Page 67 of Last Chance

Janie laughed. “What did you have in mind? I don’t know what ingredients we have in the kitchen.”

“I think lasagna would be perfect after the day you’ve had.”

“Are you making it?”

Sawyer groaned. “Trust me, Janie. You don’t want Brody attempting it. We’d have the fire department at our door in minutes.”

“Hey,” Brody protested. “I’m not that bad.”

“You’re worse.”

Together, he and Brody regaled Janie with tales of their cooking disasters and kept Janie rolling with laughter.

She wiped tears from her face as she glanced over her shoulder at Brody. “You have to be pulling my leg. No one as intelligent as you two could be that bad at cooking.”

“A lot you know,” Brody groused. “I think Sawyer’s gene pool is missing the cooking gene.”

“I must be kin to you,” Sawyer tossed back.

“How does your team survive when you’re in the field if all of you are so bad at cooking?”

“MREs,” they said at the same time.

“What are those?”

“Meals ready to eat.” Brody shook his head. “They have plenty of nutrition but taste like cardboard.”

“They’re in packets,” Sawyer added. “Sometimes, they include dessert.”

“Does that make up for the lack of taste in the rest of the meal?”

“Not really, but when you need fuel and you’re out in the field or on the run, you eat what you have.”

“What happens if you run out of MREs?”

“We scrounge. We know what plants and fruits are safe to eat.”

“No meat?”

Sawyer shook his head. “No time to hunt something and prepare it. Besides, the jet also carries food for us. Once we’re wheels up, we can eat as much as we want.”

“And drink real coffee,” Brody said. “I think I miss that the most when we’re in the field. We don’t have time to sit down and enjoy coffee.”

“I thought you would have said you missed Sage above all else,” Sawyer said.

“That goes without saying.” A sly smile curved his mouth. “I guess you’ll be joining the rest of us in missing our significant others.”

He smiled. “Yeah, I will.” He planned to complain as much as his teammates.

Sawyer turned left onto the country road where the safe house was located and soon parked behind their temporary quarters. He and Brody went through the same routine of checking the house for unwanted intrusion while leaving Janie locked in the SUV.

Within two minutes, Sawyer returned for Janie and escorted her inside the house. After he reset the alarm, he and Brody set the platter of sandwiches in the center of the table and glasses of cold water, along with empty plates. They also set a bag of potato chips next to the platter.

“Choose the sandwich you want,” Sawyer said. “Brody and I will eat anything that doesn’t eat us first.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Your body needs fuel, Janie.”

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