He pressed his lips together and asked the question that was burning in his mind. ‘You said you’re Professor Helier’s second in command. What’s your background?’
She turned to face him with an amused expression. ‘What is this? An interview?’
She gestured towards the glass staircase leading up to the next floor.
‘Maybe.’ He shrugged.
She nodded her head thoughtfully. ‘Okay, then. But it works both ways. Deal?’
He held his hand out towards her. ‘Deal.’ The warmth from her fingers almost made him shudder, especially as they brushed against the inside of his wrist.
Cordelia walked up the stairs ahead of him. He had to tell himself not to focus on her legs. Or her hips. Or her...
She started talking and broke into his wayward thoughts. ‘I’m a physician. I trained in the UK.’
‘I take it your speciality was cardiology.’
She nodded. ‘Of course. And yours?’
He gave the briefest of smiles. ‘The same.’
She hesitated for a second. ‘I always had a special interest in cardiology.’ She gave a nonchalant wave of her hand. ‘Family stuff. So I decided to get into research.’ She hesitated once again and he was instantly curious as her eyes went up to the left for a second. Wasn’t that supposed to be a sign of thinking or processing?
They reached the top of the stairs and she took them down a different wing of the building. ‘This is the research labs.’ She gave a little smile. ‘This is where I get lost in the wonder of zebrafish and what incredible creatures they are.’ She gave a little sigh. ‘If only us humans had the power of healing and regeneration like they do.’
He stopped at the front doors of the lab and looked inside. As expected, it was white and pristine. There were several rooms. Laboratories where clinical scientists were processing blood tests. A vast room filled with computers where information was obviously being processed and analysed. In the middle of the room was an unusual spiral-shaped fish tank. Even from here he could see the tiny zebrafish swimming around.
He tilted his head to the side and looked at Cordelia curiously. It was almost as if she expected the question. ‘They teach us so much. And they give us hope. Professor Helier thought it was important that people didn’t just watch them in a lab. He wanted us all to appreciate them. That’s why he commissioned the special tank for right in the middle of the room.’
Gene nodded thoughtfully. ‘So many people are against research involving animals.’
‘And so many people would be right. Here, we don’t harm the zebrafish in any way. But we watch them. We learn from them and their DNA. And we try to replicate what they can do in a lab environment.’
He leaned against the wall and folded his arms. ‘I like the ethics here. I knew that before I came. It was one of the things that made me want to be part of the team—even if it is just for a short spell.’
Her phone pinged and she pulled it from her pocket, frowning.
‘What’s wrong?’ Her skin had paled and when she looked up her eyes were kind of watery.
She pressed her lips together. He could tell she was trying to keep it together. ‘Professor Helier’s sister has terminal cancer. She’s his only living family. He’s going to stay with her. He’s going to look after her.’
Gene felt his heart clench. It was selfish—he knew it. But part of the reason he’d come here had been to work with this man—to learn from him.
‘What does that mean?’
She blinked back the obvious tears as she tucked her phone back into her pocket. ‘It means that I’ll have to email everyone in the institute. Franc—he wants to call you tonight.’ Her bright green eyes met his. There was something in them. A wariness, but also a tiny hint of desperation. ‘The monitoring of the cardiomyopathy patients is at a really crucial stage. I suspect he’s going to ask if you’ll take over as head of the trial.’ Her voice was a little shaky.
He reached over and touched her arm. ‘Cordelia? Are you okay?’
She nodded and brushed the side of her eye. ‘Of course I am. I’m just being silly. I’m worried about Franc and how he’ll cope with nursing his sister.’ She held out her hands. ‘This place is virtually his life.’ She gave her head a shake. ‘I just don’t want to let him down in his absence. The work here is so important to so many people.’
It was the way she said the words. Everyone who worked here would be passionate about what they did. But there seemed to be a real emphasis on her words. As if there was something that he was missing.
And he got it. He got it better than anyone. Because the work on cardiomyopathy could end up being a lifeline for his son.
He watched her carefully. He could almost see her shaking off the overspill of emotions, tidying them back up and putting them in a box. His stomach roiled a little. It was the weirdest thing, but it was almost the same expression she’d had on her face at one point last night. He just couldn’t understand why.
And he definitely couldn’t understand why he was so curious.
She licked her lips and looked at him again. ‘My turn to ask the questions. I’m sure that Franc knew all this back to front. But I don’t. What’s your background?’
For a second he felt himself move into self-protect mode. The bit where he only gave the edited version of his life.
But he turned around as she led him back from the research wing and he was faced with the picture-postcard landscape again. The world was so vast out there. He was only a tiny bit of it. Why on earth did he feel he had something to hide?
He stopped walking and his fingers brushed against her elbow. She turned to face him. He almost laughed.
Yip. He was currently in a movie of his life. Cordelia was the heroine in this movie and she was standing in front of a green screen. Because this background was just too perfect to be real.
And as he stood a little longer, she began to look too perfect too. She was sharply in focus. Now he could appreciate the long, dark lashes. Now he could appreciate the smudge of red lipstick still on her lips.
Now...he was definitely losing his mind.
It was almost like hovering above and watching, instead of really taking part.
He shook his head. ‘I trained as a physician in Texas but lived my life between France and Texas. My mom—ma mère—was a French scientist. Somehow she managed to meet my rancher father and I lived between two continents.’
She tilted her head to the side. ‘Wow. That’s some childhood.’
He nodded. ‘I was lucky. I had barrel loads of love on both sides of the Atlantic. I had friends in Houston and in Paris.’
‘So what made you become a doctor?’
They walked along the corridor towards the other wing. ‘Oh, I always wanted to be a doctor. Right from when I was a little kid. My dad wanted me to take over the ranch and while I love it, my heart was never in it. Thankfully I’ve got a stepbrother who has ranch blood running in his veins.’
‘Oh, okay.’ He could see the obvious question running around in her head. He could avoid it—or ignore it—like he had before. But he had a reason for being here. He was invested in this research. And there was almost an ethical responsibility to say why.
He stopped walking. ‘Rory’s mom was a fellow doctor I met at a conference. We had a few nights together and then didn’t keep in touch. I met Rory when he was nine months old. Mindy had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. She was already in a degree of heart failure when she became pregnant