The answer seemed to satisfy his curiosity, and he turned his attention back to the pan on the stove.
She was halfway finished with the food on her plate when Pinto appeared, his dark hair still damp from the shower.He made a beeline for the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with a mug of coffee and a plate piled high with more food than she ate in an entire day.He slid out a chair to sit beside her.
“Morning,” he said right before he shoveled a forkful of chorizo hash into his mouth.
For a few long moments, she watched him eat, amazed a person could put away that much food in one sitting.And he didn’t appear to have an ounce of fat on him.“I wish I had the kind of metabolism that allowed me to eat like that.”
“That’s what Fiona says.”He grinned as he picked up a strip of crispy bacon.“I suppose I’m lucky that way.”
“Damn straight you are,” Rosario said as she sat across from them.Her plate more closely resembled Sloane’s, though she had several more slices of bacon and a blueberry muffin.“It’s so not fair.My ass would be the size of a bus if I ate that much on a regular basis.”
“But it would still be a very nice ass,” Pinto said and then quickly added, “Not that I’d notice or anything like that.”
Rosario laughed.
Within minutes, the rest of the crew was seated and plowing through their food as though they hadn’t eaten in a week or two.Most of them were former military, where service members learned to eat fast from the day they started basic training.At least that was what she’d heard.A few of them went back for seconds, and she was pretty sure Pinto went back for thirds.
“What are the movies for next weekend?It’s Navarre’s pick, right?”Hatch asked around a mouthful of food.
“You don’t want to know.”Jackson came from the kitchen and claimed a seat at the table.His mountain of food was even taller than Pinto’s, which really wasn’t all that surprising, considering his size.It had to take a lot of food to power that much muscle.
From what Sloane had heard, it was a standing tradition among the men and women who worked on the protection details to blow off steam at the end of the week by drinking a few beers while watching the worst movies they could find.It used to be a small group but had recently expanded to include a few of the new hires.
“It can’t be any worse than last week’s movies,” Garrett said.
Pinto scoffed as if greatly offended.“Say what you want, butMeth Gator Versus Crackodileis a cinematic masterpiece.”
“After how much alcohol?”Jackson asked.
Rosario laughed.“To be fair, it was better than the one with the puppets.That was just weird.”
A few of the guys voiced their agreement.
“So what’s the movie?”Hatch asked as he gathered the last of his eggs onto his fork.
“Ask him.”Jackson jerked his thumb to the left where Navarre had emerged from the kitchen, a plate in one hand and a coffee mug in the other.
Navarre set his mug on the table and leaned against the wall because there weren’t any open seats left.“Ask me what?”
Jackson speared a chunk of chorizo with his fork.“They want to know what movies you plan to subject us to next week.”
“Oh.”Clearly not in a hurry—a stark contrast to the rest of the group—he crunched down on a strip of bacon.“I thought we’d start with an old school classic.You know, one that most people have heard about but few have actually seen.A superhero movie that was way ahead of its time—”
“Oh for Christ’s sake, will you just spit it out?”Pinto said, and several people at the table laughed.
Navarre sipped his coffee and set the mug back on the table.His lips curved up, just a little, a rare crack in his gruff exterior, and damn, it made him look sexy as hell.He scooped up a forkful of chorizo hash, and right before he put it into his mouth, he said, “Howard the Duck.”
A collective groan filled the room.Somebody threw a sugar packet at Navarre that bounced off his chest and hit the floor.Undaunted, he picked it up and set it on the table.
“Keep that up and I’ll addXanaduto the lineup.”
Rosario shot him a pained look.“Now you’re just being mean.”
“You should come next time,” Jackson told Sloane as he set his fork on the plate he’d emptied in near-record time.It wouldn’t surprise her to see him go back for more, if there was anything left at this point.“Misery loves company.”
She couldn’t help but laugh.It was nice to be included in their group, if only for a little while.“How can I refuse when you make it sound so appealing?”
“It’s actually a lot of fun.The movies are so awful, we spend most of our time making fun of them, kind of like MST3K but with good friends, good beer, good food, and no robots.”Jackson glanced up at Navarre.“What other movies did you decide to inflict on us?”
