Unbreak My Heart (Rough Riders Legacy #1)(92)

“I want to learn how to cook so you don’t end up doing it all. That’s not fair to you.”

I felt a little weepy…and sort of like an * for my previous bitchy thoughts.

Then Boone smacked my ass. “Go shed the skin of the corporate exec. We’ll eat when you’re done.”

“Sounds good.” I looked at Raj. “Are you staying for dinner?”

“Yes ma’am. Lucinda Grace is studying at the library tonight. I’m not used to bein’ alone. So here I am, hanging with B.”

“Me’n Raj finally hooked up the PS4. We’re testing it out tonight.”

“Cool,” I said offhandedly. “I’ll change, clear my head and be back in ten.”

I kicked off my heels and sighed when my toes sank into the plush carpeting. The door to my bedroom—our bedroom—was shut. I pushed it open and flipped on the light.

So much for my few moments of serenity. I’d made the bed before I left. I didn’t care it looked rumpled, but I did care about the gym bag and the huge duffel. I eyed the stuff spilling over the middle to my side of the bed. My first thought? His shit wasn’t supposed to be in here for this very reason.

Then the hamper caught my notice. What the f*ck? Why had he dumped all of my clothes all over? And mixed them up? I had a dual-sided hamper for a reason—so I could separate what went to the drycleaners from the regular wash.

“Sierra—” Boone said, barreling into the room. He latched onto my upper arms to keep from knocking me over. “Shit. I forgot to put that stuff away. I got busy…”

Busy doing what? You weren’t busy doing the damn dishes.

He gently turned me around and curled his hands around my face. “Grab your lounge clothes and hole up in the bathroom. I promise when you come out this’ll all be gone, okay?”

His eyes held remorse. Not a look I’d seen very often so I knew he was sincere. “Okay.”

He kissed my mouth, the tip of my nose, between my eyebrows and the top of my forehead.

“Before I go, I need to point out that your explosion of stuff is why I gave you another place to keep it.”

“I know. I’ll be contained over there from now on. I promise.”

I kissed him hard and swatted his ass as I headed to the bathroom.

Ten minutes later I’d scrubbed off the day’s stress, donned my lounge clothes, put my hair up and was ready to eat.

Boone gave me a head-to-toe inspection and when our eyes met, I knew he’d take great pleasure in tearing the workout tank top and yoga pants off my body. “Let’s eat.”

The food was pretty good for a first attempt. There was a lot of it, which seemed to be Boone and Raj’s main criteria. And there wouldn’t be leftovers, much to Boone’s dismay.

After the meal, Raj helped me do the dishes. Someone had at least emptied the dishwasher while I’d been decompressing, so that was a plus. By the time I’d cleaned the kitchen to my specs, an hour had passed.

When I heard the video game start—the sheer volume sent me outside to the patio.

I’d brought work home I could’ve done in the office, but I wanted to backtrack records and I was always getting interrupted and I’d lose my spot or my train of thought. I had ten years’ worth of data to crosscheck. Data I should’ve gone through the proper channels to get, but I’d asked my dad for six months ago. Since this was a pet project of sorts, I worked on it when I had time.

When my eyes started to burn and my mouth was dry, I realized in my effort to escape, I hadn’t brought anything to drink. The second I opened the sliding glass door, the noise assaulted me, louder than ever.

Enough.

They weren’t chasing me out of my own house with this. I marched into the living room and focused on the noise, not the huge f*cking mess.

“Guys,” I yelled. “Turn it down.”

“Hang on a sec,” Boone said, hand busy on the game controller, eyes rapt on the screen.

“Take that, motherf*cker!” Raj taunted.

“You cocksucker. That was a total dick move.”

“All’s fair in Doom, baby.”

And they were ignoring me. Awesome.

“Hit pause. Right. Fucking. Now.” I might’ve shrieked that.

The noise ceased.

“What?” Boone asked, a little testily.

Sorry I had to yell at you to get your attention away from a video game, *.

“Turn it down. You guys aren’t the only ones in the house.”

They exchanged a “what’s her problem, it ain’t that loud” look.

“It’s echoing down the hallway.”

“Fine.” Boone turned the game back on and pointed the remote control at the AV equipment. The volume dropped.

“Wait! Fuck, I wasn’t ready,” Raj said.

Boone hit pause again. “Quiet enough for you now?”

“Peachy, dude.”

My sarcasm was lost on him—or lost in the loud f*cking noises still pouring from the speakers.

I poured myself two fingers of Crown and retired to my room. So I couldn’t even watch TV to wind down. My eyes still burned from looking at computer screens all day so I had zero interest in reading. I pulled out my phone and checked Facebook. Boring. Where did these people get the time to post so much stuff?