Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
“Finally, thank you to Senator and Mrs. Cantrell for their gracious hospitality and for welcoming us into their beautiful home.”
Riley stood on the stairs in the Cantrells’ grand living room, extending her heartfelt appreciation not only to her hosts but to the sixty guests gathered before her. The evening so far had been a smashing success.
Her eyes met her bodyguard’s and lingered, surprised to find those baby blues of his watching her with … respect? Whatever it was, it was a complete departure from yesterday’s icy glare during church.
She pulled her attention back to the guests and smiled as her face heated. “Please, enjoy the rest of your evening. And thank you again for your abundant generosity.”
The room erupted in applause as she took the three steps down to the floor, where Shadow Num—Mr. Blankenship met her and extended his arm.
“May I escort you to dinner, Miss Hudson?”
She tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow. “It would be an honor, Mr. Blankenship.”
Every time he’d held the door of the SUV open for her today, he’d taken her hand to help her out. A gentlemanly gesture.
But this, walking through this opulent home on his arm, felt friendly. Almost … date-like. Saturday, his arrogance had perturbed her. Yesterday, his hard work on her behalf had touched her. Today, his powerful presence had comforted her.
But tonight … tonight his closeness discombobulated her. The man was handsome, no doubt. Confident, good at his job, and—a surprise to her—a man of faith. Being so close to him made her feel safe in a way he wasn’t being paid for.
But he wasn’t her date. They weren’t even friends. He was there to protect her body, not her heart. Yet something inside of her sprang to life the second she’d taken his arm. That had never happened with Graham. With anybody.
Together, they walked with the rest of the guests out to the stately home’s veranda and beyond it to a large, elegantly trimmed white tent erected on the lawn. Tables had been set up and tastefully dressed in black, white, and gold for the $500-per-plate dinner.
He led her toward the main table, music from a string quartet wafting through the tent. “You were very impressive. You have a definite gift.”
Her gaze snapped to his. Had he actually paid her a compliment? “Thank you.”
“What you accomplished over one cocktail hour was astounding. You certainly know how to charm folks into opening up their wallets. I think I counted up to about ninety thousand in pledges by the time all was said and done.”
“One hundred five, to be precise. Even I’m surprised by how much we accomplished tonight.
Now we can start on the classrooms at the shelter.
Educational needs are different for homeless children since their schooling can be so sporadic.
It’s difficult to integrate them into the public school system unless they’re already there and up to speed with their classmates, so if we can accommodate them at the shelter, all the better. ”
At the table they would share with the Cantrells and three other couples, he held her chair before taking his own. “Your passion for the project is obvious. I can see why they made you chairperson.”
“I do have a soft spot in my heart for these kids.” She placed her cloth napkin in her lap. “On Thursday’s tour through our downtown Lend a Hand shelter, you’ll see the new beds and full-service cafeteria. We’ve incorporated Save the Children with it since many of our homeless are families.”
“Yes, the tour.” He leaned in. “You’re sure keeping our Tech Ops folks hopping,” he said in a low voice, so the others wouldn’t hear, she assumed.
No use everybody knowing he was her bodyguard, not her charming and handsome date.
“Doing security checks on all these places and people. Even Mack’s gone out on some reconnaissance.
I can’t remember the last time he did field work. ”
“Reconnaissance?” Leaning her head close to his, she spoke just as quietly. “You make it sound like a military operation.”
“It almost feels like it. You are one busy lady. And we can’t wing it. We have to know well ahead of time where we’re going, when we’ll be there, who will be there once we get there, what the surrounding area’s like, whether the building’s secure, where all the exits are. You have no idea.”
Her eyes widened as he’d counted off his list. “You’re right. I had no idea. If it’ll help, I’ll get you next week’s schedule by tomorrow. There might be a few things added later, but it’ll at least give your people some notice.”
“That’d be great. I appreciate it.” With a smile, he sat up and panned his gaze around the room. Out of habit, more than likely. Leaving her wondering if he did the same while off the clock.
They spent the rest of the gourmet, five-course dinner visiting with the others at the table. After the way he seemed to have judged her, she didn’t know how he would relate to them. If he might feel out of place or consider them all society snobs.
She needn’t have worried. He was gracious, attentive, asked intelligent questions, and answered queries with confidence and an obvious deep knowledge base.
When asked about his profession, he simply stated he worked for an international security operations company.
And as she’d known they would be, her tablemates were warm and friendly, funny and smart.
Letting her gaze roam around the table, she smiled with what she could only define as pride, in its most selfless form.
Pride in how everyone watched him as he answered a question posed to him by the senator.
Pride that they found him engaging and intelligent.
Pride as if he truly were her date, and she was showing him off.
Her cheeks heated again. She needed to get her wits about her, having only known the man coming up on forty-eight hours. Nowhere near long enough to entertain such absurd notions.
“Miss Hudson?”
Her head snapped around at his voice near her ear and found him staring at her with a crease in his brow. “I’m sorry. Did you ask me something?”
“Can you pass the butter, please?”
She picked up the butter dish on her other side and passed it to him. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.”
He doctored up his still hot roll, the aroma of yeast and rich butter wafting toward her. She’d have to remember this caterer for future events. They’d knocked it out of the park with their succulent prime rib dinner.
“You okay?”
She met his eyes again. “Yes. Sure. Fine. Just thinking how much I was enjoying this dinner.”
“Amazing dinner. If I keep being fed like I have been the past two days, I’m going to have to up my workout intensity. Or buy new pants.”
Doubtful he’d have to worry about that. “Feel free to use the gym at the estate any time. In fact, you can join the girls and me tomorrow morning, if you’d like.”
