Chapter Three
S injin was restless. He’d slept restlessly. Woke up restless. Couldn’t shake the damn feeling. It had a hold of his spine and wouldn’t release its grasp. With luck, he’d see some action today. The job Mac was sending Hunter, Carter, and him on would probably be uneventful, though. It was just guard duty for some yuppy millionaires visiting a San Antonio museum.
“You okay?” Hunter frowned at him as they packed their go bags in the locker area of ESI headquarters.
The big brick building was just down the block from his rental, making morning commutes easy.
“Yeah, why?”
His buddy set his pack down and shrugged. “You seem a bit high-strung.”
“Just restless,” he said. “I can’t seem to shake it today.”
“Ready to move on?”
He frowned, having not really considered that to be a problem. “I don’t know.”
“What about your dad?”
His frown deepened as his gut took an invisible punch. “What about him?”
“He still lives in El Paso, right?”
He nodded. “Last I heard.”
“That’s only a few hours away. Might do you some good to visit.”
“Nope.”
Not unless Hell froze over.
He’d said all he had to say the day he’d left for Army boot camp. That was seventeen years ago, and he hadn’t been back home or seen the man since.
“What about your sister?”
His friend was trying to be helpful, Sinjin understood that, so he ignored the agitation pinching his shoulder blades and finished zipping his bag. “I saw her and her family before I left for Mexico.”
It had been good to meet his brother-in-law and his nephews in person. Facetime was nice but couldn’t take the place of an in-person meeting.
Hunter nodded, then wisely changed the subject. “So how did the walk with Isla go yesterday?”
A shaft of awareness shot through him at the mention of his pretty neighbor’s name, and he suddenly wished they were talking about his family again.
“Fine.”
Hunter’s deep chuckle had him lifting his gaze. “I see.”
He frowned. “See what? There’s nothing to see. You all told her I’d walk her home, so I walked her home.”
“It makes sense now.”
“That’s good, because you aren’t making any.”
Hunter’s smile widened. “Yeah, pretty sure I definitely discovered the reason for your restlessness.”
Blinking, he studied the guy a second before his meaning dawned. Sinjin laughed out loud then laughed harder at his buddy’s stunned expression. “I know what you’re getting at, and you’re crazy.”
“Last year, I would’ve agreed with you,” Hunter said, a smile twitching his lips. “But one look into Christa’s eyes woke up more than my body, man. It woke up the humanity inside me again.”
“That’s great,” he said, cupping his buddy’s shoulder a second before releasing him. “I’m happy for you. She’s a good woman, raising a great boy. But I don’t understand what that has to do with me and my restlessness.”
“It has everything to do with it, Sinjin,” Hunter insisted. “I saw the look on your face when you caught Isla with your lap , yesterday. You felt like you were hit with a ton of bricks, right?”
Yeah, but he wasn’t going to admit it, so he shrugged instead.
“And then warmth literally seeped into your chest.”
Shit.
Yeah. That was exactly what had happened. “How…?”
“Because it’s like I just told you,” Hunter said. “That happened to me when I first met Christa.”
“What does this have to do with restlessness?” His brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders yet, which pissed him off.
“It’s because you’re refusing to acknowledge that you like the way Isla makes you feel.”
He blew out a breath and shook his head. “Doesn’t really matter. Even if I like it, that doesn’t mean I’ll do anything about it, or that she’d want that anyway.”
“Oh, she’d be okay with it. Trust me,” Carter spoke up from behind.
Damn. Sinjin turned to face the grinning idiot. He was slipping. He hadn’t even realized someone else had entered the room.
“She wore the same dazed and delighted expression.” Carter’s grin increased.
She had?
He only remembered her smiling and how it had warmed him…
Shit.
Hunter was right.
“Well, it doesn’t matter,” he said, rising to his feet, gripping the strap of his go bag. “She can do better. I’m not about to make any moves.”
Besides, once his “actual” job was done, he was leaving Texas.
“You two aren’t as different as you think,” Carter said, shoving items from his locker into his bag. “I’m guessing you didn’t run her plates?”
He frowned. No, after walking her home, he’d decided the less he knew about his intriguing neighbor, the better.
