“Yeah. Sure,” Holden said, then nodded at them. “Excuse us.”
When they walked away, Lyndsey turned to Amanda and grinned.
“What?” she finally asked when the woman didn’t speak. “Do I have dirt on my face or grass in my hair or something?”
“No.” Lyndsey laughed. “I was just watching you interact with your new neighbor. You two make a cute couple.”
She groaned. “Oh, not you too, Lyndsey. The guy is a widower. Don’t go trying to push me on him.” She divided her gaze between Emily and Lyndsey. “Please, promise me you two won’t do that.”
“I promise,” Lyndsey said with a pout.
Good. She’d grown up next door to Lyndsey, and knew the woman never lied. Her word was her bond.
Amanda transferred her gaze to her sister. “Em? I need to hear it from you too.”
“Okay, I promise. But you can’t tell me you didn’t find him attractive. I know you, sis. You don’t blush unless you mean it.”
Damn her stupid body and her lack of control over it.
“Fine.” She blew out a breath. “Yes, he’s handsome, but he’s also my neighbor, a fairly recent widower, and the father of a soon-to-be student of mine. No matter how attractive he is, that’s a no-no in my rulebook. So, get it out of your conniving heads.”
Even though The Early Years Academy didn’t have a rule against it, Amanda did.
She also had a rule against seeing someone she worked with, which she’d broken recently. And that had been a big mistake…
Breaking that rule was not going to happen again. But she had the feeling she was going to have a tough time getting her body on board with that curriculum.
Chapter Three
Two days later, Dante sat in the ESI locker room sorting through his assigned gear at the end of the day. He’d spent the morning filling out paperwork, sparring with his buddies on a large rollout mat in the garage, and then sitting in on a meeting that sent Dean, RJ, Sinjin, and Carter out on a security detail in Houston for three days. Almost felt like old times on base.
At noon, they’d met Gabe for lunch at a local diner before they returned to ESI, and Mac gave him a tour of the large three-story brick building.
The top floor held two state-of-the-art apartments. One was Carter and his wife’s permanent residence, and the smaller one was a designated safe house available for clients. The second floor consisted of larger meeting rooms, Mac’s office, and extra storage.
On the main floor was a reception area, their regular morning meeting room, a small lunchroom, a computer/surveillance area, a main storage area that housed an ammo vault, and in the back was a locker room and showers off the garage with a large bay door that led to an alley.
All in all, it was a great setup. Mac and the guys had done a stand-up job putting the company together, and he was excited to taste his first experience as an operator under Mac’s command again, even if it was going to be a slower-paced civilian gig.
Dante hadn’t expected to go out on a call his first day, but the tempo was very different from putting his life on the line daily on the Phoenix streets or in active-duty combat. Still, heeyed the tactical gear in his open locker and acknowledged that he was lucky to be utilizing his training.
It might take a little time to get used to the pace and rules, but he was glad to be working with a few of his brothers again.
“So, how does it feel to have your first day at ESI under your belt?” Mac asked, walking into the room with Cooper, Hunter, and Dex on his six.
“Good, but I’m not used to staying in the building,” he replied, closing his locker door before turning to face them fully.
Hunter grunted.
“The pace, the rules…you need to retrain your brain,” Dex said.
Cooper nodded. “It does take a while. We’ve all been through it.”
Hunter scratched his temple. “Is it just me or is this conversation déjà vu?”
The others laughed.
Mac smirked. “Yeah, we just had this conversation with Holden when he first came here.”
