Page 16 of Strike Fast

“You wanna grab a bite?” Kai asked Prentiss the next afternoon, grabbing a towel and mopping at his face. They’d burned a shit-ton of calories with that workout, and he was freaking starving. Normally Khan worked out with them on their days off, but he and Jaliya had something going on today, so it was just Kai and Prentiss. And once they got down to Emerald Warrior, they’d be slammed and wouldn’t get much if any time in the gym.

“Sorry, man, can’t. Got plans.”

“Plans?” Well now. “What kind of plans?” He’d just had Autumn last night, so it couldn’t be that.

“Why are you so fucking nosy?” Prentiss shot back with a half-hearted scowl.

“Because I like to be kept in the loop.” He draped the towel over his shoulders and followed his buddy toward the gym door. “So?”

“Dinner plans,” Prentiss said without looking back.

Kai raised an eyebrow. “You’ve got a date.”

No answer.

It was killing him. “Dude, come on. You haven’t been on a date in like, six months. Who is it?”

“How the hell do you know the last time I went on a date? Maybe I went on one last night.”

“Did you?”

“None of your damn business, Maka.”

Oh, it was serious when he used Kai’s last name. “It’s that hot helo pilot. Am I right?”

Prentiss sighed and twisted the combination lock on his locker. “Not telling you shit.”

“You don’t have to, because that just answered my question.” Kai saw a hell of a lot more than the guys gave him credit for. He wasn’t only interested in food all the time. He’d seen Agent Dubrovski at headquarters yesterday, and noticed Prentiss chatting her up prior to the team meeting. “Saw you putting her into your Mustang last night, brother.”

“She hung out with Autumn while we were in the meeting, and Autumn asked her to come to the movie with us after. I couldn’t say no.”

So defensive. “It’s all good, man. So, what’s the plan? Where are you taking her out to eat?”

“I’m making dinner.”

Kai stopped dead at that and swung his head around to stare at him, utterly betrayed. “Wait, youcook? Since when?”

Prentiss snorted. “Since always.”

No way. “We’ve been teammates for four damn years, and you’ve never once made me a meal. What’s up with that?”

“It’s because you’re a grown-ass man who can cook for himself. And besides, with the amount of food you put away I couldn’t afford to feed you anyway. Beast.”

Kai chuckled and rubbed a hand over his stomach. “I’m a big guy. Takes a lot of fuel to keep this machine in prime condition.”

“Yeah, and the rest of us know it. So you can fuel that machine on your own dime.”

Kai shook his head, unable to smother a grin at the sarcasm. “Why you gotta be so cheap all the time?”

“Because I have a daughter to support and eventually put through college,” he said dryly.

Yeah, okay. Good one. Kai unlocked his own locker. “What’s she like? Dubrovski. I mean, aside from hot and crazy talented in the cockpit.”

“She’s nice. Genuine.”

Those five syllables might not sound like much, but from Prentiss, they were high praise, especially since they pertained to the opposite sex. He hadn’t had an easy time with his ex since the split. It was good to see his buddy willing to put himself back out there on the dating market again. “Awesome.” Kai hoped it went somewhere.

Prentiss grabbed his gym bag and shut the locker. “What about you, don’t you have plans with Shelley?”

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