Ultimate Courage (True Heroes Book 2) (21 page)

“I never thought about it that way.” Boom tipped her head to the side.

Elisa shrugged. “You don’t need it. Honestly. You’ve got a great face with healthy, lovely skin and a natural blush to your cheeks. But if you ever want to learn, just so you know how to accentuate what you’ve got at the right time, we can sit down together.”

Any person looked a million times better when they could step out with confidence in themselves. For Boom, ten was way too early for the works, in Elisa’s opinion. But a little dab of gloss here and maybe a touch of powder could do wonders for her confidence level in simply knowing she could do it if she wanted to.

Then Boom could go back to being herself without the doubt.

Boom nodded. “Let’s do it. I want to learn to do it right so I don’t ruin my face.”

Elisa blinked. “Who said anything about ruining your face?”

Though that was another consideration. It could totally happen with bad habits.

Boom lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “It’s one of the things those girls talk about when they make fun of girls who try makeup when they don’t know how. Mess up your face forever or end up with ugly, yellow fungus nails.”

Ugh
. No wonder Boom had been twisted up about this. Elisa would’ve been, too, even as an adult.

“Good call. I like your face, so I’ve got a vested interest in helping you keep it the way it is.” Elisa winked. “A lot of beauty regimens are mostly about properly washing and moisturizing your face, anyway. The better you take care of what you have, the less you ever need to tweak the way you look.”

“Washing? Like taking those sugar baths you talked about?” Boom perked up at the idea.

Elisa laughed. “There’s different kinds of stuff. Sugar scrubs could be for your lips once in a while but mostly you use the scrubs for the parts of your body that take a lot of abuse, like your hands and feet or elbows and knees.”

“Break out the big guns for the extra rough spots.” Boom nodded sagely.

“Something like that.” Elisa shook her head.

Boom gave her that brilliant smile. “Thanks. I kinda like my face, too. It’s why I keep my guard up ’cause a punch to the face can ruin it, too.”

Elisa raised her eyebrows. Apparently Boom had taken a lot of talk into consideration. “Good point.”

Boom was going to grow up into one heck of a woman. Alex might not survive it.

“You know, Dad spends a lot of time looking at your face.” Boom’s voice took on a sly tone.

“Oh?” Nope. Elisa was not going to take the bait from a pre-teen.

“He seems to like you whether you have makeup on or not.” Boom chewed her lip.

Wait
. Elisa deliberately stopped chewing her own.

“I bet if you did your makeup all special, his jaw would hit the floor.” Boom tipped her head back as she continued to consider. “But most mornings he has a silly kind of smile on his face when he sees you before you’ve had your coffee, and you don’t wear makeup most days. So I guess that’s a different kind of like, too.”

“Maybe.” Faint response, but it was the best she could manage.

Alex watched her that much? And she hadn’t noticed. Well, maybe it wasn’t a big surprise since it seemed to be before she’d had her morning caffeine, but still, she’d never thought he paid much attention.

“Yup. Maybe.” Boom bolted then, heading back to the kitchen and out the back door closest to her house.

Outmaneuvered. By a ten-year-old.

This round went to the Boom.

T
he outdoor patio was a good idea.” Rojas watched Elisa take in the décor of the cafe with a soft smile on her face.

This place was busy even on weeknights, a popular spot for couples of every age. Sitting inside would’ve been a nightmare for Rojas but out here, they could enjoy the autumn colors on the surrounding trees. The owners had set tall heat lamps out at intervals between the tables to keep patrons warm.

Rojas had taken mental note of the various couples, mostly younger and middle-aged sets braving the evening. All of the wait staff were teenagers and in fact, the entire restaurant was run by young people. It was trendy and hip, with a sophisticated menu. Exactly the kind of place he’d wanted to treat Elisa to.

