on one in Texas instead of her wedding, then she would have believed him. She wouldn’t have flown across the country to stand in this dusty tent and watch her ex-lover stare at her like she had lost sense of her reality.
It’s impossible to argue with the man who knew her better than she suspected she knew herself.
“How about a beer?” He’s already moving across the tent to pop open his cooler. It’s an odd sense of deja vu.
Ellie had moved forward in her life. She had somehow managed to find the happiness that she had dreamed about with Alan, only without him, but there were missing pieces in her picture perfect reality.
Mark was dedicated to his career, but he had a passion for wanting a family. He came from a political family, perhaps not an overly successful one, but they had enough generational wealth that Ellie knew her future children would know only comfort. Mark loved her and she desperately cared for him. Still, there would always be an invisible string tying her to the man in front of her.
Alan slipped the beer into her hand, but remained silent as he wrapped a hand around her free one. While it looked like a bomb had exploded in a small area, she felt comforted by the fact that he hadn’t changed that much. She had learned the Grant madness long ago.
He motioned for her to sit down in the chair outside the entrance to his tent while he fumbled around with a second beer for himself.
She hadn’t confirmed whether she wanted a beer, but somehow he had given her a beer along with pulling her outside. Ellie had grown used to these late night moments with him. There was even a comfort in the humidity that surrounded them.
“I could have called,” Alan admitted. He turned his chair to get a better look at Ellie. For a moment, he was tempted to reach over for her hand. “I picked up the phone so many times. Each time, I knew the proper way to decline the invitation was to apologize for being busy. But, you see, Ellie, I’m not sorry that I’m going to miss your wedding.”
Perhaps, she wasn’t that twenty-five year old hanging onto every dig site instruction from the elusive Alan Grant. She wasn’t even the woman that had left heartbroken from Montana to chase after her dreams in a metro city. It didn’t matter. A large part of her had longed for that confirmation from him. There had been months after the breakup that she had worried that she fell too deeply for him. He wasn’t an emotional man—maybe she had wanted too much that he couldn’t provide.
The confirmation that both of them were struggling with the realization of her impending marriage made her selfishly happy.
“I could have said that I was happy for you, because I am. I could have said so many things, but they’re not fair to you, Ellie.” Alan took a long swig of beer and placed the glass bottle down in the cup holder beside them. “Nothing has changed for me. I still love late nights on digs, I don’t want much more than what I have here, and—“
“You still don’t want kids,” she filled in the final piece of their own relationship breakup. She didn’t want any part of begging Alan to open his mind to the possibility.
“It was never that simple, El. Not after Nublar, you know that.”
It was almost like he had mentally gone over this conversation. She hadn’t ever begged for their relationship to move forward. For months, Jurassic Park had been the realization that he’d be an amazing father, but that he was unable to put the horrors of Isla Nublar behind him.
In the end, Alan never wanted to hold her back from her dreams. They’d had the hard conversation between one another and she finally packed up her things to move to Washington for a University position.
“How has the dig been? You normally avoid Texas—I was surprised when Lucy pointed me in this direction to find you.” She knew that Lucy would forgive her if Alan let it slip that she had given away who had helped her track him down.
“Lucy—Miller?”
“Davis.”
“Ah-should have known.” Alan deduced. Lucy Davis was a talented professional, but she was consistently wrapped up in other people’s digs. If you needed to know any of the gossip—somehow she’d manage to find it out for anyone. “We’re wrapping this dig up soon. Personally, I’m planning on going back to Montana after this. It’s been nice to get out of the usual line-up of places, but it’ll be even nicer to get back to my regular schedule.”
He was the most consistent person that she knew.
“I’m glad. You’re doing what you love.” Ellie wondered if he was alone in these moments or if he’d finally opened up to someone else. It worried her that he was out in these deserts by himself. “What about off-site? Any personal achievements? Perhaps, seeing someone?”
