Chapter 6
Chapter 6
O nce inside the conference room, they went their separate ways, Darren to the salad bar and Babs to Maggie.
“Hey, how’s it’s going?” Maggie asked and did a double take when she caught sight of Babs’s face. She dropped her plate and clutched Babs’s wrist. “What is it? Did Darren say something insulting to you?”
Babs shook her head.
“What? Why do you look so gob smacked?”
Babs clutched her hand and led her farther away from the group. “Why didn’t you warn me about him?” she asked.
Maggie’s face dimmed to a frown. “I knew it. I knew he said something to hurt your feelings already. I’m going to talk to him.” She would have pulled away, but Babs held her hand like a vise.
“He didn’t, I swear.”
“Then what is the problem?”
“Why didn’t you warn me he’s so, so…”
“Overbearing, conceited, opinionated?” Maggie guessed.
“No, he’s so…”
“So what?” Maggie pressed.
“Hot. So ridiculously hot.” Babs clutched both her hands. “Why didn’t you tell me he’s so nice looking?”
“Oh,” Maggie drawled. “First of all because, gross, I don’t think of him that way. Second because I sort of forgot how women react to him.”
“Is he a player? Womanizer? User? Abuser?” She was ridiculously hopeful Maggie would say yes to those and let her off the hook. If he was truly bad, she could get over her fledgling physical reaction to him.
“No, of course not. As far as I know he’s monogamous and faithful and a good boyfriend. It’s just,” she took a breath and let it out, “he’s a perfectionist to the core. He’s looking for the perfect woman, but nobody is perfect. As soon as he finds the flaw in a woman, he drops her.”
“Oh,” Babs said. He would have no trouble finding flaws in her to begin with, meaning he likely wouldn’t get attached past this initial flirtation.
“Why is this a surprise to you? I’ve told you about him, and you met him at the wedding, right?”
“No, remember? I couldn’t go to the wedding because I got the stomach flu.” Missing their wedding had been one of life’s bigger regrets in a string of regretful life events.
“Oh, my goodness, I totally forgot. I’m sorry, it was kind of euphoric day for me and I lost track of who was there.” She piled mandarin oranges onto her plate and nothing else.
“Are you okay?” Babs asked. Maggie always went for the bread first. And she’d been a bit vague and subdued lately. Was having Darren nearby that stressful for her? If so, was he worse than he seemed? Babs eyed him across the room. As if he sensed her inspection, he turned, smiling, eyeing her in return.
“I’m fine,” Maggie said vaguely.
“Back to your brother, he’s not, you know, off limits, right? You wouldn’t be upset if I kind of liked him, would you?”
“Of course not,” Maggie said, but her tone was hesitant.
“Maggie,” Babs pressed.
Maggie sighed. “Honestly, it’s never come up. We’re three years apart and I haven’t lived at home since I was in high school. Certainly none of my senior friends liked my freshman brother. So this is a new experience for me. I love you both and wouldn’t want either of you to get hurt, but you’re both adults and able to figure things out on your own. So if you want to pursue my brother, a phrase I never thought I’d say to anyone, go right ahead. Just please be careful and don’t hate me if it ends badly.”
“I could never in a million years hate you,” Babs said.
They sat. Babs was unsurprised when Darren claimed the empty seat beside her. She was surprised when he noted her lack of drink and utensils and stood to retrieve them for her.
“Your mom should run a boot camp instilling nice manners,” Babs noted.
“You’re assuming she doesn’t,” Maggie said.
Darren returned with her drink and utensils, his gaze flicking to Amelia who sat solo across from them. “Where’s the boyfriend?”
“He’s taking a call, and he’s my husband. ”
“Okay, Amelia,” he said, reaching out to give her hand a pat. She dodged him and flicked his knuckle instead. “Babs and I are sitting beside each other. Maybe she’s my wife now. Though, to be honest, I could do a lot worse.”
“And you have,” Amelia said. “Also, shut up.”
“Who would he be taking a call from if his supposed wife and entire office is here?” Darren asked.
Amelia pressed a spot between her eyes. Babs knew Ethan was actually ghosting in rooms, laying invisible listening devices for the people they were supposed to be watching, the head of an Albanian mafia. For years the family in question remained stateside, meaning they were a problem for the FBI. But in the last few months they’d started shoveling money to contacts in Turkey, contacts with a history of terror attacks. But because they’d been in organized crime so long, they were paranoid and careful. Hence the fake work retreat that would hopefully allow Ethan, Blue, and Ridge to get close enough to do what they wanted to do while Babs and Maggie passively kept tabs, making certain they didn’t return to their rooms or do anything else out of the ordinary. They weren’t field agents, but they’d worked in espionage long enough to read the signals and report anything suspicious.
