Page 66 of Jobe

“Oh…well, when you put it that way,” she said, blushing. “We do talk, just a little.”

“So if it makes you feel better, men don’t go into details about their wives. But I admit that the words pregnancy hormones and sex have been heard around the office.”

Mackenna just smiled, the relaxation almost sending her into sleep. She scooted back closer, allowing him to tuck her in tightly. She loved the feeling of falling asleep with his hand on her stomach.

“Baby?”

“Hmm?”

“The next couple of days are going to be busy. I want you to take it easy and let others do the hard work.”

“Uhh-hmm,” she replied, sleep pulling her in.

He gave her a little squeeze, saying, “I want to hear you agree, doll.”

“Mmmkay. I’ll take it easy,” she promised, just before her breathing slowed and slumber finally won out.

Jobe lay there a few more minutes, his mind going over the tasks of the security for the transfer.Should be smooth. We’ve got this.

22

Mackenna sat in her office at DSS, a tension headache causing her to rub the back of her neck as she dialed Jobe.

“Hey, babe,” he answered jovially.

“Honey, we’ve got problems.”

His voice immediately became serious. “What kind of problems? Hang on, I’ve got the group here so I’m putting you on speaker.”

“My supervisor said that everything is scheduled properly for the move tomorrow, but that the security system has to be in place first. That caveat was added to the grant due to the problems we’ve had with gang threats. I know you all were starting tomorrow but weren’t going to finish until the next day when you could get some of the cameras from the old place.”

Jobe heard the worry in her voice and immediately reassured her that they’d be ready. “Let us work the problem here for a bit, and I’ll call you back. Meanwhile, take care of yourself. Go home if you have to.”

Jobe hung up, looking at the Alvarez group for answers and support. “What do ya’ll think?”

Tony turned to Vinny. “Can we get new cameras in over at the new location and then just recycle the ones we take down tomorrow at the old place?”

Vinny nodded, “Yeah, the new ones should be coming in today.”

“Guys, I hate to be the downer, but we’ve got more problems,” Lily said, hanging up her phone. “BJ can’t come in today. One of the twins has the croup and they are taking him to the hospital now. It’s not serious, but they want him checked out. We can’t use him today to check the new feeds.”

Tony took out his cell and immediately sent a text to BJ. “I’m telling him to let us know the minute he hears anything and to not worry about us.” The others around the table nodded, understanding the parental fears of a sick child. Looking over to Lily, he asked, “Can you do it?”

Lily bit her lip nervously, answering, “Truthfully? Yeah, I’m sure I can figure out what he does, but never having done that type of programing or checking before, I’ll want BJ to re-check it as soon as he can.”

Tony nodded, irritation evident on his face.

“I’m sorry, Tony,” Lily added.

His gaze jerked to hers, noting her concern. “Lily, I’m not upset with you at all. I’m upset with myself.”

Seeing the confusion on the faces of those around the table, he replied, “In SF, we had a medic but we also had a backup medic. We had someone trained in communications, but a backup. Same with sharp-shooter.”

The others nodded in understanding, but Tony continued, “Most of you are trained in multiple areas so that we can pick up the slack in any situation, but I’ve only used BJ to go out into the field and that was poor management on my part.”

Everyone clamored to contradict Tony’s assessment, but he raised his hand. “No, this is on me. But Lily,” he said, turning to her, “we’ll definitely use you today and I’m having the office manager start looking for another programmer we can hire.”

“You know,” Gabe added, “Just installing the cameras outside of the new place will be a deterrent until we can have BJ test them out.”

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