Lucy had been particularly tightlipped about that aspect of Alan’s life. It either meant that she had grown a conscience since they worked together or Alan had kept it under the radar so not many people knew about it.
The deep breath and sigh that he gave allowed her to have all the insight that she needed. They had always been open books to one another. It didn’t matter whether or not they wanted the other to know their opinions, she knew that he could read her all too easily.
“I’ve gone on dates, but I’m not seeing anyone.” He placed the empty beer bottle on the ground between them. “I went with Amanda Florence to a convention in D.C. for a weekend. That’s the extent of my extended excursions.”
Ellie Sattler was tempting fate when she talked about other women with her Alan Grant. Under normal circumstances, she would have teased him.
Becoming scandalous in your old age?
Except, she only felt rage curling in her stomach.
“Mandy,” she mocked. She was a brunette geologist that often “found” her studies interconnecting with their world of ancient life. Ellie had teased Alan mercilessly while they were dating that the scientist was romantically interested in him, but he had vehemently denied.
There was a certain level of satisfaction that came with the knowledge that she had been right.
“I will say that she made sure I was single before offering herself up for the weekend.” Alan murmured.
“How kind—the first time she respected our relationship and we weren’t together.” Ellie could only imagine the absolutely horrendous reaction she’d get from the woman now. The cocky attitude that would slowly cause her to lose her usually tight grip on Ellie’s jealousy. Alan never paid attention to anyone, much less another woman,when she was around. That didn’t stop other women from trying to cause his eye to wander a time or two. Mandy was just one in a long line of professionals that somehow lost their ability to act around professional her boyfriend.
Ex-boyfriend.
Alan didn’t stop talking about his weekend with Amanda. “I don’t think that’s how she ever meant for her conversations to end up. She was always very respectful to you—and our work.”
Yet, Ellie knew that Mandy had consistently flirted with Alan each time they’d crossed paths.
“Please, she was respectful to you. She wanted to make me jealous each time I ran into her at events.” The admission was one word slip away from her admitting just how jealous the idea that he spent a random weekend with an ex nemesis. “Maybe I should go,” she admitted.
When she had finally taken a huge step back from their research, Alan hadn’t second guessed her. He hadn’t tightened his grip on her—he’d let her walk away without any arguments. In the moment, it felt respectful. Now, Ellie’s insecurities allowed her to wonder whether the relationship meant as much to him as it did to her.
“Finish your beer…then you have to wait at least an hour until it’s out of your system.” Alan reached over to clink his empty beer glass against hers. “It’s not every day that you get to see the top paleobotanist in America.”
—
They had continued talking about their professional lives. She expressed interest in writing some children’s books. Perhaps highlighting a little boy and a young girl named Tim and Lex and the adventures that they get up to while their grandfather is away on business.
It was a last ditch effort to try and humanize the nightmares that often plagued her dreams.
Alan had a suspiciously long amount of ideas of how they could potentially get in trouble. The man was creative even when he wouldn’t allow himself to express it.
One drink after another led them to over drinking.
One hour led to Ellie having to stay on the dig site for several more hours.
“Alan, let me help you with that,” Ellie insisted. Her hand fumbled with grabbing the second bottleneck, but his hands managed to grab most of the bottles.
“Don’t be silly, you’re the guest.” The thought that he might be serious had her giggling under his teasing gaze.
“I was the only one cleaning your tent and your camper for a few years. I think I can handle throwing away a few empty bottles.”
As her hand tossed away the last bottle into the garbage can, his hand wrapped around her wrist to turn her around to him. “I never said thank you for everything you always did for me.”
“Hey, listen, I never wanted that from you.” Ellie told him.
Out of everything she wanted from him, it wasn’t a thank you.
“No, I’m serious. You created something special in every single place that I dragged you into.” His hand moved from her wrist to her waist. It was in an effort to steady both of them, to try and force her to stop and focusing only on him.
Despite a million warning signals, her arm wrapped around the back of his neck.
“You deserved at least a thank you from me. I wish I could give you everything you deserve.”
