My Heart's Protector

by Jenn Sable

  This is a terrible idea.

  She pushed off from the kitchen counter and walked over to me. “Yes. Why?”

  “May I see it?”

  Say no.

  Her smile was curious and a little cautious but she reached for her cell, unlocked her home screen, and handed it to me, “Okay,” she said and eyed me carefully.

  I nodded. “I just want to add something,” I said and clicked on her contacts but didn’t see my name. I arched a brow, “Did you delete me from your phone?”

  She bit her lip. “I have you under State Trooper,” she admitted.

  Well, that’s going to change.

  I chuckled, shook my head, found my contact info, and started typing. Then on a whim, I clicked the contact photo option, switched it to selfie mode, smirked, and snapped a photo and handed it back to her after I pressed save.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “Now, when you click on my contact, you won’t confuse me for your sister because you’ll see my face. And now you have my personal cell number, so, ah, if you feel inclined to text me again, this way you can say or . . . attach whatever you want without getting me fired from my job,” I laughed.

  I’m going to hell for this.

  El blushed prettily.

  It is worth it.

  I wished that I could’ve snapped a photo of her in that moment. She was an alluring mix of beautiful, sexy, and precious all rolled into one. “I gotta go,” I murmured.

  She nodded. “Yeah, you’re definitely a full ten minutes out,” she laughed.

  I dipped my hat on my head, touched the brim.

  “Ah, now you’re back to Trooper Witmer,” she smiled.

  “Troy gets off at ten in case you were curious,” I said, the winked and walked away.

  Chapter 3 - Chloe

  “Then he threaded his fingers through your hair? Holy shit, you and Tory Witmer are totally going to bang!” said Chloe Rosen, as we walked into Dale's Diner in Bloombury.

  “Oh my God, you sound like me now. How did we reverse roles?” I asked, having a flashback to when Chloe first started working with me as my marketing agent and pined after Zach Brocker.

  I treated Chloe more like a family member than I did an employee. She was older than Sammie by a few years and I loved that she was mature without being overbearing about it.

  I’d called Chloe the second Troy’s cruiser rolled down the drive and told her that I had serious, top-secret news to share. I valued her advice and desperately needed it, but first, I made her swear an oath not to share what I was about to tell her with any other living soul, including, and most importantly, my sisters.

  “Shhh! I don’t want anyone to overhear us!” I snapped.

  Chloe and I sat with our heads huddled together in a booth trying to dissect what the hell had just happened between Troy and me.

  “What will it be, you two?” asked the waitress, who looked so thin that she might fly away in a windstorm but had the energetic presence of an army commander. She spoke to us without looking up from her pad.

  Chloe looked at me and grinned wickedly. “I’ll order for the two of us,” she said and stopped me when I started to protest.

  “We’ll both have the turkey club on rye with fries and an extra dill pickle. One chocolate shake, one strawberry, and two waters. Oh, and you’re gonna want to bring us extra napkins. This one over here is messy,” said Chloe, and pointed to me.

  “Done,” said the waitress. She slid her pad inside her apron and adjusted her sweatband before she walked away, even though I started to say that I wanted a salad and side of cottage cheese.

  Chloe arched a brow. “You called me and made me come the whole way out here to tell me your juicy secret, and those require juicy lunches. So, you’ll have to set aside your typical cup of carrot sticks today and eat like you used to for an hour.”

  Everyone thought I’d turned into a health nut over the last year, but truthfully, I was just conscious of what food gave me the most energy. I had no clue how difficult it would be to open a business and had so much learning to do and usually had to tick through long to-do lists daily. I started eating in a way that allowed me to function.

  Sammie worried about me, and the twins laughed at me, but I felt as though I had to work long hours in order to prove to myself and the world that I had some kind of talent or skill. Sammie was a natural hostess, Rose was a horse whisperer, and Abby was doubly blessed with baking and blogging talents. I was... a woman in her early twenties who liked to read and drink tea and had a business partner in her late sixties. Clearly, I was spiritually a retired librarian stuck in a body that was curvy and soft in all the right places that drew attention from men for all the wrong reasons.

  I took a deep breath. “Clo, fine, you won the lunch order today. It actually sounds delicious. Thanks. And thank you for coming out here today.”

  I glanced around the place and bit my lip. “But now that we’re here, talking about this in the open, I’m feeling really uncomfortable. I am starting to feel silly and that I read into what happened a little too much. All of this was based on a mistaken text for goodness sake, and Troy came out over a noise complaint. Besides, he pressed his forehead to mine, not his lips. It was probably him just acting brotherly,” I said and slumped a little in my seat.

  Chloe raised both brows, and her golden-hazel eyes swam with amusement. “Um, I would say that a forehead press is pretty intimate. When Zach presses his forehead against mine, it’s usually to tell me that he loves me or that he wants me to come to bed. I doubt very much that Troy smokin- hot Witmer was acting brotherly. He’s a full-blooded male who probably wants to press all kinds of things against you or . . . inside of you.”

  “Chloe! Stop it! Now you’re the one who is reading way too much into this. We just got carried away for a moment while we were pressed against the kitchen counter.”

  I picked up a menu and started to fan myself. Hearing Chloe validate what I suspiciously thought was the case between Troy and me was exhilarating and terrifying.

  Chloe's smile turned naughty as she emphatically repeated, “While we were pressed against the kitchen counter. Listen to yourself! You called me to debrief of your sexy kitchen moment, and that is proof enough that you know some serious sexual sparks were flying between you and Tory.”

  I sat up. “Stop using his name! Let’s come up with a code name.”

  “How about Trooper?” asked the waitress, appearing at the table and making me jump. She held a small serving tray filled with our drink order.

