Page 18 of Broken Bodyguard
Her cheeks flushed after I said it, which had me curious.
“Why are you blushing?”
“I’m not.”
“You clearly are.”
Her cheeks stayed rosy. “It’s just hot in here.” She twisted to look at the fireplace, then made a display of fanning herself. “See? It’s just so warm.”
“Take your sweater off then.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “Uh…I don’t know about that.”
It was cute to see her squirm. Maybe she had her mind on the ‘adult’ side of things like I did. “Should we go outside? I can make a fire.”
Her eyes lit up. “Can we?”
I curled my hand into a fist beneath the table, resisting the urge to tug the end of her loose ponytail. Fuck, she was gorgeous. Rosy-cheeked and decked out in leggings; sipping beer and talking about everything with me from world travel to how to sprout an avocado. She was a little brunette snack that I wanted to gobble up.
“We can do anything we want,” I told her, wondering if she knew how literally I intended that. My knee groaned as I stood, but I ignored it. “Len’s got a firepit and some chairs out back. Let’s go.”
I wanted to grab her hand and keep her close as we walked outside, but I didn’t. Over twenty four hours with this woman and I was losing my head. I wasn’t the type of guy to ‘play house’—that had never been my goal in life, and it still wasn’t.
The only women that graced my beds were the type that didn’t stick around for long. That was by design, because that was the only thing that felt right to me. After my chaotic and vagabond upbringing, I kept my distance from the family unit. Stability had never been within reach back then, so I created it the only way I knew how as an adult: staying the fuck away from anything permanent.
Everything about Maddie and Grace screamedpermanent.Getting involved in that was not a wise choice…but I couldn’t help myself, either.
I needed to clear my head, and the cold night air would do the trick.
We shrugged on our coats and boots before slipping out the side door. The firepit sat several yards away from the window of Maddie’s bedroom, so we weren’t too far from Grace as she slept. Amber exterior lights illuminated the area around the house, allowing me to select the best logs from the woodpile against the house. Maddie hung around the firepit as I stacked the firewood and got the kindling going. I had a fire going within five minutes. She applauded me once the wood was crackling.
“You’re such a good fire starter,” she cooed, settling onto the wooden bench. I plopped down next to her, admiring my handiwork.
So are you, but a different fire.Also not a thing I would say out loud to this woman.
“I spent a lot of time out in the wild growing up,” I told her.
“What, were you raised by wolves?”
I snorted. “Not technically, but it must have seemed like it to those on the outside.”
Silence settled between us as the fire grew, consuming the dry wood.
“So your parents were like wolves,” she said slowly.
I rubbed my hands together, enjoying the slow build of heat in front of us. But the few inches of space that remained between me and Maddie annoyed me. I wanted them gone. “They were just…trying their best, I guess?” I laughed, but it came out bitter. Because that’s how I still felt about the whole situation. “My dad had some mental health issues that he chose not to take care of. So it meant that me and my mom and my little sister were constantly dealing with the consequences.”
Her frown shone brightly in the shifting light of the fire. “That must have been so hard.”
“We traveled the US like vagabonds. Or maybe like someone in the witness protection program, I don’t know. We lived in a shitty RV and never stayed anywhere for longer than a week.”
My voice gave out, though there was so much more I could have said. Those details alone sounded embarrassing enough. I’d spent my entire adolescence trying to hide the evidence of how broken my family life was. Living in the shadow of my father’s mental illness made it hard to keep friends, much less attend school. My mother cycled us in and out of public schools, depending on how long we’d stay in the same area. When we weren’t in school, she home schooled us. It had been a shit show with a capital Shit.
Maddie reached for my hand, crossing her legs and facing me on the bench. “Seriously?”
“It’s okay.” I couldn’t move my hand away from hers, even though I knew I should. “Ancient history now.”
Her frown deepened, and I could tell she wasn’t satisfied by my response. “It sounds difficult.”
