Page 60 of In the Nick of Time
“Oh, you know,” Doug replied, “I’ve just never had to put a tortoise in the bathroom prior to sex before.”
“Obviously, you haven’t lived. Just think, if you’d retired already, you never would have had this experience.” Nick sauntered close enough to feel Doug’s body heat. “Why are we still wearing clothes? That’s the question I need the answer to.”
“That was absolutely better than a nap,”Nick declared, rolling off Doug and onto his back.
“It was.” Doug turned onto his side. “We need to get cleaned up and get going.”
Nick looked at the digital clock on the bedside table.
“It’s only five. We have hours before we can go to the club.”
“I was thinking that maybe we could have a nice dinner.”
Nick felt a smile crease his face. “Oh, Doug Swanson, are you wooing me?”
Doug smiled too. It looked good on him. “Maybe.”
“And in the middle of an op. That’s the word, right?”
“Agents have to eat,” Doug pointed out.
“We have to keep our energy up for other things. Especially”—Nick traced a line down Doug’s impressive chest with his index finger—“for old?—”
Laughing, Doug swatted his hand away. “I’m on to you. I think this old dog has plenty of tricks for you to enjoy.” He rolled off the bed onto his feet. “But we’ll save them for later.”
“Fine.” Nick wrinkled his nose. “I stink anyway.”
They managed to shower and get dressed in less than an hour. Nick was impressed. While he’d been scrubbing down, Doug called and made a dinner reservation for them. Nick had no idea where; the only instruction he’d been given was, “Wear the suit.”
“I feelguilty having dinner while we’re worried about missing agents.”
The meal was delicious. Doug had gotten them in at an upscale Italian place and the food was incredible.
“We are quite literally in a holding pattern at the moment.”
This was true. They’d checked in with SPAM again when they’d gotten back to the hotel room. Apparently, management trusted that they knew what they were doing. Nick had no idea what he was doing, but at least no one—barring Agent Schoenhut—was dead yet. As far as they knew.
“What happens when an agent dies?”
Doug stared at him, chewing the bite of pasta he’d just put in his mouth.
Before he could finish and answer with some well-deserved snarky remark, Nick clarified.
“Do agents have life insurance? Something for family? Does family ever find out what happened to them?”
Doug set his fork down. “As much as I hate to say it, it depends. If their entire family is powered, then yes, they are told what and how things went down. If, like you, only one family member has a power, then SPAM comes up with something believable and leaves it at that. And just like other places, benefits are dependent on time served.”
“Huh.” Nick dug into the baked pasta. If something happened to him, his aunt would never know the truth. “Is your family powered?”
A large bite passed Doug’s lips and he didn’t hurry to finish before answering.
“Maybe that was a bad question.”
“No, it’s a good one. Some of my family is powered, but we don’t speak, not since I quit the business.”
“Do we want to talk about that?”
“No, we definitely do not. Not right now anyway.”
