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The only person who really should ask him about it was Pallas.

The man who’d always been his friend and now, Pallas was in charge of the unit.

At least that’s what they’d been told for a while.

The only issue was when they were going to get their new teammates.

Sure, there’d been talk of bringing in fresh blood from the continental US, but that had been stalled for a bit.

Maybe, for too long.

“Anything new going on for you?”

Buck turned his head to look at his friend. He wondered what he’d heard.

Hoss certainly hadn’t been around when Mari had been over, which made sense because she’d visit during the day when Hoss was at the base on duty.

“Kind of,” Buck knew he was hedging his answer, but he didn’t want to bring up Mari yet.

It kind of felt like he might jinx the whole thing.

A worry he hadn’t had before everything had gone south on the transport but had become all too real in his thinking.

Something he didn’t share with his team.

What was left of them.

“So this is like a secret thing?” Hoss turned to look at him and then put his eyes back on the road. “Do I need to interrogate you or is this something you’ll get around to telling us about later.”

“Later,” Buck answered quickly. “Interrogation sucks.”

“It does,” Hoss agreed. “So it does.” His voice and his expression darkened a bit.

“What about you?” Buck was shamelessly turning the discussion onto his friend. “I haven’t seen you around much.”

The mood shifted between them and Buck caught his friend looking up into the rearview mirror to look in his direction.

Here he was asking about the man’s personal life when he wasn’t ready to talk about his.

“I found a stable a few miles away. They were looking for some help with the horses…”

Hoss let his words trail off, but Buck didn’t need to hear the rest to understand.

“You still haven’t decided to bring your horse over here?”

The side of Hoss’ mouth closest to Buck lifted up in a smile, but Buck didn’t know if the other side was doing the same thing or not.

“The cost is crazy. And Splash hasn’t ever been on a plane. She hated horse trailers going from home to rodeos, I can’t imagine what she’d be like trapped in a plane for hours.”

Buck wanted to offer up the idea of sedating the gelding, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to say it.

“So you’re helping out with horses at a ranch.”

Hoss nodded and slowed his truck to a stop at the corner. “It’s good working there. The sights are a little different than the barn back home on my family’s land, but the smells,” he lifted his chin and chuckled, “well those are the same everywhere.”

Buck was glad they weren’t at the bowling alley yet. While he didn’t grow up on a ranch like Hoss did, his extended family had enough livestock that he didn’t have to imagine what it might smell like.

He knew.