Page 39 of Crash Course
The minute the words left his mouth, Cruz regretted it. This was the problem. Everything was a minefield lately.
But Rohan, the brainiac thinker, did Cruz a favor by simply cocking his head and not reacting.
"Is it pissing you off?" Ro asked.
"Eh. I wouldn’t say that. It’s . . . weird. We’re a family business. So, yeah, I kinda miss it just being us, but I get it. The women bring value. Immense value. They’re helping us grow."
"True. But itisdifferent. I feel it, too. We’ve doubled in number. Maybe it’s too many people for you."
Yes!"God forbid someone burps," Cruz said.
"Or cuts one."
The two of them snorted and Cruz took the moment to conjure a burp that would earn him a head-smack from their mother and various comments of disgust from Liv, Maddy, or Lena. "For old time’s sake," he said.
"Amen, brother. You good?"
Actually, yeah. He was. It felt . . . right. To be honest with his brother and not have said brother rip him one for it. Cruz set his feet back on the floor and nodded. "I’m fine. Just bitching."
"We all need that sometimes. I’m gonna get coffee."
A minute later, an interesting combination of swear words came from the kitchenette. "Jesus, Cruz! This is undrinkable."
"I know!" Cruz hollered back, half laughing over the tension leaving his shoulders. Admitting it brought relief. Let him rid himself of the guilt over making such a childish move. "Throw it out and make another pot."
"Bet your ass."
Laughing, Cruz pulled up a browser.
When Ro returned, Cruz peered across the table at him. "How much do you know about PFOA?"
"Not a lot."
"All right. I’ll jump on that. You take real estate history."
"Deal."
Cruz went to work plugging in various search terms for PFOA in North Carolina.PFOA Morgan. Morgan Randolph plant. Forever chemicals, North Carolina.
A variety of links popped up regarding water testing procedures. None of which helped him. He scrolled the list. Total bust. He tried another search. Farms and PFOA in North Carolina.
Another list of links for soil testing.Jeez, with the testing.He clicked on a couple, found them somewhat interesting and added them to his bookmarks to refer to.
Back at the original list of links, he clicked to page two. Often, the deeper he went, he’d hit on something. Sometimes he’d get ten pages in before something obscure popped.
He scrolled, clicking on a few of the options and then nixing them. What he was looking for, he wasn’t sure. Working on instinct had served him well, though, so he continued scrolling. He’d know when he hit on something.
Page three.
Sludge.
Now that was fascinating. What the hell did sludge have to do with PFOA? Time to educate himself. He clicked the link and skimmed an article from a newspaper in South Carolina.
Water reclamation. Human waste. Sewage sludge given free to farmers as fertilizer.
Whoa.Hang on. "What the hell?"
He reread the last paragraph.
