Raiders of the Lost Heart(22)

Letting out a long exhale, Ford started toward Corrie and Ethan. They were so engrossed in their conversation that they didn’t even notice him approaching until he was less than three feet away. And even then, it was a twig snapping underneath Ford’s foot that managed to grab their attention rather than Ford himself.

“Everything okay?” Ethan asked as he and Corrie stood.

Ford nodded. He didn’t want to get into the whole thing about his mother. He hadn’t even told Ethan that she was sick. All that would have led to would be Ethan trying to convince him not to go on this expedition. In fact, he hadn’t told anyone about his mother. Except Corrie.

“Yeah, just a call about an update,” he responded. Which wasn’t technically untrue, although he was sure Ethan and Corrie took that to mean a call from the investor looking for an update rather than someone else providing an update to Ford on his mom.

“So . . .” Ford said, looking at Corrie, “do you think you can do this? Help us, I mean?”

“Are you sure you actually want my help?” she asked in return. She didn’t ask in a snarky way. It was an honest question.

“Yes,” he simply responded.

Corrie glanced at Ethan, then at the dig site, as Ford waited breathlessly for her answer.

“Okay. I’ll stay.”

He stared at her for a solid beat, then nodded. “All right, then. Let’s tell everyone to pack up. We’re done here.”

He’d turned and started walking toward the crew when Ethan and Corrie ran up beside him. “What do you mean, ‘We’re done here’？” Ethan asked, confusion written all over his face. “I thought you wanted Corrie’s help? Didn’t you hear her? She’s going to stay.”

Ford stopped and turned to face them. “I heard her. So, because I was wrong,” he said, exaggerating his words, “and this isn’t the site, we need to pack up and shut it down. It’s going to take a few days to return it to its natural state, so while everyone else is doing that, Corrie and I will go research some other locations. I’ll need you, Ethan, to stay here and direct the breakdown. And if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll find the right site and can resume digging within the next couple of days. Now, we’re already way behind schedule because of this . . . error, so let’s not stand around debating my decision, because I’m still in charge here, and I want to be confident about at least one decision I’ve made in the past three months, okay?”

Ethan and Corrie simply nodded. Speechless. Ford never thought he’d see the day the two of them were speechless. Too bad it had to come at his expense.

“Great. Glad you agree,” Ford said, resuming his march toward the crew.

And, hopefully, this would finally be the start of good decisions he made on this disaster of a dig.

Chapter

Five

Corrie couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe he’d actually said those three magical words: I. Was. Wrong.

Most women might look at a man like Ford Matthews and think the sweetest and best three little words they could ever hope to hear come from his mouth were more in the likes of I love you. But not Corrie. For Corrie, hearing I was wrong come from those sweet, delicious lips practically gave her an orgasm.

She could totally get used to this.

The only words that could possibly be sweeter were I’m sorry. Sorry for all the jokes and jabs. Sorry for snagging that fellowship out from under her. Sorry for somehow weaseling his way to get this gig—some connection through Dr. Crawley, no doubt.

And maybe even a sorry for that night in the library. For leading her on. There was no doubt in her mind that he’d wanted to kiss her. If they’d been given thirty more seconds, his lips would have been on hers. One hundred percent.

How they’d managed to be locked on Addison Crawley’s only a few days later was beyond her. And dammit . . . it had hurt.

Corrie was surprised by how much it had hurt, seeing as until that night she never would have considered having any interest in Ford Matthews. Well, okay, not, like, serious interest, at least. The man was damn fine, and she had a libido. Even despite how much she hated him now, she couldn’t deny the way her body reacted to him. But that was sexual interest. Dating interest? Relationship interest? Not over her dead body.

But something had changed that night. That night she’d viewed Ford as more than her nemesis. And the next morning she’d pictured what it might have been like to have Ford waking up next to her and sitting at her kitchen counter while she made him breakfast. Or maybe he would have made her breakfast. And then perhaps he’d have pulled her into his arms, with her in his T-shirt that barely covered her ass, and he’d have kissed her. And the bacon would have burned because they’d been so engrossed in each other that they hadn’t even noticed the smoke until the smoke detector went off.

Yeah . . . he needed to apologize for allowing her to picture those things—pretty things, when she didn’t believe in pretty things—and then throwing it all in her face by replacing that vision with one of him doing all those same things with Addison Fucking Crawley.

“Corrie, you all right?”

The question snapped Corrie out of her rage, loosening her grip on the small, worn map Ford had handed her earlier. Wow. That memory changed her mood fast. Her gaze shot to Ethan, who stood in front of her with a worried look on his face.