Marry him?

Before he could react to that, he found himself following her to the foyer and beyond that to the front of the house. A shuttle van pulled to a stop in front of the porch, and the door eased open.

“Who’s here?” he asked, but Meri wasn’t listening.

She bounced from foot to foot, then threw herself into the arms of the first person off the shuttle. He was short, skinny and wearing glasses thick enough to be portholes. Nothing about him was the least bit threatening, and Jack immediately wanted to kill him.

“You made it,” Meri said, hugging the guy again. “I’ve missed you so much.”

The guy disentangled himself. “It’s been a week, Meri. You need to get out more.”

She laughed, then turned to the next person and greeted him with exactly the same enthusiasm. Okay. So nerd guy wasn’t Andrew. Good to know.

Meri welcomed all eight visitors with exactly the same amount of enthusiasm, then she turned to Jack.

“Everybody, this is Jack. Jack, this is my team.”

“Team for what?” he asked.

She grinned. “Would you believe me if I said polo?”

Judging from their pale skin and slightly peering gazes, he was going to guess none of them had ever seen a horse outside of the movies or television.

“No.”

“I didn’t think so. This is my solid-rocket-fuel team. We’re working on ways to make it less toxic and more efficient. There’s a technical explanation, but I don’t want to watch your eyes glaze over.”

“I appreciate that. What are they doing here?”

“Don’t freak. They’re not all staying in the house. Only Colin and Betina. The rest are staying at nearby hotels.”

Jack didn’t like the idea of anyone else hanging around. He needed to concentrate on work. Of course, if Meri were distracted by her friends, she wouldn’t be such a problem for him.

“Why are they here?” he asked.

“So we can work. I can’t leave the mountain, so they agreed to a field trip.” She leaned toward him and lowered her voice. “I know you’re going to find it difficult to believe, but this is a really fun group.”