The Outlier by Elisabeth Eaves

Author:Elisabeth Eaves [Eaves, Elisabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Published: 2024-08-06T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SIX

CATE

I felt a jolt as Hunter turned his head. His prominent cheekbones and black eyebrows exactly matched the photos. Underneath, I could still see the adolescent, past and present rolled into one. For a moment I was thirteen, camping, unburdened by my future, and the exhilaration caught me off guard.

From across the crowd, I watched him move. He was handsome from certain angles, too gaunt from others, depending on how the light caught him. Dressed in tropical-formal style, linen trousers and a short-sleeved shirt, he beamed a smile at the couple he was talking to, the soap opera star and her date. I savoured the moment, and wanted it to go on. I felt powerful, seeing but unseen, knowing I could hang back and choose when to strike.

Suddenly he looked straight at me. I was thirty feet away, through shifting bodies and bobbing heads, so he couldn’t have sensed me watching him. I held his gaze until a nudge from Jia pulled me away.

Dario led us across the room. Just the three of us, as we had somehow lost both Gabriel and Tenoch. Time sped up, a swirl of noise and colour, and suddenly I was shaking Hunter’s hand, which was dry and too strong, a forceful grip like men use on other men. I gripped back hard.

“Dario said he’d invited two brilliant friends.”

There was something about his voice, smooth and faintly familiar, that put me at ease.

“Was your wife able to join us?”

“She’s not feeling well,” Dario said.

“I’m sorry. I’d have liked to meet her. She was so important to the marine park.”

“Her great pride.” Dario sounded wistful.

“And you’re the mastermind behind Alphaneuro?” Hunter asked me.

A bolt of alarm crossed my frontal lobe. But he was just talking, making a connection.

“You follow biotech?”

“Your sale was front-page news.”

“Jia’s the actual mastermind,” I said, turning to my friend. “I just did what she told me to.”

“She did what I told her to after she invented a cure for Alzheimer’s,” Jia said.

He showed us the smile from the corporate photo. “Congratulations to you both.” His expression took us in equally, but I thought I felt a special current directed at me.

“How did you find our little corner of the world?”

“It was Cate’s idea,” Jia said.

“Dario’s teaching me to kitesurf,” I said, deception launching itself as easily as a bird.

“I hear he’s a great instructor.” He spoke easily, but I could feel him scrutinizing me, trying to figure something out.

“I haven’t scraped my leg across a bed of sharp rocks in at least two days.”

“She’s fearless,” Dario said.

“Is that so?” Hunter asked.

“Nonsense,” I said.

“Truly,” Dario insisted. “There’s a moment some students can’t get past, when they have to trust their skills for the first time. Cate doesn’t hesitate.”

I felt exposed. I was sure Hunter was trying to place my face.

“Tell me, Cate, what was the breakthrough that made Nebusol such a success?”

His use of my name felt intimate, but this was a routine Jia and I had polished.

“Breakthroughs are built on the backs of many others.

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