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“No.” I touched the square, gold pendant on a thin chain around my neck. “Are you ready?”
“Let me just switch into test mode,” she said. “We don’t want to send the team into a panic. Okay, test away.”
I pressed the pendant.
“Perfect,” she said. “The signal is strong.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Feel better now?”
“I do,” I said. “I think I can sleep now.”
“Good. One more thing, though. You might want to give TJ a call. Check in, you know, since he’s the team leader.”
There was no reason for me to disturb him, and we both knew it.
“Good idea,” I said. “I should keep him apprised.”
“Hold on,” she said. “I’ll transfer this call to his cell phone.”
“Hi,” TJ said in my ear a few seconds later. “All settled in?”
“I am,” I said. “Did I wake you?”
“No. I did just get out of the shower, though.”
Images of TJ, naked and wet, flashed through my mind. “Sounds sexy.”
“More like lonely.”
“Do you miss me already?” I asked.
He hesitated, then said softly, “Yeah. I miss you a lot.”
We hadn’t discussed what would happen between us after Tuesday’s meeting, but judging from the sadness in his voice, I feared the worst.
“Did you take a sleeping pill?” he asked.
I took the hint that he wanted to change the subject. “I did.” My eyelids drifted shut and were too heavy to open again. “I think it’s kicking in.” My words were slurred.
“Good. Just relax. You’re safe.” Every time he said that to me, I did feel safe. And I did relax.
I fought to stay awake just a little bit longer because there was something I wanted to know about TJ Russo, and I hadn’t been brave enough to ask him in person. “TJ, can I ask you a question?”
“Sure. As long as it’s not classified, I’ll answer it.”
“It’s personal,” I said, taking a deep breath. It was peaceful here in my bed. And I was so close to sleep, but I summoned my last bit of energy. “Have you ever been in love?”
“On a couple of occasions, I thought I was, at least at the time.”
That intrigued me. I rallied a little so I could ask him a follow-up question. “But now you don’t think you were? Why is that?”
He hesitated, or at least I thought he did, although it was difficult for me to gauge the passage of time. “I guess,” he finally said slowly, “it’s because those times didn’t feel like this one.”
Suddenly, I was floating. Not dreaming. Not asleep. Just drifting somewhere warm and peaceful. I was happy. TJ Russo might have just told me he loved me, and it made me happy. I would have to ponder that in the morning, when I was wide awake.
“My turn,” he whispered.
