Ree returned the greeting but it sounded thick, even to her. Carrying Junior around was a lot more difficult than the movies made it look. When she questioned if she should be as tired as she was, her OB-GYN’s nurse merely gave her standard answer for everything, “Women have been doing this a long time. You’ll figure it out.” Her OB-GYN had been only slightly more understanding. However, all of the “cures” they’d offered for her first trimester exhaustion and nausea thus far were woefully inadequate. It turned out that growing a human was just plain exhausting, and copious amounts of ginger could only do so much.
Matt scrolled through his phone, then looked up at her again. “You okay, Ree?”
Ree let out a long sigh. If it wasn’t a matter of national security, she wasn’t terribly interested in maintaining secrecy for secrecy’s sake. Frankly, if it was a matter of national security, Matt had the clearance for it. Her home team was Parker’s FBI team and his was Cam’s CIA team. He also happened to be head over heels for Alexis, which was completely adorable. She took a deep breath to make sure her body was going to remain in equilibrium. “According to the doctor, the baby and I are healthy. But pregnancy sucks. I mean, we’re thrilled. But I feel dreadful.”
“Congratulations! That’s amazing news for you and Parker.” Matt’s eyes darted to his phone. “Although I’m sorry you feel bad.” His phone buzzed and he looked at it again.
Ree narrowed her eyes. “Fess up. You’re not normally distracted by your phone when I talk to you.”
“I might be texting Alexis.”
“Oh?” Ree raised her eyebrows. She may not be an FBI agent but she could interrogate her friends well enough when the situation called for it.
Matt looked a little sheepish. “I asked her if you were expecting and she said she could neither confirm nor deny the reports.”
“I wonder if anyone besides me is going to be surprised.” Ree shook her head.
“Oh, no one else has said anything. I just noticed you were down to one small cup of coffee a day and I hadn’t seen you eat chocolate in like three weeks. Normally, you have one stress chocolate after every office hour.”
Ree laughed out loud. “You all need to come with warning labels.”
Matt looked at the closed office door. “Engineers or spies?”
“Both.” Ree laughed and sipped at her cup of coffee. “Definitely both.”
Matt leaned back in his chair. “Speaking of, Alexis told me to ask you what was going on. Apparently, the CIA said I can be read in and she doesn’t wait until this evening to fill me in. All I know is all of our people are on high alert. Cam even has people monitoring security cameras on the outside of the mechanical engineering building.”
Ree looked into her single, measly cup of half-strength coffee. “We just realized that Dmitri is pulling the strings with someone at my sister’s company. And while my sister and I are different people, we share one very important trait – we don’t like bullies. So, approximately half a second after she found out, she got involved.”
Matt winced. “Ooh. And you’re here, which means you’re sitting this one out. That can’t be easy. How are you holding up?”
“Between the morning sickness, not nearly enough coffee, and finding out my sister might somehow get mixed up with a guy who has now shot two of my friends, I’m not super great.” Ree sighed. “However, objectively, Stefanie could also be our big break and she wanted to do this.”
“Okay, so what are we going to do about it? Aside from making sure we aren’t sitting ducks, obviously.”
A jolt of inspiration, usually the kind that came with a bigger cup of full-strength coffee, shot through her. “Stef said they have a prototype research platform. I could let her know we’re both available to help out. As researchers, of course.”
Matt wiggled his phone in the air. “Of course. And, that explains why Alex tried to bet me five dollars I wouldn’t be able to stay out of it if you told me about it. Our management must have agreed to let me know since I’m watching your back. Alex just has a way of convincing the CIA to let me help out.”
“You are such a goner.” Ree grinned.
Matt shrugged. “I’m not even embarrassed about that. Alex is amazing. We’ll figure it out. Just like you and Parker did.”
Ree put a hand on her stomach. “Oh? I didn’t realize things were that serious.”
Matt’s eyes went wide. “I was talking about the long distance. And the occasional work project. But maybe someday, more will be right for us. Right now, we’re very happy with our relationship and our dog.”
“I thought Waffle was an employee, not a pet.”
Matt showed her a selfie of him, Alexis, and Waffle on a hike. “Don’t tell Waffle that. The FBI says he’s Alexis’s dog until she says otherwise, and I don’t see that changing. So, I’m considering him a shared pet.” Matt tapped a pencil on his desk. “How soon can we get our hands on that prototype?”
Stefanie looked down at her phone. Ree had texted, this time about the prototype. She bit back a laugh. It was hardly a surprise that Ree was trying to find a way to get involved, even throwing in the offer of a bonus mechanical engineering professor. It was tempting to call for more moral support, but right now didn’t feel like the best time to make a move, considering Joey had just arrived. She added Ree’s coworker to her mental list of wedding guests she didn’t know secretly worked for a government agency. Regardless, it was nice to know how many people were willing to help her out of her predicament. She poked her head out of the office and spotted Joey listening attentively to Nash. His posture was carefully relaxed but
