Page 112 of What Started In Deception

She nodded. “I’m going to talk to Mac today. Maybe she’ll let me in.”

“I was planning to do the same with Will—meet him in the gym for our workout.”

She snagged her sexy bottom lip with her teeth as worry furrowed her brow.

“What?”

“If Mac confides in me, what she says is private. I know that I’m then supposed to confide in you, but I don’t want to, Ty. Because I’m not confiding in you. I’m telling the FBI.”

He clenched his jaw, loathing this operation more and more. “How about I let you decide what you think I need to know. Or you can tell me whatever you want to tell me, and we’ll decide together what stays between you and me and what I give to my co-workers.”

She nodded. “Okay. But just—just remember that they’re hurting. This should be their problem. Only theirs.”

It bothered him that she felt like she needed to remind him of that. “I don’t like this any more than you do, Lyd.”

She nodded again.

“Can I make you some breakfast?”

She shook her head as she pushed the covers back and stood. “I’m okay. I’m going to get dressed and see what I can do for Mac.”

He watched her walk away, knowing that something had changed between them—and it wasn’t for the better. Lydia was pulling back, and he couldn’t necessarily blame her. The case was potentially heating up, and there was nowhere for their “relationship” to go.

Sighing as he got up, he folded the blanket and headed upstairs himself, needing to put on some clothes so he could get back to his job.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Lydia walked down the hall in the main house, moving toward the familiar morning sounds in the big kitchen. She stopped in the doorway, watching Mac hurry to put scrambled eggs on a plate for Everly as Maverick started to cry in his bouncy seat.

“Don’t cry, Maverick,” Everly said from her seat on one of the counter stools.

“He’s letting us know that he’s hungry, too,” Mac told her as she grabbed a handful of freshly washed strawberries from the colander on the counter.

“Because he wants his bottle?”

Mac nodded. “That’s right.”

“I can get him,” Lydia said, hurrying over to pick him up in her emerald-green tube top and frayed denim short shorts, so Mac could slice the fruit for her daughter. She smiled at the baby as she picked him up. “Good morning, buddy.”

Maverick stopped his fussing but only for a moment.

“His bottle’s in the bowl,” Mac said, focusing on the banana she grabbed next. “If you wouldn’t mind getting him started.”

“Of course I don’t.” She headed for the bowl by the fridge, grabbing Maverick’s breakfast before she sat on the stool next to Everly, giving the baby the bottle. “Good morning, my best girl.”

Everly smiled at her. “Gymnastics is coming soon.”

She beamed at Everly. “Do you have gymnastics today?”

Everly looked at Mac.

“Nope,” Mac said as she finally looked up with exhausted blue eyes that were puffy from crying as she put the plate in front of Everly. “In two more sleeps, we’ll give gymnastics a try. Right, Ev?”

“Right.” Everly started to dig into her food, oblivious to the unmistakable tension in the room.

Lydia met Mac’s gaze, unable to bring herself to ask what was wrong because she already knew. “Are you okay?”

Mac nodded. “It’s just a rough morning.”