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to see Sam at the small in kitchen table with a plate covered obviously waiting for me.
    “Good morning, I made a scramble and had plenty left over.” He gestures with his cup of coffee and I nod my thanks.
    Blindly, I turn toward the cupboard for a cup, desperate for any reason to look away. He’s dressed in a plain white button down shirt and dress slacks and looks so good it’s hard not to stare at him. They are normal clothes, how the hell did he look so good in them? Fumbling with the sugar, I manage to get most in the actual cup and then pour some coffee. It smells different than my usual coffee. Taking a sip it’s good, it has a hint of coconut and a light sweetness to it. “Where did this coffee come from?”
    “I was up early and went to the grocery store. Thanks for the offer but there wasn’t much that appealed. I was in the coffee aisle for what felt like forever and a woman noticed me lost in the variety and suggested it.”
    Taking off the cover I ignore the stab of jealousy at a woman chatting him up in the grocery store, it was probably a grandmother or something. “This looks good.” Green peppers, red peppers, and tomatoes are mixed with bacon and eggs and it tastes even better than it looked. “Thanks, this is better than my usual oatmeal. Good coffee too, good suggestion. You must have been up pretty early.”
    “Pretty early, I don’t sleep as well as I used to. The coffee was a very good suggestion, I felt like I had to buy it though because she wrote her number on it.”
    I choke down a swallow of coffee and set down the cup harder than I intended. Refusing to look up, sure I’ve shown myself for an idiot enough, I pick up the fork and move the food around on my plate. The appeal of it gone in an instant.
    “Don’t look so cranky, Zoe, I’m not going to call her. It seemed easier to just buy it and smile and walk away. I didn’t want to be rude, that was all.” He gets up and leans down and kisses me on the forehead, “Eat, baby and we’ll get going.”
    I watch him walk away and tell myself to ignore the twisting inside my chest at his casual kiss and reassurance. Instead, I turn my attention back to my food and make quick work of the rest of it. I’m up rinsing off the plate when he comes back into the room wearing a jacket but no tie. It’s a casual look but on him it looks anything but casual, it looks very good. The jacket fit too well to his broad muscular frame to not be cut to fit, my mouth goes dry and only my phone going off stops me from doing something stupid.
    “Hello.”
    “Is Sam coming in with you?”
    “Yes, we’re leaving now.”
    “Good girl, see you soon.”
    Sam moves to wait by the door, his eye on his watch. I pick up my purse and slip into my flats and pick up the keys. Setting the alarm, I follow him out of the house.
    Traffic is a snarl, which is normal. Thankfully, it isn’t far into the downtown office.
    “The office takes up all five stories of a small building at the edge of downtown. There are people in the office twenty four hours a day, due to our contacts and people being all over the globe. There’s a gym with showers, a day care center and a kitchen that does healthy lunches along with breakfast and dinner that could be eaten at work or ordered to be taken home. The food isn’t free but it is fairly priced. Even in the dead of night there’s at least one person in the kitchen but there is also a well stocked choice of items prepared and ready to heat and eat. The second floor is human resources and administrative support. The third floor is intelligence gathering, fifteen people make up those that sift through what is gathered and there are six translators there to assist. Fourth floor is IT everything, support but also those that dig in and search out more intelligence. Fifth floor is Taylor and Chris Stanton used to be here but Taylor bought him out only two years in. Chris Stanton had been former Special Operations, a former Delta,