Page 26 of What Started In Deception

“If there’s nothing to develop, they’ll most likely pull me. There are other cases they can put me on.”

She nodded. “It sounds like you’ll want to pack light when we head up north because they won’t be keeping you there for very long.”

He grinned as he stirred the vegetables again, then turned on the pan for the salmon. “I guess we’ll see.”

“I guess we will.” She washed her hands, then moved to one of the cupboards to grab two plates. “So, when we go to Massachusetts, are you going to use a different last name? I feel like I’ll need to take notes about what I can and can’t say.”

He shook his head, setting the salmon in the pan for a good sear. “With this situation, I won’t be full deep cover. I mean it when I say that this is a quiet inquiry at this point. Usually, I keep my first name, and we change up everything else, but for this operation, we’ll fiddle around with my home address and education—get me a Virginia driver’s license, give me an exercise and sports science degree, and a personal trainer certification. In fact, they just finished my website today.”

She frowned. “You have a website?”

“I do. Do you have a laptop handy?”

She set the plates aside and walked over to her leather bag, pulling out her laptop, setting it on the island close by.

He turned down the flames beneath both burners, then washed his hands before he typed his new web address into the bar, watching his website pop up.

Lydia leaned closer to the screen, scrolling through the copy and various pictures of him performing different exercises. “This is—this is really great, Ty.”

He nodded. “It’s certainly not bad. IT did a hell of a job putting that together.”

She looked at him. “You look like you’re actually a personal trainer.”

“I am a personal trainer.”

She shook her head. “No, I mean really.”

“I’m really a personal trainer and a nutrition coach. I’ve been an athlete my whole life. I’ve always enjoyed fitness. I got my certifications for this operation.”

“Oh.”

“Some of my FBI buddies are going to be my ‘clients’ for the next few weeks. I’ll put them through the paces virtually while we’re up in Mass.” He hurried over to the stove, rescuing their dinner. “It looks like we should be good to eat.”

“Do you want to eat out on the porch? All of the windows are open, so there should be a great breeze.”

“Yeah, that sounds amazing.” He took the plates she handed him. “How hungry are you?”

“Uh, normal hungry.”

“I don’t know what normal hungry looks like.”

She took back one of the plates, serving herself a smaller piece of the fish and some of the vegetables. “This is normal hungry.”

“I’m filing that away.”

She chuckled, grabbing forks, knives, and napkins for them, taking one of the seats at the smaller table in the pretty porch space.

He sat across from her, studying her large backyard. “This is a great piece of property.”

She nodded. “It really is. I’m lucky that it’s mine.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Just under four years.”

“It really is awesome.”

She nodded again. “When I get back from Mass, I’m going to plant a couple of trees and add some flowers now that I have my fence.”