Chapter 2
Chapter 2
I ’m desperate. That was the shocking conclusion Babs Mitchell reached after her fifth failed date in a row.
“I’m desperate.” She said the words out loud to Blue and Maggie, her closest work friends.
“Of course you’re not,” Maggie protested.
“A little,” Blue said, not looking away from the computer monitor in front of him.
“Blue,” Maggie said, slugging his shoulder.
“Hey, I’ve known her longer than you have. I’m allowed to be more honest,” Blue said, massaging his shoulder. Blue and Babs first became friends at the CIA and moved to the new team together. She’d had a crush on him for approximately the first fifteen minutes and then quickly realized they would never be more than friends. The chemistry wasn’t there for them, but they were pals, and she loved him.
“You are not desperate,” Maggie reiterated. “You are perfect and adorable and any man would be lucky to have you.” She added a Maggie hug for good measure, the kind that made you feel warm all the way to your toes, even if you weren’t a hugger.
“Then what is your explanation for why I never get a second date?” Babs countered, though she returned Maggie’s squeeze. Not hugging Maggie would be like refusing communion from the Pope.
“Men,” Maggie said, her tone cryptic.
“Don’t blame my entire gender for things,” Blue said absently.
“Then you tell me, Blue. What’s the reason? Honest truth,” Babs said.
Reluctantly, Blue peeled himself away from the computer and faced her, folding his hands together as if about to reject her during a job interview. In a way, it felt like he was. She sat and mimicked his pose. Maggie hovered uncertainly nearby, ready to jump in and deflect if the truth telling became too real and hurt Babs’s feelings.
“You have a type, but it’s the wrong type, and then you’re disappointed when things don’t click. But of course they don’t because of the type,” Blue said. “So you keep trying over and over, but it’s never going to work if you keep picking the same type. It’s the dating definition of crazy.”
“I don’t know how not to be attracted to the type of person I’m attracted to,” she said. She didn’t disagree with him because her attraction to the LEO—law enforcement—archetype had become an office joke. She liked the strong guy, the tough guy, the secretly sensitive never-let-them-see-you-cry guy. But she felt powerless to do anything about it, nor did she want to. What was so wrong with wanting a big, strong man? It was the entire reason she dove headfirst for a job in espionage, because she wanted to marry a spy. At least until she started dating actual spies and found them fundamentally lacking.
“See, this is where those hints of desperation are starting to seep in, because you’re trying to hold on too tightly to the image you want. You’re trying to force it. Square peg, round Babs.”
She grimaced. “Please never say round Babs to me again,” she pled, pressing her hands to her too-round face. She wasn’t exactly overweight, but her face was shaped like a circle. She had always hated her chubby chipmunk cheeks.
Blue rolled his eyes. “Oh, please, as if I would comment on weight working in an office with mostly women. I’m not a moron.”
Maggie opened her mouth, likely to protest the statement, and he shushed her.
“Do you think that’s all true, Maggie?” Babs asked. Maggie might not be willing to impart painful truths, but she wouldn’t disagree with them once offered.
“I think what I said is true; you are wonderful and amazing and lovely and any man would be lucky to have you. But I also think it might be a good idea to pause the dating button and regroup. Work on Babs. Figure out what you want. Besides, it’s Christmas. No one dates on Christmas.”
“There’s also New Year’s Eve,” Babs pointed out. She hated not having a date for New Year’s.
“We’ll probably still be working on New Year’s,” Maggie said. “We’ll be your date.”
“Along with your husband and girlfriend, you mean,” Babs said. It was a nice offer, but she wasn’t fooling herself; she would be the lone outsider.
“You can have my brother,” Maggie said, her tone an odd mix of reticent and hopeful. Blue snickered.
“See, the disadvantage of having logged so many hours together is we know each other’s secrets and you’ve told me too much about your brother for that to be a tempting offer,” Babs said. She’d heard a lot about Darren over the last few years, way too much, if she were being honest, because everything she heard made her preemptively not like him. He was bossy, overbearing, condescending, a know-it-all, too-straight-laced, entrenched in his own high opinions. Basically a type-A, grade-A jerk.
“Now I feel bad because he’s a good guy, really. I shouldn’t have told you all our brother/sister drama,” Maggie said, frowning.
Babs and Blue shared a look and an eye roll. Maggie couldn’t stand to say anything bad about anyone, even people who deserved it. But they knew her well enough to read between the lines. And they’d gathered things from Ridge and Ethan, too. No two ways about it, the brother was a pill.
D arren Eldridge was about to take a pill. He’d had a headache since he woke. The noise and recycled air of the airplane hadn’t helped matters, and now that he’d arrived, the sister he hoped would be there had been replaced by the sister he didn’t want to see.
“I thought Maggie was coming for me,” Darren said on first sight of his little sister, Amelia.
“Maggie had to work,” Amelia said.
“Ah. I guess it’s good you don’t have a real job so you were able to get away,” he said.
“I have a real job, Darren,” Amelia snapped.
“An actuary is a real job, Amelia. A beautician is a hobby,” he said. It was always thus with his little sister. She was one of the smartest people he knew, and yet she had turned down five lucrative actuarial job offers to blow dry hair. And their parents had let her because she was cute and fun and spoiled.
“Talk about my job again, and I will end you,” she said, eyes narrowing in anger.
He snorted a laugh. “Right, okay.” He brought his hand level with the top of her head, coincidentally also at the top of his shoulder.
“I know people,” she said softly.
“Okay, Amelia,” he said, using the hand to pat the top of her head. She shook him off and gave him a shove.
“Stop it. I am a married adult. You can no longer treat me like you did when we were kids.”
“Newsflash: it’s the older brother’s privilege to always treat his little sister like the annoying kid she is,” he said.
“Johnny doesn’t,” she said, frowning as she spun and began stalking away. She was dashing toward the exit, but he had no trouble keeping pace with her, given that his legs were so much longer. Being the tallest in the family had definite advantages.
“That’s why I have to. You got off far too easy from Maggie and Johnny. Someone needs to keep you in line, to keep you from becoming an entitled, airheaded brat.”
She pressed her fingers to her temples. “Stop talking.”
“Stop talking,” he mimicked.
“Don’t do the thing.”
“Don’t do the thing,” he echoed.
“Stop it.”
“Stop it.”
She stopped short and faced him. “You are twenty six years old. You have a doctorate. Act like you have the sense God gave you, and stop torturing me.”
He blinked at her, expressionless, and said, “Stop torturing me.”
She growled, actually growled, as she gave him a shove and stalked away. Laughing, he caught up with her once again and squeezed her neck, kissing her cheek before she could shove him away again, which she did as soon as the kiss was over. She might hate him, but she loved him, too, and the same was true in reverse.
“Where’s the boyfriend?” he asked.
“He’s my husband,” she said, checking her mirrors as she merged into traffic.
“You had a fake wedding with a stranger in Africa. Don’t pretend that’s in any way legitimate,” he said.
“We’ve been married for twelve months,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Really? Show me your certificate when we get home,” he commanded.
“We’ll have one in two months when we get re-married,” she said tightly.
“Fine. Until then, he’s your boyfriend.”
She flicked on the radio. He flicked it off again. “I have a headache,” he explained.
“What a coincidence, so do I,” she said, pressing her lips together in a grim line. They finished the remainder of the drive in silence, a situation that suited them both.