Susan Mallery: Just One Kiss

“She’s great and looks terrific. With her disease...” He wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask.

Patience nodded and led him to a hutch in the formal dining room. She pulled open a drawer and removed a wine opener.

“She’s had a couple of bad episodes, but then she went into remission. It came back, but it’s not aggressive right now. Most days she can’t do stairs. Technically she probably could, but it takes so much out of her. The issues have mostly been in her legs, which means she can still work with no problem.”

Ava was a software designer. She’d started back when computers were novelties. Her job allowed her to work from home—a plus considering that her husband had walked out when she’d been diagnosed. When Patience had told him that, he’d realized that a father didn’t have to pull a gun or use his fists to hurt his family. Pain came in all forms.

He went to work on the wine bottle. Patience collected glasses from the hutch.

“She’s the bravest person I know,” she continued. “She’s always so cheerful and caring. I would want to scream at the unfairness of it all, but she never does.” She smiled. “I want to be like my mom when I grow up.”

“She inspires me, too,” he admitted. “When I was in a tough spot, I would think about Ava and remind myself I had it easy.”

Patience blinked several times, as if fighting emotion. “You’re very slick, Mr. Garrett. You could have flattered me with meaningless compliments, but instead you slip right past my defenses by saying that about my mother.”

“I meant it,” he said, looking into her eyes and inhaling the scent of something clean with a hint of flowers. Not perfume, he thought, remembering. Essence of Patience. “I’m not slick. I’m telling the truth. I’ve seen what it takes to be brave, and your mom has it.” He knew the danger of getting close, but couldn’t help reaching out and lightly touching her cheek. “It’s me, Patience. I know it’s been a long time, but no defenses required.”

Although as soon as he said the words, he realized he should have kept his mouth shut. Patience was right to be wary of him.

Something clattered to the floor in the kitchen. Patience turned toward the sound. Justice used the distraction to pick up the wine, thereby putting distance between them.

Fifteen minutes later they were all seated at the table. Lillie had sniffed her mother’s glass of wine and wrinkled her nose, declaring the smell “icky.” The lasagna was sitting on the counter, ready to be served, and they had their salads in front of them.

Patience raised her glass. “Welcome home, Justice,” she said.

“Thank you.”

They all took sips of their drinks. Lillie put her milk down and turned to her grandmother.

“Mr. Garrett is a bodyguard.” She wrinkled her nose. “Like on TV, right?”

Patience had called him Mr. Garrett to make a point. Lillie was doing it because of how she was raised. “If it’s okay with your mom, you can call me Justice.”

Lillie beamed. “Is it, Mom?”

“Sure.”

Lillie sat a little straighter and cleared her throat. “Justice is a bodyguard, Grandma.”

“I heard.” Ava glanced at him. “That sounds dangerous. Is it?”

“Sometimes. Mostly I protect rich people who travel to hazardous places. I make sure they’re safe.”

“What are you doing in Fool’s Gold, then?” Patience asked. “We’re about as far from hazardous as you can get and still stay on the continent. Is it part of your new business?”

He nodded, then glanced at Ava. “I want to open a business with a couple of buddies of mine. We’ll provide training for security firms.”

Ava looked interested. “A bodyguard school?”

“We think of it as more comprehensive than that. We’ll provide instruction on strategy, weapons and other equipment. Up-to-the-minute reports on various conflicts in different parts of the world. In addition, we want to offer corporate retreats. Team building through activities. Obstacles courses and other physical challenges.”

Patience blinked. “Wow. That puts my idea of a coffeehouse to shame. I mean, I got as far as having a book club and maybe an open-mike comedy night, but that’s it.”

“My partners and I have been working on the plan for a while. We’ve been waiting to find the right place. Ford suggested Fool’s Gold, so when I came here last year, I checked it out.”

Ava’s surprise was evident in her voice.

“Ford? Ford Hendrix?”

He nodded. “We’ve been friends awhile now. We reconnected in the military. Our third partner is a guy named Angel Whittaker.”

“I’d heard Ford was returning,” Ava said, “but no one knows when. He’s been serving in the military for years.”

“He gets out in the next couple of months. He should be back then.”

Angel didn’t care where they started the business, and once Justice had come back last year, he’d lobbied for Fool’s Gold. He’d thought about looking up Patience then, but he had enough self-control to avoid her. This time, not so much.

“Who’s Ford?” Lillie asked.

“You know the Hendrix triplets and Mrs. Hendrix,” Patience said. “Ford is the youngest brother in the Hendrix family.”

“Oh. He’s old.”

Ava smiled. “He’s in his thirties, Lillie.”

The girl looked confused. “That old?”

“Ah, to be young again.” Ava picked up her fork and speared a piece of lettuce. “So, Justice, tell me what you’ve been doing for the past fifteen years. Did you get married?”

CHAPTER THREE

PATIENCE SILENTLY VOWED she would never complain about her mother again. Not that she did it very much, but sometimes it was difficult sharing a house. Tonight, though, Ava had proved herself to be a master at getting information from anyone at any time.

By the time the dinner plates had been cleared and the dessert served, Justice had spilled nearly all his secrets. He’d spent a decade in the military before going into private-sector security. He had never been married and had no children. He’d come close to getting engaged once, he’d lived all over the world, but didn’t call any place home and had put off finding a house or an apartment in Fool’s Gold, preferring to live in a hotel until the business was up and running.

Patience had simply settled in to listen. Her mother’s gentle grilling had been better than live theater and she’d been able to enjoy both the floor show and the view.

Since their earlier encounter in the salon where she worked, Justice had traded in his suit for jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. She liked the way he’d filled out—all muscles and strength. No doubt a result of excellent physical conditioning. She would suspect that the bodyguard business required that sort of thing.

Watching him talk, she noticed the odd line or two around his eyes and that his expression was more guarded than she remembered. She was also very conscious of the fact that the last man to walk into their house had been a plumber and before that, the guy who had upgraded their cable TV. Ava hadn’t dated much after her husband had left. Patience hadn’t meant to follow in her mother’s footsteps on that front, yet here she was, pushing thirty and chronically single.

Justice was the kind of man to set the most chaste of hearts to fluttering, and Patience had to admit that any chastity on her part had been due to circumstance, not choice. If her handsome, slightly dangerous former childhood crush made a move, she would cheerfully agree. Justice seemed like the type of man to cure nearly any female ill. As long as she was careful to keep things emotionally casual.

She supposed that in today’s modern age, she should be willing to make the first move herself. To self-actualize. But that wasn’t her style. She’d never been especially brave and now, walking Justice out onto the front porch, she didn’t experience any sudden surge in courage.