“I read our German competitor was getting close,” she added.
He nodded. He’d read that too and he felt the pressure. “You can’t rush genius.” Though he had to if he wanted to win the patent race. Of course he understood the importance, so did Simon. Even if the guy liked to goof off, he was sharp. The sale of another patent would fund another year or more of research and allow them to offer free assistance to more people.
“Okay. Obviously I’ll work other funding angles, but this would be huge.” Lynn pushed back in her chair as far as she could. Still not far enough to get her belly past the edge of the table, and JT stood to help. Simon stared like he was watching someone pull the pin out of a grenade.
She rose awkwardly. “Anything else?”
“No.” He turned, reaching for his phone, hating that he needed to look away from her palms gently circling her belly. Lynn was his friend and she was happy, which made him happy, but…He couldn’t stop the memories it brought.
He couldn’t not see his high school girlfriend waiting for him at the bottom of the church steps. Or see her get into his car, the winter trees flying past his window, their bare branches mirroring himself. Angry, raw, bitter. He couldn’t look at Lynn’s pregnant belly and not think, what if?
“JT?”
He snapped back at the sound of Simon’s voice. “Huh?”
“I said, do you want to get some lunch?”
He checked his watch. He should let someone else help Casey. Let someone else spend time with Paige. “Sure. I can do that.”
—
It was just a few minutes after three when Paige pulled up to the gate of Evolution and gave her name to the guard.
“This is where they make legs?” Casey asked.
“Yes. And other things.”
“Why is it brick? Why is it shaped like a square?”
The guard was a short gentleman in a navy uniform, complete with a cap that had SECURITY printed across the front. He checked his clipboard, then directed her to the visitors’ parking and passed her through with a wave.
“Are we going to see Jake?”
She drove past a hundred cars or more, the enormous square building looming before her, three stories of glass and red brick rising from the ground.
“Are we? Mom! Are we?”
“Are we what?”
“Going to see Jake?”
“I don’t know.” She was trying very, very hard to tamp down her own excitement, but there was something about him. That slightest hesitation, that split second of uncertainty when he’d shown her his leg. A vulnerability in the eyes of a man who looked like he’d be certain about everything. And he’d done it to gain her trust, to offer his help.
They parked near the far left corner, and with Casey in her arms they entered through wide glass doors. An entry stretched at least twenty yards to a long desk straight ahead, and there was a lot to look at in between.
Enormous vertical photographs hung like tapestries on both walls. Action shots of a downhill skier, a dancer, a surfer slipping through a blue-green curl of water. And all amputees. A living embodiment of the motto that hung in bold silver letters above the desk. EVOLUTION, THE FUTURE OF MOTION.
“Who are they?” Casey asked. “How did they get there? Did they use a ladder? Where’s the ladder?”
Paige stepped up to the desk and returned the young woman’s welcoming smile.
“Hi. What’s the name?”
“Casey Roberts. Or Paige. I’m a little late.” And she didn’t know if she was here to see Jake or—
“Yes. I have it right here. We were expecting you.” She clicked the cord hanging from her ear and spoke into a tiny microphone. “Casey Roberts is here. Yes.” She clicked again. “Someone will be right with you. Can I get you some water? Juice?”
“No, thank you. We’re good.” She stepped back and put Casey down, hoping the woman didn’t hear Casey say how much she liked juice.
To her right, the building opened up in a flurry of multilevel activity. Definitely not a doctor’s office feel, more like a state-of-the-art gym gone wild.
“Are we going to see Jake now?”
“I don’t know, and let’s try to keep the questions to a minimum. Okay?”
“Hi. I’m Marcy.”
Paige turned and met a beautiful young girl with black hair and dark eyes. She was tiny and wore a black polo with the Evolution logo and khaki shorts. “Hi. I’m Paige. This is Casey.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Casey.” She shook hands with both of them, using her left hand. “You can see the testing side there.” She pointed. “Lots of fun, but we’re going this way to the R&D offices.”
Marcy led them a few feet to double doors on their left, swiped a card hanging from her neck, and waited for a beep. Casey walked beside her, peeling off questions about what and why and how.
“Lots of security,” Paige said.
“Yes. To protect designs in development.”
“Oh. Right.” Because, like she’d read on Jenny’s smartphone in the two minutes before Casey spilled her cereal, this was cutting-edge. Bionics, neural implants, and a lot of other stuff she didn’t understand.
It took a good five minutes down hallways and up elevators to reach their destination. In that time, she learned Marcy was a talkative intern from South Carolina and that she’d lost her right arm almost to the shoulder when she was four from a lawn-mowing accident.