About to further protest Janecia’s ridiculous insinuation, she was caught in his eyes as he began to walk off with the blonde hand in hand. As much as she knew she should look away, his eyes were like a magnet. It seemed the longer she stared at him the darker his stare went until he leaned over and kissed the girl deeply. That instantly snapped the pull he’d had on her, and she closed her eyes.

“You okay?” Janecia asked gently.

Regina opened her eyes, turning back to Janecia, feeling completely embarrassed. “Yeah. Yeah.” She cleared her throat and smiled weakly at her very concerned-looking friend.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, G. But clearly there’s more going on.”

After successfully convincing Janecia that she was fine and there was nothing else to tell about the stuck-up sergeant—or maybe not so successfully—her friend let it go anyway.

On her drive home, Regina came to the conclusion that nothing good could come from trying to figure out why this man, who might even be married, didn’t like her. From that moment on, she decided her best bet was to avoid him at all costs, and when it wasn’t possible to, she’d just ignore him completely. It was what he seemed to want anyway, so that was that. She was done giving any more thought to Sergeant Jerk Face!

~*~

Brandon

After a long day of supervising one of his newest DIs as he did his first evaluations of the newest recruits, Brandon made his way back to his office. He rode with Sergeant Miller in the golf cart they’d used to drive out to the field where the evals had taken place. Miller was in the middle of some long-winded story about his days as a DI when Brandon noticed Rodriguez and Ms. Brady just outside his office building, chatting. Slowing as he drove by them, they both turned to him. The big smile Rodriguez had worn up until that moment flattened, his face going even paler than it already was. Ms. Brady’s smile wasn’t as big as Rodriguez’s, but it did seem to fade gradually at the sight of him.

Rodriguez nodded at both him and Miller then turned back to Ms. Brady and said something. In a flash, he disappeared back into the building. Brandon didn’t even realize he was still glaring when he glanced back at Ms. Brady, who was still looking at him. Bringing his attention to his driving, he was alarmed at how unbelievably irritated the sight of Rodriguez yapping it up with her made him feel.

Instantly speeding up, he drove to the back of the building where he parked and he and Miller parted ways. It’d been such a long day. He’d planned on heading straight to his car and going home. Instead, he stalked into the building. With no patience to wait for the elevator and because he felt as if he needed to work off some steam, he hurried up the stairs.

Rodriguez had ignored a direct order. That was the only reason why Brandon felt so fucking annoyed. There was no other reason. Never mind the fact that the only other time Brandon had seen Ms. Brady all week she’d evoked the very same annoyance he felt now. That was two days ago, and she’d been laughing at something one of her engineer co-workers was saying to her.

Swallowing hard as he reached the top of the stairs, he turned the corner into the hallway just in time to catch Rodriguez waiting for the elevator. The second Rodriguez saw him he turned to him, taking a few steps away from the closed elevator doors.

“Sir, I can explain.”

“Yes, you can and you will,” Brandon said, his tone hard and full of authority just as he’d been trained by the very best. “Only not here, not like this.” He got right in Rodriguez’s face. “I want a full report on my desk tomorrow morning, explaining why you ignored a direct order from your superior. I wanna know exactly what you were talking to her about when you’ve been instructed to stay away from her entirely. And also want you tell me why the hell I shouldn’t write you up.”

The elevator door opened, and Ms. Brady stepped out, staring at them almost in question. Brandon looked away, refusing to make eye contact, and Rodriguez did the right thing, not even acknowledging her. They waited silently until she was out of sight. “I don’t normally give second chances, so consider yourself lucky.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

Brandon took two long steps into the still-open elevator and turned around to face Rodriguez, who wisely didn’t dare step in with him. “First thing in the morning, Rodriguez,” Brandon repeated the order through his teeth.

“Sir, yes, sir,” Rodriguez said just as Brandon hit the close button, and the elevator doors closed, leaving a very staggered-looking Rodriguez outside.

This was completely unacceptable. Brandon needed to get a grasp on what she was beginning to do to him. The fact that Rodriguez had ignored a direct order was reason enough to piss Brandon off, but he shouldn’t be getting this worked up over it.

The elevator doors opened, and he stepped out still feeling incredibly agitated as he walked out toward the front door of the building. Would he really write Rodriguez up if his report wasn’t satisfactory or worse if he stupidly admitted to having been flirting with her? The thought of Rodriguez’s remarks about what he’d do to her in the bathroom slammed into him.

Pushing the front doors open with a little more force than necessary, he concluded two things. Not only would Brandon write his ass up but he’d get the perverted asshole transferred to another fucking base.

Second conclusion? As much as he was trying to deny it, what this girl was doing to him was getting way out of control.

* * *

The next morning, Rodriguez’s report was on Brandon’s desk when he arrived, though Rodriguez himself was not there. Brandon knew Rodriguez would be out doing evaluations of his own all week. He was glad for that. He’d spent too much time thinking about what might be in the report, what he might learn about Ms. Brady, the woman he wanted nothing to do with. Brandon knew he’d be scrutinizing the report a little closer than normal, and it was better if Rodriguez wasn’t there to witness it.

