Page 79 of Guarding Over You
One of many stolen embraces and the wrapping of comfort around her that had kept her up at night. Not in a horrible way... for once in her life.
When the second bang came, she grabbed her phone, almost fumbling it with the trembling of her hands and the sweat slicking her palms. Without thinking, she sent a text to Blaze.Are you home? I keep hearing something.
She didn’t want to call if he was still working and worry him. A text—he’d ignore that on the job.
She saw the bubbles come up on the screen.I’m on my way. Back door.
She moved into the kitchen, standing by the sliding doors, waiting for his body to appear, her knees rattling with every creek and whisper of sound that had seemed normal before.
Once his shadow from the sunset crossed over, she flipped the latch to unlock it, then launched into his arms.
“Whoa,” he said, holding her tight, squeezing her as much for comfort as it was protection. “You’re trembling. What’s going on?”
The bang again, her body tensing. “Did you hear it?”
“Yeah.” He moved out of her embrace, and the silver glint of the gun came out from behind his back... where she’d seen it tucked on him before. “Stay behind me.”
The command was quiet but firm. A protector’s voice.
And in that moment, as the night closed in again around them, she realized just how far her fear had driven her right into the arms of the only man she truly trusted.
He moved through the living room, her staying where she was as if concrete were setting at her feet. The noise cameagain, and he looked out the blinds. Unlocking the front door, he moved to the porch, his gun at his side, but ready to strike at a moment’s notice.
She’d never seen someone like this before. The gun out. The perfect calm as if he could carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.
He was adoctor, not an officer of the law. Yet you wouldn’t know that now.
The front door opened wider as he came back in, slipping the gun behind his back. “It’s people at the dumpster.”
“What?”
“Come here. Look. Other than a gray car coming out of a driveway that went by, this is all that is going on out here.”
She moved forward, her hand landing on his outstretched palm, the heat of his strength warming her chilled body, Arden dropping the blanket to her feet now. Somehow she’d forgotten it was still her security in her fear.
When they were back on the front porch, she leaned over the railing and there past the next unit of houses were two people emptying bags and other items from two vehicles and tossing them in.
The bang came again, and it was exactly what she’d been hearing for the past ten minutes.
She sagged against his side, embarrassment riding high enough to float her into space. She almost wished it would so she could escape.
“I’m sorry. I saw a gray car too, but before you got here.”
He frowned, as if in thought. “What kind of car?”
“I don’t know. Four doors and gray. It was moving at a normal speed, so it couldn’t have been the noise I heard before it even got here.”
“True.”
“Again, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” he said. “You’ve had a rough twenty-four hours.”
He pulled her into his arms, then back to the house where he locked the front door.
“I was trying to convince myself it was that. That anyone’s nerves would be on edge.”
“Exactly, so cut yourself some slack. Did you check on Gracie? She still sleeping?”
