Page 42 of Baby One Last Time
Chapter 12
The next morning,the entire team was on edge. The desert of information was wearing on Sparks and Penn, who were polite but curt to the rest of us, barely responding to “good morning” at breakfast. Bond was holed up in her room poring over medical texts again, which for some reason annoyed TJ. He didn’t say that. I read it in his body language when Jensen asked about her. Alder had lost an online challenge with some of her fellow fractal freaks, as Jensen called them, and even Jensen was a gloomy Gus.
“Do you think everyone’s in a foul mood because it’s Christmas Adam?” I asked Mai. “The holidays can be a bummer.”
“What in the hell is Christmas Adam?” she asked.
Sometimes I forget not everyone’s mother scoured the internet for the deets on every winter holiday. “It’s the day before Christmas Eve.”
She shook her head. “I doubt that’s the problem, since it’s unlikely anyone but you has heard of it. Everyone’s antsy because of mission delay.”
“Did you ever get antsy while pinned down under enemy fire?” I tried not to laugh but couldn’t help it.
“You’re in a rare good mood today,” Mai said. “I’m going to assume it’s lack of a hangover and not that you got lucky again.”
I held up two fingers. “I did not get lucky, I swear. Scout’s honor. What I did do was finish an awesome E&E plan. Penn read it first thing this morning and texted me his approval.”
She whistled between her teeth. “Any praise from him is high praise.”
“Right?” I let that stand as the reason I’d floated through the morning, even before my first cup of coffee. The other reason for my sense of peace, the secrets shared with my ex-lover/partner, was too sacred to reveal. Besides, no one else would understand why being Derek’s confidante had melted something hard and sharp in my heart. I wasn’t crystal clear on the meaning of it myself.
At the end of the table, Jensen huffed and scowled down at his phone, then rubbed his hand over his face.
Mai glanced in his direction. “I’m guessing he needs to, though. This is his third mission in a row with no break. I don’t think he’s seen his wife in over a month.”
“Jensen is married?”
Mai stopped mid-chew to raise her eyebrows at me. The message was clear: are you an idiot?
“What? How am I supposed to know the relationship status of everyone on the team?”
She finished her bite and set down her spoon. “For some kind of mystic reader, you can be pretty oblivious.”
“One, there’s nothing mystical about it. I have an overdeveloped sub-cortical area in my brain, making it easier for my cortex to process certain signals.”
Mai nodded, impressed, I was sure.
“Two, I worked with Jensen and Alder on exactly two jobs before this, and they provided distance support. We didn’t have much time in a room together to hang out and bond.” Those were the good old days, when Derek and I were a tactical strike team. I bit the inside of my cheek as punishment for remembering good times with him, and hoped the negative reinforcement would curb my bad habit of forgetting he was the enemy. But my thoughts digressed. “Where was I? Oh, three, how doyouknow Jensen’s married?”
“It came up.”
“When?”
Mai reddened and squirmed.
Blushing was a new look on her. For a hot second, I wondered if they’d had a fling. Unlikely, given her aversion to my past with Derek.
“The first day the team was together in LA.” She picked up her coffee cup and took a long swig, observing our other teammates and avoiding eye contact with me.
“It’s fine,” I said, and I meant it. Mostly. “I don’t begrudge the team that first night together.”
“Yeah, sounds like it’s fine.” She grinned.
She really was a good temporary partner. “All right, smartass, let’s take this outside. After PT, I challenge you to pool laps. Eight-hundred-meter freestyle.”
“You’re on. But I challenge youduringPT. One-arm pull-ups, arm of your choice.”
I glanced at her guns, visible because she wore a black tank top with her black cargo pants and combat boots. I shouldn’t take the bet, but what the hell. “You’re on, too.”
