I leaned over. “You’re killing me.”

The faintest hint of a smile touched his lips. “Let’s go to dinner.”

“Not unless you tell me who is in those frames.”

Thomas frowned. “Why don’t you just look for yourself the next time you’re in there?”

“Maybe I will.”

“Good.”

We were quiet for several seconds, and then I finally spoke, “I’ll help you.”

“To dinner?”

“I’ll help you help Travis.”

He shifted in the chair. “I didn’t know you weren’t planning to.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t consider me a sure thing.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t say yes,” he snapped back.

I slammed my laptop closed. “I didn’t say yes. I said I would watch for the email from Constance.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “I’m going to have to watch you.”

A smug smile broke out across my face. “Yes, you are.”

My cell phone chirped, and Val’s name appeared on the screen. I picked up the phone and held it to my ear. “Hey, Val. Yes, just finishing up. Okay. See you in twenty.” I pressed the End button and laid my phone on the desk.

“That hurts,” Thomas said, checking his own phone.

“Deal with it,” I said, opening the lower drawer to retrieve my purse and keys.

His brow furrowed. “Is Marks going?”

“I don’t know,” I said, standing before pulling my purse strap over my shoulder.

Vacuums were being pushed back and forth somewhere down the hall. Only half the lights were on. Thomas and I were the only employees left in the wing besides the cleaning staff.

Thomas’s expression made me feel guilty. I tilted my head. “Do you want to go?”

“If Val will be there, it would be less awkward if Marks were going,” he said, standing.

“Agreed.” I thought about it for a moment. “Invite him.”

Thomas’s eyes sparked, and he lifted his cell phone, tapping out a quick message. Within seconds, it beeped back. He looked up at me. “Where?”

“A place downtown called Kansas City Barbeque.”

Thomas laughed once. “Is she giving you the official tourist tour?”

I smiled. “It’s the same bar from Top Gun. She said she didn’t do those things when she moved here, and she’s never gotten to it. Now, she has an excuse.”

Thomas tapped on his phone, a grin spreading quickly across his face. “KC Barbeque it is.”

I sat on the end stool, glancing around the room. The walls were covered in Top Gun memorabilia—posters, pictures, and signed headshots of the cast. To me, it didn’t look anything like the bar in the movie, except for the jukebox and the antique piano.