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She shook her head to dislodge the disloyal thoughts then went into the kitchen and grabbed two bottles of beer from the fridge.
She rummaged through the utensil drawer until she found a bottle opener. “Do you want yours in a glass?”
Instead of an answer, she heard tapping. She leaned back to see into the living room. Mike was on his laptop, clicking away. “I thought you were going to relax?”
“We haven’t checked your message board in a while...and no glass.”
She opened both bottles and returned to the living room, where she stood in front of him, holding out his beer. “It’s happy hour.”
Glancing up, he said, “I’m all logged in. Whenever you’re ready.”
Her fingers were itching to attack that keyboard and check for a message from Hamid, but they both needed ten minutes to breathe.
When he’d explained the significance of that White House gathering, she’d been as freaked out as he was, but for once she wanted to be the one with the calm exterior. Mike had been keeping it together for her through it all, and she wanted to prove she could keep it together, too.
She hadn’t quite figured out yet whether she wanted to prove she could be calm and collected to Mike or herself, but both had value.
“Skol.” She lifted the bottle and then tilted it to her lips and took a swig of the malty brew.
He reached up to take the other bottle from her hand. “Skol.”
He shoved the laptop from his legs. “Have a seat.”
“That’s better.” She settled on the love seat next to him and touched the neck of her bottle to his with a clink. “Tell me about your last assignment with Prospero.”
“This is my last assignment with Prospero.”
“I mean your second-to-last. What were you doing before Jack asked you to check in on his wife’s crazy friend?”
“It’s top secret.” He put his finger to his lips, but his frame had stiffened and the lines on his face deepened.
“Are you serious?” She dragged her gaze away from his delicious mouth. “You’ve already told me plenty of—what I can only guess is—classified information. Hell, you’ve let me use your secure phone and laptop.”
“Because you’re involved in this case.” He took a sip of his beer. “I’d be breaking a code if I told you about anything else.”
She toyed with the opening of her bottle. “That must get lonely.”
“Lonely?”
“Keeping everything to yourself all the time.”
“There are other things to talk about besides work.”
“The weather?” She laced her fingers around the bottle of beer. “You’re not exactly forthcoming about your personal life.”
He was in midsip and he choked on his beer. “Really? Given the amount of time we’ve had to talk about anything but our current situation, I think I’ve revealed a lot.”
“You know what?” On an impulse, she reached out and brushed a lock of dark hair from his forehead and then studied his face. “I think you have. You’ve parsed it out between car bombs, fleeing from the FBI and an attempted kidnapping, but I actually know quite a bit about you.”
His eyes widened and his nostrils flared as if he was getting ready to take flight. “Have I been going on and on about my pathetic childhood?”
She laughed and took another chug of her beer. “I’d hardly say you over-shared. It’s good. I’m glad I got to take a little peek behind the curtain.”
“I’ll have to watch that curtain thing, but you know I had it better than some and worse than others. That’s the way it goes. At least I had Coach to guide me through a lot of stuff, or I probably would’ve ended up on the wrong side of the law.”
“I’m grateful you didn’t, but I apologize.”
“For what?”
“This was supposed to be a relaxing interlude between stops in Crazytown, and I had to dredge up stuff you’re clearly not comfortable discussing.”
“You know what?” He took the bottle from her hand and rose from the cushion. “It wasn’t so bad telling you about it.”
“Anytime. God knows my life could fill a couple of volumes.” She wiped her damp fingers on her new jeans and pulled the computer into her lap. “Time to check on Hamid. Was there anything in that paper about him?”
