Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Words. So many words. Right there on her laptop screen. And Riley couldn’t focus on any of them.
Not when her head kept going back to the family room and her conversation with Colton. Again, it wasn’t so much about the words but the … connection. A current running between them.
Even with everything going on in her head—the fear, the memories assailing her senses—she’d experienced a closeness to him she hadn’t expected.
Had he felt it too?
“Riley?”
She jumped, and her head snapped around to her doorway.
Colton grinned, which did nothing to slow her racing pulse. Or cool her overheated cheeks. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
“No worries. Did you need something?”
“Is your date still scheduled for seven tonight?”
Okay, so maybe she’d imagined the whole thing, after all. He certainly didn’t appear the least bit bothered about her being with someone else for the evening. On a date.
“Oh, uh, no. I’ve canceled my plans for the evening. With my friend.”
His brow furrowed, and she wanted to sink into the floor. With my friend? Really?
“You’re in for the duration, then?”
“Yes. So y’all can have the whole day off.”
“I’ll call the guys. They’ll be happy for the downtime, especially with this storm parked over us.”
“What about your downtime? Do you have downtime?”
He stepped into her study, leaned back against the wall by the door with his arms crossed over his chest and one ankle over the other.
“Sure. Like the other guys, I’ll work an assignment for a few weeks or even months, take some time off, then take another op.
During my time off, I travel, golf, catch up with friends, my family. ”
“Daddy’s driver and the house security change shifts. Why is it I have the same three guys and one who stays around the clock?”
“Because this is a special assignment. Temporary. Once this guy is caught and you’re safe, then we’re done.”
“Oh.” A week ago, she’d given them an expiration date. But today, his matter-of-fact explanation had her oddly disappointed at the prospect of losing hi—them. “Then, let’s hope the police catch this guy quickly. It would be nice if you had the holidays off.”
He stepped away from the wall and turned, his gaze panning across the pictures she’d left here of her and her friends in high school and college that Mom kept in place when she redecorated.
Some from their travels as young twenty-somethings discovering the world.
Mission trips to Africa, Mexico, and Peru.
Graduations, holidays, and birthday celebrations.
“Tell me about Graham.”
Out of all the questions he might’ve asked her, she hadn’t expected that one. “Graham? What about him?”
“I’ve been with you for a week now, and as far as I’ve seen, you’ve only been together once. Under the circumstances, I’d think he’d stick a little closer.”
“Why’s that?”
“If it were my lady’s life being threatened, I sure would. I wouldn’t leave her to deal with it alone. It doesn’t seem like a hot and heavy romance to me.”
His lady? But of course he had a lady. A man like Colton could probably have his pick.
“Because it’s not. Not even close.”
He faced her again. “But you’re dating?”
She shrugged. “That’s what he calls it.”
“What do you call it?”
She rose from her desk chair and plopped down on the couch. Tucking one leg under her, she grabbed a throw pillow and held it across her stomach. “We’re friends. We’ve never talked about being exclusive and, to be honest, I never saw us going that direction.”
He took a seat at the other end of the sofa, the pink and periwinkle blue floral fabric a complete juxtaposition to the raw masculinity of the man. “Maybe you should make him aware of that.”
“I know. I’ve never treated him as more than a friend, so I’m not sure why …” She shook her head.
“He wants more? That’s easy to see. He could do a lot worse.”
She threw him a sardonic grin. “You say the most charming things, Mr. Blankenship.”
He shrugged. “I’m a charming guy. Can’t help it.”
“You might want to try.” She laughed, and her pulse skipped when he joined her.
He really should laugh more. His entire countenance softened from that granite visage whenever he laughed.
“Graham and I met the summer between our junior and senior years of high school. A month-long student trip through Europe. I had a boyfriend on that trip, but Graham kept after me and after me. He and my boyfriend actually came to blows one night in Vienna. He kind of cooled it after that but kept writing to me throughout the next year.”
“Kind of a rush, wasn’t it? Two boys fighting over you?”
“I was mortified. About capped them both right there. Didn’t speak to either of them for two days.
Graham and I kept in touch throughout college and both ended up in Boston for grad school—me at Harvard, he at BC—then came to work here in Houston.
He’s a lawyer, too, but he’s in international corporate law.
Big money. And he travels a lot. He was engaged to be married, but it fell apart about a year ago.
He called, we started spending time together, he cried on my shoulder a lot, and I guess he got so used to being around that now he considers it a relationship, of sorts. ”
“Of sorts.”
“I don’t think of him like that, like someone I could have a future with. I’ve been trying to find a way to tell him we need to step back, but there hasn’t been a good opportunity. And now with the holidays and all, well, I really don’t want to hurt him.”
“Keeping him hanging will be worse. Take my word for it.”
She cocked her head. “Sounds like you have experience with this sort of thing.”
“Once. I wasn’t involved in a serious relationship and had a friend in the same boat.
I guess this was a year ago now. She was a co-worker, someone I could talk to, someone I could go to events with and not feel out of place with all the other couples.
She eventually expressed she wanted more out of the relationship, and I had to tell her I didn’t feel the same.
