Forget Me Not (Golden Falls Fire Book 4)

by Scarlett Andrews

  Her breath left her in a huff of annoyance. “Nobody’s laughing at you. And you have no right to be jealous. You’re the one who didn’t want to commit, remember?”

  He ignored that point. “If you want to waste your time with some meathead, knowing you’re going to be leaving Golden Falls anyway, fine. But it’s not fair to our common work to leave me in the lurch.”

  Annabelle crossed her arms and half-turned away. “Derrick, seriously. For one thing, we don’t have common work! We’re sharing data, not co-writing a dissertation! And I have no intention of leaving Golden Falls.”

  “There’s only one professorship available. And only one of us is going to get it.”

  “Well, if you’re having this much trouble with your thesis so late in the game, it sounds like that professorship is going to me,” Annabelle snapped.

  Derrick’s mouth twisted into an odd, wounded smile.

  Annabelle immediately felt terrible for what she’d said. “Listen. I don’t let personal stuff affect my professional life.”

  Although it’s not as if I’ve ever had a man I couldn’t stop thinking about.

  She sat down in the armchair opposite Derrick and continued. “I’m not that girl; you know I hate drama. As your colleague—and friend, I guess—I won’t flaunt my relationship, and I certainly won’t let it affect my research. And it shouldn’t affect yours. I’ll still help you on the areas where our dissertations intersect—crunching data, or whatever.”

  Derrick didn’t look convinced.

  Annabelle sighed. Inside, she bristled with irritation but tried to keep it off her face. Had he been this manipulative when they were together? Maybe he had, and she just hadn’t seen it for what it was. But if she could placate Derrick for just a little while longer, the situation would resolve itself in June, when they would both defend their dissertations. After that, one of them would leave Alaska State University and Golden Falls for good. And she’d bet anything it was going to be Derrick that left because she was the better scientist.

  “And I’m going to stop going to trivia night,” she said, deciding it on the spot. “The next couple months are going to be intense, and I won’t have time for it. So you can keep going and not worry about seeing me there, with or without Sean.”

  She felt like this was a divorce and they were divvying up assets. You get trivia night, I get . . . what did Annabelle get?

  She got to succeed professionally, that’s what she got.

  And—she hoped—she got to stay in Golden Falls, the city that employed a certain firefighter she wanted to keep seeing.

  “Fair enough,” Derrick said. “Let’s grab breakfast, and then we can work on some of this stuff.”

  As if I’d share a meal with you after you broke into my apartment, Derrick. She’d tolerate him, but no way would she socialize with him.

  “I already had breakfast,” she said.

  “With him.”

  “Yes, Derrick, with him,” she said, trying with her tone to warn him not to go there. She already felt like she was bending over backward to accommodate his insecurities. “I’ll just see you at the lab.” She paused to summon a ride share from her phone to take her the short distance to campus.

  “Fine,” Derrick said, gathering his things. “I’d like to go over some data with you when you get in.”

  “Fine,” she said, and walked to the door, pointedly holding it open for him. “And one more thing. Don’t ever come into my apartment like this again.”

  “I honestly didn’t think you’d mind,” he said.

  Liar, she thought. You knew exactly how much it would bother me, and you did it anyway.

  “Well, I do mind.”

  As she closed the door behind him, she resolved to change her locks, just in case Derrick had made a copy of her key. She’d never been afraid of him before, and she wasn’t afraid now, but it wouldn’t hurt to be careful where insecure men were concerned.

  20

  Determined to show Annabelle the kind of boyfriend he would be, Sean got right to work dealing with her car.

  Sean had Chris Flattery tow the car to Four Brothers Auto Repair, where it was determined that the alternator was the problem. Gage Coleman promised to have the repair done by noon, which gave Sean time to run a few errands and hang out downtown.

