“Leaving so soon?” I asked as Reno hopped off the counter.
“Well, I have things I need to do,” Reno said and glanced at Jake. “So do you, remember?”
Jake sighed. “Man, Big Boss and Doc sleep like shit and I’m the one who has to pay the price? It’s not fair.”
“No, you’re paying the price because your mouth gets there an hour ahead of your brain,” Reno said, shoving him toward the door.
“Xander slept like shit?” I asked lightly.
“Yeah, well, your bunk is too small for him,” Reno said and frowned. “So if you guys could like…make up or whatever, that would be great. I really don’t want to share a room with him again.”
I stared after him and then turned to the other two. “He slept…in my bunk?”
“That’s all Reno has been bitching about since we came in,” Carter said with a snort. “So, apparently.”
“And his, uh…what about Mona? I thought I heard her this morning.”
“Guess she slept in his cabin and he slept with the rest of the guys.”
“Oh,” I said. “I thought?—”
“That I stayed with my ex-wife all night?” a deep rumble asked in disbelief.
I turned and saw Xander standing there, as big as ever, as grumpy as ever but…more tired than I remembered seeing before. He was also holding a mug of coffee, which was unusual for him. He almost never drank coffee.
“Ow, ow!” Carter complained. “Fuck, I get it! I’m going, Mav, just…ow! Quit fucking…ow!”
I turned, and although it looked like nothing was going on and Carter was making a fuss out of nothing; I thought I saw Maverick’s hand dart back to his side of the table as he and Carter both got to their feet. Carter flashed me a double thumbs up, which I didn’t know what to do about, and then they were both squeezing past Xander.
“I’m going to need…” Xander began, but Mav waved him off.
“We’re not going far, just, uh…not sitting around in here,” Carter said, knocking on Cait’s door. “They’re gonna talk in the kitchen!”
The music was turned up, and I sighed. “No one said anything about…idiots.”
I was shocked when Xander let out a bark of laughter. “Keep saying you don’t sound like me when you’re saying shit like that.”
I huffed. “Didn’t know you could manage an actual laugh.”
“I have my moments,” he said and shrugged. I pretended not to realize I’d never seen him do that before.
“So…” I began because I didn’t know what the fuck else to say. “Didn’t sleep well, huh?”
“Doesn’t look like you got a whole lot of sleep either,” he said. “Clinic?”
“They told you, huh?” I asked with a sigh.
“No,” he said, stepping into the room and going for the coffee. “They were your loyal little minions and didn’t tell on you. Cait would have skinned them alive if they had.”
“I knew I loved her for a reason,” I said with a shake of my head. “Sorry.”
“For what?”
“I mean…disappearing, then making sure no one told you what I was doing and?—”
He held the pot out, and I slipped a cup under it so he could fill it. “Don’t be. Last night was…a lot. A whole lot, actually. Still trying to wrap my head around?—”
“Talking dirty to me on the other side of the door while our coworkers heard everything we said and then making out with me as we went through the door…oh, and your wife was there. That?”