Chapter 7 #2
But as he parted with Ari and walked from the diner back to the hardware store, he knew the time had come to discuss developments with her.
She had to be on alert, much as it pained him to think it.
Things were likely going to happen, and he didn’t want her in the middle of the action if it could be helped. She needed to know to be careful.
The store was calm in the mid-afternoon lull. Her father was in the back. Tomás was out on a delivery. The bell over the front door was silent as Pax walked in the back way.
When she saw him, Bree set down the invoice she’d been checking and looked at him directly.
“Did I do something wrong?” she asked.
“No,” he replied immediately, with no hesitation.
“Because you’re different from last week.”
He came around the end of the counter and leaned against it so they were near enough to talk quietly. “It’s not you,” he said. “I want to be clear about that first.”
She waited.
“There are things I’m keeping an eye on,” he said.
“Related to the mission where I got hurt. The same people who came after us in Salt Lake City…well…I talked it over with Ari at lunch, and we have reason to think someone may have followed my trail here.” He watched her face.
No panic, which was totally Bree. Just a careful stillness.
“I don’t know how serious it is yet. I’m going to meet with someone who might be able to tell me more, but I’ve been pulling back a little from…
” he searched for the right words, “…from the things I want to protect, until I know whether I’m bringing something dangerous to your door. ”
“Don’t try to manage me, Pax,” she said, anger in her eyes.
“I’m not managing you. I’m being honest with you about why I—”
“Admit it. You are trying to manage me a little,” she said, not unkindly, a little grin tipping up one corner of her mouth telling him she wasn’t completely angry with him.
Just a little miffed, maybe. “You’re making a decision without asking me what I want.
” She folded her hands on the counter. “I’ve known what you are since I was a kid.
I’ve known for a long time that there were people in this world who would hurt you if they could.
I made my peace with that years ago.” She paused, then continued.
“I’d rather know what I’m potentially dealing with than have you go quiet on me and pull away.
I don’t think I can handle you pulling away, Pax.
” She added that last bit on a whisper that was filled with emotion.
His heart broke a little. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, whether that meant bringing danger to her door or hurting her by his own neglect.
He thought about how Bree had held the secret that could have brought serious consequences down on everyone he cared about.
She’d done it without complaint, without hesitation, because she’d decided it was the right thing to do.
“You’re right,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
She nodded once, accepting his apology. “I don’t need to know everything, but please tell me what you can. Okay?”
So, he did. Not everything, but enough, he hoped, to keep her safe. He went over what he could about the mission where he’d gotten so hurt and the mage in Salt Lake City. He also told her about the prickling sense that someone had been watching his movements here in town.
She listened without interrupting, without going pale or dramatic about it.
“So, it’s not that you regret kissing me,” she said quietly.
“Hell, no.” The words came out with more force than he’d intended.
He tried to moderate his tone. “No. That was…” He stopped.
Found better words. “I’ve been thinking about it pretty much all the time, and I want to kiss you again.
I just don’t want to rush things. Me pulling back now has nothing to do with what’s between us, or my attraction to you. ”
“Okay,” she said. “Then you can just stop drawing away from me.” She picked up her invoice. “And keep me informed. I notice things about this town that you don’t. If something’s going on here, I’m more useful knowing about it than not.”
He examined her profile as she returned to work.
He noted the stubborn set of her shoulders, and the practical downward tilt of her head.
He thought about what Ari had said and what he wanted his future to look like.
He wanted this spectacular woman in his life.
He had no doubt about that. He just didn’t know how to accomplish that goal without putting her in danger right now.
He’d figure it out. He had to. Putting down the threat had to come first, but after that, all bets were off. He’d do his best to make her his, and see where they went from there.
“You’re remarkable. You know that?” he asked in a low voice that only she could hear.
She glanced at him as color flooded her cheeks. “I’m not. I’m just being practical,” she argued, then waved her hand toward the rest of the store. “Stop hovering. Go fix something.”
He went and found the stuck window latch in the back room that had been bothering him, and while he worked on it, he thought that the distinction she’d drawn between remarkable and practical was one he intended to spend some time exploring. Everything about her fascinated him, he was discovering.
Pax stopped acting weird after their little talk, and Bree told herself that was enough.
It was reasonable that a man with his history would have instincts for danger that occasionally ran ahead of the rest of him, and that the important thing was that he’d listened when she’d called him on it, and told her the truth.
The truth, such as it was. There were people who might have followed his trail here. She turned that over in her mind while she worked throughout the afternoon, and she was honest enough with herself to admit that it sat in her stomach like a rock.
Still, she’d meant what she’d said to him.
She’d known for a long time that the Rojas brothers came with potentially dangerous secrets that must never be revealed.
She’d known it and chosen to love them anyway.
She’d loved them as friends, as her out-of-this-world magical big brothers, and as the best secret she’d ever kept.
She loved Paxton, though, in a way that was more than brotherly, and now he was back, and he’d kissed her, and told her she was remarkable. Would wonders never cease?
She felt warm all over thinking about his hands in her hair and the way he’d whispered her name. Sighing, she went back to her invoices, and thought, “I am apparently capable of mooning over Pax just as much as I did as a teen.”
Tomás came back from the delivery and found her smiling at an invoice about pipe fittings, and had the wisdom not to ask what that was all about.