  He picked up a few things at Jingle’s Hardware Store, including a copy of that day’s edition of the Golden Falls Gazette. He just scanned the more serious headlines but smiled when he saw a front-page photo of the one-eared bear, whom the firefighters had nicknamed Evander Holyfield. A blurb with the photo read that Shannon Steele had snapped a picture of the bear relaxing on an arbor swing in the back yard of the Arctic Skies Bed & Breakfast, her former childhood home that she and Tom Steele had inherited upon their mom’s death and which Shannon had turned into a thriving business.

  After the hardware store, Sean stopped in at the Golden Touch Barber Shop and got a haircut from Andrew Blake. He didn’t ask about Claire Roberts, but Andrew caught him up on some other town gossip, namely that realtor Misty Rhodes had been down to Anchorage several times to visit Nate Armstrong, a disgraced former police officer who’d recently been vindicated. The speculation was that Nate and Misty were dating, and Sean hoped it was true. He was friends with Elizabeth Armstrong, Nate’s daughter, and wished the best for the family, which’d had a rough time of it.

  Around lunchtime, Sean got a text from Gage Coleman that Annabelle’s car was ready and that she’d already paid for the repair.

  Sean might not be able to help her with her dissertation, but he could support her efforts in other ways, such as delivering her car and some lunch. He briefly wondered if it was overstepping his bounds, but after a moment of analysis, he decided that no, it was precisely what a good boyfriend should do.

  The North Star Café on Main Street was his default choice for great sandwiches, so he stopped and picked up two sandwiches and was also tempted into some fresh chocolate bread pudding with a side of cream.

  He left his own truck at the auto repair shop and drove Annabelle’s car to the Alaska State University campus. The glaciology department was housed in the three-story Bering Building, and he bounded up the short steps into the building, eager to surprise his new girlfriend.

  The interior had an institutional feel to it, with a polished concrete floor and a few displays in the lobby with large photographs of glaciers, rivers by satellite, and extreme weather. The glaciology department was on the first floor, marked by a door flanked by two tall windows. Sean entered to find a student receptionist sitting behind a desk, and beyond that was a space that held a conference table, a TV on the wall, and a grouping of four black vinyl armchairs that looked like they may have been bought second-hand from a bank branch. There were more photos of glaciers on the walls, a hallway leading to what a sign indicated was the Ice Core Lab, and several closed doors that Sean assumed were offices. Shelving units packed with equipment, binders, and boxes were placed not-quite-neatly around the central area.

  The space had much less character than the fire station, and Sean recognized the functional but slightly shabby look of a chronically underfunded public university facility. He suspected that with Peter Eubanks in charge, funding was channeled directly into research and teaching, not in making their department look nice, and Sean respected that.

  “Can I help you?” asked the undergrad student behind the desk. He looked about seventeen.

  “I hope so. I’m here for—” He stopped when an office door opened and Peter Eubanks and Cameron Doyle emerged, deep in conversation until they spotted Sean.

  “Sean Kelly! Welcome!” Peter walked toward him and heartily shook Sean’s hand. “What brings you to our neck of the woods?”

  Sean held up the bag from the café. “Bringing lunch for Annabelle.”

  One of Peter’s eyebrows quirked in interest, which told Sean that Peter did not yet know that he and Annabelle were dating, while Cameron, who’d been at trivia night,
smiled knowingly and excused himself.

  “So this is where the science happens,” Sean said to Peter. “Annabelle tells me this department is one of the best in the country.”

  “It is. But I also might be biased about that,” Peter said with a smile. “Say, would you like to come to dinner at my house on Saturday? Linda and I are having a get-together for some of our university friends. We’d love it if you could join us.”

  Sean hesitated, unsure if he’d make a good dinner companion for professor types. Trivia night was one thing, but there was no way he’d be able to hold his own when they started debating science research, using words that sounded to him like a foreign language.

  “Annabelle will be there,” Peter added, perhaps sensing Sean’s hesitation. “And maybe some people you already know. Eric Miller? Don Yazzie?”

  “Oh, I know Eric!” Eric was the co-owner of the North Star Café. Nice guy, and definitely not a university type, which immediately made Sean feel less hesitant. Plus, he didn’t want to miss any chance to spend time with Annabelle. “I’d love to come, thanks. Can I bring anything?”

