Oh, man. Just what I needed, a perceptive ogress. “Yeah, I slept like crap,” I admitted. My sleep hadn’t offered the kind of rest, or fun dreams, I’d hoped for.
“That assessment is going to kill today,” I added, massaging my temples. “My head feels like it’s been stuffed with cotton wool.”
Matt glanced at me. “Did you dream?”
I frowned at him. “I think so. More nightmares, I think.”
“Not the right kind of dreams, then.”
His eyes glimmered but didn’t meet me full on. Mostly because, at that moment, Darius and Aaron put their overfilled trays on the table and sat down.
Neither said a single word to the rest of us. And Aaron didn’t even raise his eyes from his food.
It was a distinct improvement over his usual rude commentary. After yesterday, I should launch myself into another team-building-while-stuffing-one’s-face exercise. But I was still so angry with both of them that I just sat there.
Team building would have to wait until lunch.
One member of the team was missing, anyway—Talakai didn’t show up at all. Darius and Aaron filled their stomachs with single-minded determination, although I caught the alpha staring at me once or twice. Mari only paused long enough to provide Trix with a few morsels. My dog also crept beneath the table and poked Matt with her nose. The Aussie Dire shifter gave her half of his eggs, letting her lick them right off his plate.
“You guys are spoiling her rotten,” I scolded.
Matt shrugged and grinned at me, which caused my heart to do a complete flip. “She deserves it,” he said.
I blamed him for much of my nighttime angst. Between our library session, the fight training, and then the bloody fight itself, yesterday had marked a turning point for me. As in, I’d reached the point of no return.
Matt had officially become an obsession.
Which was a huge problem. It jeopardized our future as a team, but if I were honest, that wasn’t my main issue. My traitorous heart also hurt because the Dragon hadn’t shown up for breakfast. And a single glance from the Bellati, sitting at the staff table, caused my world to spin to a halt.
I was being pulled in multiple directions. What I was, wasconfused.
Darius and Aaron finished devouring their food and departed. I watched them go and struggled to bring my scattered thoughts together to one point of focus.
We had ninety minutes to kill before the run, and then after that—the assessment. My stomach clenched at the thought.
Matt, Mari, and I lingered at the table. Not talking, but it wasn’t an awkward kind of silence, either. I found myself thinking that if it was just the three of us as a team, we would do just fine.
“I’d like to meditate before the run,” Mari said.
“Let’s go sit out back,” Matt suggested.
“I’m going to take Trix to Kitani,” I said as we rose.
“We’ll meet you outside,” Matt told Mari, and she nodded.
His automatic inclusion in my plans should have rankled, but instead, warmth flooded through me—obsessed was an understatement.
Kitani was delighted to see my dog. “Was just contemplating a romp out back with the girls. This will be perfect.” She drawled the last word.
Mari’s meditation session was thoroughly interrupted by our emergence into the back field. Matt got involved in a game of tag. Six-foot-something of gorgeous Aussie male laughing and ducking and dodging among a hysterical canine and squealing twins that bounced between toddlers and beasts as easily as I blinked.
Kitani, Mari, and I sat on the steps and watched them play.
I smiled apologetically at my big red friend. “Sorry about your meditation.”
Her heavy features were lit by an ogregarian grin as Matt pretended to be taken down by two fierce cublings. “It is okay. There are many ways to revitalize.”
Watching Matt play with the twins was doing something to my insides. I didn’t think revitalize was exactly the right word. Then I noticed that the field had emptied and checked my watch. “Yikes. We’ve gotta go.”