Her dark brown hair was done in soft curls falling around her shoulders, and she’d worn makeup this evening, making her blue eyes brighter and somehow more striking. Her lips were even more tempting than usual, and he was sure he wasn’t going to get through the whole meal without wanting to steal a kiss. She was beautiful every day, and tonight, she’d highlighted a few of her charms specifically for him. He liked it.

“This restaurant has some interesting backstory, according to Sophie.” He took a sip of his water. “And Cruz has brought Lyn here a couple of times for dinner.”

“I like that it’s pet friendly.” Elisa leaned to one side to scratch the side of Souze’s face.

Rojas liked the way Elisa thought about Souze’s comfort, too. The big dog lay next to his feet, relaxed and wearing a service-dog-in-training vest. Lyn had sent it along from her supplies since the vests they had at Hope’s Crossing were mostly military working or K9 dog vests.

The staff at this café had welcomed them both and Souze, too, bringing out water for all three of them. Souze had his very own bowl under the table. As long as Rojas could remember not to kick the bowl, both Elisa and Souze would be happy with him. He hoped. It’d been a damned long time since he’d taken a woman out to dinner.

Drinks, one-night stands, even 0200 breakfasts at a diner after a booty call. Yeah, he’d done those. But this was
dinner
. He wanted Elisa to enjoy it, and he wanted this to be the first of many.

No pressure or anything.

“But you haven’t been here yet?” Elisa tipped her head sideways, and he wondered how he’d ever manage not to nibble at her neck in public.

It was a good thing the tables at this café had them sitting opposite each other. If they’d been in a booth, there’d have been some serious necking. “I figured we’d both have fun if it was a restaurant we’re both checking out for the first time.”

He was rewarded with one of her bright smiles. She’d started smiling for real after they’d included her in Sunday brunch. The small, polite smiles the day or two before had been nice but didn’t chase away the sadness in her eyes. Now when she smiled at him it took his breath away.

“New Hope is less crowded than I thought it’d be, the way Boom was talking about it.” Elisa sipped at her water.

“Yeah, well, Boom runs up and down the streets trying not to knock anybody over.” Rojas considered the menu. It was prix fixe so he could make his choices up front and not worry about it through the rest of the meal. “A ten-year-old takes up a lot of space.”

Elisa nodded in concession. “True. She was saying we should walk down to the end of the street and get cupcakes.”

Rojas grinned and leaned forward over the table. “Two reasons we’re not going to do that. First, I’m told there’s really good desserts here. I think you’ll want to try these. And second, the cupcake store Boom likes is around the corner and way down the end of the main strip of stores here in New Hope and it’ll be closed by the time we walk there. If she was hoping we’d bring her some cupcakes, she can hope for dessert on a different day. Sophie’s probably baking something full of sugar and bad for us for tomorrow’s brunch anyway.”

Elisa narrowed her eyes. “Ooh. Good points on all counts. Though I wouldn’t mind a walk through New Hope after dinner if you two are up for it.”

He glanced down at Souze, who looked back up at him with eyes half-lidded, and shrugged. “Could be. Let’s enjoy dinner first and play it by ear. Any idea of what you want?”

“I’m super hungry,” Elisa admitted. “The pickled beets and goat cheese look interesting, and the braised pork shank sounds amazing.”

“It does.” He put his menu down. “I’m thinking I want to try the fried risotto balls and don’t tell Gary or Greg.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Because of the innuendo they’d make?”

“Nah.” He shook his head. “Because there’s mushrooms in the risotto and they’d get on my case about eating fungus.”

“They don’t like mushrooms?” Her brows drew together in her puzzlement. She was extremely cute.

“It’s a long story involving Boom and this phase she went through where we had to justify to her why she needed to eat anything. We had protein and vegetables covered but fungus was a harder sell.”

Elisa laughed.

Dinner went faster than Rojas thought possible. Service was good. Souze was well behaved. Every table at the café was filled and it was a small space, but the outdoor seating had enough room for him to relax. He wouldn’t have chosen to sit outdoors if it hadn’t been for Sophie’s suggestion and the fact that Souze sat with him. Despite the GSD’s chill demeanor, his ears twitched back and forth with every sound. Watchful. Meaning Rojas could ease his watch a little. Enough to enjoy the evening.

