Goran laughed as he picked up his phone and dialed Astir. For the next forty minutes, he and Astir discussed the latest information on speaker phone so that Calista could hear while she mixed and scooped and did odd things to what he suspected was cookie dough. But when she pulled the stuff out of the oven the first time, there were just hard, black disks. She tapped them with a ragged fingernail, then scraped everything into the trash. With a sigh, she put more blobs onto the cookie sheet while Goran listened to Astir discuss something about a mining company. It wasn’t the same mining company that had given him pause. He didn’t recognize the company name.
That captured Calista’s attention and she paused, a spoon halted in mid-air as she lifted a finger.
“Wait!” Calista called out.
Goran’s eyes lifted to hers, then he said, “Hold on just a second,” just as her brother started to say something. Goran lifted dark eyebrows, silently prompting her to continue.
“Sorry for interrupting,” she said, feeling her cheeks heat up. “But I think I heard someone at an event recently talk about a staging something or other near your border.”
“What was it about?”
Calista bowed her head, trying to remember. “I don’t think I can recite the whole conversation. It was one of those really boring events and I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. But she was saying something about big trucks and…” she blinked, looking up at Goran. “At the time, I hadn’t thought anything about it. I know that we had some trouble with a mining company doing illegal digging that had collapsed a town. But that was in Silar. Not in Skyla.”
“Think, Calista,” Astir urged through the phone. “What did the woman say?”
She bit her lip, trying to concentrate. “She wasn’t specific. Just something about…big trucks.” She lifted her eyes again. “Could that have something to do with a mining company too?”
Goran nodded. “I had a request for a mining permit that has been niggling at the back of my mind. I don’t remember any details, but the permit request might have been for an area towards my northern border. I didn’t think about it before because,” he paused, shaking his head. “Well, I want to say that the mining request would cover territory not just in Sklya, but also in Citran. I’ll have my agency look into that detail and I’ll have him call you. I’ll ask him to call both of us with any additional information.”
“If there’s trouble brewing even close to Citran, then we should loop Zantar in on the issue,” he commented, referring to Sheik Zantar al Abouss, the man who ruled Citran. He was a big brute of a guy, smart and an excellent ruler. “I’ll check in with Zantar to find out if he’s heard anything recently. Then I’ll put that information together with the rest of what we’ve learned and will update you when we know something more,” Astir replied.
“Tell Zantar that he owes me from our last poker game.” The two men laughed, then he continued, “We’ll wait for your call.”
He clicked off and Calista continued dumping blobs onto the cookie sheet.
“Are those…?” Goran asked, peering down at the gooey blobs.
She sighed, lifting the tray and putting it into the small oven. “I’m hoping this batch turn out to be edible cookies,” she explained. “I’m not sure what I did wrong the last time.”
Goran walked over to the oven, his eyes narrowing. “Is there a difference between broiling and…?”
Calista gasped. “Yes!” she said and rushed over, taking the cookie sheet out again. “Darn it! Broiling is bad, according to one of the videos.” She pressed a few more buttons. “There,” she said, with a nod. “It’s on bake now.” She then turned and started mixing the dough, scraping it down off the sides of the large bowl.
Goran leaned against the wall, watching her carefully. “Are you…enjoying this?” he asked, stunned and…kind of turned on!
She stopped mixing for a moment, turning to look at him. Her features were still for a long moment, then her face broke out into a big smile and she laughed. “Yeah!” She paused again, stunned by this realization. “Yeah, I’m really enjoying this baking thing.” She gestured to the fruit salad that was sitting on the counter, ready for their dinner. “I mixed up a lime dressing for the fruit and…” she laughed, shaking her head, “I am intrigued by all of this cooking stuff.”
She started mixing again, intent on her efforts. “For so long, I’ve merely eaten food prepared by some mysterious person. My food was delivered to the dining room and simply set down in front of me. I never had any say in what foods were served or how they were prepared.” She stirred briskly, her arm muscles visible now. “Our little…” she rolled her eyes, “…adventure has caused me to try my hand at different life skills, such as cooking, that I didn’t even know would be interesting.” She looked at him over her shoulder. “That whole drugging and kidnapping thing wasn’t fun. But I liked kicking the other men down and helping you tie them up. Traipsing through the jungle was pretty fun too, as was reading a map and figuring out where we were. All very useful skills.”
Goran couldn’t stop himself. Not after those revelations. He walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. For a long moment, he simply held her, absorbing her feminine strength and reveling in the beauty of who she was.
“I didn’t like the kidnapping and drugging thing either,” he finally said, “but I’m glad that you were with me. If it weren’t for you and your brilliant shoes, we’d probably still be tied up in that pathetic treehouse shack.” Then he kissed her. It wasn’t a romantic kiss; it was a kiss of…gratitude. Towards a woman? He almost laughed at how sexist his thoughts were. But then he kissed her again and…!
The buzzer went off, indicating that another batch of cookies were done.
Calista jerked out of his arms, rushing over to the oven to peer inside. “Oh, these look good!” she declared, stuffing her hand into an oven mitt before reaching into the oven to pull out…perfectly browned cookies!
“Extraordinary!” he replied, his mouth watering for a whole different reason now. “Can we eat them?”
Both of them were peering down at the rapidly cooling cookies as if they were some sort of miracle. “I think so!” she whispered. She slid the plastic spatula underneath one of the cookies, sliding it onto a plate. “They’re supposed to cool off on some sort of wire thing but I couldn’t find anything like that here in this small kitchen.”
She started to take another cookie off the baking sheet but Goran picked up the warm cookie with his bare hands, taking a bite. “Wow!” he muttered, then took another bite. “It’s warm and soft and…wow!”
Her anxious expression shifted to one of hope. “They’re good?” she asked, a tinge of concern in her voice.
“They’re awesome!” he replied. “I didn’t know cookies could be eaten warm like this!”
Calista stopped and took a bite out of another cookie, then gasped. “Oh wow! You’re right!”