Excerpt: Brett Poole first sees Julia
It's always been known that Brett Poole and Julia Anderson met on an archaeological dig. The dig had requested local, unskilled volunteers. Julia had been convinced to participate by her sister-in-law. Julia reluctantly went. While Jamie knew this, she didn't know all the details. Here's where it all started....
The last woman on the bus had unusually sharp features. For some reason that drew Brett’s attention. The first thought was “fairy,” but he couldn’t say why. It wasn’t as if Brett believed in them, or anything that couldn’t be proven. Perhaps it was her height. Perhaps it was her ponytail that seemed to pull everything, including her cheekbones and chin into sharp definition. What would she look like with her hair down? Now that was just silly. He hadn’t gotten his hair cut in a while. Soon he’d be able to put it in a ponytail too.
Brett Poole watched the young woman stumble down the steps. Automatically he pushed his glasses back into place. Despite what Dr. Oxendine said about him being sexist, he wanted to think he was fair. He felt sorry for the young woman.
He watched Mary Sutherland extend a hand.
He saw the woman bat it away and climb to her feet unaided. He heard the woman demand hotly, “Where are you from?”
He chuckled softly. What had Sutherland said to offend a volunteer so quickly? Too bad he hadn’t been close enough to hear. Privately, he applauded the woman who defied the conceited Mary Sutherland.
The woman had torn her jeans when she fell against the scrabbly terrain. Her knee bled, but she didn’t seem to notice any more than she noticed how her hair had fallen partly out of her ponytail. There was something unassuming about the woman. Something curious. The woman could not be more different from Mary Sutherland. He couldn’t put it into word then what it might have been, but he was impressed that this untrained volunteer had put Sutherland in her place, if only for a second.
He caught up to Dr. Oxendine so he could speak without being overheard. “I’ll have that one as my assistant. She can log details on what I find. I’ll write my own damn article on this.”
“But of course,” Dr. Oxendine nodded with a smile.
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