The idea of Hutch kissing her often held way too much appeal.
She was horny. That was all. She was a healthy, horny young woman.
A cup filled with Frappuccino was set in front of her and then Pete Moore was settling himself into the chair beside her. Pete was the lead engineer she was working with, an affable man in his late thirties with a husband, two kiddos, and the most adorable Maltipoo. “Hey, I heard you came up with the big boss after lunch. Are you okay? Did you actually go to lunch with her? I didn’t think she ate anything but the beating hearts of her enemies.”
She’d met Pete when she’d hired on and had started working on another doc’s project. He’d helped her write up the proposal that had gotten her this lab. Pete had been fought over by all the lab leads. When she’d won her lab, she’d offered him the job as her head engineer. What she hadn’t known until later was that several others—including Madison—had offered him a job, too. There had been a lot of bitterness tossed her way.
Actually, after seeing all the camaraderie at McKay-Taggart, she was starting to wonder if her office wasn’t a toxic cesspool.
“No, it was nothing more than coincidence. We happened to be walking in at the same time.” It had been an awkward trip up to her floor. She’d actually slowed her stride to give Jessica Layne every opportunity to race ahead of her, but she’d been standing in front of the elevator when Noelle had made it there.
She’d asked a lot of questions about Hutch and Kyle.
“I thought she closed down the elevator when she was in it,” Pete said.
She’d heard that rumor, too. “She invited me in. It was weird.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard a lot of weird things today. Tommy from the battery lab said you were making out with some hottie in the parking lot.” Pete took a sip of his drink. “He didn’t actually call him a hottie. He said it was some dude. I went and looked at the security cams. He’s a hottie. Like both of them. Where the hell did you pick up two Greek gods?”
“I told you about my high school boyfriend, right?” She knew she hadn’t. She rarely talked about her hometown except to say she missed it sometimes.
McKay-Taggart had reminded her of the sheriff’s office back in Papillon. She’d answered phones there as a part-time job for years. It had been fun because of how laid back it was. Her stepmom would sometimes show up for lunch and they would sit on the grass under the big oak tree and talk while they ate po’ boys and drank sweet tea. Her dad would bring the family dog up and Peanut would walk around looking for a pet. Everyone acted like family.
“No, you didn’t.”
She sighed like she hadn’t expected the response. “Huh. I guess I didn’t realize how much I missed him until recently. His name is Hutch. We went to high school together.” She was actually a couple of years younger than him, but he had a baby face. And according to MaeBe, he also had a fake birth certificate that showed the proper age. “We broke up when I went to college. He came up here for a job interview, but he’s going to stay with me. We’re going to try to make it work.”
“Who was the big military-looking guy?” Pete knew his guys.
“His brother who recently got out of the Navy,” Noelle replied. “He made a big impression on the boss. She’s pretty aggressive. His girlfriend was standing right there and Jessica pretty much hit on him.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. That woman goes after what she wants.” Pete stood again with a sigh. “Well, I’m going to check on some tests I’ve got running. I tweaked some things on the MRI and I’m happy with how fast we’re hitting the right temps.”
She glanced at the clock and hadn’t realized how late it had gotten. She still hadn’t asked some of the questions she was curious about. She’d tentatively broached the subject of Madison’s lab with Jessica, who had deflected and turned the subject back to Noelle’s fake love life. But Pete might know some things. “Did you work on the biotech lab last week?”
“Do you mean ground zero?” Pete asked with a shake of his head. “Yeah, after the police were done and the biohazard unit left. You should be glad you weren’t here last week. It was bizarre. At first we had DPD all over the place, and then they were gone and men in biohazard suits were cleaning stuff up.”
“Did you read any of the reports?”
Pete chuckled like she’d asked a naïve question. “Honey, no one has. Jessica locked everything down as quickly as possible. I’ve heard the police report is calling it an accident. Supposedly OSHA investigated, but I don’t know anyone who talked to them. They’re blaming it all on Madison. She was up in the lab after hours, and the rumors are she was taking some pretty stiff pharmaceuticals. Not the legal kind.”