Page 51 of Code Name: Tank
He smiled. “Not for me either, but I just told Atticus to tell Alice we should have a team dinner. Which means, in one hour, we’ll be expected to be seated at a table with a man who is like a father to you. I can guarantee that if we go somewhere we can be alone now, they’ll be waiting until sunrise for us to show up.”
I giggled. “Sunrise?”
“At least. Once I feel your naked body next to mine, I don’t think an act of war could get me to let you go.”
I shuddered, and my eyes rolled in my head. “I feel the same way.”
His phone vibrated, and with a growl, he pulled it from his pocket. After glancing at the screen, he looked up at the clouds.
“What?” I asked.
“My mom,” he said, reading the screen. “She wants to make sure you’re settling back in okay.”
“That’s sweet.”
“She asked me to have you text her later. I’m warning you, you should nip this in the bud, or she’ll be pestering you endlessly.”
“I don’t mind. In fact, I like it.”
“I’ll remind you of that a week from now.”
“Come on,” I said, getting up and pulling him with me.
“Give me a minute. Otherwise, everyone in the command center will know what sitting on the dock next to you does to me.”
I giggled again and walked away, but instead of stopping at the boathouse, I kept going up the path to the main residence. “Knock, knock,” I said, opening the back door enough for Alice to hear me.
“Come on in, Dragon. I hope you’ve arrived to tell me you’re going to help get this meal thrown together.”
I smiled. “Why else would I be here?”
“Thank God for that. I mean, what the hell? A fucking cabinet member just announces we should have a team dinner? He couldn’t have given me some notice so I could recruit people to help me cook?”
“Do you want me to call reinforcements?”
She leaned against the kitchen counter. “Would you?”
“We can handle this, girlfriend. With help, of course.” I pulled out my cell and sent Tank a message.Your presence is needed in the kitchen in the main house. Bring Atticus with you.
Be right up,he responded.
Hurry.
In what felt like seconds, he walked in with Atticus and Admiral. “What can we do?” he asked.
“Make dinner,” snapped Alice, glaring over her shoulder at her husband.
“What?” asked Admiral, raising both hands.
“You should’ve told him that if he wanted to stay, he had to arrange for a chef. Cabinet members get those kinds of perks, don’t they?”
When she looked from him to me, I shrugged. “Maybe when they’re at the White House.”
Tank had opened the fridge and was pulling out ingredients.
“What are you thinking?” Alice asked.
“There are a few jars of marinara sauce in the pantry. We’ll heat that up, boil some pasta, Atticus will make a salad, and I think there’s garlic bread in the freezer downstairs.”