  “Just yourself.”

  “Hey!” a voice called in greeting. It was Lottie, who waved as she emerged from the hallway, rubbing her sweater-clad arms. “Man, that freezer is brutal even with all the cold gear. Sometimes I think I should have studied coral reefs in Florida!” She leaned and gave Sean a friendly arm punch. “Annabelle told me you’re helping her with her . . . ahem . . . car troubles. Good on you!”

  Sean had the feeling that wasn’t all Annabelle had told her. “Is she around?”

  “I’ll show you to our office. We share,” Lottie said.

  Sean felt a surge of excitement at seeing Annabelle. He set the bag with their sandwiches on the conference table and followed Lottie down a short hallway toward an office door that was left ajar. But as they approached, he overheard raised, angry voices.

  “There’s no way.” Sean recognized Derrick’s scornful voice.

  Then Annabelle. “That’s what it shows. I’ll prove it right now!”

  Sean reached the open door just in time to see Annabelle, standing next to her desk and reaching for her computer mouse. And then he saw Derrick grip Annabelle by the wrist, hard, and twist her arm away. The look on Annabelle’s face was both frustrated and pained.

  A spark of fury ignited in Sean. He lunged into the room and was on Derrick in seconds, grabbing him by the arms. Sean’s only thought was getting Derrick away from Annabelle, and he yanked him out of the little office. Derrick cried out as his shoulder slammed into the doorframe, trying unsuccessfully to shake free, but Sean had both arms in a firm grip. He only released Derrick once they were in the hallway, tossing him to the side so that Derrick tripped slightly over his own feet.

  “Keep your hands off her.” Sean felt the veins in his neck throb with anger. “You don’t touch her again, understand?”

  “Ah, the meathead to the rescue. How completely cliché.” Derrick’s scorn was worse than his fear, apparently, because he turned to Annabelle with a smirk. “This testosterone-laden freak—really?”

  Annabelle had shrunk into herself and stood with her arms crossed, looking distressed.

  “This meathead’s going to kick your ass if you don’t start showing her some respect.” Sean took a menacing step toward Derrick. He wanted to do so much more, pound the loser into unconsciousness, but he knew he needed to stay in control and not get himself into trouble. “You never grab a woman like that, you understand? Any woman. But especially not Annabelle.”

  “Let it alone,” Annabelle said.

  Sean glanced back, surprised to see alarm and disapproval in her eyes.

  “This isn’t what we do around here.”

  “Did he hurt you?” He took her hands and examined her wrist, which had a bright red mark where Derrick had gripped it.

  “No, he didn’t.”

  “What’s going on here?” Peter strode over. Behind him, the student receptionist was gawking at the scene, and Cameron and a couple others also emerged from their offices.

  Annabelle tugged her hands away from Sean and stepped back from him to face her colleagues. He could see the apology in her eyes, and he was struck by it. What was she apologizing for—him?

  Annabelle was mortified. From the shocked looks on her colleagues’ faces, she’d become what she most feared: a subject of gossip. She still couldn’t quite process what had just happened: two men in a physical altercation, in her office, because of her. It made her feel ridiculous. Being a woman in the scientific community meant maintaining professionalism at all times, and this was anything but.

  Now I’ll be known as the chick that guys fight over. Literally.

  She felt like crawling into a dark cubbyhole and waiting for it all to go away. But everyone was staring at her: Lottie, Cameron, the other students, other professors who’d come out of their offices to see what the commotion was about. Peter, his face full of a deep concern that made Annabelle feel guilty. I’m sorry for the disturbance, she wanted to say.

  She turned to Sean, whose face was also full of concern for her, but still flushed with righteous anger, too.

  She ignored Derrick, but felt the burn of his wounded stare and knew he would use this against her.

  “What just happened?” Peter asked, looking at them each in turn.

  Derrick began to speak, but Lottie—Bless Lottie! Annabelle thought—cut him off.

  “Derrick grabbed Annabelle’s wrist,” she said. “Sean and I both saw it.”