Elisa had just tried one of a trio of mousses, and her eyes almost rolled into the back of her head, when a woman in a dress suit approached their table.

“Elisa! There you are!” The woman’s voice had been pitched to carry and everyone in the restaurant turned to look as she took the last few steps to their table.

Startled, Elisa blinked up at the woman. “Julie. What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you, obviously.” As the woman waved her hand, a strong mix of cheap perfume and hairspray wafted over to Rojas. “Your mother is incredibly worried, so when Joseph contacted us to let us know he’d found you, I offered to fly over on the first available flight.”

He held his breath until he thought the evening breeze must have dissipated the pungent smell. “Did you fly in alone?”

Julie looked at him as if she’d only just noticed him. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business, whoever you are, but yes.”

Julie crossed her arms, forcing her low-cut shirt lower and showing off some very impressive cleavage. There was a calculating look in her eye for a split second and then it was gone. She was checking to see if he’d checked her out.

Rojas didn’t lean back or away from her, instead reaching forward to brush Elisa’s hand on the table with his fingertips. Hopefully, she’d take it as a comfort. Whoever this Julie was, she’d caught Elisa by surprise and the tension was becoming palpable.

“I’m sorry I’ve been out of touch with my mother.” Elisa didn’t take her hand away from his, but she didn’t look at him, either. “But I did share my reservations about checking in with her.”

Julie rolled her eyes. Hard. “Which is why we are all incredibly worried about you. Disappearing without
any
warning. Leaving your
fiancé
. Hopping
all over
the country over the last few months. You were under a lot of stress planning your wedding, and I really think taking all those pills was getting out of hand.”

Rojas went cold. “Pills?”

No. Absolutely not. If there was one hard line he had, it was abuse of those damned medications.

“Oh? Don’t worry, they’re all prescribed medications.” Julie fluffed her hair. “Taking a couple a day is no big deal. I took a diazepam before I hopped on the flight over here. Couldn’t fly without it. But, really, it got to a point where every time we saw Elisa, her eyes were vacant and glazed. She was always bumping into something.”

“I was depressed, not drugged. And I don’t bump into things more often than anyone else does. When I’ve gotten distracted, I’ve bumped into the front desk back at work even. You
know
this.” Elisa tried to turn her hand to catch his, but he withdrew it. “Joseph got the medications for me, but I wouldn’t take them.”

He didn’t want to hear it. The words “prescribed” and “medication” echoed inside his head, and all he could think of was his late wife’s slurred voice yelling at him over the phone, telling him it was his fault she needed her pills. After all, he was never home, always out of communication when on missions. They’d never known exactly when he was leaving or when he’d be coming back.

“Please.” Julie’s tone turned sarcastic. “You expect us to believe the way you changed, the way you were walking around like nothing around you was touching you, was because you were depressed? I don’t think so. Your mother was already talking to Joseph about maybe limiting those prescriptions. He said you insisted you needed them to cope.”

Rojas stared at Elisa, hard. He’d told her about his late wife. She knew how he felt about those damned pills. “You should have told me.”

Elisa’s eyes widened, hurt flashing, but he clamped down on the part of him that cared whether he hurt her or not.

She set her jaw. “There’s nothing to tell. This is completely out of context.”

Of course there wasn’t anything to tell. He didn’t want to listen to any lies. “No one with a drug problem thinks there’s actually a problem.”

His wife hadn’t, right up until her problem killed her.

Elisa’s breath left her in a
whoosh
, like he’d punched her in a gut. “You don’t believe me.”

“I think the way a person reacts when they’re caught by surprise says a lot.” He snapped.

He stood up abruptly, and Souze scrambled to his feet to join him. The woman, Julie, stood her ground just long enough to brush against him accidentally before taking a few steps back. “Oh, are you leaving?”