He had been in these digs for the past years, clearly blaming himself for their split.
“I wish you were all I wanted,” she responded. “Because you’re who I deserve.”
When their lips finally meet again, they didn’t melt back together.
There wasn’t a magical moment of reuniting.
Ellie’s lips had missed his when he finally tugged her against his body. Somehow, they had managed to bump noses—giggled for a moment until he adjusted to find her lips after years of separation.
His lips were rough against hers, but she was still pushing herself against him. Still needing to be closer. She’d never have enough of his rough hands exploring beneath her paper thin blouse.
Her hand frantically found the desk against her back as the metal table dug into her back, she tossed off the paperwork. When the folders gave a satisfying thud against the floor, she gave a satisfied smirk in his direction.
“Did that make you happy?” His hands lowered from beneath her shirt to grab onto her ass. There wasn’t any judgement from him which allowed her to give him a satisfied moan.
In the past, she may have felt a little guilty about causing a mess in his own sanctuary, but instead, she was thrilled. Finally, the thing that was holding him back from her was wasted on the floor just like the fragments of their relationship.
“Alan,” she whispered as his lips brushed against her throat. He had placed his hand against the side of her neck so he could control how much she moved and she was still amazed at how gentle his touch felt. Ellie wanted everything fast. It had been too long, but it was clear that Alan was going to take his time. With each new touch, she found herself groaning until he covered her lips with his own again.
“Ellie, I need you,” he grumbled against her neck. His kisses trailed from her throat up towards her ear and his hands moved down to grab onto her ass.
His touch was everything she had dreamed about in the recent years. Her legs wrapped around his waist to keep him tight against her body. Ellie moved her hands to cup his face so that he’d pull back to look at her.
A piece of her wanted to make it back to his trailer, but the humid Texas air would have a sobering effect on their bodies. The walk back would force them to not touch for an extended amount of time. Alan was right—they needed this. If she was meant to spend the next decades separated from him—then this was truly it for them.
Her legs were already wrapped around him to make sure he was kept close, but her hands dropped from his face to start working on the buttons of his flannel. Ellie already knew he’d have an undershirt on. It’d be sweaty from a long days work and she couldn’t wait to take it off of him.
She pulled the flannel from his pants while his lips returned to her neck. “Alan, I can’t focus on your shirts when you’re doing this,” she groaned.
Her words didn’t stop him from continuing. It took only seconds until Ellie felt his own hands move between them to slowly unbutton her thin blouse. She didn’t have an infinity for multiple shirts which meant after a few buttons, she could feel her skin exposed to the heat surrounding them.
It was unfair that he was so easily able to unbutton her shirt while she struggled to get his flannel off his body. Ellie grabbed the bottom of his tank and firmly pulled it over his head as Alan’s hands wrapped around her body. Within seconds, he had unsnapped the lacy bra.
“I’m trying to get a good look at you,” he teased. There was a side of him that others were so rarely granted. His flirtatious side was one, but his loving—kind voice was one she was positive he saved for her.
He was shirtless in front of her, but she still found herself grinning at his teasing. “I haven’t changed at all,” she promised him.
“Perhaps, but it’s been too long.” Alan’s hands surrounded her waist to pull her body closer.
Ellie moaned as she felt their bodies begin to rock against each other, even with the limitation of the metal desk. “The recliner,” she whimpered. “It’ll be easier.”
He grunted out his response—stubbornly admitting that he wasn’t pleased with the realization that she was right. Neither of them were able to balance the other on a half crowded desk when they both wanted to meld against one another’s body. His large lounge chair wouldn’t be as preferred as his bed, but it’d give them enough space to spread out—remain on equal playing fields for the time being.
Her hands fumbled with his belt, but she was able to unsnap his button and zipper before he moved them across the room. If she had had more than a split second, Ellie would have told him to put her down. He didn’t need to be carrying her, but he did so incredibly easily.
