Neil came back to the table just then, still smiling. “You guys don't mind if Lacey comes out to join us, do you? She went by the trailer and I wasn't home, so she called to see where I was.”
“Oh-oh,” Moose said. “When a girl gets to the point she's checking up to see where you are when you're not home, things must be getting pretty serious. Next thing you know, you’ll have to ask for her permission to go on a mission with us.” He put on an effeminate grin and tried to imitate Lacey’s voice. “Okay, honey, you can go. Here’s your balls, just make sure you get them back to me when you get home.”
Neil gave him a sneer and stuck out his tongue. “Lacey isn't like that,” he said. “She really cares about me, that’s all.”
Sarah watched the exchange with her eyes wide, then looked at Moose. “You're right, I take it back.”
“Take what back?” Neil demanded.
“She just got through trying to tell me you had grown up since you started dating Lacey,” Moose said. “I said you hadn't, and sticking your tongue out at me just proved my point.”
Moose caught Elaine's attention and waved her over. “Honey, Lacey’s gonna be joining us. Can we get another chair over here?”
Lacey arrived a little more than ten minutes later and took her seat beside Neil. She leaned over to give him a kiss and Neil blushed. “Hey, sweetie,” she said, and then she looked at the rest of them. “Hope I'm not intruding.”
“You're not,” Sarah said, “and now that you're here, I don't feel quite as surrounded by testosterone as I did a minute ago. Thanks for coming.”
“De nada, Chica,” Lacey said. “Thanks for letting me barge in.”
Elaine showed up only a few seconds later carrying a large tray and a folding stand. She flipped the stand open and set the tray on top, then begin passing out their orders. “Lacey, almost every time you come in here with Neil, you order the same thing he does. I hope it's okay, I went ahead and gave you an Italian beef like his.”
Lacey smiled at her, delighted. “That's perfect,” she said. “Thank you.”
They dug in to eat, talking about inconsequential things. While Lacey and Elaine were privy to the type of work the team did, both of them being the daughters of top E & E people, most of the customers of the Saloon were simply local folk who knew nothing. As a result, mission work was rarely discussed there, and only when they were certain they could not be overheard.
Noah had already told his team that he was planning for them to leave for Missouri the following morning, so they decided to just hang out and relax for a while at the Saloon. It was nearly four o'clock by the time they finally left, and Neil rode home with Lacey rather than get back into the Chrysler with Sarah driving. Sarah kept the car under control, however, and her lead foot as well. Lacey stayed right behind her all the way, and they all ended up at Noah's house.
When they turned onto the county lane, Sarah quickly reached down and pushed one of the color buttons while Lacey was out of sight. When they pulled up at the house and got out, she barely managed to keep from laughing when she saw Lacey staring at the now-red car.
Neil hurried Lacey inside to see the printer, but Noah refused to allow another demonstration of what it could do. Despite a short and mostly friendly argument, he refused to budge, so Neil took her out to see the remains of the tree.
Sarah looked at Noah. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said. “It's just interesting, watching Neil trying to grow up. I'm seeing things in his behavior that I've never noticed before in other people.”
“That's because,” Sarah said with a chuckle, “you've never had to deal with an insecure teenager before. Neil has been lonely and scared most of his life, I think, partly because of how tall he is. People expect a tall guy like that to be athletic, but Neil never quite made it. It's probably made him self-conscious.”
Noah nodded his head. “Yeah, that's what I'm seeing. It's interesting.”
Lacey hung around with them for a couple of hours, but then Noah suggested it was time for her to head home. He had come up with a mission plan and it was time for him to go over it with the team. Neil walked her out and kissed her goodbye, then came back in with a long face and took his seat at the table.
“Okay, here's what I'm planning,” Noah said. “We're going to spend a few days playing flower delivery. Neil, your job is going to be making sure we have accurate location intel on each of the targets, then using the printer to turn out flowerpots and vases. We'll want a lot of different designs, don't want them all to be exactly the same or that might arouse suspicion.”
Neil nodded. “Okay, I'll try to learn everything I can about the targets, so that I can sort of gear the designs toward what they might like.”
“Smart thinking,” Noah said. He turned to Moose. “Moose, you will be on flower duty. I'll send you out to other cities in the area, like Jefferson City or Springfield, to buy flowers and plants and potting soil, stuff like that.”