He chuckled and picked up a forkful of baked potato. “I used it yesterday before church, but I’ll leave it to you ladies tomorrow, since you all were so agreeable to moving your workout to the house.”
“Afraid we’ll show you up?”
“That’s it exactly.”
Laughing, she cut off a piece of the juicy beef. Who knew he’d be such a charming pseudo-date?
Following the dessert course, several couples took to the dance floor in the middle of the tent, including her parents and oldest brother, Alex, and his wife, Delia. Her other brother, Kevin, and his wife, Sadie, remained at their table, immersed in conversation.
She located her friends at another table—Frances with her fiancé, Barbara with her brother, and Avery with a friend they’d gone to high school with. She’d join them, but didn’t want Mr. Blankenship standing at her chair keeping watch. Much too distracting.
Besides, she had a better idea.
Grinning, she leaned toward the man next to her and put her hand on his arm. “Mr. Blankenship, if you’re going to be guarding this body, then you’ll have to join me on the dance floor. And if you won’t dance with me, I’m sure I can find somebody who will.”
His eyes traveled from her smiling face to where her hand rested against his arm and back again. “When duty calls, as they say.”
Butterflies took flight in her stomach as he stood and held his hand out to her. He led her through the tables and stopped at the edge of the floor, where he watched the other couples with widened eyes.
“Uh, Miss Hudson. I’m not extremely well-versed in ballroom dancing.”
“No problem. I’ll follow you.”
“Then we probably won’t be moving around much.”
She giggled as they walked onto the floor, and she stepped into his arms. “Works for me. This dress isn’t exactly made for ballroom dancing.”
They swayed with the music. “Then why’d you want to get out here?”
“I love to dance. And, to be honest, I couldn’t resist testing you, Mr. Blankenship. To see how far you’ll go to do your job.”
His smile changed his entire demeanor. The man should do it more often. “Bring it on, Miss Hudson. I’ve faced worse things than ballroom dancing.”
She threw her head back and laughed, the first of several bouts of laughter they shared as they glided around the floor, dodging other couples with more expertise than they.
“You’re not bad, Mr. Blankenship. You underestimate your abilities.”
“That’s a first,” he said with a chuckle. “By the way, I couldn’t help noticing you address Paul and Trevor by their first names. Why so formal with me?”
“Oh. They asked me to, while you were on the phone earlier today.”
“Then call me Colton. Mr. Blankenship is a mouthful, and I keep looking around for my dad.”
“Colton, then. And, please. Call me Riley.”
“Riley. Your mother’s maiden name, correct?”
“Yes. Alex is named for my paternal grandfather, and Kevin for Mom’s dad.
Grandpa Alex passed away three years ago, about two years after my grandmother Christine.
” She pulled her hand from his shoulder and stared at her ring.
“This was hers. My grandfather gave it to her for their twenty-fifth anniversary, then to me after she passed.”
“It’s beautiful.” His eyes met hers again. “Christine? So, you’re named for both sides of your family.”
“I am.” Her hand moved to the collar of his tuxedo jacket, where her fingers played with the lapel.
“After Grandpa turned the reins of the company over to my dad nine years ago, he and my grandmother spent three years doing short-term mission work. Until Grandma got sick and passed soon after they returned. Grandpa died from heart failure in his sleep a few months later, but I think he was simply in a hurry to get home, to be with her.”
His arm around her waist tightened. “They sound remarkable.”
She smoothed his lapel and splayed her hand against his shoulder. “We were blessed with two sets of extraordinary grandparents. You met Grandpa Kevin yesterday at dinner.”
“He lives out in the guesthouse.”
“Right. And comes to the main house usually for meals. He was an orthopedic surgeon, retired about ten or so years now, I guess. My grandmother Eleanor was a strong woman of faith, like my mother. When she passed a couple of years ago, Mom insisted Grandpa move to the estate so she could be closer to him.”
“That’s nice.”
“Grandma Eleanor was wonderful. Loved doing the Thanksgiving dinner down at the shelter.” She tilted her head. “You guys will be off on Thanksgiving next week, won’t you?”
“Not unless you’re at the estate all day, with no outside guests. You go out of the house, we go with you. Or if you have several outside guests in, we stay.”
Her heart fell. “I didn’t think about that. You ought to be with your own families on Thanksgiving.”
“Don’t worry about it, Mi … Riley. We know what the job is. It’s fine.”
“Maybe I won’t work the charity dinner this year. I’ll be safe as a bug in a rug if I stay in with my family all day.”
“Please don’t do that. Not on our behalf. I know how important your charity work is to you. We’d never ask you to give up doing what you want to do to give us the day off. You’re our job right now. We’re okay with that. You should be too.”
She hadn’t been. Okay with that. She’d actually been resentful of it. But every day she learned more about what these guys did, and although she still didn’t like being chauffeured and escorted everywhere, she couldn’t help but respect them and the work they did to protect perfect strangers.
“If you say so. But I wish there was something I could do.”
“Stay safe. It’s called job security for us.”
She looked at her fingers fiddling again with his lapel. “I’ll do whatever you say.”
“Riley, hey.” He waited until her eyes met his again. “It’s okay. The shelter dinner will be a great way to spend Thanksgiving. Please don’t worry about it.”
She nodded but remained unconvinced. Glancing up, she caught the side-eye look that passed between Paul and Trevor at either side of the tent entry, neither of them smiling. Once again, she’d forgotten Colton’s role there. He was her bodyguard, not her plus-one.
No matter how much she wished otherwise.