“She’s our new team member.” Diane’s gaze dropped to Violet’s lips. “It’s your job to take care of her.”
“So you don’t have to?”
“Exactly.” Diane’s grin broadened. “You’re so much better at teaching than I am.”
Diane patted the wall and stepped away. The heat she’d brought with her remained, and Violet dragged in a breath as she tried to find her balance again. She hated that Diane had the ability to do that to her. She’d always had it, and she’d always used it to her advantage in more ways than one. Diane sashayed a few steps away, sending a look over her shoulder.
“Come on,teach. It’s your turn.”
Growling under her breath, Violet moved off the wall and followed Diane toward the Hummer. They were going to need to make some adjustments to the programming that year, and she could easily get a start on that, perhaps show Lando how to do it so when they were in the field she could do it while Violet helped navigate.
They unloaded their personal items, and Violet helped Diane bring what she needed into her room before daring to turn toward hers. “What are we doing about food for the week?”
“Charge it. I don’t have time to figure out low-key meals right now.”
Violet scrunched her nose and sent Diane a pointed look. “You didn’t figure out meals prior to us leaving?”
Diane shrugged. “There wasn’t time.”
“Did you plan any of this season?” Diane looked offended, and Violet immediately wanted to backtrack that complaint. She hadn’t meant to be so brutal with it. “Sorry.”
“Go figure out dinner with your new best friend, and I’ll deal with it for the rest of the week. Fair?”
“Fine.” Violet crossed her arms, once more looking at the door and wishing she didn’t have to leave Diane’s room. It would have made so much more sense for her and Diane to share and to leave Lando on her own, but Diane had never shared in her life.
“Violet, she’s not going to bite you.”
If only you would, Violet thought before chastising herself. She’d spent far too long pining over someone she considered her best friend from childhood to want to push that boundary tonight when she was in such a tizzy over Lando. Soon, she vowed. Soon Violet would take the next step to find out if Diane really wanted more than mere friendship, and it might be the end to what friendship they had, but she couldn’t live in Diane’s shadow much longer.
“Go on. I’m hungry.” Diane had a whine to her tone, and Violet knew she was being too quiet. Diane didn’t do well when she didn’t have interaction.
“Fine.” Violet grabbed her suitcase and backpack. She raised an eyebrow as she pushed the door open with her butt and took the step down. “But since we’re picking, I don’t want to hear any complaints if it’s not up to your standards.”
Diane was about to retort, but Violet turned and let the door slam shut, spinning around and walking face first into Lando. She dropped her backpack, but Lando reached down with amazing reflexes and caught it before it hit the ground. Violet’s heart raced as she stared wide-eyed at the backpack and then into Lando’s ice blue eyes.
“Uh…thanks.” She was damn lucky Lando had managed that. The pack held her laptop, and if that broke, they’d be out a couple thousand to replace it and the time while they waited for it to come in, not to mention transferring all the data and reprogramming everything.
“No problem.” Lando straightened her back but held onto the backpack. “I don’t know the routine, sorry. What are we doing about food?”
Violet sighed heavily. “Queen magistrate over here has demanded we figure it out for tonight, which means ordering out or going somewhere. She says she’ll figure out meals for the rest of the week, but I have my doubts.”
“Okay. Is it…” Lando stuttered. Violet cocked her head, wanting to give Lando the time to finish her question before assuming where it was going. Lando glanced to the ground, not making eye contact. “Is it buy your own? Sorry, Diane didn’t have a lot of details for me.”
“She never does,” Violet murmured. “It usually is, but we’ll charge tonight since it’s her problem she hasn’t dealt with.”
Lando nodded. Violet couldn’t quite read the look. For a few more seconds, they stood awkwardly together outside Diane’s room. Violet curled her toes in her boots. “I’m going to bring this stuff to the room. Did you have anything specific you wanted to eat?”
“No, I’m really game for anything.”
“Fine.” Violet snatched her backpack from Lando’s warm hands. She stepped around Lando’s stocky form and toward the room next door. Pushing open the door, she saw Lando had already claimed the bed farthest from the bathroom.
Plopping her stuff on top of the mattress, Violet pulled out the computer and started a quick search of food in the area, even though she already knew what she wanted. There was a little Mexican restaurant they’d ordered from before. Diane would hate it, but if she made the mistake of leaving the food choices in Violet’s hands, Violet was going to get food she wanted while she could.
* * *
Violet sat on the bed, her feet stretched out in front of her as she leaned against the headboard. She’d sent Lando out to fetch the food, and the silence in the room was pure bliss. The television next door echoed, but it wasn’t annoying. She knew Diane was watching the news, trying to catch up on the storm since Violet had the main computer they used for tracking.
She was better at it than Diane anyway, so it made more sense. She rubbed circles into her temple. In twenty-four hours her chasing world had been turned upside down. She could not believe that Diane had gone behind her back to hire Lando. Grabbing her cell phone from the nightstand, she dialed Erik, wanting to know what was up with him. Diane hadn’t even given her a heads up he wouldn’t be joining them.