Joe might be able to dig up more from the office programs. As if his thoughts had brought him up, Sam’s phone rang and Joe’s name flashed on his screen.
“Hey Chevy. Just about to call you.”
“You found the asshole?”
Sam grinned. They were on the same page. “Pretty sure. James Stephens, with a ph. Physicist extraordinaire according to his social media shit.”
“Good work. Tansy know that you’ve found him yet?”
Sam couldn’t ignore the segue, even though he wanted to. “Not yet. She’s a little pissed at the moment.”
“What did you do?”
Sam laughed. “You assume I did something?”
He could almost hear Joe’s eye-roll over the phone. “Obviously. Tansy doesn’t get pissed all that often and certainly not at you.”
Huh. “Well, I kissed the hell out of her and she kissed me back. And then I said I needed to talk to you before we took it further. Don’t want you thinking I’m going behind your back.”
There was dead silence on the other end of the line, and Sam clamped his teeth together to stop himself from any more rambling.
“Okay.” Joe stretched the word out to about four syllables.
“Okay?”
“Well, you two have been watching each other for years, so it’s not like it’s a big surprise.”
“What?”
Joe sighed. “This is weird. She’s my sister. You’re like a brother. It hurts my head. And if you screw it up between you and make a mess of our family, I’m going to kick your ass.”
He could try.
Joe swore and then spoke again. “Look, you guys have been wanting to do this for a bit. Just don’t mess it up and make it awkward for anyone. Meaning me. Don’t make it weird because that would suck.”
Sam laughed ruefully. “I may have already managed that.”
“Tell me you weren’t being literal when you said you stopped kissing her to talk about me.”
His pause said all it needed to.
Joe swore again. “Man, don’t you know anything about women? They don’t want you thinking about anything else but them when you’re kissing them. Hell, if you’re doing it right, you shouldn’t have room to be thinking about anything else yourself.”
Shit. That’s exactly why she was pissed.
“This is weird because it’s Tansy, but you gotta do better than that, Sam. Especially since that asshole used her.”
Oh, hell. That hadn’t crossed his mind. And it should have. Maybe he should kick his own ass. He’d barely been able to keep a thought in his head, but his need not to blindside Joe had blinded him.
“I’ll fix it. I’ll figure it out.”
“You’d better.”
He would. “We also had a potential fly-by. Small white plane, couldn’t see tags. Flew over three times and Tansy hasn’t noticed planes before. I’ve ordered a pile of security stuff through Phail General. Guy’s former military and he read between the lines and will keep an eye out for strangers.”
They chatted for a bit, and then Joe sighed. “Gotta go. Still up to our asses in it here. This is my sleep break. Got an hour left. Leave me a message if you need to. And fix it with Tansy.”
Sam looked at his watch. Way more than a couple of hours had passed and there was no sign of Tansy. Even knowing she was likely in her fort and working, he worried.