Page 39 of The Spy Ring

“Hi, Jagger. It’s great to see you again,” Aria said but stared at me the entire time.

“Jagger, glad you could make it. I know David will be excited to see you,” I said as I waved for him to sit on the red plastic seat at our white linoleum table.

Aria began to cough. She got up and waved Evaleen to follow her.

“Looks like Dixon needs water. See you later.” Evaleen got up but brought the red plastic basket of fries with her.

“Looks like everyone is having fun on the track,” Jagger said.

“Yup. Sure does,” I said as I felt the electricity devolve into awkwardness. The kind of awkwardness that crept up under your armpits and decided to go swimming by creating a pool.

“It’s hot in here,” I said flapping my arms and pulling at my white and green flower-patterned blouse.

I slid my eyes to the side and noticed Jagger tug at the neckline of his blue T-shirt.

“I thought it was just me. Maybe I can speak to the manager about turning up the air conditioning.” He looked around and gasped just before his eyes widened.

Waving his hand in the air, I turned to see a man about ten years older than us wave back.

“I know him. We used to work together.”

The man was coming toward us. Maybe I could find out something about Jagger other than he was a secret agent.

Jagger stood and opened his arms. “If it isn’t Hack! What are you doing here?”

The guy, wearing a red button-up dress shirt and black slacks, hugged Jagger.

“I own this place. And it isn’t Hack anymore. I can use my real name now—Tom Martinez.”

They pulled back and Tom gazed over at me, nodding.

I stood and held my hand out to him. “Hi, I’m Tiffany. My son, David, is having his birthday party here today.”

He gave a firm shake and then pointed to the track mentioning he wished David a happy birthday before he got into the kart. He talked about kart racing for a while before he asked about me.

“So, Tiffany, how do you know Jagger?”

I frowned and glanced at Jagger who didn’t appear any happier at the question.

“We’re married,” I said because what could I do? I’m not going to lie to the man.

If Jagger needed to lie, he could do that himself. We both messed up getting married in Vegas, but I was drugged, or at least I think I was, so I didn’t really have control over my actions. Jagger admitted he was drunk, but not so drunk that he couldn’t remember. Not so drunk that he had no control.

“Married? You finally settled down. How’d they take that at the agency? I’m sure you’re not in the field any more then.”

Jagger was rubbing the back of his neck. His face red. “I’m still in the field.”

Tom’s brow creased. “But that’s risky. When I met Nina, I knew she was it. I made a decision I had to take a desk job at the agency or leave. Since I hate paperwork, I chose to leave. Best decision I ever made.”

He waved his hands around him, proud of his business.

“That’s sweet you gave up your career for the woman you love. That’s risky too. You could have grown to miss it and regret giving it up,” I said.

“No, I knew it was time. I had that uneasy itch for a while.”

“Uneasy itch?” Jagger asked.

Scratching the back of his neck, he gave a slight chuckle as if remembering a joke. “It was crazy. I kept asking to do more and more dangerous assignments. Is Katlin still there?”

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