Alan’s jeans were sliding down each step that he took with her towards the chair. “We could have planned this a little better,” he admitted.
They hadn’t planned this at all—which was the problem.
Alan allowed Ellie’s arms to wrap around his neck as he tried to carefully lower them down into the comfort of his chair. As his back landed against the chair, her knees finally connected with the cushion of the chair beneath them. It gave her the support she needed to lift herself off his body so that he could kick off his jeans.
“Stunning,” he mumbled as his lips pressed against the side of her exposed breast.
—
Ellie fell into a haze when he finally took off the clothing that remained between them. Her bra had been tossed next to his shirts while her jean shorts and underwear were discarded somewhere in the nearby vicinity. He had managed to tug off his boxers while distracting her with kisses along her chest. She could only moan as she finally felt their naked skin touch one another.
Her knees were supporting her as she hovered over him. His hands taking the liberty of being able to freely touch along her lower back.
“You’re sure?” he murmured up towards her.
She hadn’t missed how he had continuously made sure this was their decision.
Despite the alcohol, the faint buzz that surrounded the moment, she was fully in control.
Alan had ensured that Ellie would be on top. That distinction gave her the ability to control their pace, both emotionally and physically.
Instead of answering him, she reached between their bodies to wrap a hand firmly around his cock. She’d first felt him hardened as he had pressed her up against the desk, but now felt powerful as she gripped him for the first time in years. “I’m sure,” she promised. Ellie leaned forward to press her lips against his as she began to move her hand.
Alan gasped and jerked his hips up which caused their body to come in direct contact. “Fuck, I don’t have any protection on me.”
There was a certain thrill that came with that knowledge. He wasn’t prepared to do this with anyone on the dig site.
Stupid jealousy.
“I’m still on birth control,” she told him. Ellie’s lips remained against him as she worked her hand in tandem. She felt powerful as she felt his breath catch each time her thumb brushed against the head of his cock.
“I’m clean—“ Alan tightened the grip against her waist as he helped her rock against him.
“You wouldn’t have let it get this far if you weren’t.” Ellie knew how responsible he was—knew how protective he was of her.
“Damn right,” he muttered. His lips trailed down from her lips along a trail that only his mouth knew. Alan found her sensitive spot—right beneath her ear.
The whimper as he felt her body tense against him only propelled his confidence forward.
She was wordlessly giving him all the approvals that a man could ever need. Her body was tilted towards his while her breathing was in-tune with his. Alan reached between them to slide his fingers along her slick entrance.
The tension between them—added with the intense groping before had already prepped her for him. He wanted to be careful and take his time, but she was moaning as he touched her more intimately.
His slipped two fingers against her folds as her hips began to rock against him.
“Please, Alan,” she whimpered.
—
The moment that she finally felt Alan move inside of her for the first time in years, she felt the tears spring to her eyes. She wasn’t an overly emotional person, but she’d been pushing their memories far away as possible for months now.
“Everything okay?” Alan asked. His hand cupped her cheek which only allowed her to tilt her face down into his palm.
“It’s perfect. I just—can’t believe I’m here.”
“That’s my line,” he told her.
Ellie knew that he wasn’t an overly emotional man. He kept his cards close to his chest, but she could feel the emotion rolling off from his body. She lowered her hands to his shoulders to keep herself balanced as she rocked against his hips. “Man of few words has a lot to say tonight,” she whispered.
Alan gripped her waist with his left hand, effectively keeping her still as he pushed himself up into her. “I have a couple years worth.”
“I think I can haa—andle that.” Her nails dug into his shoulders as she felt his right hand move between them. She felt his fingers slide back between her thighs, gently brushing against her. It was an easy way to get her worked up. He could lazily drive her insane while she worked herself against his cock.
“You can handle it, huh? I know you can, baby, now show me.”
His encouragement was the only thing she needed to hear from him. Ellie’s fingers dug into his shoulder blades as she used her knees to leverage herself against the rough fabric of the recliner. She enjoyed watching his breath become jagged each time she moved, effectively pulling herself off him a bit more until she rocked herself back down.
