Chapter Twenty-Six
The morning sun blanketed Chance’s bed with a bright white light. It always worked better than setting an alarm clock. Too bad he woke up hungry and horny.
Neither were a great way to start the day. Mixed together? They propelled him toward Jane Singleton in a very different disposition than he’d initially planned.
His bedroom was in an old hotel room. It had once been a suite before Titan closed the hotel for repairs. For the time being, the Aces team considered the thirteenth floor their home sweet home. He wondered more than once why that floor had been chosen but hadn’t found a good time to ask Boss Man.
After a quick shower and shave, Chance flipped through the mostly empty cupboards in the kitchenette. Popcorn. Beef stew. Jerky. Even as his stomach rumbled, nothing caught his eye. Finally, he opted for a breakfast of beef stew, cold and out of the can, as someone banged on the door.
“Midas,” Camden called. “You up?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Chance mumbled around the spoon in his mouth. “Hold your horses.” He let his teammate in. “What?”
“Morning to you too, dick.” Camden noted the can of beef stew and beelined for the kitchenette. “Got any more of that?” He didn’t wait for an answer, grabbed a can from the cupboard, and popped the lid with an old P-38 can opener from his keychain.
Chance shook his head. “By all means, help yourself.”
Camden rifled through the utensils. “The spoons clean?”
“If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be in the drawer.” Chance leaned against the wall. “Ever thought about that?”
“Maybe.” Camden inspected a spoon and then dug into the stew.
Chance snickered. “What’s going on?”
“Dunno.” Camden shrugged.
“You came to forage for food?”
“Actually,” Camden said around a mouthful. “I want to know about the nanny.”
Chance clamped his teeth around the metal spoon. He forced himself to swallow the last bite, noting that his breakfast had lost its taste. He dropped the spoon into the half-eaten stew can and set it on the counter. “Mary Poppins?”
“Who the hell’s that? You mean Jane Singleton?”
Chance scrubbed a hand over his jaw, working it side to side, as he picked the best way to handle what should’ve been an easy question. “Yeah. They’re the same person.” He crossed his arms. “Why?”
Camden cocked his dark eyebrows and half-laughed. “Why’d you think?”
For an ugly second, Chance assessed himself against his teammate as though Camden was just some young guy from Jersey.
Chance decided his superiority, from looks to—he stopped short and could’ve kicked his own ass.
How often had Chance futilely tried to ignore his own appearance?
He wasn’t blind. He knew he was a good-looking guy.
Good looks caused more grief than they were worth.
But yet, at the mention of Jane, he wanted to call upon physical traits to one-up a teammate? Nope. That was a dick move. If Chance wanted Jane’s attention, he’d get it another way. “She’s nice.”
“Nice?”
His back molars ground, but he managed, “If you think you have a shot—”
“Me?” Camden hooted. “What the hell? No, man. What’s up with you and Mary Poppins?”
He shoved his hands into his pockets. What the hell? Boss Man tore into him for trying to impress Jane. Now Camden had questions? “Nothing.”
“Right.” Camden smirked. “Because that wasn’t you who held her on the flight back in.”
The back of his neck heated. “On the helicopter? She’d been through hell.” He rolled his eyes. “Tell me you didn’t come over this morning to bust my balls over the nanny.”
“Her name’s Jane.”
Tension vibrated up his spine. “I know her name.”
Again, Camden laughed. “Easy, buddy. I’m here for the food.”
“Which you have.” Chance gestured. “You gonna leave now?”
Slowly, Camden set the stew can on the counter. “It’s interesting, ya know. I asked you about Jane. Then you tell me to take a hike.”
“You need to get out more if you find that interesting.”
“You like her, huh?”
“Jesus, dude. Are you trying to get under my skin?”
Camden flipped his hands up defensively. “No, jackass. I was trying to make fucking conversation, but I guess that isn’t going to fly.”
Chance walked out of the kitchenette and settled onto the couch. He hunched over. His forearms rested on his legs, and his fingers steepled together under his chin. “She surprised me. That’s all.”
Camden picked his can of stew off the counter and ambled over to the chair across the room. Chance used it more as a coat rack than for company, and it was piled high with hoodies. Camden knocked the clothes to the ground, sat down and kicked back. “What are you going to do about it?”
Chance looked up. “Her?”
“Yeah. It. Her. Mary Poppins.” Camden’s forehead creased as though he’d been asked if an alien Santa lived on the sun. “What the hell else are we talking about?”
“It’s not that easy.”
Camden snorted. “Never would’ve taken you for a pussy.”
Chance squinted and shook his head. “Are you only capable of conversing in streams of insults?”
“Yeah. Got a problem with that?”
Chance snorted and tried to remember that Camden was younger than all of them.
He could hold his own and knew what to do—but he was still green and inexperienced.
Chance had never seen himself as the older and wiser type.
Mentoring a teammate never crossed his mind.
But Mary Poppins had shown him that the unexpected had a way of making itself known.
Even if Chance wasn’t a good mentor, he could push Camden in the right direction. “How old are you?”
Camden straightened his shoulders, and the corners of his eyes tightened. “Fucking old enough.”
From out of nowhere, one of his grandmother’s sayings thundered to mind. Rudeness is a sign of insecurity. His amusement faded, and Chance met Camden’s hard, dark stare. They both had uncertainties, and Chance wouldn’t let those issues cause problems on their team. “Want another can of stew?”
Uncertainty ticked in Camden’s jaw.
“I could use another.” Even though Chance hadn’t finished the first can. He stood up without waiting for an answer and walked to the kitchenette, pulling out two new cans. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. All right.”
Chance gave another can to Camden and decided that he would mentor the guy along in his time on Aces. Whether Camden knew it or not, he had a long way to go.