The relief at hearing her voice sent his mood soaring. “Good morning to you too, Princess.”
“Why do you hate me?” Her sleepy question was followed by a sound that could have been her getting out of bed but was more likely her settling back into a comfortable spotinthe bed.
“I thought you planned to be in the office at seven?”
“So?”
“Doesn’t it take you an hour to get ready?”
“It does not.”
It so did. Zane waited.
“Shoot! It’s already 6:10. Why didn’t you call me earlier?”
“Ha. Ha.” She didn’t disconnect the call, and neither did he. He put her on speaker, and he could tell she’d done the same. “Sleep okay?”
“I did.” A huge yawn. “Although we’re going to need to have a chat today about overprotectiveness in the workplace.”
“Sorry, Princess. We left coworkers behind a long time ago.”
“I thought Luke and Gil were bad.”
“Luke is the worst.” Zane had personal experience with Luke’s special brand of hovering.
“You’d think he would be. But you haven’t spent much time with Benjamin.”
“Does he hover?”
“No.” The sound of the refrigerator opening followed by coffeesplashing into a mug muffled her words. “But he likes the fact that we look out for each other outside the office. He fell right in with that. Luke twisted an ankle running last week and then drove himself to the doctor. It wasn’t a big deal, but Benjamin read him the riot act when he finally checked in.”
“Ha. Serves him right.” Lukedidhover. If you were his friend, he took that as tacit permission to get all up in your business. Especially if you got shot. Or blown up. Or had your house burn down. So, maybe Luke had some basis for his worry. “He wasn’t limping yesterday.”
“It was super minor. But Faith has a zero-tolerance policy for unreported injuries. He knew he needed to get the okay from the doctor or she’d never let him hear the end of it.”
“That’s why I love her.” Zane adored Luke’s wife, both for who she was as a person and for the way she loved his friend. Luke was a lucky man. Fortunately, Luke knew it and loved Faith with an intensity that had surprised all of them, perhaps Luke most of all.
“Me too.” Faith and Tessa were close, and it wasn’t unusual for them to combine a shopping trip with a stop at the shooting range.
Zane had pulled out his clothes for the day and draped them over the edge of the bed. “I have to get ready.”
“Same.”
“Call you back in ten.”
“Make it fifteen.”
“Deal.”
When he called Tessa fifteen minutes later, she answered with a laugh. “You know I’m going to see you in twenty minutes.”
“True. Do you want me to call ahead to The Chipped Saucer?”
“I already did.”
“What did you order for me?”
“Your usual. And I added a blueberry muffin top for fun.” There was a definite hint of smugness in her statement.