They would have never tested their luck on a dig site years ago, but distance made hearts grow fonder. It apparently made an old fossil desperate to learn new tricks as well.
“Tell me it’s only been me since I left,” she said.
His gaze focused only on her breasts—just out of his reach—something that she knew was slowly driving him insane. Ellie’s adjusted her grip on his shoulder and bent down lower—a thrill of excitement bursting through her as his gaze dropped down lower.
“Say it, Alan,” she demanded. Ellie used her advantage to control their pace. Instead of grinding down against him, she pushed her hips up. Ellie lightly bounced against his cock in order to get the response she wanted.
“Fuck." Alan grunted as he finally glanced up to her face. He realized just how badly she needed to control them in this moment. "It’s always been you, Ellie.” She had bent down just enough that he could finally bend his head down to kiss along her chest. His tongue flicked against her sensitive nipple when he glanced up at her towering over him. “We both knew that from the beginning.”
The honesty shot a spike of adrenaline down to her core. “Come for me.” Her hands cradled his head as he continued to place gentle bites along her breast. “Come in me,” she clarified.
Ellie yelped as he bit down against the side of her right breast. It’d leave a mark, probably one that would last longer than the two days she had in Texas. “Alan, honey, please.”
It was unnecessary to use the endearment that she had exclusively called him while they were dating, but his forceful thrust into her proved her point. She had been the only one for him since they separated.
She buried her face against his shoulder as she cried out against him. Alan’s cock twitched inside of her as she felt him finally release into her.
“You were supposed to come first,” he grumbled. Alan didn’t draw too much attention to his comment as his thumb brushed against her.
“I like the power of knowing I can get to you first—“ Ellie gasped against the familiar feeling of his touch. “The thought of you out here alone…thinking of me…”
He added a bit more pressure as he circled her clit. It was the only thing that she needed to send her over the edge, until he said, “I’ll always be yours, Ellie Sattler.”
The hand motions mixed with her hips rocking against him had her overstimulated. Ellie was only focused on the man beneath her as she felt herself come against him.
—
If she was meant to feel guilty, Ellie refused to do it while she was still in the presence of him.
They fell apart, but finally back in each others arms.
She thrived under his constant gaze—his inability to remove his hands from her body even as she pulled on her white shirt. They wordlessly had agreed to go back to his trailer, but they still had to unfortunately get dressed for the trek back.
“Stop staring at me or I’m going to get distracted,” she told him.
Somehow, he’d managed to secure the tent flaps without her realizing while bringing in the beer bottles. Which meant she could get dress without worrying about an audience. In the moment, she hadn’t thought of the openness of the location. Anyone could have walked by or even in if they had needed him. They had made some noise, but the likelihood of anyone still being on site this late was highly improbable.
“I like you distracted. I also like you without pants on.” He didn’t stay seated once she got up. Alan had tugged on his boxers and jeans. It left him shirtless which was something that she found impossibly sexy.
It was impossible to not relax back against his chest when he wrapped his arms around her waist. She shouldn’t still be wrapped under his spell after getting what she’d wanted, but Ellie found it impossible to simply pull away.
“I have to leave tomorrow,” she told him.
It was better to be honest.
They had a time limit on this euphoria that was surrounding them.
“I’ll drive you back,” he offered.
Just like before, he didn’t try to stop her. Alan Grant would always allow her to make her own decisions—be her own woman. Whether or not it’d kill them was yet to be seen.
“I have a rental…you’d be stranded in Dallas.” It was a tempting offer. In normal circumstances, she wouldn’t deny them another hour of each others’ presence.
This wasn’t normal.
This was the worst type of circumstances. Once she left this dig site, she wasn’t sure when she’d get to contact him again.
Still, his words surprise her.
“Ellie, I’m coming with you to Dallas. I can figure the rest out later.”