Page 19 of Thirsty Bodyguard Summer

I took it. “You enjoyed that.”

“I enjoyed seeing you follow the schedule.”

“Your eyes were on me, not the schedule.”

“My eyes were on every person who approached you.”

“And when nobody approached me?”

Her gaze dropped briefly to my mouth.

“Then I checked the exits.”

Cassidy stepped closer and pressed two fingers to the center of my chest, moving me half a step away from a cable behind my heel.

“Watch your footing.”

Her touch lasted less than a second.

I wanted it back.

Isabel approached from the aisle. “We can give you one final run of the entrance before we need the platform for lighting.”

I turned to Cassidy.

She checked her watch. “One run.”

“Full chorus?”

“One.”

I smiled. “You’re learning how to spoil me.”

“I’m learning that bargaining takes longer than the song.”

The band reset. I returned to center, waited for Cassidy’s nod, and called, “Count us in.”

Cassidy’s phone rang before the first beat.

She lifted one hand. The drummer stopped.

Cassidy checked her screen and straightened.

“Carlos,” she said.

She answered and placed the call on speaker.

“Cassidy, I’m at Shane’s cottage,” Carlos said. His voice had gone tight. “Housekeeping found an envelope on the private patio table.”

“Did anyone touch it?”

“No. I cleared the staff away and locked the cottage from the corridor side.”

“Can you see what’s inside?”

“The flap is open. There are photographs.”

Cassidy met my eyes. “Photographs of what?”