He glared at the woman. “I think the two of you have some catching up to do.”

She smiled, fluttering long fake eyelashes at him. “We do. But after she’s checked back in with her mother and her fiancé, maybe Elisa could introduce us properly and we could get to know each other.”

Disgust filled him. Scavenger. “Pass.”

Elisa came to her feet. “Alex. Please don’t leave.”

He took a couple of steps away. Hell, he couldn’t even look at her. “I need to clear my head. Text me when you’re ready to head back.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I have a rental car. I plan to take her to wherever she’s staying and help her pack up.” Julie brushed a hand down his back, and he stiffened. Souze growled. Her touch disappeared. “Elisa should really go back to where she belongs.”

Red haze crept across his vision. Suddenly, the café was too crowded. Conversations, whispers going on around him left him vulnerable, exposed. There was no room to get clear and no place to take cover. He’d just get enough distance to cool down and she still had her phone. Rojas left before he exploded.

Elisa watched Alex leave, incredulous. He didn’t believe her.

Julie, who was supposed to be her friend, let out a disgusted sigh and sat in Alex’s seat. “He’s got a crappy attitude. Where did you even find him?”

Elisa closed her eyes. “Why are you here, Julie?”

It didn’t make sense. Julie had been a friend since her last year in college. Elisa had shared everything with her about getting her first job, dating, even meeting Joseph. Julie had been excited for her through it all, supportive. But when Elisa began to see the reality of belonging to Joseph, Julie had been more inclined to make the same arguments as Elisa’s mother so the two of them had grown distant.

Once Elisa had left, she sent Julie one e-mail to let her friend know she was okay, but she hadn’t been in contact since. Her being here made no sense. Her being in communication with Joseph was crazy.

“I told you, your mother and your fiancé are worried about you.” Julie’s voice dripped with sweetness.

It probably wasn’t worth noting that Julie hadn’t claimed to be concerned about Elisa’s well-being. Wouldn’t want to be struck down by lightning or anything.

“My mother, I’d believe. Joseph wouldn’t be worried about me so much as concerned about what people would think when they found out I left him.” Elisa pulled out her purse. Hopefully she had enough cash to cover dinner so she could go after Alex. They needed to clear the air, at least, even if he was done with her. And he shouldn’t go walking through New Hope angry the way he was. She’d promised to help him tonight and she would, even if he was beyond angry with her.

“See, I don’t understand why the fuck you would leave Joseph.” Julie leaned forward and took a spoonful of Elisa’s dessert. “He’s got money, influence, looks. He’s the full package. He had the most incredible house set up for you.”

“A house surrounded by guard dogs as likely to keep me from leaving as keep anyone from coming in.” Elisa tasted bile as she thought about it.

“Obviously, you don’t mind dogs.” Julie waved a spoon in the general direction of where Alex and Souze had gone.

Everyone had their own definition of what they were looking for. Elisa had been happy exploring the connection she shared with Alex, but it wasn’t until he’d walked away, believing awful things about her, that she realized how much his opinion mattered to her. The absence of his trust left her aching, hollow. Worse, she was angry. Betrayed. He could’ve at least listened to her. But like everyone else, including the former friend sitting across the table from her, he hadn’t.

“You have no concept of the difference.” Elisa glared at Julie. “You didn’t understand when I tried to explain why Joseph wasn’t the right partner for me in the first place, and I don’t expect you to now. But I’m assuming he told you how to find me. Didn’t you stop to wonder how he knew? Or how incredibly insane his behavior has been, chasing me from state to state across the entire country?”

Julie sighed. “You don’t appreciate the attention people give you. You never did. I don’t see how you even deserve it.”

Elisa waved at the waiter and mouthed a request for the bill. She couldn’t just leave without paying for dinner, and she was starting to be afraid Alex wouldn’t come back. If he didn’t, she wasn’t sure what she’d do but she definitely wanted the chance to talk this through with him.