“I have to say, Clay, that your test scores were higher than we had expected. Not only that, but your knowledge about all the specs on the equipment that we asked you to use was spot on. Good job on that.” He said that he had been working with Jade. “Yes, we know that. She brought us up to speed on not only your knowledge of the equipment but also you’ve been working with her on making a few upgrades on them as well. I just don’t know what we would have done without your input on some of the projects that we’ve been sending your way. It would have been wonderful to have you working with us at NASA.”

  A quick glance at Jade told him that she’d caught what he’d said as well. She asked him what was going on with him working with her on some of the larger projects that they’d asked her to do.

  “Oh, he can work on projects with you so long as you’re there with him.” Clay asked what was going on. “Well, young man, we wish we could offer you the job working for us. We do, but I’m afraid that we’re going to have to turn you away because of the company you keep.”

  “Excuse me?” Mr. Becker asked him to open the file. “If you’d not mind, I’d like for you to explain to me what you mean about the company that I keep. Are you talking about my family? Because if you are, you must know they have an impeccable background. Unless you mean Lizzy Sharple. If that’s who you’re talking about, I must say that equally confused about her being the target.”

  “Target? No, no, you have that all wrong. Ms. Sharple has a good education. Her work ethic is top-grade. There is nothing wrong with her job performance, either. Why, her help in getting the surgeon taken care of from her hospital was instrumental in keeping him from harming anyone else that day and in the future. Just the sort of person that we’d like for you to be dating. It’s not her at all but her—as we call it, her pedigree.” Clay said that she wasn’t a dog, where a pedigree was all that important to some people. He had noticed, too, that they seemed to emphasize the word ‘dating’ too. “You’re not understanding. We’re talking about her parents. Are you aware that they’re living in a commune, young man? Where they are off the grid and offer no help to their government in the form of paying taxes or owning anything of value. The only thing that they do have, and it’s not even worth the license that is on it, is their ‘home.’ And I use that term loosely. No, they’re not the sort of people that we would like attached to someone that is working for a very prestigious independent government agency such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.”

  He didn’t have to look at Jade to know she was just as surprised and pissed as he was about what they were saying. Hearing her stand up and then sit back down twice was very telling to him. Clay inhaled and exhaled himself several times before he allowed himself to speak.

  “Let me get this straight in my mind, all right?” Mr. Becker looked around to the others around the table with him, then nodded. “I could have a job working for NASA, but for the company I keep. Even though I’ve been working for you for a decade now without any issues and have never shown any kind of trouble toward you or the people that I’ve been working with. That would include Jade, who is about to become my sister-in-law in two days. You have decided that the person that I’m dating, her parents are some kind of risk to NASA because they don’t have a full-time job.”

  “Yes, you understand now.” Mr. Becker actually looked relieved that he was finally understanding what was being said to him. “You’ll still be able to work as you had before. In fact, we’re very pleased that you’ll not have to change your job at all in all that you do for us. It’s been helpful in ways that you can’t believe. We’ve been able to be leaps and bound ahead of other agencies around the world because of the work that you’ve been doing for us. Good job on that.”

  “Thank you.” He looked down at the file that he’d yet to open. He wanted to get up and leave right then, but he also wanted to think before making any kind of major decision. Not that it would change much, but he needed to think. “As I mentioned, my brother and Jade are getting married in a few days, and I’d like that time to think about all that you’ve pointed out to me. I’d like to have at least until the New Year is started before I can get all my questions together about my tenure with NASA. If you don’t mind.”

  “No, no. We’d expect no less from a man such as yourself.” He as he sat there, looking at the file instead of the men in the room with him, he could feel his temper rising. It was from real anger, too and not something that used to be in his head. “You’re a good man, Clay. I knew that you’d see things our way in the end. It will be good to be able to put all this behind us and move on from here. Yes, I think this will work out better for all of us. Especially NASA.”

  Clay stood up and shook their hands. He had to concentrate hard on not squeezing their hands hard enough to hurt them. Leaving the office, he was blinded by his rage as he moved to where he hoped the elevator was. Christ, he thought, this was the worse experience of his life. And it wasn’t over yet. He almost didn’t answer his cell when he saw that it was Jade.

  “Where are you?” He told her that he was headed to his hotel. “Meet me at the restaurant there. I want to talk to you about what just happened.”

  “You’re not going to try and talk me into anything, are you? Because as of right now, it’s all I can do not to fucking quit working for them altogether.” She said she’d meet him there in twenty minutes. “Jade, please tell me you’re just as upset about this as I am. Please?”

  “More so, I think.” When she arrived at the restaurant, she asked him to have a seat in the back of the place. He sort of liked the booths here as they offered high seats so that you couldn’t see the people at the table next to you. “I want you to know that I hadn’t any idea that they were doing that to you today. I swear to you, I would have given you a heads-up had I known.”

