Finally home, Rojas gave his friend a wave as the car backed down the drive toward the gated entrance. He decided to skip the main house altogether and cut around the side to head directly to his house.
House. Home.
Damn, he’d have never thought he’d have one like this—or one at all. It wasn’t huge or anything his ex-wife would’ve deigned to live in, but it was still a two-story with three bedrooms, two and a half baths. It was enough room for him to raise Serena up right.
Coming to Hope’s Crossing Kennels had been the smart thing to do. Hell, he could have gone elsewhere and gotten higher-paying work, but Boom would’ve spent too much time home alone. Here, there were people to watch his back—and her.
He trudged up the porch steps and let himself in the front door.
Forte sat on the couch with a beer in hand. “Boom took her meds. She’s asleep.”
Rojas grunted. Just as well, with her yogurt half melted. He’d only meant to spend a minute talking to Elisa, but something about her had drawn him in. He couldn’t help but linger. And he had no idea what in hell had possessed him to reach out and touch her. But her dark hair and those stormy blue eyes tugged at him in too many ways. And the way she bit her lower lip made him want to kiss it better.
It’d been a long time since he’d stopped in his tracks and daydreamed about a woman.
The yogurt was melting more.
He continued into their small kitchen and popped the whole bag from the shop into the freezer. Boom could have some frozen yogurt in the morning after a solid breakfast.
His stomach growled, and he snagged his own container from the bag before shutting the freezer door. Heading back to the living room, he sat heavily in the armchair opposite Forte, who sat on the couch.
His armchair and his couch. He let out a sigh. Good to be home.
Forte took a gulp of beer and scratched his belly. Rojas was reasonably sure Boom had learned how to belch from him.
The exemplary role model in question yawned. “So what’s up with our new logistics person?”
“I’m pretty sure civilians would call the role an administrative assistant. And she’s only our new admin if she takes the job.” Rojas twiddled his spoon between his fingers. “She’s still deciding.”
“You seemed to be getting acquainted with her pretty well.” Forte was fishing. He liked gossip almost as much as Sophie did, and nothing got past either of them. If Cruz was around, Rojas would bet him a twenty that Sophie would be over bright and early with some of her homemade baked goods the first chance she got to find out more about Elisa.
Since Cruz wasn’t here tonight, Alex held his peace. Forte tended to be a touch sensitive about all things concerning his childhood friend. There was a lot of history between Forte and Sophie.
Speaking of history, Elisa definitely had some to discuss eventually.
“Don’t know if we actually got to know each other or anything, but we did have a few interesting conversations.” Rojas shoveled a spoonful of less-than-frozen yogurt into his mouth and swallowed, letting it go down slow. When he could speak again, he uttered a relieved groan. “I talked more today than I probably have all year.”
Not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but he wasn’t planning on classifying it. Especially not after he’d discussed almost the same line of thought with Elisa. She’d been damned cute chewing on that bit of logic.
“Happens when you interact with people.” Forte was all sorts of agreeable this evening.
“She’s got some serious personal baggage, though.” Rojas took another spoonful and chewed on the accompanying gummy bear. He tended to give Boom fruit with her frozen yogurt, but tonight he’d indulged in sour gummies, gummy bears, and gummy worms. Because he was an adult and could choose to dive into a sugar high before bedtime with no one to hold him accountable but himself.
Forte snorted. “We’ve all got personal shit tossed in the back of our closets.”
Rojas waved a free hand in the vague direction of the front door. “And here, we all know enough to watch each other’s backs. That’s my point. If she’s going to work here, we need enough of a briefing to be prepared for any issues.”
Forte raised an eyebrow. “You think she’s bringing actual trouble to our door?”
No doubt. It was his practice to keep his teammates informed in as timely a manner as possible, so he suffered no guilt bringing Forte up to speed on the text Elisa had received.
“Huh. All on its own, the text is harmless.” Forte took a slow pull from the beer.