“The moment you walked out of the operations vehicle on Belmont the other day.”
She laughed. “Now you’re just making crap up. Even I didn’t realize I liked him at that point.”
Zak shook his head with a sigh. “You always were a little slow about that kind of stuff.”
Mac opened her mouth to tell him she wasn’t slow, thank you very much, but the two SUVs heading out the gate just as they were pulling in stopped her. The big operations vehicle was right behind the first two vehicles. Gage leaned out of the window just long enough to tell her he was going on a call at a shopping mall in Arlington.
“Xander’s inside. He’s arranged for you to sit down and talk to some of the other guys.” Gage flashed her a smile. “I figured you’d want to get some background on someone besides me.”
Notreally. But he was gone before she could even consider telling him that out loud, or try and invite herself along.
Mac climbed out of the news van and fell into step beside Zak. Maybe it would be a good idea to talk to a few of the other guys. Just to get a different perspective on her theoretical story. God knew she couldn’t focus on anything when Gage was around.
The rest of the team was waiting for her and Zak in the classroom in the training building. While they greeted her warmly—and fist-bumped Zak for bringing more donuts—there seemed to be a weird vibe in the room. Kind of like walking in a friend’s house after she and her husband had a fight. Did it have something to do with the incident Gage had gone on?
Then again, considering that several of the men were going out of their way not to look at her, maybe not. And every time she caught them checking her out, they quickly looked away. All the men except Cooper. He held her gaze for a long time before he finally grabbed a donut at random and walked off without a word. What the hell was that about?
Mac wandered over to the desk at the front of the room to see if there were any donuts with sprinkles left when Xander walked in.
“Ms. Stone.”
“Corporal Riggs.” She smiled. “Donut?”
He shook his head. “I saw you talking to Sergeant Dixon before he left. He asked me to keep you occupied while he was gone.”
What was she, a puppy? “Keep me occupied?”
Xander winced. “Not exactly the way Sergeant Dixon put it. Now you see why he does all the talking when it comes to the press.”
She might have laughed if she thought Xander’d been joking. But he looked even more intense and serious than usual. “Is something wrong?”
Surprise flickered across his face, but it was gone just as quickly, replaced with the same austere expression. He glanced over at the other men. They were leaning back in their chairs, laughing at something Zak had said. The tension she’d picked up earlier seemed to have faded.
She turned her attention back to Xander and found him regarding her with a suspicious look. “What?”
“Nothing,” he said.
There was definitely something going on behind those dark eyes, but damned if she could figure out what it was. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“We just kind of got into it about something before you got here.” His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “It wasn’t a big deal. Just guy stuff.”
Uh-huh. “And by something, do you mean me?”
“No, of course not.”
Xander was lying his ass off and not doing a very good job of it. Why had they been arguing about her? She wanted to ask, but Xander probably wouldn’t tell her anyway. Time to change the subject.
“Gage said something about me interviewing the men while I waited for him to come back,” she said.
The muscle in Xander’s jaw jumped. She was going to have to be careful trying to manipulate him. He had a suspicious streak a mile wide, and he definitely didn’t trust her.
“Yeah,” he said. “He mentioned that.”
“Would you like to be first?”
Xander didn’t look any more thrilled about the idea than she was, but he nodded. “We can talk in the weight room.”
The couches out by the television would be more comfortable, but Xander had already headed in that direction, giving her no choice but to follow. The senior corporal was standing in the middle of the room, arms folded across his chest, his expression guarded. Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.
