Executive Protection(65)

Seeing Thad looking out the window again, she went to stand beside him. “You and Darcy have been friends a long time, haven’t you?”

“Yes, since the academy.” He turned to her, curiosity over why she’d asked in his eyes.

“Your mother is safe, Thad. You’re not the only one who can protect her.”

He blinked, his tension easing. “Thanks for reminding me.”

He did know Darcy was capable of protecting Kate. He had no reason to worry other than not being in control himself. He needed to let go of some of that control.

One of the security agents had told Lucy all about Darcy, his divorce and the way he’d rescued Avery. Thad hadn’t told her, and she now wondered if the reason why was because watching his best friend fall in love made him take a closer look at his own love life.

“Kate said he met someone and that she’s staying at the estate with him,” she said.

“Yes.” Again, he wore that curious look.

“They’re really serious.” Handsome man meets beautiful damsel...sounded familiar.

Thad didn’t respond. He must have contemplated whether the same could happen to him as had happened with Darcy. And it made him uncomfortable...because he did have feelings for Lucy.

“I knew someone who fell in love like that,” she said.

When Thad started to move away, she put her hand on his arm, stopping him. “She was in a bad car accident and had to go through extensive physical therapy.”

Thad lifted his eyebrows, clearly expecting another one of her stories.

“She had to work at walking again. Her legs were injured the most. It nearly crippled her. There was a man who’d gotten in a climbing accident. He was seeing the same physical therapist. Once their appointments were back-to-back. My friend was finishing up and he arrived early for his session. They met and it was instant love.”

“You’re making this up.”

She smiled, moving to stand in front of him and placing her hands on his chest. “She waited until he finished and they hobbled to a nearby café. They spent hours there just talking and then shared a cab when they left. She took him to her house and he ended up moving in a week later. They were married six months after that.”

“That’s sweet,” he said.

“It’s a true story.” She gave his chest a pat with one hand.

His mouth and eyes changed into an affectionate but derisive frown. “Sure it is.”

“It is.” This was one time she hadn’t made it up. “I embellished a little.”

“Which parts? All of it?”

“No, when I said they hobbled. I knew you didn’t believe me so I told the story the way I would tell any other that wasn’t true.”

“Ah.” He nodded, charmed.

“They both had a cane.”


“A cane. Right.”

“I went to college with the woman. Duke University. Her name is Annie Baker. His name is Max Timon. They live in Virginia. Look them up.”

He just looked at her, sort of believing.

“Your friend Darcy reminds me a lot of them.”

“Darcy was just divorced. Was your friend divorced?”

“No, but the man she’d been seeing broke up with her after the accident. The same happened with Max. His girlfriend left him. Some people find it that way.” Sometimes she wondered if she’d found it that way. If Thad were open to the possibility, she’d think she had.

“Darcy isn’t in love. He thinks he is but he isn’t.”

Lucy lowered her hands from him. “You’re too stubborn to believe it.”

“I’m stubborn?”

Did he think she was? “Yes. You refuse to take a chance on love. Even if you find it, you may pass it by because you’re too stubborn to change the way you think.” A little frustration came into her tone. This weekend was only missing that—Thad’s flexibility on love.

“How do you know that?” he challenged.

“I...” What could she say? That after last night she thought they had a real shot at forever? “I can tell. You and I...”

When she didn’t finish, he went white. “You’re not implying...” He pointed to her and himself a few times. “You and I...”

“Have fallen in love?” She shook her head. “No.”

“What are you saying, then?”

“You wouldn’t give it a chance even if we are starting to fall for each other.” There. She’d said it. “It isn’t casual enough for you.”

He didn’t deny that, and being right about him stung.

“Can you really say you don’t feel anything for me?” she asked.

She watched him go rigid and wanted to take the question back. Amazing, the chameleon change in him. Most of the time he was Thad, the man who upheld the law, the man of stealth and intelligence. And then he was Thad, the man who shied away from love, the ideology of marriage. Commitment? No problem. Marriage? Another story. What he didn’t see was that commitment required love, too, and he was holding back too much to allow love to grow. He was doing that with her, right now. If he allowed what had begun between them to grow, he’d see that what Darcy had with Avery was possible for him, too.

There was something else that threatened his ability to love. And her name was Sophie Cambridge. Sophie melted every barrier he’d erected to protect himself against anticipated failures. He based too much on the past and on what happened to other people, not himself. The temptation to break him of that tantalized Lucy. The cost to her heart was what stopped her. For now.