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Now I laughed out loud. “Of course, you do. Aren’t you worried about the cop/donut jokes?” I took a plate from Dante and loaded it up with a few slices of pizza.
The guy laughed at my question. “It became a stereotype for a reason.” He shrugged and shoved half a slice into his mouth.
No wonder they exercised non-stop if they ate like this every day.
“So, what do you do, Havoc?” A tall, blond-haired man with shrewd eyes asked me.
I swallowed hard and wondered again if this had been a good idea. “I work at a riding stable outside of town.”
“You like horses?” Sikes asked. His voice was excited, and the others groaned. “Shut up,” he said, glaring at the others.
“Um, yeah. I do.” I looked around trying to figure out what I’d missed.
A young, red headed guy stood up and offered me his seat. Dante and Ciro sat down on either side of me on the couch. Both squeezed in close so that there was more room for the others to sit. I tried to move over, but was thoroughly squashed between them. The result was that we were pressed together from thigh to shoulder.
“Thanks,” I said to the kid with a smile. The reddening of his cheeks made his freckles stand out. I was trying to ignore the two guys on either side of me. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were trying to make me uncomfortable. In reality, they were just so open and friendly that the concept of a personal bubble didn’t occur to them.
“I’m on the horse patrol unit,” Sikes said proudly.
“Here we go,” Dante muttered while Ciro sighed heavily.
“Don’t encourage him,” Ciro whispered to me. “He’ll go on for hours about-”
“Horus. That’s my horse’s name.”
I nodded and smiled at him. “That’s a great name for a horse.”
A chorus of groans went up around the room. That hadn’t been the right thing to say apparently.
“He’s perfect. A mustang. Usually, they won’t let mustangs be in the service, but he was too good to pass up.”
It was seriously cute how big of a crush the guy had on his horse. I started to take a bite of pizza.
“What kind of horses do you work with?”
I paused with the slice halfway up to my mouth. “Um-”
“Let the poor woman eat, Sikes,” Dante grumbled at him. The guys took up the task of distracting him from that point on. “Sorry about him.”
I shrugged. “He’s nice.” I took my first bite and closed my eyes as the flavors delighted my taste buds. I had a long-standing love affair with pizza. I liked it for any meal, any time, warm or cold. When my eyes opened back up everyone was staring at me with their brows up and smirks on their faces.
“And you had the gall to tease us for eating it for breakfast,” Ciro snorted.
“I didn’t tease you, I was just surprised that I wasn’t the only one who did that,” I insisted with a laugh.
They were easy to get along with and before I knew it, Dante was walking me back to my apartment. I smoothed my hands down my pants. “Thanks for the food.”
“No problem. Sorry if the guys were too nosey. Hazard of the job.”
They’d peppered me with questions throughout the meal. It hadn’t taken me long to find my stride though and I’d answered what I felt like and redirected anytime things got too personal. “Eh, I’m the new person. It makes sense they’d want to know more about me.” It was strange how easily I’d slipped back into cop mode once I’d been around all of them. Not that any of the guys knew that was why we’d gotten along so well.
Dante reached forward and tucked a loose strand of hair, that’d escaped my braid, behind my ear. My lips parted slightly as I sucked in a breath. He was looking at me like he wanted to kiss me. I froze when he leaned forward and did exactly that. His lips brushed over mine and I felt confusion and guilt war within me. It was...nice. But it shouldn’t be. I’d had that once in a lifetime kind of love and now it was gone. I shouldn’t be letting anyone kiss me. Not to mention the whole cop and criminal thing.
Dante stepped back and rubbed a hand over his chest. “Sorry, I-”
“Dante-” We both trailed off as we interrupted each other.
“Go ahead,” he said with a grin.
