Page 43 of Astrid
“Now that we’ve established we’re in a relationship, are you coming back to my room tonight?”
“If you want me to.”
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t want, but...” She held up her hand to stop him. “...I got my period today, so we won’t be having sex.”
“That’s fine, as long as I can hold you in my sleep, I’ll be fine. I missed you the last couple of days.”
“And whose fault was that?” Astrid asked snidely, then held up her hand. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t called for. Neither the comment, nor the delivery of it.”
“Apology accepted.” John nodded and entwined their fingers. They sat there, both in contentment as they watched the coals in the firepit. Astrid had only put two small logs on the fire, and while they’d talked, they didn’t add any more. Knowing they would be calling it a night soon, they let the fire burn itself out, but found the heat rising off the coals therapeutic. It was another hour before they banked the small amount of coals, and hand in hand, made their way inside the house, and up to Astrid’s room, where true to their word, there was no sex involved, but a lot of cuddling occurred.
CHAPTER19
Because of the “date”that night, Morgan didn’t send the girls out on any missions. Instead, they took the opportunity to move everything from the basement office over to the official office that had been finished, and had received the final inspection the day before.
“Hey, babe,” John called out and all four women looked up at him. He stood at the base of the stairs in the house, and looked at Astrid. “I just wanted to let you know I’m on my way out to meet a client.”
“Stop.” Astrid held up her hand, and sat back on the edge of the desk she had been clearing into boxes for the move. “Let me ask you something. If you donned a suit every morning and went downtown to work in an office, and I did the same, but worked in a different area of the same building, would you hunt me down each and every time you had a meeting with a client?”
John frowned, then crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “Probably not.”
“Then don’t do it here. Just because we live in and work out of the same location, it doesn’t mean we have to be in each other’s pockets. You do your job, and I’ll do mine. If we trust each other, there’s no reason why you have to inform me of every move you make.”
“Yeah,” Morgan laughed as she looked up from clearing off her desk. She grinned at her brother. “Besides, if it comes right down to it, there might be times that Astrid would have to shoot you if you interfered in her job.”
John chuckled then saw the looks on the women’s faces and felt his eyebrows disappear into his hairline. “Are you fucking serious?”
“As a heart attack,” all four women said at the same time. They grinned when he swallowed hard, then shook his head.
“All right then, I’ll be gone the rest of the day.”
“Have fun,” Astrid called out, and gave him a little wave. As soon as he left, the others looked at her and it was Morgan who spoke.
“You handled that nicely. Can I assume that you’re back together?”
“You can, we cleared the air, and had a nice conversation last night. I told him about tonight, and he was fine with it. I’m hoping by me telling him that I didn’t need to know his every move, we can move past this and get on with our lives.”
“I wish you luck,” Morgan said as she turned to the other two women. “How did the conversations with your men go last night?”
“Good,” they both answered, but it was Ava who sighed heavily as she went over and grabbed a cola from the refrigerator. She popped the top, and the other women settled back and sipped their coffee. It didn’t take long for her to spill her story.
“At first Justin wasn’t okay with it. It took a lot of talking to let him know that nothing would be happening. He never relented until I reminded him of how I had taken Tanner down at the BBQ that he finally relaxed enough to listen to reason.” She sighed heavily and guzzled half the can of cola before she came up for air. “We both lay awake for hours lost in our own thoughts. By this morning, everything seemed to work itself out. The kicker will be when we ladies leave tonight for the meeting.”
“Damn,” Morgan said. She looked at Joyce. “Alex?”
Joyce shrugged, “No problem. Once I explained it was for the job, he understood. I think what helped him to agree is the fact that he did all that work tracing Stella’s route. You know, he had hands-on experience of what we go through. He only asked that I take care of myself and not to get hurt.” She grinned, then laughed. “He said one injured person in the relationship was enough, then he reminded me that we’d never be able to eat steak until one of us healed, because we’d both be too injured to cut it up.” That caused the other ladies to laugh, and shaking their heads, they got back to work. It took them until lunch to move all the papers from the basement to the new office, and at one point, they found it easier to use the tunnel connecting the two buildings faster than walking up and down the steps, then out one building and into the next. As the four of them sat around, and ate sandwiches Joyce had fixed, they discussed how they would be taking the monitors and computer equipment over to the new office in the afternoon.
“Most of it can stay here,” Astrid said as she picked up her turkey sandwich and took a bite. She chewed, and studied the others. When her mouth was clear, she grinned, “Uncle Chip sent me what I needed. The monitors and equipment are only the tip of the iceberg of what I have yet to open.”
“Holy crap,” Morgan said. “There’s more?”
“Yeah, ever see the communication rooms on base?”
“Of course,” the three women answered.
Astrid nodded. “That’s what I’ll be setting up at the new office. Morg, did you walk the entire building yet?”
“No, why?”