Along with the report was a letter of apology to Brandon for having disrespected him, though Rodriguez made it clear it was not his intention. The report stated that Ms. Brady had made the first contact as they stepped outside together. He went on to outline the conversation about the change in the weather and how Rodriguez felt it rude to just ignore her so he carried on with the harmless conversation.

Brandon rolled his eyes. He’d seen the playful smile Rodriguez wore as he’d driven close enough to see the exchange between him and Ms. Brady. From what little he already knew about Rodriguez, Ms. Brady had likely made a comment as simple as “It’s chilly tonight,” and he’d run with it.

Skimming through the rest of the report, Brandon stopped only at the parts that caught his eye such as Ms. Brady saying she’d take this weather any day over the weather back east where she’d just moved from.

He’d wondered about that. According to her phone conversation with her daddy, it appeared she had family out here, so he’d assumed she was on her way home. But Sergeant Carter had also mentioned not having seen her here before, so there was the possibility she was only here temporarily. Now this confirmed she’d be here for good.

Brandon frowned immediately at the next part. With his very fair skin and light eyes, if it weren’t for Rodriguez’s last name, you’d never know he was Hispanic. He’d even made mention that the kids in the mostly Hispanic community he grew up in teased him about being the whitest Mexican they knew. Brandon remembered him saying that he liked blowing people away or using it to his advantage when trying to pick up women by speaking to them in his perfect Spanish out of the blue.

Apparently, the idiot didn’t count on Brandon remembering that insignificant comment he’d made weeks ago, because in his report he included the part about answering one of her questions in Spanish. However, he wasn’t stupid enough to mention whether or not she’d been blown away.

Last night after calming down, Brandon had no doubt he’d overreacted. He was even mad at himself for doing so. This really was getting ridiculous. If he wanted nothing to do with Ms. Brady, then why the hell did he care about seeing her with someone else? After finishing the meticulously written report, Brandon was now glad he had reacted the way he had. If Rodriguez hadn’t blown Ms. Brady away yesterday, Brandon doubted that after his nearly explosive reaction Rodriguez would be looking for another chance to impress her again.

Cursing himself, Brandon set the report down, remembering how he’d actually looked up the name Brady to make sure it in no way had any Hispanic ties. She’d made it clear that she was a Ms., not a Mrs. That meant one thing. Either she was part Hispanic and her father had Irish roots, which seemed unlikely given her looks, or she’d previously been married to a Brady. If it was the latter, then unlike with Sofie and Eric, Rodriguez or any other Hispanic guy shouldn’t have a cultural advantage over Brandon about getting a girl like Ms. Brady, especially guys like Rodriguez using his Spanish to try and impress her. If she’d married out of her culture before, obviously it didn’t matter to her.

Brandon shot out of his chair, more annoyed with himself than he had been last night. The fact that he was even thinking in these terms was absolutely unacceptable. He dropped the report in the trash and slipped his hat over his head. He had no business putting so much damn thought and even research into this. Damn it. He’d even told the woman he had no desire to get to know her better.

Shaking his head in frustration as he walked out of his office, he forced himself to think of what he should be thinking about: the day ahead of him. It would be a long one for sure. He had several meetings with a few of his stuffy superiors to discuss the evaluations he’d been overseeing all week. He’d concentrate on that instead.

Chapter Eight

Regina

Staring into the darkness outside her office window, Regina smiled, thinking about how nice it had been to see her family this past weekend. Saturday she’d gone into the gym then did some grocery shopping before going home and fixing herself some pasta. Eating alone in her quiet condo, she felt herself sinking into that lonely place again. She needed to get used her life as it was now. Here or in New York, this is how it would be forever. He was gone, and until she began to move on—find herself again, be the person she was once—she’d continue sinking. She needed to go back to being that girl who didn’t need someone else to make her happy.

Sunday had been nice. Maybe she didn’t need a man to make her happy, but her family, she definitely needed. Being close to them again felt right. She was glad when her mother told her that now that all her children were living close by she’d be having early Sunday dinner for the entire family at her place every week. That was even more to look forward to because seeing her siblings and their families had been wonderful.

Albeit her parents weren’t that close, the just-over-an-hour drive each way to their home had also served a purpose. It’d given her time to think. Her job wasn’t that bad, really. She just had to give herself time to adjust, and she’d already decided she wouldn’t give the sergeant another thought. The only energy she’d put into anything where he was concerned was to avoid him completely. She had enough things to deal with and an entire new lifestyle to adjust to. She didn’t need to be thinking about a man who, from what she’d seen Friday, was likely married or in a relationship anyway. Being around her family reminded her why she’d made this move in the first place. Knowing she was close enough that she could be with them often now made it all worth it. She wouldn’t let a less glamorous job than her job in New York or some jerk working in the same building make her forget that.

For the past few days, she’d effectively managed to be upbeat about her job and hadn’t once run into him. That is until yesterday, but fortunately it’d been brief, and both times he’d been just as cold and indifferent as ever. Screw him. She was done trying to figure out what his problem was. She’d seen the way he glared at the other sergeant she’d been speaking to. Unlike Sergeant Billings, Sergeant Rodriguez had been friendly and engaging. Yet Sergeant Billings had seen fit to look at him in that same rigid way she thought he’d reserved just for her. The simple answer could very well be he was just an asshole.