  “I didn’t—”

  “You did,” Sean said in a low, controlled voice.

  “This guy’s a complete psycho,” Derrick wailed. “I didn’t hurt anybody.”

  Annabelle rubbed her wrist. He had grabbed her too hard, and she would have told him off about it had Sean not intervened. But the last thing she wanted was for this to turn into an “incident.” She was sure it would already be the talk of the entire glaciology and climatology departments for weeks.

  “Please, you guys,” she said. “Let’s just chill out. I’m fine, everybody’s fine. Just forget about it.”

  “Annabelle, if—” Peter said.

  “Peter, really. It’s nothing.”

  Glancing at Sean, she could tell from the quiver of tension in his jaw that he thought it was very much something. Please, Sean, she thought. Let it go.

  He must have picked up on her thoughts because he didn’t contradict her.

  “Okay.” Peter’s dark brown eyes were still worried. “But if there’s any kind of problem, don’t hesitate to come to me.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “Sean, can I speak with you privately?”

  “Of course.” He glanced once more at Derrick before moving past her into her small office.

  She closed the door before speaking, half-upset and half-touched by what he’d done. By no means was he the bad guy here, but he’d just made her professional life considerably more difficult.

  “Okay, first let me say that I’ve never had a man stand up for me like that before.” She put her hand over her heart. “And I appreciate that you want to protect me. But, Sean, what were you thinking?”

  Sean stared at her. “He grabbed you.”

  “Listen, I know Derrick can be a jerk, but—”

  “Has he gotten physical with you before?”

  “No . . .”

  Sean peered at her. “That didn’t sound too definite.”

  Does entering my home without permission and spending the night lying in wait for me count? Derrick hadn’t been physically aggressive that morning; still, it had been an alarming invasion of her personal space.

  Annabelle took a deep breath. “He’s never grabbed me like that before. It’s unlike him.”

  It felt like a lie by omission to keep Derrick’s overnight wait at her apartment a secret from Sean, but she was afraid that if she told him now, he’d burst out of her office, hunt down Derrick, and beat him to a pulp. And she just cou
ldn’t have that.

  “Sean, this is the kind of thing that female scientists can’t have a reputation for. Don’t you understand? If I’m a source of drama between colleagues, it’ll jeopardize my job.” Tears of frustration choked her, and she sank into her chair and buried her face in her hands. “An incident like this could cost me the professorship!”

  Sean’s face was dark with outrage. “Annabelle, you did nothing wrong.”

  “I know I didn’t, but that’s not how Derrick will tell the story, and sometimes perception is more important than reality,” Annabelle said, wondering what kind of story Derrick was already spinning.

  Sean pulled the second office chair close to Annabelle and sat, his knees touching hers. A zing of emotion, of wanting, struck Annabelle from his simple touch.

  “Listen.” He took her hand. “I think you’re too worried about what your colleagues think, but not nearly worried enough about Derrick. I’m not sure you’re seeing this clearly: you two were having a verbal debate, and he got physical with you over it. These kinds of things can escalate real quick if you don’t nip them in the bud. If you could see some of the things that I’ve seen in my job . . .” He held her gaze. “I wouldn’t want you to see them, but I will protect you until my dying breath.”

  Tears sprang to Annabelle’s eyes. This is what it feels like to not be alone in the world, she thought. This is what it feels like to have a man love you.

  Oh, to be back in his bedroom, the two of them naked, her tucked into him with her head on his broad chest. It was all she wanted—that, and her professorship.

  “If the story gets around that I’m a source of tension for the department, that could break the decision of who gets the one coveted professorship here in Derrick’s favor.”

  Sean shook his head. “Peter was right there. He knows the situation, and more importantly, he knows what Derrick’s like.”

  “Peter’s on the committee, but it’s not just his decision,” she said. “The worst thing that can happen to me is to lose out on this professorship. We’re a bunch of scientists here. I can’t have you coming here and starting fights with my colleagues even though I know you mean well. I just can’t, Sean!”