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“I go out on jobs often, so we get plenty of time apart. I also oversee a lot of the training of the other bodyguards. Rowe has been spending a lot more time in his office, meeting with his tech team and COO. Oh! And Carol from HR. She makes a visit to your office at least once a week.”
“Hey!” Rowe said, reaching out to smack Noah’s shoulder as he sat down on the couch next to him. “It’s mostly for hiring now.”
JB lifted his eyebrows and grinned. “She got a thing for you?”
Rowe groaned while Noah snickered hard enough that he thought the beer was going to come out of his nose. “The team can get a little rowdy,” Rowe muttered.
“Like the time Dom chased you through the hall with his pants down around his ankles,” Noah said with a laugh. “Or the time Quinn replaced all the coffee in the office with decaf. Thank God he’s faster than he looks, because I’m pretty sure Garrett was going to murder him.”
JB turned serious. “You don’t fuck with a man’s coffee.”
“Lots of practical jokes and antics.”
“Fewer recently,” Rowe said softly. “We’ve just been too busy.”
“I would have been out a few nights on a job this week if I hadn’t gotten Sven to cover for me.”
“How long have you been together?”
“Two and a half years,” Rowe answered. “It’s gone fast.”
“I hear it’s like that when it’s good.” JB took another drink of his beer and leaned over to set it on the coffee table.
Rowe put his hand on Noah’s thigh. “You seeing anyone?”
“Nah. Like I told Noah the other night, my mom keeps trying to set me up. You can guess how that goes.”
Rowe wouldn’t know. He hardly had anything to do with his family, and it had been like that since before he’d left for the Army. They’d even sent him to live with his grandfather in Colorado. Granted, he’d given them a hell of a bad time, getting involved in drugs and other illegal activities after a friend of his was killed when he was sixteen.
His parents and siblings were all in Missouri, but the last time he’d seen them, Mel had still been alive. They’d attended that wedding, and she made an effort to drag him back to Missouri a couple of times just to keep the link alive, but Rowe had let that last tie mostly die with her.
They knew he now lived with Noah, but neither his mother nor father had anything to say about it. He barely existed for them. And he was fine with it. He had all the family he needed in Cincinnati.
“Noah said you work on your parents’ ranch,” Rowe said, pulling his thoughts from the dark quagmire that was his blood family. There was nothing to be gained by thinking about them.
“I do. Cattle and horses. I like it. More than I did when I was growing up. Since returning from the Army, I’ve been training to take it over. My sister was helping my parents while I was gone, but she married a man with his own ranch. I know she’d rather focus on that and her family. I like Texas. Love the land there.”
Rowe leaned back on the couch, content with a belly full of beer and pizza. “I’ve never been to Texas. I hear everything is big there.”
JB laughed. “You know it. After this is all over, you and Noah are welcome to come visit anytime. We’ve got a nice guest house, and I’ll rustle up the biggest damn steak you’ve ever seen. The barbecue is out of this world. Nothing can touch it.”
Rowe smirked at Noah and jerked his thumb toward JB. “Listen to this guy. It’s like he knows me.”
“The best way to convince you of anything is to talk to your stomach first,” Noah agreed.
“Were you close to Chris and Paul?” Rowe asked.
“I was, though I hadn’t seen either of them in some time. We kept in touch through email. I knew Chris was thinking of starting a family.” He shook his head sadly. “I feel so sorry for Sally—it had to be hard losing him like that.” He tightened his lips. “I want those guys to pay for what they’ve done.”
“They will,” Noah vowed. “They will all pay.”
“I can’t wrap my head around why our own men would turn on their own like that.” JB scowled and shifted in his chair.
“Me neither.” Noah threaded his fingers through Rowe’s.
Rowe loved that he didn’t hesitate to show affection, even in front of an ex. He stroked his thumb over Noah’s knuckles. “Greed does bad things to people.”
“You gotta be one cold motherfucker to pull something like that.”
Rowe shrugged because in his experience, some bad guys were going to be bad no matter the circumstances. All he could do was remember that there was a lot of good in the world, and it wasn’t hard when he thought of his friends and how they had his back. He thought of Noah, infinitely good and hurting over knowing he’d been a small part of what had happened in Afghanistan. He glanced at Noah to find him staring at his beer, the dejection on his face hard to swallow. He tightened his fingers and Noah glanced up at him and smiled, but those pretty blues held too much sadness.
