Page 33 of Mountain Security

Alex laughed. “Thank you. I don’t think I know enough to be your co-instructor, but I’m always happy to be your guinea pig,” he said.

Marie’s shrewd gaze seemed to see right through them. “I could tell you’ve trained in several martial arts, Alex, and I know you could have made things a lot more challenging for me. But I do appreciate you being such a good sport. Now, kids, behave. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. And lock up behind yourselves.”

After Marie was gone, Yvette turned to Alex. “Is that true? Have you trained in martial arts?”

“Judo and jiu jitsu.” He shrugged. “I had a lot of free time in school.”

Yvette laughed. “Judo, jiu jitsu, skiing, ice swimming … is there anything you’re not good at?”

His cheeks went bright pink.

“You’re blushing,” she said, laughing.

“I’m not blushing. Come on. Let’s get out of here. Do you like Indian food?”

Her ears perked up.

How does he know?

“I love Indian food.”

“There’s an amazing Indian restaurant not far from here.”

* * *

Alex

“No snails on the menu,” she said, her expression disappointed.

Alex’s laugh rose right from his belly.

“Maybe they have some frozen frog legs somewhere,” he retorted.

“You do know frog legs taste just like chicken, right?”

“Actually, I have never eaten frog legs, nor do I intend to. I don’t carewhatthey taste like.”

He’d been glad to see they had a similar taste in Indian food—a medium level of spice, and lots of small plates to share. They settled on shrimpTikka, chicken Jalfrezi, a small vegetable curry, pulau rice, and roti bread.

“And poppadum,” Yvette said when he repeated the list back to her.

“Of course they’ll bring poppadum. What kind of restaurant would this be if they didn’t bring poppadum with our meal?”

She showed him her bright white teeth. “I mean extra poppadum.”

“Extra poppadum it is, then,” he said, laughing.

To drink, they each ordered a Cobra beer and some water on the side.

Yvette sighed as she took her first sip of beer. “I don’t know why everyone doesn’t keep beer glasses in the freezer. Beer tastes so much better like this.”

Alex smiled. He’d worked in a pub when he was young. He tried to estimate the number of freezers they would have needed to store all their glasses.

“Yeah, okay. I can imagine there are a few reasons,” Yvette said, answering her own question.

When the food came, everything was as good as he remembered. Even better than the food, was the evident joy with which Yvette ate. For someone who was almost a politician, she wasn’t very good at hiding her feelings.

“How often do you come to Annecy to meet the group?”

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