Romero (The Moreno Brothers 4)

He kissed her. God, she really was perfect. “Trust me. I wasn’t planning on saying that ever again. I just wasn’t sure how you’d feel about making it official.”

She smiled widely. “Then it’s official. You’re now my roomie.”

He pulled her down next to him, wrapping his arms around her warm naked body. “Oh, I’m way more than your roomie, and don’t you forget it.”

She giggled, squirming away. “No, no, babe. I don’t have time right now. I’m already late.” She pouted, obviously seeing the disappointment in his face. “But you’re welcome to join me.”

Romero knew exactly what that meant—quickie. He’d take it. When she got out of bed he chased her to the shower. He could hardly believe this is what life was going to be like from here on.

***

Gary Foster was a no-nonsense, let’s get to it, type of man. Isabel saw it the moment she arrived at the campaign headquarters. His only response to her telling him her name was: “You’re late.”

Her shower with Romero had gone on a little longer than she anticipated, but it was oh, so worth it. Even if it meant getting the stink eye from Gary, her legs were still weak. “I know. I’m sorry, but I’m here now. What do you need me to do?”

He picked up a clipboard. “Lets see here… Isabel.” His eyes scanned the paper on the clipboard.

Isabel glanced around and saw Jacob was already there. He was out of uniform, in a pair of jeans and wore a “Montenegro for Mayor” t-shirt. Everyone else wore the same t-shirt and she wondered why she hadn’t been given one. Then she remembered. She was late.

He looked so different out of uniform. More relaxed. Jacob smiled when he saw her and she felt her cheeks warm because he caught her checking him out.

“Looks like you have flyer duty today.” He flipped through the pages on the clipboard. “Now let’s see where you’re headed and who you’re partnered up with.”

As soon as he said that, she knew exactly who she’d be partnered up with. She should’ve seen something like this coming. “Why do I need a partner?”

Gary looked up at her then back at the clipboard. “We never send anyone out alone—safety reasons—my rule.”

Isabel took a deep breath. She was sure her sister knew perfectly well about this rule of his, before she ever came over to talk to her. How was she supposed to get mad at her now? Her sister had made it clear what she was up to. Isabel just hadn’t anticipated how cunning Pat would be about this.

Gary glanced around then motioned for Jacob to come over. She knew it. “You and the soon-to-be Lieutenant Commander are headed to the mall. Your sister hooked you up. At least you won’t be in the hot sun. And you get a Navy man to escort your around all day.”

“All day?”

“Well, just until you get all the flyers passed out.” He pointed to a mountain of boxes full of flyers on a table. “You two can handle this.” Jacob joined them and Gary turned to him. “Isn’t that right, Commander?” Gary grinned. “You two can handle passing these little boxes of flyers out today right?”

Jacob smiled. “Of course. And call me Jacob.”

“Alright, Jacob. You and Isabel here are headed to the mall.”

Gary went over the mall’s policy on passing out flyers, a do-and-don’t list and they were on their way. “We can go in my car,” Jacob suggested. “Why take two?”

Isabel hesitated. “Once we’re done we can just go, right? If I take my car I can go straight home from there.”

Jacob shrugged, opening the trunk to his car. “Which way do you live?”

Without thinking, she pointed.

“Well, then you’ll have to come by here anyway. I can just bring you back to get your car.”

With her mind muddled, Isabel couldn’t think of an excuse not to fast enough. So she slumped her shoulders and gave in. Romero would be furious—knowing this was all Pat’s doing again. But this was strictly business and he had to know he had nothing to worry about. She was crazy about him.

After hours of walking from door to door at the mall, requesting permission to post their flyer on the windows of their stores, Isabel was pooped. She never realized how big and just how many stores were in the mall. She was shocked at how rude some shop owners could be, too.

“You getting hungry?” Jacob asked.

She was, but she wasn’t looking forward to sitting and talking to him. Up until then, their conversations had all been about the campaign. There had also been some small talk about her work, and how she had a meeting set up with the union to try to persuade them to endorse her dad. Lunch would most likely go a more personal direction. Even though she knew she was doing nothing wrong, she was certain telling Romero that she’d spent most of her day with Jacob was going to be uncomfortable at the very least. But telling him they’d also had a long lunch together would only make it worse.

One thing was for sure, she’d be talking to her sister about this again. The thought of spending time around Jacob had seemed harmless enough, but actually doing it felt much different. “Yeah, I could go for a bite of something.”

They walked past Frisco’s. Isabel didn’t even look in that direction. No way were they eating there. She and Romero had gone back a few times since their first dinner together. As far as she was concerned, that was their place now. She didn’t know it then, but in hindsight, that’s the day she’d fallen for him. He’d melted her with his smile the entire night, but when he told her he’d been there two weeks in a row hoping to run into her, that’s what did it. That’s why the next night at the game, she was helpless to even try fighting off his kisses. She’d been putty in his hands ever since.