She smirks at me with an expression that sizzles through me. “I thought you might.” She leans up to give me a quick peck, butI put my arms around her and keep her close, kissing her for several minutes.
“You want to play here or at my house?” I ask against her lips.
“I don’t have any comfortable clothes you could fit into,” she says, then laughs. “Well, I do have your sweats, but you can’t have this hoodie back.” She doesn’t even look apologetic as she shrugs one shoulder. She takes my hand. “Come here and look at my setup. But we’ll probably want to go to your house.” She leads me up the stairs, which open onto a landing surrounded by three doors. One is open, and I can see into a large bedroom I suspect is hers, but the landing is what she wants me to see.
Malia has a big-screen TV, like me, mounted on one wall, and like me, she’s also got a computer desk with a couple screens set up. But the only seating in the room is a big, plush gaming chair.
“Honestly,” I say, “I used to have something like this when I lived in Dallas, but when I moved back here, Jett and Devin, and then Law, started coming over to play with me and they whined about sitting on the floor.”
“They play video games with you?” Malia says, tilting her head at me in surprise. “Like what?Call of Duty?” She scrunches her eyebrows. “You really don’t strike me as aCall of Dutyguy.”
I chuckle. “I’m not, but you might be even more surprised by what we do usually play.”
Her eyes brighten. “Oh! What is it?Mario Kart?Wait. Wait.Animal Crossing?”
I pull her into a hug, laughing. “FootballPro.”
She leans back, looking at me sternly. “Please tell me you beat the actual football pros at that game.”
“Soundly,” I promise. “It’s really all about strategy, and those big muscles mean nothing when you take them off the field. Although Jett is really good. He’s got the head of a coach. For real.”
“I can see it.” She holds a hand out to her room and the lone chair. “So yeah, we have to go to your house. Better seating—like, much comfier. Plus, I’m very eager to find out about this theory of yours about the mole.” She does grab her Xbox to bring over, though, so she can log intoShadow Heroesas her own character.
When we’re settled—read: snuggled—on the couch in my game room, I tell her what I suspect about our teammate, Matt.
Her mouth drops open. “Really? What did I miss?” It doesn’t surprise me that team leader Malia would consider it a failure that I figured this out before her.
“Well, my guess is that you weren’t in the back-end data snooping around.” I give her a fake grimace.
Malia snorts. “You hackedShadow Heroes?”
“Hacked is such a negative term. And besides, I was only snooping around my own account … mostly.”
“Wait.” She sits up and turns to fully face me, putting a hand on my arm. “Tell me what you did for the Bennets.”
I shake my head and laugh. “If I did, I’d have to kill you.”
She scoffs. “Caleb Gallagher.”
Hmmm, Professional Malia has come back, and she’s very sexy. “Do you remember when Ellie’s little sister Libby disappeared last year?”
Malia nods. “Yeah, of course.”
“I did some … stuff to help track her. Most of it with permission.”
She leans toward me and bites her lip. “Most?” she questions, but the look in her eyes says she likes what she’s hearing.
I just smirk.
She scoots herself into my lap, wrapping her arms around my neck and leaning in even closer. “Caleb Gallagher,” she repeats. Her tone is just as demanding, but it’s lower and a half-whisper. “I would like details.”
I can’t help the smile growing on my lips. Ellie Bennet and her family were grateful for what I did. Her father even paid for my legal counsel on retainer in case Grayson Hollis wanted to press charges for anything I did to help find Libby.
But Malia will appreciate the skill and the technique. So, like any guy who wants to prove to his girlfriend how cool he is, I give her the details—how I hacked Grayson’s phone to get their location, the way I slipped past the Winscott hotel security to find the guest list, and the algorithm I set up to scan for Libby’s face online, though it was Ava’s search that actually found something. (She is very good at social media stalking. I give the girl her due credit.)
“Mmm-hmm, you’ve got to stop talking dirty to me,” Malia says when I’m done.
I laugh and kiss her, enjoying the feel of her in my arms. When Malia told me earlier that she chose me, I kind of dismissed it, but she’s right. How long would I have gone in the friend zone if I hadn’t been forced out of it? How long before I would have asked her out?