“He travels a lot for his job, Darren. You know this.”
“Hmm,” Darren said.
“What?” Amelia ground out.
“Nothing, it’s just, guy like that, traveling all the time. Makes you think.”
“What does it make you think?” Amelia asked.
“Maybe he’s going to end up being one of those guys who has a whole other family,” Darren said, and that was when Amelia leapt for him, arms outstretched, intending either to scratch or strangle. Thankfully Ethan had slipped in unaware and was able to catch her around the waist and lift her away before she reached her brother.
“Hey, Angel, now seems like a good time for a walk,” he said, carrying her still struggling form out of the room.
Maggie sighed. “Darren, why do you say things like that to her?”
“Oh, come on, Maggie. She ‘married’ the guy on a whim. It’s like when you guys were little and used to play wedding. You can’t tell me you think they’re solid.”
“I do, in fact. And do I have to remind you the guy is one of Cam’s best friends? That automatically makes him trustworthy.”
“All I’m saying is I’m withholding approval until they make it official. Then he’ll be her husband and my brother-in-law. Until then he’s a guy with a crush who spends a suspicious amount of time away from home. Why can’t she do things the right and normal way, like you? You and Cam were friends first, dated for a long time, got sensibly engaged, and married in an actual church. Why does Amelia always have to be so ridiculously dramatic and emotional?”
“She would probably ask why you have to be so robotic and well-programed,” Maggie said. In fact, Amelia had said those exact words and then some, intimating he was lacking emotion completely on more than one occasion.
“I believe in doing things the right way, the best way. Marriage is a big deal and important and should have a solid foundation. Eloping on vacation in Africa, not exactly solid starting material,” Darren said.
“Amelia is more free spirited than we are.” He snorted his derision. “But it works for her.”
“Maggie, come on. She gave up a solid six figure income to blow dry hair for a living and married a guy because she got caught up in the prestige of being with a former SEAL.”
“A common theme with the women in your family,” Ridge said, leaning down to kiss Maggie’s cheek and give her shoulder a squeeze. Surreptitiously he inspected her plate and realized she had eaten approximately three segments of mandarin orange. Her face was green and sweaty and the aggravating conversation with her brother likely wasn’t helping. “Why don’t you take the afternoon off,” he suggested in a whisper.
“I’ll be okay,” she said.
“Don’t be stubborn when I’m trying to hover protectively,” he chastised.
“I’m fine,” she said, then clamped her hand to her mouth and dashed from the room.
Darren opened his mouth, likely to comment on Maggie’s apparent illness, but Ridge preempted him. “Darren, you’re welcome to tag along to our conference this afternoon. We’re having a guest speaker, and I think you might find it enjoyable and informative.”
“Sounds great, Cam, thanks,” he said, smiling.
“Really?” Cam asked. Past experience had told him to be ready for an argument or criticism.
“Sure. I love learning new things, and it would be fun to get a taste of what you do for a living.”
Beside him, Babs choked on her bite of apple and Ridge cleared his throat. “Great.” His eyes flicked between Babs and Darren, doing the fast blink thing he did when he assimilated new and unsettling information. “Okay. Carry on here, or don’t. Whatever. Going to go check on the Mrs. Later.”
“He’s very jumpy lately,” Darren noted. “Is he always like that? Probably why he left the SEALs, needed a slower paced desk job.”
“That’s a completely new take on Cameron Ridge, for certain,” Babs said.
“I’ve always had a talent for reading people,” Darren said. Babs didn’t know him well enough to understand if he was being sarcastic, but he must be. How else to explain that he had misread practically everyone in his life? He believed his secret agent, tough as nails, former SEAL brothers-in-law were accountants, and he believed his sweet sisters delighted in his painful teasing.
“Someday it’s possible you and I may need to have a long conversation,” she said.
He faced her with the smile again, the one that made her heart tumble willy-nilly in her chest. “I’m all ears.”
“I sing ridiculously off key,” Babs blurted.
He blinked at her. “Okay.”
“It seems like I should probably get all my flaws out in the open,” she said. If what Maggie said was true and he was a perfectionist always searching for flaws, it would be better for her to tell him her flaws up front. A preemptive rejection would be better than one that came after prolonged flirting. Right now she found him attractive; she didn’t want to get attached if he was going to be temporary.
“You’re a very quiet eater,” Darren replied.
“Mouth noises are a deal breaker,” she said.
“Be still my heart,” Darren said and they finished their meal in comfortable silence.