Birthright

what they are.”
    “I imagine there are a number of dealers who don’t. I know Roger loves to read. But I happened to be in the shop when he opened a shipment from you and found the first-edition copy of Moby-Dick. He tenderly stroked that book like it was a lover. He wouldn’t have curled up in his easy chair to read it if you’d held a gun to his head.”
    “That’s what a nice paperback reprint is for.”
    She cocked her head, and he caught the wink of small, colored stones at her ears. “Is it the discovery? The treasure hunt?”
    “Partly.”
    She waited a beat. “Well, you certainly are a blabbermouth. That’s enough about you. Aren’t you going to ask me why I became a lawyer?”
    “You know what the problem is when you ask most people a question?”
    She smiled over the rim of her wineglass. “They answer it.”
    “There you go. But since we’re here, I’ll ask. Why’d you become a lawyer?”
    “I like to argue.” She picked up her fork as their first course was served.
    “That’s it? You like to argue. You’re not going to expand on that?”
    “Mmm. Not at the moment. And the next time you ask me a question, I’ll figure it’s because you really want to know. What do you like to do, besides read and hunt books?”
    “That takes up most of my time.”
    If talking with him was going to be like pulling teeth, she thought, she’d just get out the pliers. “You must enjoy the travel.”
    “It has its moments.”
    “Such as?”
    He looked over at her, his face mirroring such obvious frustration, she laughed. “I’m relentless. You might as well give up and tell me about yourself. Let’s see . . . Do you play a musical instrument? Are you interested in sports? Do you believe Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone gunman?”
    “No. Yes. I have no definitive opinion.”
    “Caught you.” She gestured with her fork. “You smiled.”
    “I did not.”
    “Oh, yes you did. And there, you’re doing it again. A very nice smile, too. Does it hurt?”
    “Only a little. I’m out of practice.”
    She picked up her wine and chuckled. “I bet we can fix that.”
    H e enjoyed himself more than he’d expected. Of course, since he’d expected to get through the meal in order to shake his grandfather off his back, that wasn’t saying much.
    But if he was honest, he’d enjoyed her company. She was . . . intriguing, he supposed, as they walked out of therestaurant. She was a bright, interesting woman who’d been strong enough to face up to a terrible personal blow and carve out a fulfilling life.
    He had to admire that, as he hadn’t done nearly so well in that area himself.
    Added to that, it was certainly no hardship to look at her. God knew looking at her, listening to her, being drawn out by her had taken his mind off his family situation for a few hours.
    “I had a good time.” When they reached her car, she dug her keys out of a purse the size of a postage stamp. “I’d like to do it again.” She tossed her hair back, aimed those blue eyes at him. “Next time, you ask,” she said, then rose on her toes and kissed him.
    He hadn’t been expecting that, either. A peck on the cheek wouldn’t have surprised him. Even a quick brush of lips would have seemed in keeping with her personality.
    But this was a warm, wet invitation. A seductive intimacy that could have a man sliding off an edge he’d had no idea he’d been poised on.
    Her fingers skimmed into his hair, her tongue danced lightly over his, and her body fit—curve to angle.
    He tasted the wine they’d shared, and the chocolate she’d sampled for dessert. The light tones of the scent she wore hazed over his mind. He heard the crunch of wheels on gravel as someone drove in or out of the lot. And her soft, soft sigh.
    Then she eased back, and left his head spinning.
    “Good night, Doug.”
    She slid into the car and sent him one long, sexy look through the closed window before she backed out and drove away.
    It took him nearly a full minute to pull two coherent thoughts together. “Jesus,” he muttered and stalked to his car. “Jesus, Grandpa, what have you got me into?”

Seven
    C allie elected to work the site both horizontally and vertically. This would give the team the ability to discover and study the periods of inhabitation, and the connections between whatever artifacts and ecofacts they uncovered, while simultaneously slicing through time to note the changes from one period to another in a different segment