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“Only an hour?” I raised my eyebrows. “You must think I’m slipping.” I settled for a slow, deep kiss, then let her lead me into the hall and out toward the patio.
We met with Bond and Prescott at the open glass doors leading onto the patio, and the four of us stepped out to see the rest of the former Alpha Team members and their significant others already gathered there. We hugged and laughed and could barely hear each other over all the excited conversations.
Penn introduced Ashlee to his husband, Phillip.
“Very hot,” Ashlee stage-whispered and fanned herself.
“Thank you,” Phillip smiled. “I feel the same way about you.”
“Now you see why it’s so easy for me to remain monogamous, despite our grueling travel schedule,” Penn said.
Jensen pushed through the crowd and hugged Ashlee, then me. “That’s the reason?” he asked his new boss, picking up on Penn’s conversation. “I thought it was all those phone ‘dates’”—he put air quotes around the words—“you two have when we’re on the road.”
Next, we met Alder’s seven life partners, two other women and five men. I’d never seen her look so happy and serene.
As conversations continued and Jensen drifted away from our group, Alder leaned close to me and lowered her voice. “Being on the west coast most of the time has given me so much more time with them, which is great. But I have to admit, I miss the old team.”
I nodded. “I understand. I don’t miss the work, but I do miss this group of people.”
“Really?” Alder arched an eyebrow. “You don’t miss the adrenaline hits, the excitement, the jet-setting?”
I shook my head. “Or the exhaustion, the near-death experiences, and the jetlag.”
Alder grinned and nudged Sparks, who had joined us. “When did you get old, TJ?”
“Not old.” I glanced at Ashlee, who was shamelessly flirting with Phillip, which had the obvious and no doubt intentional effect of flustering Penn. “Settled. At peace.”
“Well, that answers my question,” Sparks said. “You and Armand are happy.”
“Very.”
“Glad to hear,” Jensen said as he rejoined us. He held a serving tray with four blue-gray drinks in champagne glasses. Everyone else already held their concoctions, and those not wise to Jensen’s bartending skills were making the brutal mistake of sniffing the swill.
We took our glasses and held them up. Jensen slung his arm around Sparks’s shoulders. I glanced at Penn, who met my eyes and shook his head. He was borrowing a page from my book and choosing not to see the fraternization of two of his best operatives.
“I think you should do the honors, Boss,” Jensen said, and the crowd went quiet. “Give us a speech.”
“This group doesn’t need another speech from me.” I glanced around at my former team members, my forever-found family. “But you do need to hear that I love you, each and every one of you, and I’m so glad to see you again.”
We lifted our glasses, and Ashlee came to my side and clinked her flute against mine. “Here’s to hoping it’s not as bad as it looks,” she whispered.
We threw back our drinks. It was worse than we’d expected.
“What was that?” Bond asked. “I’m going to need the ingredients so I know how worried to be about a mass morbidity event.”
Jensen grinned. “You know I can’t share my recipes, but trust me, we’ll all be fine. Oh, I forgot to announce the drink name. That was the Band on the Run. You know, because we were like a band, then we got split up, but we’re meeting up here like outlaws. On the run. And in honor of the man who wrote the song, Sir Paul McCartney,” he glanced around the crowd, “who is English, in case anyone lives under a rock, my special ingredient was Earl Grey tea.”
Kessler puckered her lips. “Is that why my mouth feels like I’ve been eating mothballs?”
“I take issue with the idea we’re on the run,” Li said.
“She’s right. We’re not breaking any laws or any rules by being here,” Penn said.
The conversation devolved from there, ending in a challenge for everyone to take a second drink of Jensen’s disgusting brew. Only the eight of us formerly of Alpha Team took up the gauntlet.
As we swallowed and grimaced, a familiar voice cut through the noisy festivities.
“Thank God I’m late. I worried I might make it in time for whatever Jensen is subjecting you to this time.”
