22. Leo
22
LEO
K eeping his head on earth was far more difficult than he initially planned. Sage was getting under his skin. This job was getting harder by the minute, and not just because she was distracting his every waking (fine—some dreams too) thought. The event was going to be a logistical nightmare. After conferring with some of his coworkers, the agency decided to fly out two more bodyguards to help with security.
Leo had his bags packed and loaded in the car and was busy triple-checking the rental car and the arrival of his counterparts, Suey and Willis. The pair would be meeting at the hotel a few hours earlier and reviewing the entrances and exits and would update Leo’s plan if there were any changes to the layout or location of events.
The plane ride was totally uneventful except for some mild turbulence that made Sage grasp onto his forearm like a cat trying to escape a bathtub. He obviously pretended his initial jump was because she had grabbed him “hard enough to break skin” and not at all because her touch was like an electrical shock and he needed a moment to recover.
“Sorry,” she laughed, removing her hand quickly and glancing out the window. The plane lurched again and she grabbed his forearm again. “My bad.” She removed her hand a little slower this time, staring at his forearm. Thank goodness he had rolled up the sleeves because there was nothing like feeling her warm hand on his exposed skin.
The “fasten your seatbelt signs” popped up and a little announcement about how they were hitting a slight patch of weather and that everything was fine but to expect bumps for the next half hour or so. The plane jumped and this time Leo caught Sage’s hand and held it in his own.
“Fun fact: your brain is trainable. So just pretend you’re used to it. You can trick your mind into being a confident traveler.”
She laughed a little and looked out the window at the thick clouds. It was like they were in a sea of gray.
“This is weird,” she whispered and tried to pull her hand away.
He held her tighter, stroking the top of her hand with his thumb. “Just pretend it’s not.”
She held his hand even after the turbulence was long in the past.
T hey finally got into the rental car, which should not have been that complicated, but nothing could be simple when the pressure was on, could it? He glanced at Sage. Yeah, nothing would ever be simple again.
He dropped her off at her room, introducing her to Suey. “She’ll be in the adjoining room. I’ll be down the hall. Let me know if there is anything you need but Suey will be with you for most of the competition and meet and greets. Willis and I will be doing the perimeter checks and video surveillance.”
“Oh, so you’re not going to the welcome dinner?”
Was it just him or did she seem…disappointed? He smiled at the thought and he must have given too much away because Sage crossed her arms, now on the defensive. “No, I won’t,” he answered. “I have, you know, a job to do.”
She deflated a little. “But you’ve always done the job with me…”
Suey took the cue, but not before giving Leo some serious side-eye and went to her own room.
Leo leaned on the doorframe, looking down at Sage. “You actually gonna miss me hanging around?”
She scoffed and leaned against the other side of the door. “I just got used to having Bob around.”
“Dang, I was hoping Leo would suffice.”
She shrugged. “Maybe I’m just nervous. Or maybe I do actually like you sometimes, on the rare occasions you’re nice.”
He grabbed her hand. “Is this nice?”
“What do you mean?” She laughed.
Then he pulled her into himself for a hug. A real hug. He enveloped her wrapped his arms around her, and just squeezed. It was more contact with a person than he’d had in years and it nearly made his brain short-circuit.
“What are you doing?” she asked, slowly wrapping her arms around his waist.
“I am attempting to be nice. The whole comforting thing. Something like a friend would do.” Except a friend wouldn’t be smelling the side of her neck, a friend couldn’t be rubbing circles with his thumb on the small of her back, a friend wouldn’t be imagining what life with her would be like.
“Nice, huh?” she choked out against his chest. Her arms slowly came up and met around his middle, returning the embrace
“Is it working?” Leo asked. “I could tell you all the benefits of hugs and their calming powers?”
“Please don’t ruin this moment of peace with a fun fact or an ‘I read an article’ moment.”
And so, they stood there, for minutes? Hours? Years?
Clearly the measurement of time was different when someone finally , finally, got a chance to wrap his arms around the girl he wanted but couldn’t have. Time couldn’t be broken into seconds or minutes, it was too precious to be considered measurable.
Eventually, she let go and stepped back. “Thanks,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I guess I am on edge a little bit.”
“From the threats or the competition?” Or something more, he wanted to ask.
“I’m not sure,” she said.
There was a pause that lasted exactly eight seconds (because pauses were measurable in the normal unit of second—unlike overdue strictly but not strictly friendship hugs) before Leo’s body reacted. His brain couldn’t stop him (it wasn’t really his fault, his brain was still floating around in the clouds due to the whole “being nice” thing). Leo leaned down and pecked her on the cheek. “Good luck, Love,” he said because honestly everything else he wanted to say was stuck in his throat.
So, like a man, he turned around and walked away because he was aloof. He was strong. He was emotionless.
His slow and steady retreat had nothing to do with the fact that his legs had turned to jelly and he was incapable of thought because his lips had lightly grazed the softest cheek in the world.
He glanced up. He really needed to find his brain if he was going to make it through this weekend in one piece.