Heath. It was Heath. Eleanor opened her eyes and blinked up at him. The sun was just starting to crest in the sky and she found she and Heath were the only two in the car now. His temple now sported what looked like very fresh stitches and a nasty looking purple bruise spread from either side of the wound. His bandage-wrapped arm was in a sling.
“You should be lying in a hospital bed,” she said, bringing a bark of laughter from him.
“It’s a scratch. No biggie.”
She shook her head. Tell that to her back. It would never forgive her for trying to carry a hardened operative on it.
“We need to get you inside. We’ve lost our tail and since we knocked out the tracking device they planted on you, they shouldn’t be able to pick us up again, but I’d still like to get you inside.”
Eleanor could see the rest of the team was standing outside the car, their backs to them. They were in front of a small roadside motel.
“Tracking device?” She shifted and slid along the seat following Heath outside the door.
“The guy who tried to grab you at the airport must have slipped it into your pocket as insurance. It was in the outside pocket of your jacket,” Jangles said.
Heath looked grim. “We should have found it earlier.”
No one on the team argued with him and Eleanor realized they were all looking pretty pissed off. She wondered if they were always this hard on themselves.
Her stomach growled, drawing another of those slow easy grins from Zip. The guy seemed to smile at everything. It would be annoying on some people, but on him, it worked.
“Come on. Let’s get you something to eat.” Heath pointed at a small restaurant across from the hotel and moved that way.
Jangles and Zip fell in behind them while Merlin and Duff peeled off and went into one of the doors on the outside of the hotel.
As they crossed the parking lot of the hotel, an orange kitten wound its way through Heath’s legs before scampering off to a dumpster on the side of the lot. There were two black kittens and a gray and white striped one all eyeing the group, but hanging back as though they didn’t have the guts the orange one had.
“No pets on this trip, Woof,” Zip said with a laugh.
Heath grinned and shrugged in a surprisingly sheepish gesture.
“Woof?” Eleanor asked.
“It’s what we call Heath,” Zip said. “Woof, because he finds pets everywhere he goes. They love him. Cats, dogs, pigs. Hell, he even made friends with a camel who ended up following behind him making gaga eyes at him for half our mission one time.”
Jangles made kissy sounds. “She was in looooove with our pretty boy.”
Eleanor was surprised to see Heath laugh at that. In high school, when people called him pretty boy, he’d always smile on the outside but she’d seen the tightness in his face when others hadn’t and knew it bothered him. He had been sensitive to people who thought he was nothing more than a dumb jock.
With these guys, his laughter was genuine. He didn’t seem to mind the taunting or the label.
When they’d settled into a booth and ordered food, Eleanor looked at Jangles and Zip. She was still on edge and sitting with Heath Davis so close to her their arms were touching wasn’t helping any.
“So, Jangles and Zip can’t be your real names. If he’s Woof because of the animals that fall for him, where did Jangles and Zip come from?”
Zip smiled and answered first. “Someday I’ll show you my scar. Zips right up my leg, big and ugly.”
Heath growled. “You’ll keep your damned scar to yourself.”
That only made Zip laugh and put his hands up in mock surrender.
Eleanor looked at Jangles.
“Name’s Beau and since I can’t sing worth a damn, these yahoos thought they’d call me Jangles.”
Eleanor grinned at them. “And Merlin and Duff?”
They all shook their heads. “They’ll have to tell you their stories,” Heath said.
The server came with plates of food then and Eleanor forgot all hope of conversation as she ate. The scent of the spices and roasted meats filled her nose and made her mouth water.
She couldn’t remember being this hungry in a long time. She’d ordered one meal while each of the men had ordered two entrees and a few sides. She almost wished she had too after the waiter delivered the kebaps and warm soft breads.
It was only when she finally looked up from her own meal moments later that she saw the men were eating faster than she was.
“Chew, boys. It’s not meant to hit your stomach in solid form.”
Heath laughed. “You’re one to talk. I remember you pulling the dainty little bird act when we were in high school.” He raised his voice to a falsetto. “Oh, I couldn’t possibly eat more than three pieces of lettuce. I’m much too delicate and dainty for that.”
Eleanor drew back her arm and elbowed him in the side. He only laughed, covering the spot with his good hand as though she’d done anything more than tickle him. She was sure she hadn’t. She wanted to reach out and feel his bicep, properly tempted by what she knew would be nothing but rock-hard muscle, but she didn’t dare.
Jangles looked between Heath and her. “So you two dated in high school, Heath says. Was it serious? Is he the one who got away?” Jangles angled his head as he grilled her and Eleanor wished he’d go back to his food.
She felt heat flush her cheeks and she hoped she didn’t look as red as she felt. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have. Not with anyone. Any thoughts of their dating inevitably led to thinking about how it all ended. How she’d ruined everything for the man sitting next to her.
God, she didn’t want to go there.
Heath cleared his throat. “We dated for a bit in our senior year.”
She didn’t know if she imagined the way Heath stiffened next to her.
She didn’t really want to be talking about this. She’d always been so far out of Heath’s league. He was gorgeous in school and she’d been an awkward brainiac. The truth was, when he first started hitting on her, she was sure it was going to turn out to be a big joke. That if she agreed to go outside the house with him, his friends would jump out and laugh and she’d have to face the fact he’d set her up.
Even months later when she finally did let him take her to a game and he put his arms around her and kissed her in front of all the school afterward, she still half expected him to pull back and laugh while the others joined in.
But he didn’t. And neither did any of his friends, at first.
Still, for whatever reason, she didn’t want these men—his team—to look at them and wonder what Heath had seen in a girl like her. So she put the attention on Heath.
“Heath was the star of our football team, even though he wasn’t the quarterback. All the boys wanted to be him and all the girls wanted to have him.”
“And you did,” Jangles said.
Well, hell, that had backfired on her.
Eleanor looked at Heath but he was looking down at his plate now, making sure he got every last scrap of food into him. She recognized the look, though, and hated herself for putting it there.
She shouldn’t have brought up his football career. To most people in their school, Heath was a happy jock, content to play ball and squeak out only the requisite grades needed to stay on the team.