And that was the end of the friendship. I see her in the office from time to time, but it’s awkward. ”
“Yeah. I’d hate to lose Graham’s friendship.
Although, I can see how our lives are heading in different directions.
He’s very into the Houston society scene, and I’m not.
I’m comfortable there because that’s what I grew up in, but my parents also instilled in us a great appreciation for people who don’t live in this world.
We all worked in the company in high school and during summers in college.
Starting with the mailroom, answering phones, or manning the copy machine. ”
“So, that’s where your work ethic comes from. In the week I’ve been with you, I’ve seen how hard you work. And you’re always on my case about downtime.”
He threw her a wink, and her insides tumbled all over themselves. She was thirty years old, for crying out loud. Shouldn’t she have grown out of this twittery stuff by now?
Smiling, she shrugged. “I have my downtime too. And my friends. Especially my girls. We went to the same private school, but Frances and Barbara were scholarship students. From the first day Barbara showed up in fifth grade, we were inseparable. Our different backgrounds never mattered to us.”
“I have to admit, I used to think high society people were snobs. No offense. I’ve worked for a few who definitely fit that bill.
But after sitting with you and the others at the table on Monday, it dawned on me I had always considered myself as better because I could get by without all that money.
Which makes me the snob. In a weird way. ”
“I think there are snobs in every social tier. I’ve run into people at the shelter who are snobs.
They have nothing, and they’re almost hostile to those of us trying to help them.
But it’s their way of holding on to their dignity.
Their way of saying ‘I don’t need to be taken care of.
I’m capable.’ And we do our best to convince them that’s true.
They are capable. We’re just trying to give them one less thing to worry about so they can go on to better things. ”
He smiled at her. “You should have been a psychologist. You have an uncanny ability to understand people.”
“I actually have a double major. Criminal justice and psychology.”
“And your law degree? Boy, Trevor was right. You really should step it up. Slacker.”
“Stop.” She threw the pillow at him, and he grabbed it with one hand. “I always loved school, so it was okay with me to put in a little extra effort. And my psych degree has helped a great deal with my work, at the office and the shelter.”
“I enjoyed the tour of the shelter on Thursday and wanted to talk to you about some of the opportunities down there. Ways I might be able to help, besides giving them my money.”
She couldn’t help the huge smile that came over her face. “You want to get involved at the shelter? Honestly? You’re not just saying that?”
He chuckled. “No, I’m not just saying that. It got to me, seeing all those people who would be on the streets if not for the shelter. But those kids. Man. No kid should have to deal with the harsh realities of life like that. I lost a lot of sleep that night thinking about it.”
“That’s why I conduct the tours, so people will understand there’s a whole other world out there, and it’s up to us to make it go away. Those of us who have so much need to make sure no child goes without a meal or an education. No family should have to be on the streets.”
He nodded, his expression sober. “I’m looking forward to being down there on Thanksgiving with you. I’ll be on the job, but since I have to stick so close, there’s no reason why I can’t put on an apron and help out.”
She sprang forward without thinking and enveloped him in a tight hug around the neck. “Thank you! Thank you so much!” She planted a kiss on his cheek and pulled back, her hands splayed on his shoulders. “You don’t know how much that means to me.”
“Yeah. I think I do.”
Realizing what she’d done, she let him go and sat back in her place on the sofa. “Oh, wow, I’m sorry. I get so excited. Our relationship is a business one, and that was over the line.”
“For business, maybe.”
Her heart sank, but she understood it. Understood he was there for a job, not to be her buddy.
“When I’m on the clock.” The corners of his mouth tipped up. “But for next-door neighbors, not so much.”
She couldn’t hold back her laugh. “Neighbors. I’m glad you’re my neighbor, Colton Blankenship. Even if that means just down the hall.”
For now. Until she was deemed safe, and he would leave.
“Back atcha. Now, I’d love to sit here and talk, but I need to get home to do some packing.”
She inclined her head toward her study windows. “Sounds like it might be dying down a bit. I was going to ask if we could go by my place sometime so I can get some things, as well. If you’re going out anyway, maybe we can do it now.”
“Not without the other guys.”
“Daddy only has his driver whenever he’s out.
Granted, he’s also a Petersen bodyguard, but what’s the difference?
I’d be with you, and as long as we’re in another vehicle, nobody would expect it to be me, since every time I’ve left in the past week it’s been in the Navigator.
And as twisted as this guy is, I still doubt he’s waiting around in the freezing rain on the off-chance I might go somewhere without my detail. ”
He studied her for a moment. “We might be able to do that. I’d have to run it by Mack first, but if he gives us the go-ahead, I wouldn’t want to take my Jeep. And your car’s out of the question.”
“We could take one of Dad’s.”
He pondered it for another moment, then stood. “All right. I’ll check with Mack. If he gives the green light, I’ll see about getting a car from your dad’s driver. But at the first sign of anything, and I mean anything, that looks hinky, you do exactly as I say.”
Popping up to her feet, she pulled her shoulders back and gave him her best salute. “Aye, aye, sir.”
Chuckling, he shook his head and started for the door. “I’m regretting this decision already.”