Page 66 of Hidden Chance

“Turns out all this undercover work has built up my appetite. I expected it to do the opposite.”

He shook his head but followed suit with another helping for himself. He hadn’t known women like Hannah even existed in the world, not that he’d done much looking. Having a family of his own was a nice idea in theory, but he could never picture himself actually settling down. Not yet anyway.

But he wished he could blame the churning in his stomach on only his attraction to her. Unfortunately, he couldn’t deny that it pointed to something much more unnerving. His growing feelings were bad enough, but he’d rather that over what he knew was really the causeof his unease. God. Ever since he’d found out she was a Christian, it was like God was putting an exclamation point on everything that had to do with her, and he had no idea what it meant.

He’d spent a lot of his adult life trying hard to stay angry at whatever higher power might exist in the heavenlies. It was easy to blame a power greater than yourself. Believing that God wanted the bad and not the good made the bad stuff easier to bear. He wanted to believe that God was an angry father waiting for an opportunity to be disappointed. That was a God he could understand. But that’s not what he saw with Hannah.

“What do we do now?” she said as she carried the plates to the kitchen.

“Let me do that.” Robby jumped up and took the dishes from her hands.

“You sure?”

“Yup.” He rolled his sleeves and searched below the sink for the dish soap. “Go sit down and put your feet up.”

“I won’t be relaxed enough to put my feet up until those people outside my house are gone. How about I dry?”

“Suit yourself. But you may as well get used to it. They’ll still be here while you sleep.”

“I hope you’re not suggesting I stay here tonight. I’ll be freaked out all night knowing they’re there.”

“I don’t want to alert them to anything being wrong. What if I stay the night? I can sleep on the couch.”

“You’d do that?”

“Of course. It’s what we do in this kind of situation.”

“All part of the job, huh?”

“And don’t worry. This will all be over soon enough.”

“Then tell me this. Once you’re in Burma, where I can’t go with you, how am I supposed to stay safe in my house and at work?”

“I’ve got someone who can stay with you. Or, once you convince Pike you’re not involved, take some time off. Tell them that, after that creep Robby hit on you at work, you need a break.”

“Won’t they follow me wherever I go?”

“I can get you away from here without them knowing where you went. I doubt they have the required connections to follow you besides in your car. And once we have what we need in Burma, they’ll have much bigger worries than you.”

“That’s mildly comforting.”

“All you have to do is pick somewhere you don’t usually go. No emergency contacts or Facebook friends you connect with much. Not that there are many.”

“How do you know that?”

“That’s the first place I looked, just like you did with Pike. It will be one of the main places they’ll watch for you.”

“Should I do what Pike did and post photos of me somewhere I’m not?”

“Better not, just in case they check. Then they’ll become suspicious.”

“What about you? What’s your Facebook page look like?”

“Don’t have one. Not with the job I do. You won’t find anything on me in any search engine.”

“Challenge accepted.”

He laughed. “Go for it. But I’m warning you in advance, you’re wasting your time.”

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