  “I know that.” She thanked him before ordering a drink. He ordered a beer and an appetizer platter so they’d not be kicked out for lingering for too long. “I have to be honest with you and tell you I’m thinking of not working with them anymore. Not for anything. She asked him about his contract with NASA. “I don’t have one. I’ve never had one. I was approached to make some designs by a private firm about ten years ago, just after I got out of college. I knew who they were as they didn’t make any bones about keeping their paperwork very hidden. Anyway, then about four years ago, they decided that I was all right to have working for them out in the open, so they just stopped being so slick about hiding around who they were.”

  “I don’t have a contract with them anymore either. It’s just implied, I guess, that I’m under some kind of contract until they tell me that I don’t work there—they actually told you that you were to have a babysitter because of Lizzy’s family. I nearly laughed, thinking it was a joke or something.” He said that he’d caught that as well. “Those mother fuckers are going to not know what hit them when I start putting other work ahead of theirs. Also, I’ve called Alex Hardgrave on the way over here. He hadn’t any idea this was going on either. Once he speaks to the president, he’s going to call me back.”

  “I don’t want to work for them anymore.” Jade asked him if he was serious. “I am. I mean, I am right now. I feel like I was sucker punched by the way that they handled this. Especially saying that I could basically have the job if I stopped dating Lizzy. I don’t want to do that either. I really like her.” Jade asked about her parents. “They’re not malicious or anything. They seem to be just odd. But then I don’t know what they found when they did a deep background check on them.”

  “Nothing. I asked for one to be done on them, too, before coming here. I hadn’t any idea what I might find, but I was going to let you know if the idiots in NASA found anything, and you could already have a heads-up about it. Turns out, they didn’t like them because they don’t pay taxes. And they presume that they grow weed. Which they do, but it’s only for recreational growing and not to sell. At least Linda nor Alfred do. Every time I think about what they said to you, I want to find them and punch them in the face.” Clay leaned back in his seat when Jade’s cell phone rang. Instead of answering it, she put it on speaker so he could hear Alex too. “Clay is here with me. We’re in the bar in the hotel right now.”

  “Good. I’m on my way there to join you. Christ, this is a shitshow. I told Brock. He’s highly pissed off about how it was handled too. I think he was going to have a celebratory call with Clay later today.” He had to ask Jade who he was talking about, and she mouthed that it was President Brock Wisecarver. He felt stupid for not thinking along those lines. “I’m at the hotel. I have some men with me, so don’t be surprised if they sit a little close to us.”

  When Alex sat down, he ordered himself a beer too. He said that he’d not drink it, but he’d just use it for a prop. He asked him how it was going. Clay shrugged before answering him.

  “Okay, I guess. They were pretty nice in telling me that I did really well on all the tests that they gave me. What I don’t understand, and perhaps you might, is why did they bother at all to put me in the running when they had no intentions of allowing me to get the job.” He said that it might have been Brock they were trying to appease. “So I was there because the president put my name in.”

  “Not just put your name in, Clay. We both thought that someday you’d be taking over the program and running it. The men that are there now…well, I don’t need to tell you that they’re old pricks that need to be taken down a notch. Did Jade tell you that they won’t even look at women to work in that department? Not to mention, they’re very strict on protocol. I would imagine that you dressed the way you are because Jade told you to. The way they would see it would’ve been that you didn’t even bother dressing up for the interview, regardless of the fact that you weren’t going to get the job.” He asked if he was underdressed for the interview. “Not for me, you’re not. Nor for Brock. He likes a man or woman that is comfortable in their knowledge that it shouldn’t matter how they’re dressed. I agree, and more importantly, most of the world does as well.”

  “I’m heading home today. While this is an all right town, it’s too noisy and smelly for me.” They both laughed. “No, it’s not for me. And I miss Lizzy. We’ve been hanging out together a lot since we were both healing and getting to know each other. She’s brilliant, and I think that I’m in love with her.”

  “Good for you. You should stop dating her—Jade told me how they’d said that to you—and get yourself engaged. Not the same. As for her parents, I think I’d enjoy talking to them. I’ve never actually spoken to anyone that lived like they do. Jenson told me that their camper is about as old as they are.” Clay laughed. It felt good to be able to laugh after his morning. “Be that as it may, young man, I’m so sorry for the way this turned out for you. But don’t lose hope. Brock is going to talk to the five of them soon. Nothing about you not getting the job, I promise, but he is going to talk to them about—neither of you is going to be working for them anymore, are you?”

  “No. I’m finished. I was just telling Jade that I don’t have a contract, so I’m not obligated to do anything for them.” Jade told Alex that her contract had run out several months ago. “I have a good job in working on projects with Jade, and I’m going to continue to do that. Unless, of course, she has a problem with Alfred and Linda too.”

  “I don’t. I think, as you do, that they’re odd, but I don’t have a problem with them. And Lizzy’s dad is all right. Linda is a little pushy, but then so am I.” Clay laughed hard at Jade thinking she was a little pushy, and changed the subject when she asked him what was so funny. “You think I’m pushy, Clay?”

