Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(12)

She would end up right back here. She would work all weekend.

It was time. It was time to stop worrying about making another terrible decision and…probably make another terrible decision. Anything was better than standing still.

“Have you thought about the fact if you weren’t in charge of a whole department, you might have more time for a life?” Paul asked.

They were back to this? “I have more control over my research this way.” She shoved the paperwork into her briefcase. It was time to start her sad schedule. She certainly wasn’t going to break it so Paul could try to talk her into giving up her position. Again. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I might be a little late.”

Maybe she would stop and have breakfast. There was a place down the street that had an all crepe menu she’d been meaning to try.

He leaned back in his chair. He was an attractive man in his late thirties with chestnut-colored hair and intelligent eyes. “You’ll be here by seven o’clock tomorrow.”

“Probably. I do need to check on Mickey and Minnie.” She shouldn’t even try to fool herself. She wouldn’t go sit down for breakfast. She wouldn’t spend her weekend sight-seeing. She’d been living in Toronto for two years and she’d barely gotten out of The Annex. For a wild day, she would head over to the University of Toronto and give a guest lecture.

The days were starting to seem endless. And bland. At first her “sabbatical” had been good for her. She’d healed from her divorce and gotten into the swing of her new work. She’d concentrated on her research and the charity she and Melissa and Dad had started. But now it was wearing on her…and that was good, too. It was good to want something.

“You have interns to do that,” he pointed out, standing up and preparing to go as well. “We just brought on four more. I hired them myself. Two women and two men. One of the guys is interesting, a bit older than our usual. Tucker is a second-year medical student. He’s not a moron, so I’m sure he can make sure your rats are still alive overnight. He could even check on them over the weekend.”

It was precisely why they had student interns. “Let’s see how it goes.”

“All right, I know a no when I hear it. Well, I’ve got to get to Emmanuel’s school. There’s been another incident with that boy. I swear that Parker kid is a terrible influence on my son.”

She kind of thought it was nice Emmanuel had found a friend. He was a weird kid, but then she’d been one, too. Something about him though…there was an odd darkness in the kid even though he was barely seven years old. “Don’t be too hard on him. It’s rough being the smartest kid in class. He’s younger than the rest of them, right?”

“Only by a year,” Paul replied. “He’s bored. He should have been promoted to a proper grade for his intelligence, but his mother…well, she’s against it. I barely managed to get her to agree to let him move forward a single class. You were lucky you and Gary didn’t have children when you divorced.”

Yes, lucky. Not that Gary had wanted children with her. He’d wanted her help in getting his career off the ground, and then he’d left her for his intern.

She wondered if this Tucker kid was handsome. After all, it wasn’t like she was looking to get married again. A good time though…

They walked toward the doors and she shook off the ridiculous thought. She was not dating another doctor.

“Have a good evening, Rebecca,” Paul said with a nod as he took himself down the opposite hall.

She trudged toward her office, a weariness invading her bones.

“I called your order in,” her assistant said. Cathy was packing up for the day, shoving her planner into the big bag she carried. Sometimes Becca was utterly fascinated with that bag of hers. It seemed never ending. She could pull almost anything out of it. Need nail clippers? Ask Cathy. Forgot your pen? Cathy had fifteen, and in every color imaginable.

She also had something else in that bag. A long list of eligible bachelors. Cathy was something of a matchmaker.

“Why don’t you come home with me? I’ve got a roast that’s been cooking all day,” Cathy said. “I know having dinner with my kids, and Bob regaling you with stories of his latest policy sale isn’t what a young woman would consider fun, but at least you won’t be alone.”

No, she would be surrounded by a happy, functional family, and that would depress her even more. “Thank you, but I’m truly fine. I have a bottle of wine and some movies I’ve been meaning to watch. I’ll talk to my dad and maybe hop on the computer and Facetime with my baby sis. I’m good with my plans, but maybe not this weekend. Maybe this weekend I should make other plans.”

Cathy stared at her for a moment as though she knew what she would say next. “Please tell me you’re letting me off the leash.”

Becca had to laugh. For two solid years, Cathy had been trying to set her on a new love path. She didn’t really want a love path, but a friendship with benefits path might be nice. “Find me a decent guy who isn’t intimidated by female success and doesn’t want to immediately impregnate me. Don’t you laugh. Men get desperate at this age. They know they’re losing their looks and they’re getting a little paunchy in the middle. The old bio clock is ticking.”

It was precisely why she wouldn’t let Melissa set her up. Melissa only knew doctors, and she wasn’t going there again. It wasn’t that Gary had been an out-and-out asshole. He’d simply needed to be the one who shined in the relationship. He’d been hyper competitive, and having his wife beat him out for a fellowship had been the last straw. He should have had a backbone and divorced her before he started sleeping with his intern, but he had impulse control issues. He’d already married the intern, gotten her pregnant and, if rumors were true, was cheating on her with a nurse.