Along Came Trouble(59)

“Call me if anything out of the ordinary happens.”

Cassie’s lips twitched. “Like any more pizza deliveries?”

He stared at her until she started to squirm. She needed to learn to keep her thoughts to herself.

“We’ll call,” Eric said, breaking the tension.

“All right.”

He walked home in the dark, wondering if tonight he’d made the best or the worst decision of his life.

Too soon to say. It was often like this when you led from the front. You had to make tough calls, and you didn’t get the feedback you needed to evaluate them until it was far too late to use it.

For now, he’d done the only thing he could do. He wouldn’t let Ellen keep him at arm’s length, but he’d promised himself he wouldn’t manipulate her, either. She needed him honest and direct. She needed to be treated as an equal.

That didn’t mean she always needed to get her way.

He had some maneuvering room. She was a tough negotiator, but she’d started from a weak position. He’d asked for everything but her hand in marriage, figuring that if he presented a long list of demands and she began by saying no to all of them, he’d end up getting at least half of what he wanted. He’d done a little better than half.

The question now was whether he could use the leverage he’d gained to win Ellen over. To make her see him as more than just a lover.

He hoped so, because being Ellen’s lover would never be enough. He wanted more. He wanted everything.





Chapter Fifteen



Caleb eased into consciousness smiling, thinking about Ellen before he even got his eyes open.

It made a nice change. Most mornings, he woke up hungover from nightmares. Moments of indecision with terrible consequences. Bodies he’d found, deaths he blamed himself for. The explosion on Route Irish that had ripped everything apart.

He didn’t like to dwell on the memories, but he didn’t want to forget, either. Forgetting was its own kind of betrayal.

But this morning, he had the luxury of not even worrying about it. He ran seven miles instead of five, and he could have done ten easy if he hadn’t needed to get to work. It felt great to move. Everything felt great.

Back home, he put on coffee for Katie. By the time he’d showered and dressed, she was nursing a mug at the kitchen table.

“House looks nice,” he commented. The kitchen was immaculate.

“I cleaned last night while you were out getting lucky.”

Camelot relished gossip as much as the next small town, but this was ridiculous. Katie had been asleep when he got home. “What makes you think I was out getting lucky?”

“Cassie sent me a text when you went inside with Ellen.”

“So maybe I kept my hands to myself.”

“You were whistling while you got dressed.”

“It’d never hold up in court.”

“I’m still waiting for your denial.”

Caleb bent over and finished tying his shoes. “Keep waiting.”

“What ever happened to ‘I’m not allowed to notice how hot she is’?”

“I reconsidered my position on that.”

“Huh.” Katie folded her arms on the table and leaned forward to rest her chin on her hands. “She must really be something if you’re throwing over your principles.”

“I’m not throwing over my principles. Carly helped me see I was thinking about the situation all wrong.”

“You took advice from Carly? She of little impulse control and even less good sense? Wow. Now I really want to meet this woman.”

He hadn’t taken advice from Carly. Not exactly. She’d simply nudged him toward understanding the error of his ways. He was relying on his own judgment, and it was solid.

Wasn’t it?

It always had been before. In Camelot, though . . . he wasn’t as sure as he wanted to be.

“Do you think it’s unethical? Me and Ellen?”

“You have some kind of security guard code I don’t know about? Some secret oath that says you won’t sleep with your clients?”

He shook his head. Shouldn’t have asked. She’d have a field day with this one.

But Katie surprised him. “No,” she said after a long pause. “It’s probably okay. You’re both consenting adults, and she’s not, like, traumatized by fear or anything. If she were under major stress, then maybe you’d have to worry about the Stockholm syndrome thing, but this is just some guys with cameras hanging around, and I bet she’s used to that. I think it’s fine.”