Hardy nodded. “Because of what happened to...” he shot a look at Cruz.
“Jonathon.”
“Right...Jonathon?”
Ashford interlaced fingers behind his head. “She says she’s okay with the idea of me going back to work, but,” he made a face, “I...I’m not so sure that’s how she truly feels. The last thing I want to do is cause her undue stress.” He confronted his hosts. “How do you two do it? You both have dangerous jobs.”
“Well,” Hardy clasped hands with Cruz under the blanket and flashed a smile, “our relationship is a bit different from yours. I think working together—on the same team—has helped us.” He squinted at a picture on the wall beyond Ashford’s shoulder, a picture of Hardy and Cruz on a beach, several boats on the water behind them. The photo had been taken in another country following one of their clandestine missions. “Working together helps us keep an eye on each other...keep each other safe.”
Cruz grinned and nuzzled closer to her man.
“Believe me. In the beginning, it was tough. The thought of something happening,” Hardy tilted his head toward Cruz, “to her, drove...me...nuts.”
Ashford half closed an eye at his male counterpart. “How’d you get over it?”
Hardy shook his head. “I didn’t. I haven’t.”
Ashford lifted eyebrows.
“Every time we head into the action, there’s a few seconds where my heart is in my throat. Then, I realize she’s a capable woman who can take care of herself. And you know as well as I do that,” he admired her for a moment, “she’s good at what she does.”
Ashford raised a corner of his mouth at the woman. “Amen to that.”
She smiled at him.
“And, thankfully,” Hardy pulled her hand from beneath the covering, “I get to work beside her.” He pecked her hand and regarded Ashford. “What I’m trying to tell you, Ash, is you can’t control what happens. The same goes for Jessica.” He shrugged. “She said she’s okay with you getting back out there. Until she says otherwise, believe her.”
His forehead wrinkling, Ashford looked away.
Cruz spied her onetime fellow agent. “Jessica’s madly in love with you, Ash. I’m sure she’ll support your decision...whatever that turns out to be.”
Chuckling, he got up from the chair. “That’s exactly what she said to me.” He shoved fingers into pants pockets and studied the floor. “I just want to make sure I’m making the right choice here...for the both of us.”
Hardy and Cruz stood. She put a hand on Ashford’s upper arm. “You will.”
He half smiled at her, “Thanks,” before letting out a big yawn. “Well, I’m heading up to bed.” He gave his friends a long look. “Thanks for listening to me whine.”
She snickered. “No problem.”
Catching Ashford’s eye, Hardy smirked. “I know. I was just about ready to set the tissue box on your lap, you big baby.”
Cruz elbowed her man’s ribcage. “Aaron.”
Putting his arm around her lower back while holding the spot she had nudged, Hardy shared a laugh with the other man.
*******
an hour and a half later
2:04 a.m.
Under a bedspread, spooning Cruz, his right arm around her belly, Hardy opened one eye and stared at the side of her face. “Cruz,” his voice was a whisper, “you awake?”
The woman never stirred.
He propped himself onto his left elbow and regarded her for several moments before listing closer and gently nibbling on her earlobe. Pulling back, he noticed her cheek twitch. “Are you asleep?” After a silent moment, he took the same earlobe between his lips, his tongue feeling the pointed end of her stud earring. He let go of the ear. “Cruz, are you—”
“Kind of hard to do...” she mumbled into her pillow before rolling onto her back. She smiled at him, their noses an inch apart, “...with someone chewing on my ear.”
Hardy grinned before going in for a kiss and retreating. “I’m not sleepy.”
“I,” covering her mouth, “can,” she yawned, “see that.”
“So...” his grin doubling, “I was thinking we could,” he dithered, “fool around.”
She matched his expression. “We’re not married.”
“I know.”
“So you should also know...the only reason we’re sharing this bed is so Father Mahoney can have his own room.”
“That’s why I said fool around.” He kissed her chin twice. “Because fooling around,” he gently pecked her cheek, “can be,” before digging his fingers into her sides...
Cruz squealed.
“...just as fun.” He buried his mouth into the crook of her neck.
Writhing on the mattress, she hunched a shoulder and clamped a hand over her mouth to hold back the laughter.
Hardy tickled her.
“Stop it.” Giggling, she slapped his arm. “You’re going to make me...”
The room darkened.
Halting his playful assault, he glimpsed the wall above the baseboard; the nightlight plugged into the outlet was off. He rolled over and tipped his head backward; the ceiling fan’s rotating blades had slowed.
Cruz performed a muted stomach crunch and supported her upper body on both elbows.
“I think,” he glanced at the lighted clock, That has battery backup, “I think the power went out.”
She peeped between the half-drawn window curtains, toward her neighbor’s house. “Jack’s is out too.”
The bedroom door burst open.
Hardy reached for his right hip.
Cruz’s right hand zipped under the covers.
Entering the room, holding Cassandra, Ashford stood erect and stared down the barrel of two guns. He showed a palm. “Whoa. It’s me.”
They lowered their weapons.
“The power’s out.”
Cruz flung off the covers. “We know.” Fully clothed, she jumped out of bed.
Hardy leaped to his feet and stood next to her, already dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. “What about the rest of the neighborhood?”
Sidestepping them as they put on socks and shoes, Ashford laid Cassandra on their bed. “As far as I can tell, the whole neighborhood is dark.”
After tying her second tactical boot, “So it could be something unrelated to what’s going on with Jessica,” Cruz stepped into a closet. She punched buttons on a keypad, and the metal latch securing a Mossberg 500 to the wall released. She grabbed the shotgun, racked a round into the chamber, and