Hunter’s brows rose. “Wow. You didn’t.”
He shrugged again. Yeah, it definitely wasn’t like him, but he didn’t need his face rubbed in it.
Carter straightened and scratched the bridge of his nose. “Lyndsey is Isla’s cousin. She told my wife that about ten years ago, Isla’s mother was shot and killed.”
His heart squeezed and his stomach clenched in unison.
“Jesus,” Hunter muttered.
Sinjin was still trying to find his breath. He hated the thought of the woman suffering the same pain he’d gone through…was still going through.
“Yeah, it was one of those mall shootings,” Carter said with a shake of his head. “Anyhow, I thought you should know, Sinjin, before you put the woman on a pedestal in the untouched by horrors realms. I made that mistake with Mel, but luckily, she set me straight and gave me a chance.”
Before he could repeat that none of it made any difference and he was still going to avoid Isla, Carter walked out of the room with Hunter on his six.
Intent on keeping his mind off his neighbor and all she must’ve gone through, Sinjin followed the men to the garage and stowed his bag next to theirs in the SUV.
“I’m hungry,” Carter announced.
Hunter snorted. “You’re always hungry.”
“True.” Carter grinned. “Good sex will do that.”
His grumble mixed with Hunter’s.
“You know I’m not the type to go into detail,” Carter said. “I’m just stating I need sustenance before we hit the road. And I’m sure neither of you will turn down something from the Champion sisters.”
Hunter immediately straightened. “Roger that.”
“I’ve even seen you eat there, Sinjin.” Carter grinned. “What do you say? I’m buying.”
“Roger that,” he echoed Hunter and followed the men to the small strip mall located across the alley next door.
Champion Bakery was the third storefront, with Mac’s wife’s graphic arts studio first, followed by Carter’s wife’s tattoo parlor, and on the far end was a beauty salon owned by the wife of another of their military brothers.
The guys often joked it was a one-stop shop for significant others.
Probably why he’d avoided it as often as possible. But with the promise of free food that he was able to observe as it was being prepared, Sinjin felt it was worth the risk.
A few minutes later, while he sat eating a muffin he’d watched Loni Champion create from scratch, Sinjin felt a wave of awareness hit his back.
“Hi, Isla,” Carter said, waving at the woman as she stood by the counter.
“Hi, Carter, Hunter...” She smiled and warmth filled her gaze and flushed her cheeks. “Hi, Sinjin.”
With her face void of makeup and her hair piled on top of her head and wrapped with some type of band, a few tendrils fell lose, adding to her haphazard, sexy look, compounded by the cut-off shorts and faded T-shirt hugging her curves.
“Come join us when you get your order,” Carter said without looking his way.
Sinjin grumbled after she turned to place her order.
“You’re playing with fire,” Hunter told the idiot quietly.
Sinjin grunted his agreement. Carter was pushing it.
Isla paid for her purchase and approached with a bag and a grin. “Thanks for the invite, but I have to get back to my assessments. Who knew treating peoples’ ailments was easier than writing about them?”
“Is this part of your clinicals?” Hunter asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. It’s already my least favorite.”
His buddies smiled, and Sinjin was surprised to discover he was smiling too.
“Well, I’d better get back at it,” she said, lifting her bag. “It was nice seeing you again, Sinjin.” Then she blinked as if remembering the other guys were there. “You too, Carter and Hunter. Have a good day.”
With a quick nod, the beauty with color flooding her cheeks scrambled out of the bakery. As soon as the door swung shut, Sinjin’s pulse dropped back to normal and the awareness tingling in his body disappeared.
“ Nice seeing you again, Sinjin ,” Carter teased, using a high-pitched voice.
“Cut it,” he warned, but the jerk stuffed his grin with a mouthful of donut.
“She did seem to forget we were here.” Hunter pointed to him with his bun. “Think she likes you, Sinjin.”
“That happens a lot when he’s around. Ever notice that, Hunter?” Carter asked. “No matter what port we were in or what country, there was always a beautiful woman who only had eyes for Sinjin.”
“Yep.” Hunter nodded.
Whatever.
He wasn’t going to bite. Never did before and wasn’t about to now. Especially now, because this time there was a difference.
This time he liked the woman right back.