Noah put his hand on top of Rowe’s, shooting him a wry look.
Yeah, he was being a little possessive. So what?
They finished their breakfast and JB got up to help with the dishes. He really was an attractive man with his long, slim and tight body, and Rowe felt that knot forming in his belly again. Daisy ran up and stuck her nose in his lap, her dark eyes looking up at him. He rubbed her head, knowing she was picking up on his uneasy feelings. She’d always been a sensitive dog. He didn’t know why he was letting JB bug him so much. He knew how Noah felt about him, knew their bond was stronger than ever. He was being an ass.
With that in mind, he stood and opened the back door to let all three dogs out. He stepped outside and lifted his face into the morning breeze. He needed to just let this go.
When Noah joined him, he gave him a pointed stare. “You’re worrying for nothing.”
“I know,” he answered softly.
“It’s good to know you care so much, but your trust means a lot to me, too.” Admonishment laced his tone.
“Oh, I trust you,” Rowe insisted. “Please don’t think I don’t.”
“Then why is he bothering you so much?”
“I think it’s just being faced with someone you’ve…been with.”
Rowe looked over to see Noah frown as he stared out at the back of the yard. “We’ve never talked about people from our pasts,” Noah said, his voice low.
That was a nice way of putting one-night stands.
“Never wanted to know,” Rowe replied.
“But I never questioned that there were others for you after you left…the Army.”
A little pain shot through Rowe’s heart. He had a feeling that Noah had nearly said “left me,” which was sort of true. He might have gotten shot, ending his career, but he’d run from Noah first.
“There were others between your time in the Army and finding Mel,” Noah continued.
“True.” There had been a few women after he left the Army before he found Mel. Just faceless bodies to help pass the time. But no men. After his one night with Noah, there had been no other men. He hadn’t even considered it.
“Did you think that I was celibate after you returned home?”
Rowe sighed loudly and shifted from one foot to the other. Now he definitely felt like an ass. “No. I just…I just never thought about it. Didn’t want to think about it. From the moment you came back into my life, you were mine. That’s all that mattered to me. To hell with our pasts.”
Except that Rowe’s past covered their walls. Fuck, did Noah feel like this every day because of Mel? That was a rabbit hole he wasn’t prepared to jump down so early in the morning.
“Sorry. This just has me off my game.”
“Well, get back on it. What I had with him never would have gone anywhere, and you know the reason why.”
Rowe felt heat creeping up his neck. Noah was right. “Just ignore me. We’ll go to Alexandria and talk to Chris’s wife. See if we can figure out why someone is after you two. God, if something happened to you, Noah, I couldn’t handle it.”
“Nothing is going to happen to me.” Noah pulled him close and kissed him. “My life is exactly where I want it now, and nothing will take that from us.”That evening, they arrived in Alexandria. Dusk was settling over the city, and they found a motel not too far from where Chris’s wife lived off Richmond Highway. Even at this later hour, the traffic was intense. Trees filled the landscape in between apartment and office buildings, and when they passed a Mexican restaurant, Rowe’s stomach growled. This city bordered Washington DC, so he knew there were a lot of professionals here who worked for the federal government and U.S. Military. Which would explain the heavy traffic. Still, he was surprised at how long they sat still on Route 1.
The motel had a huge moon on the sign and looked decent, so they got a couple of rooms before scouting out Sally Perkins’s home. Rowe figured it might be a good idea to do a drive-by to make sure everything looked okay.
She lived in a small house sitting far off the street with a large front yard. Sad-looking flower beds bordered the home, and Rowe imagined they hadn’t seen water since before Chris’s death. Rowe took note of a black sedan parked several houses down with two men sitting inside. Nothing about the car or the men really stood out, but he was feeling overly cautious. Otherwise, everything looked normal and quiet.
With his stomach still growling, Rowe easily convinced his companions to turn back to the Mexican food they’d passed on their way to the motel. It was too late in the day to spring a surprise meeting on the grieving woman. It would be better to start earlier in the day. Both Noah and JB had met Sally before, but it had been years since Noah had seen her. JB had seen her a year ago when Chris returned from his last overseas tour.