Chapter 30

"I'm afraid I do," Mac reluctantly told him.

"I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one then…" AJ responded.

"I guess so AJ," then to change the subject, Mac added, "I guess I should go and see what I can scrounge up for you to cook for dinner."

With a chuckle AJ followed her into the kitchen. Looking into her fridge he saw that she had bacon, eggs, cheese and milk. "Do you have flour, sugar, salt, and cooking oil?" he asked.

"Yes…what are you going to make with that?"

"Crust for the quiche," he answered with a grin.

"Quiche? I thought 'real men don't eat quiche' let alone make it!"

"Well this real man does…"

"This I have to see!" she said and put the requested items in front of him.

Within minutes the stunned Marine saw him prepare the ingredients and efficiently pop the casserole into the oven to bake. "It will take an hour to cook, what do you suggest we do in the meantime?" he asked.

'Throw me down on my bed and make wild passionate love to me?' her lovesick side wanted to suggest, but her sensible side once again won the battle and she replied, "I have a deck of cards, we could play…"

"What would you suggest we play?"

'Strip poker!' her lovesick side wanted to shout, but her sensible side offered, "Gin Rummy?"

"I think I can handle that, but I have to warn you, I used to be a pretty good card player, so you'd better not suggest betting on the outcome," he teased.

"Hey I'm pretty good too! I think we should bet!"

"And what should we bet?"

Her lovesick side wanted to demand a kiss a point, that way they would both be winners, but her sensible side said, "How about we bet on who cleans up the dishes after dinner?"

"I'm not sure that is fair Mac, I cooked after all."

"Oh, so you are afraid that I will win!" she crowed in delight.

"Not really, but you might cheat to get out of dishes…"

"I'm shocked and appalled, and how did you know I planned on using the marked cards?" she teased.

"Do you have any unopened decks?" he wanted to know.

"Now AJ, do you really think I would cheat just to get out of dishes?" she was slightly hurt.

"I didn't, but you were the one that mentioned marked cards!" he protested.

"I don't have any unopened ones, but I don't have any marked ones either. If you don't believe me we could do something else while waiting for dinner."

"I believe you Mac," he said softly.

They played till the oven timer went off and both were surprised to find that they were evenly matched. AJ had come out the winner, but only by a measly fifteen points. She protested that that amount was so close it could be considered a tie, and he countered that close only counted horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear war!

Dinner was as delicious as she had known it would be. Mac had never had eaten anything AJ made that wasn't. She grumbled as she did the dishes with him just standing there watching. That was until he picked up the dishtowel and started to dry the ones she had just placed in the drainer. "You don't have to do that! I lost the dang game!"

"You really didn't think I would just stand here and watch you do the work, did you Mac?"

"Yes! Harm would ha…oh," she sighed and the tears at the still fresh loss once again started to flow.

Placing the towel down on the counter, AJ gently pulled her into his arms, "Oh Mac, I'm so sorry."

She gave a hiccupping sob and said, "The worst part is that it happened so fast that there was no time to say good-bye."

"I'm sure he knew how you felt about him and that's all that really matters when the end comes."

"But the last thing I said to him was, that it was a good thing he was going to be behind your desk that day because he wouldn't have to face my rulings on any of his cases."

"I'm sure he took it as the joke you intended it Mac."

"I guess so," she replied. "He gave me that cocky grin of his."

"See there, you made him smile."

"Maybe so, but I still won't feel right 'til we bring whoever did this to justice."

To be continued…..