Shabina crouched down to pet and scratch both dogs, greeting them enthusiastically. She loved them both. Once they had their fill of her attention, they raced to meet the new puppy. Shabina carefully washed her hands as Stella put Raine’s backpack on the end table in the great room. Raine never went anywhere without her backpack. It was waterproof and contained her laptop.
“I made us late, Shabina,” Raine said. “I’m so sorry. The General.” She rolled her eyes. “You have to remember him; he insisted I find information for him.”
“What?” Vienna whirled around, pressing her back to the sideboard. “You’re on sick leave. You aren’t supposed to be doinganywork at all.”
“Well, he believes I shouldn’t be working, but that rule doesn’t apply to him. I told him there were others he could use, but he was insistent it had to be me. He also pointed out there was nothing wrong with my brain since I was too stubborn to use painkillers, and all I had to do was sit on my ass and figure it out.”
“He saidwhat?” Zahra was outraged.
“Yep. Actually, he saidskinnyass.” Raine sounded amused.
No one with the exception of Raine knew if the General wasreally a general. Raine always called him that, but when anyone inquired, she made a joke of it and insisted he simply liked to be called that. Shabina believed he was a general. For some reason, Raine seemed to think most things he said to her were humorous. Even his insults.
“If Rush knew,” Stella said, “he’d take your cell, and if that didn’t work, he’d take away your laptop again. Doctor’s orders take precedence over a boss who doesn’t respect your leave.”
Raine made her way to one of Shabina’s very comfortable chairs in the great room. She lowered her body slowly into it, stretching her leg out in front of her. It wasn’t difficult to see that the journey had been painful. There were little beads of sweat on Raine’s forehead, but she appeared triumphant.
“I would go crazy if I sat around doing nothing. And technically, I don’t have a boss. I’m a private contractor and I prefer it that way. The General can puff up as much as he wants but he knows he can only push me so far. In the end, I’m going to get my way.”
“Don’t let him say you have a skinny ass,” Zahra said with a little sniff of disdain. “That’s so insulting. He has no right to make personal comments. There should be someone you can make complaints to.” She stood up, puppy still in her arms, and went to the little crate Vienna had placed in the corner of the room. “While I eat, I’ll put Misty in her crate until I train her to stay on her bed like the other dogs. I don’t want her to bother everyone.”
“It isn’t like he’s older and we can make allowances for a different generation,” Harlow added. “He’s being a jerk.”
Shabina indicated the food. “I’ll fix your plate, Raine. I made your favorites.” She gave the command to her three Doberman pinschers to go to their dog beds.
The other women followed suit.
“He was goading me. He doesn’t think my ass is skinny,” Raine explained with a little sigh. “He asks me out all the time.”
Zahra lifted her eyebrow. “That’s his way of flirting?”
Raine laughed. “Yep. He thinks he’s very clever.”
Zahra made a face. Vienna and Harlow exchanged a long, confused look. Stella and Shabina laughed.
“He’s a geek, isn’t he?” Stella asked.
“Totally,” Raine said.
“Just how many men do you have asking you out?” Harlow asked. She began lifting the lids from the food warmers. “Shabina, you’ve outdone yourself.”
“It all looks delicious,” Stella agreed. “You’ll have to roll me into the swimming pool.”
“There should be plenty left over to take home to Sam,” Shabina said as she got into line to fix Raine her food.
“Don’t think you can stay silent over there, Raine,” Harlow persisted. “We saw you in that hospital room with all those male visitors. What the heck, girl? You’re keeping secrets. And they aren’t national ones. Those are girlfriend secrets.”
Raine flushed a soft shade of pink. “Seriously? There’s such a thing as girlfriend secrets?”
“Yes, and you have to confess to your besties,” Stella added. “You’re so used to keeping your high-clearance bullshit secrets that we don’t want anything to do with anyway, that you just don’t talk about the important things.” She settled on the low cushions close to Raine’s chair rather than taking a seat.
Harlow followed her. Shabina handed Raine a tray with her plate and placed a fresh glass of water with fruit in it on the end table beside her, grateful Raine was in the hot seat and not her. She would have no idea what to say if her friends asked her aboutmen. She didn’t date. She didn’t look at men as a rule. When someone asked her out, she considered the invitation carefully because she was always trying to be normal, but in the end, she always found herself giving a reason as gently as possible as to why she couldn’t go.
They settled comfortably in her large great room to eat, rather than the dining room. They were used to eating there. Vienna lifted Raine’s bad leg onto an ottoman to prop it up to add to her comfort. The laughter and camaraderie were exactly what Shabina needed. The dark, ominous feeling inside didn’t go away completely, but it lifted so she felt she could breathe again. She could think more clearly.
“In all honesty,” Raine replied after thinking the question of men over, “I don’t have time to entertain the idea of dating. I hurt too much. Dr. Briac Brannan—you remember him from when he came to Vegas and helped us out with Rainier’s wound? He came to see me several times when I was in the hospital. He’d wanted to go hiking in Yosemite with me as his guide and I’d agreed to that, but…” She shrugged and nodded at her leg. “He said he was still coming. He took the vacation time and wants to see me. He’ll be coming up this week. I told him to stay in one of your cabins, Stella. Sunrise Lake is the halfway point between Yosemite and Knightly. He’ll have easy access to both places.”
Harlow groaned. “That doesn’t say a thing about the way you feel about him, Raine.”