  “No comment.” They talked about different things throughout the next couple of hours but always circled around back to the NASA interview. He did find out that no one had been hired for the job opening, and he was at least glad that they’d not hired someone out of spite. When Alex left them, Jade asked him if he was really going home. “I am. I want to get to know Lizzy better before we get engaged. Also, mom wants me to be there for Jenson when he begins to freak out when he realizes that he’s getting married in a couple of days. He’ll stress himself into an early grave if we let him.”

  “Then, by all means, get back home. I have a couple of things that I need to get finished here. Mostly it’s to close up my office that they used when they had something lined up for me. I’m serious about not working for them, and I don’t think there is a better way to convey that than not having an office here where they can drop off work for me to do.” He smiled when she asked him if he was going to get engaged right away. “I see. Still waiting for it to occur to you that you’re in love with her. In the event you don’t know, you are. Very much so, little brother. It’s all over both your faces when you’re together. It’s sort of sickening.”

  “Sure, and being around you and Jenson all the time isn’t? You two are gross most of the time.” She laughed as she stood up. “I do want to thank you for this. Coming here to talk to me and having Alex here. I think you might well have saved me from doing something drastic. I’m not sure it would have been stupid, but it would have come back to bite me in the ass, I think.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow or perhaps tonight. I’m not sure yet. But I do want you to not answer your cell from any of the pricks. Just until you hear from me.” Kissing her on the cheek, she did the same for him. “I love you, Clay. And I love Lizzy.”

  He was nearly home when he realized that he needed to pick up the ring that his grannie had given him a long time ago. Making sure he did it on his way home, he was happy now that he’d not told anyone of his plans. The only person that knew was his dad, and he trusted him not to tell anyone.

  ~*~

  Lizzy watched the monitors. She didn’t care for how long this surgery was taking and let her concerns be known. It should have only been two hours in and out, and it was going on four and a half hours now. She didn’t like this at all. Also, she didn’t care that there was no reason that it should be taking this long, either. There was just too much bullshit going on between the doctor and her surgical nurse. Apparently, she wasn’t able to work and talk at the same time.

  “Could we please get this finished today?” Lizzy was glad for her mask, hiding behind it while laughing a little at the secondary nurse when she spoke. “You two can do whatever later. I’m sure that Mr. Simon’s family is wondering why this is taking twice as long as they were told. Or are you getting paid by the words coming out of your mouth rather than the usual rate, Dr. Cummings?”

  “You’ve no right to speak to me that way. I’m your superior, and I’m going to report you to your boss. This is a delicate surgery, and it’ll take as long as I say it does. Now either hush up or leave. I’m busy here.” The nurse, she thought her name was Judy, just huffed. “I’m sorry. Did you have something else to add?”

  “Yes. As a matter of fact, I do. In addition to this room being recorded, your husband has been watching and listening to the two of you making plans to go away this weekend all through the surgery. Why don’t you wave at him, Dr. Cummings?” Judy waved at him, and he waved back at her. “Also, I really don’t think he’s going to believe you when you tell him that you’re on call this weekend either. I mean, he doesn’t strike me as being stupid since I know he’s gone to college, but then, I could be wrong about him. You have been discussing how you were going to be getting away since we all arrived here.”

  The surgery was done less than twenty minutes later. Not only did Mr. Cummings meet his errant wife outside the room, but he also had an attorney with him as well. Lizzy wasn’t the least bit shy about listening as the couple, through his attorney, laid down what was going to happen to the woman in the next coming days. Mr. Cummings had not just filed for divorce, but he was going to take her to the cleaners. He’d not just paid for her way to go through college, but he’d paid for their home, her car as well as the food on their table. Her money had been going into an account that he’d only recently just found out about. Lizzy was thrilled.

  Getting home late was something that she hated. Being late for anything wasn’t something that she liked to do. So when she arrived at the house she was sharing with Clay, Lizzy wasn’t thrilled to find her mom and dad parked in the driveway waiting for her.

  “We’ve something to talk to you about.” Dad kissed her on the cheek, but her mother, obviously upset, only stared at her. “Your mother and I have been talking, and we’d like for you to lend us some money so that we can have a real home instead of the camper over there. I’m getting—”

  “He wants a home. I don’t. I want to travel like we have been. I want to go back to our home and out of the city. But I can’t because he wants to stay here with you.” Mom huffed. “I don’t know why things have to change simply because you’re dating some man that has money. We’ve never had any money, and we’ve gotten along just fine before this.”

  “Because, as I was going to say, Linda, I’m nearly sixty years old, and I don’t want to have to work as hard as I have to when we’re making our own way in the commune. I’m not a young man anymore.” She invited them both into the house for dinner as she was starving. “Isn’t this nice, Linda? Having a meal on the table when you get home? Don’t you like having running water all the time and it being hot when you want it?”

  “No, I don’t.” Dad just rolled his eyes while looking at her. “She’s just upset because I’ve made a couple of decisions on my own instead of letting her make them.”

  “It’s always been fine before that I was making the decisions. What has changed now? Nothing at all. We’re still Alfred and Linda Sharple. We still have our camper, and we’ll be happy when we’re not around here.” Dad said he’d not been happy for some time, and she knew it. “So get yourself happy again. I don’t want to live in the city.”