The Pajama Affair by Vanessa Gray Bartal Page A

hours away from here. My dad was a pastor and my mom was a teacher. They moved to Singapore after they retired.”
    He nodded as if this made perfect sense to him, but it didn’t. He had been to Singapore . He couldn’t imagine moving there on purpose.
    “And you have one brother three years older.”
    “Yes. His name is Bryce.”
    His hand tensed on his pen. Did she know her brother’s true occupation? “And what does he do?”
    “He’s a computer programmer.”
    He searched her face and tone, but she looked perfectly innocent. He nodded and made note not to mention her brother again. With his track record lately he didn’t trust himself not to blurt out the truth.
    “Your boyfriend is Dirk Xavier.”
    He looked up when she didn’t answer. She was staring at him and blinking rapidly. “How do you know all this about me?”
    “We have our ways,” he said.
    Her hands clenched before crossing over her chest. Her lips tightened and her eyebrow quirked.
    He rolled his eyes and threw down his pen. “All right, geez, I followed you and asked questions about you.”
    Her mouth fell. “Followed me where?”
    “To your friend’s house where I saw Puck who is the same blabber-mouthed idiot he was when he was eighteen. He told me as much as I wanted to know about you and then some. I’m trying to make sure it’s factual because Puck tends to embellish. All right?”
    She frowned. “Are you always in such a bad mood?”
    “No,” he practically growled. He massaged his forehead. “I’m starving and I have a headache.”
    She sighed and stood to retrieve pain reliever from the cupboard. After she set it in front of him she began pulling items from the refrigerator.
    He swallowed the pills and closed the bottle. “What are you doing?”
    She paused and turned to him. “Feeding you.” She said it like it should be obvious. If she had any idea how unusual the whole situation was, she would know why he had to ask. His girlfriends didn’t feed him, let alone the people he dealt with through work.
    “You don’t have to,” he said unconvincingly. He was really hoping she would. If the cookie she made was any indication, whatever she made was going to be delicious.
    “There’s no stopping me,” she said. He smiled at her back. She was prettier than he remembered from their first meeting. Then his impression had been ordinary and passable. He wondered how he had missed her prettiness. Certainly it wasn’t possible that she had gotten prettier in two days. Then again, he hadn’t looked much beyond her garish hair.
    “You were telling me about your boyfriend,” he prompted.
    “No I wasn’t. You asked and then yelled at me. Again.”
    Her hands nimbly formed hamburger into a thick patty, and his mouth began to water in anticipation. His enjoyment of a good burger was almost a religion.
    “Sorry,” he said, although he wasn’t. “I’m trying to get the facts of the case straight.”
    “’Just the facts, Ma’am’,” she quoted, turning to look at him over her shoulder. “Yes, Dirk is my boyfriend.”
    “How long have you been together?”
    Her hand tensed on the skillet. “Five years.”
    “That’s a long time. You’re not engaged?”
    Her back went rigid and she cleared her throat. “No.”
    Hmm. Definitely a sore spot. He tucked the information away. He might either need to avoid or exploit it at a later time.
    “Why is he in Cleveland this week?”
    She didn’t relax and he couldn’t imagine why. It seemed like a simple question.
    “So that’s where he is,” she muttered.
    He frowned. That was odd. By the time he was dating a girl for five months she demanded to know his whereabouts at all times. Five years was a marathon relationship, yet this Dirk had kept his destination a secret from his girlfriend. Interesting. He made a mental note to call the Cleveland office and put a tail on Dirk Xavier.
    His eyes roamed over the house while she worked. It was small but clean and warmly