Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Yes, after he’d shown up at the library, I’d gone out of my way to find out exactly what he’d been doing for the past several years. Of course, thanks to the internet and social media, the search took all of five minutes to discover that Liam had a PhD in paleontology, which was just the nerdy kind of thing I would have expected him to do, and that he was now employed at the museum as one of their researchers.
There were also pictures of his wife.
He’d gotten married.
She was pretty. A petite brunet with a heart-shaped face and wide smile. She looked as if she were the perfect match to Liam’s reserved and somewhat goofy appearance.
I didn’t know why her picture made my stomach sour and a cold sweat break out across my body. What did I care if he was married? If that was the case, maybe I should have a talk with his wife about keeping a better leash on her husband. Not let him run around harassing his old “friends.”
It didn’t matter. By the end of the afternoon, I planned to have some answers to my most burning questions. Sending a few hundred grade schoolers through the museum was only the beginning. When I’d scheduled this field trip with the museum, I’d specifically asked that Dr. Rose be on hand to answer the children’s questions about the dinosaurs.
There were three hundred and forty-two kids spread out across several groups, not to mention teachers and parents acting as chaperones. They all had to pass by Dr. Rose. He would not escape me. And the best part—I had no doubt he had been told who’d arranged this expedition, so he was going to be sweating all day, knowing he would have to face me, eventually.
This wasn’t stalking. Oh no, this was payback.
My hands stuffed into my pockets and a secretive smile on my lips, I walked along with Mrs. Elizabeth Gunthrie’s third grade class. She had a total of thirty-two students, but she’d divided them up into four groups of eight, a parent attached to each. I stuck close to Mrs. Gunthrie since I knew she would have the tightest handle on her students, and she was happily married. It also didn’t hurt that she was also about sixty. I didn’t have to worry about her wandering eyes and insinuations the same way I did with those hopeful single parents.
The various groups and classes began in different directions. Some began with the dinosaurs and worked through the Ice Age exhibit, while others went to the model train exhibit of the city of Cincinnati during the early twentieth century. This way, all the groups didn’t get clogged up in a single location. Our group was starting at the opposite end with the Cincinnati History Museum, which was dedicated to the history of the city, with a replica of a paddlewheel riverboat the kids could walk through and a cobblestone street with a variety of shops they could enter.
Of course, this area didn’t hold the attention of the kids for long. It was history, and a history without dinosaurs or robots was boring. I did what I could to help keep the kids on target, but it was a losing battle that Mrs. Gunthrie well understood. From that section, we moved to the Children’s Museum, which was filled with hands-on activities to teach them about animals, nature, and their own bodies. She gave them thirty minutes to run wild—which they did—in the closed-off area before he had to move on to eat our early lunch.
I wished I could have enjoyed the chaos more. However, my mind was already counting down the minutes until I’d get to see Liam. At that moment, he should have been talking to the first group of kids about fossils and dinosaurs. I would reach Liam and his dinosaurs after lunch.
While the day stretched on, the little ones were good at breaking up my scowls and watch-checking with their questions. Soon enough, I found myself lost in talking to them about crazy things, trying to teach them things with the same energy I used during story time at the library.
By the time we were strolling past the enormous tyrannosaurus skeleton at the entrance to the Museum of Natural History and Science, I’d lost most of my excited buzz and was worn-out. My back ached, and my knees throbbed from the constant squatting and standing on the linoleum floors. I was weary to my bones. These munchkins were fucking exhausting. How did people stand to have more than one of these? I was trying to keep up with eight, and a fucking pro was at my side all day. Serious props to Mrs. Gunthrie for managing thirty-two of these rabid demons five days a week. We needed to pay teachers way fucking more.