Storm Shades Read Online Free Page B

the other like he really needs to use the rest room.
    “You alright?” Sofie gives him a concerned look, wondering what his deal is.
    “Umm, sure. Fine. I’m fine. You’re really pretty.” It’s like the guy has verbal diarrhea, and he looks mortified when he realizes what it is that he’s just said.
    “Okay.” Sofie is as embarrassed as he is by his outburst. She looks down at her shapeless dungarees and white t-shirt underneath, knowing that she doesn’t look anywhere near her best. “Thanks...” She wishes that she’d paid more attention when he’d introduced himself the night before—since he seems like a sweet kid.
    “Brett, it’s Brett.” He sticks his hand out towards her, over the reception table.
    “Right. Well, thanks Brett.” Sofie shakes his proffered hand and wonders when it would be considered polite to release herself from his grip.
    “So are y’all in town for long?” Brett does a terrible job of looking like he doesn’t care about the answer.
    Sofie wonders why this is the second time she’s been asked the same question in less than 24 hours. But, then again, there are probably only so many new faces that they get around here.
    “A few days.” Sofie shrugs noncommittally.
    “Well, if you need anything, just ask for Brett.” He smiles earnestly, showing the braces still on his teeth. It’s clear that he’s a good kid, just trying his best, and Sofie decides to throw him a bone. She remembers how hard high school was, and she figures that he could probably use all the kindness he could get.
    “You’ll be my first call, Brett. Thanks for all your help.” Sofie flashes one of her best smiles before heading back to her room. She’s pretty sure that she hears him sigh like a lovesick teenager, as she walks away.
    She throws herself on the lumpy bed, staring up at the ceiling. She knows that Finn and Darwin will be wondering where she is—and by now they’ve probably moved on to arguing over quantum mechanics or physics or string theory or whatever tonight’s chosen topic was. But she felt too unsettled to join them.
    “It's just business, Braun,” she reminds herself out loud.
    That was what she had to tell herself sometimes. She was there for the science, and there were few companies that had the kinds of resources at its fingertips that Shale did. Sometimes her personal sensibilities had to take a back seat to the paycheck that she so desperately needed every month.
    Not for the first time, she tries to imagine what life would have been like if her father had told her and her mother just how bad things were. But he was a proud man. He didn’t want anyone to think that he couldn’t look after his family, or that the thin thread he had been hanging by was about to be cut. Perhaps if he hadn’t died, if he’d had more time to get his affairs in order, then things would be different. Perhaps Sofie wouldn’t still be trying to scrape together whatever she could to pay off the debts, the bookies, and the goons they sent to collect their money every month like clockwork.
    But there is no point living in the world of ‘what if’ and ‘what could have been.’ Scientists live in the world of fact and I’m a scientist after all. That said, sometimes it would be nice to be able to escape the real world, if only for a little while.

CHAPTER FOUR
    “I’m almost done here, Chief.” Finn stands up, iPad in hand as he goes over the calculations he’s been working on.
    “Great work, Finn.” Even Darwin looks impressed at how quickly Finn has managed to get his part of the site finished. “Not a moment too soon, looks like the weather might be about to change.” Darwin takes a look up at the sky, which is starting to cloud over. “Let’s start taking the gear back to the car.”
    Sofie has drifted a little further away from the rest of the team, and she’s so engrossed in the samples she’s collecting that she doesn’t even hear the radio in her ear.
    “Sofie?”