  The waitress smiled knowingly at us, and Chloe smiled back while I scowled at Chloe. “All right girls—one strawberry shake, one chocolate shake, and two glasses of water with extra napkins. I’ll be back with your turkey clubs in a minute. And, if you ask me, I think if the Trooper pressed his forehead against yours, then he definitely wanted to kiss you but was being the gentleman he is by letting you make the first move,” said the waitress, turning away with a big grin on her face.

  I looked at Chloe. “I’m going to kill you. The waitress clearly knows him!”

  Chloe grimaced. “I didn’t think I was talking that loud.”

  “Why did we choose this place to debrief in again?” I asked, ready to melt into a pile of horrified goo and slither out the door before the waitress came back with another knowing smile and opinion about Troy Witmer and my forehead press.

  I lucked out, though, by having to go to the bathroom and missing our waitress’s food drop off. I did, however, almost bump into a beautiful blonde when I pulled open the bathroom door on my way back to Chloe. Her tight dress suit and stilettos, coupled with her long, bright-blonde hair, made her look like a movie star. I smiled at her, and she eyed me critically for a beat as if she were deciding if she wanted to smile back or not. She smiled, and it was as stunning as she was, but it felt a little forced.

  I dropped back into the booth and immediately dug into my fries. “Can I have the ketchup?” I asked.

&
nbsp; Chloe slid over the bottle. “So, why are you freaked out about starting something up with, you know who? Are you really going to deny the chemistry between you two? I'm just going to warn you right now; I don't do well when people deny what's right in front of them. Just ask Zach, my beloved and fiancé. Don't allow yourself to suffer through two decades of awkward feelings like I did with him. Zach and I could’ve been having amazing sex since high school had we listened to our intuition.”

  Laughing, I took the last sip of my chocolate shake. “See you had twenty years’ worth of awkward moments as evidence to determine if there were actual feelings. I had one morning in a kitchen with a forehead press. Besides, you weren't there; it was totally innocent.”

  “Then show me,” said Chloe, mischief in her eyes.

  “Show you what?” I asked and pushed a few fries around on my plate.

  “Reach over here and show me how he touched your hair,” Chloe dared.

  “No, you’re crazy,” I said, laughing and looked around the diner half expecting to see Troy. Instead, I noticed the attractive blonde I had almost run into in the bathroom was now sitting at the diner counter. She eyed me as though she were studying my face, maybe trying to figure out who I was or remember if she knew me from somewhere.

  Chloe cleared her throat and crossed her arms and arched a brow. “Show me.”

  “I’m not doing it,” I insisted.

  “Why? If it was just a friendly move, then you should be completely willing and comfortable to show me,” she said and smiled smugly.

  “Oh, for the love of God. Get over here,” I said and threaded my fingers through her dark-blonde locks and rested my palm behind her ear.

  Her eyes grew wide, and she smiled coyly. “Troy Witmer wants you so bad!”

  I eyed her over my turkey club. “It didn’t mean anything. It can’t mean anything,” I explained.

  “I’m not so sure,” said Chloe who was quiet for a moment.

  “Why do you say that?” I asked, and anxiously ran my fingers through the condensation on the outside of my glass of water.

  Chloe arched her brow. “Look at you. You’re practically jacking off your glass of water just talking about him. I don’t mean to stress you, but it’s kind of obvious to everyone that you two have...” she trailed off.

  I leaned forward and raised my brows. “What's obvious?” I hissed.

  Chloe smiled. “Tension. You two have sexual tension. I saw it starting to build last summer before we went to Winnie’s tea boot camp in Paris. You two seemed to be at each other’s throat yet were always around one another. Maybe you need to do what Zach and I tried, agree to a night of friendly fondling and see where it goes. Just be careful, you might end up with a fiancé. That’s what happened to me!” she laughed.

  “This is just crazy. Troy is in love with Sammie and definitely not interested in me,” I said, and hated how my heart squeezed painfully in my chest, admitting it out loud.

  “Eloise, come on,” said Chloe and grimaced.

  “What? It’s true. At this point it would be really awkward for me to go after a guy who only had eyes for my big sister,” I said, shaking my head in defeat.

  “Don’t you think that you’re over simplifying things a bit?” asked Chloe and sucked on her straw while I thought about it.

  “No, I don’t. Tory has been in love with Sammie ever since our parents’ car accident. He started coming around then and never stopped. Every time he’d come, he’d want to see Sam, talk with Sam, spend time with Sam. Troy was all about her. Troy and I just got caught up in a whirlwind moment over a silly texting incident. He'll always have stronger feelings for her over me,” I stammered.

  Chloe rolled her eyes. “My heavens, that’s a mouthful to say about a man who never actually took your sister out on a date. Troy got more physical with you today than he ever did with Sammie,” said Chloe. The she quieted down for a moment. She reached over the table and took hold of my hand, “I have a question, but I don’t want it to upset you.”

  I shrugged. “Ask away,” I said.

  “It’s about your parents’ car accident,” she said slowly.

  I nodded. “Yes?” My heart started beating hard in my chest. I missed my mom and dad every day, and although you’d think living in our family home would be a constant reminder that I was an orphan, it actually helped me continue to feel close to my parents. It was part of the reason why I never wanted to move away from Frost Forest.

  “Do you know if Troy was at the scene of the accident that day?” asked Chloe and squeezed my hand supportively.

  My throat clamped shut, and I wondered why I had such a strong physical reaction to a question that I knew Chloe was going to ask. “He was. I was told that he was one of the first to arrive,” I said and exhaled all the pent-up air in my lungs. I’d talked about it before, numerous times actually, with my sisters, and yet I don’t know why I was having a difficult time today.

  Chloe’s dark-blonde head tilted to the side. “Do you think Troy might have been coming to check in on you girls rather than try to hit on Sam? She was barely twenty years old; you were what, fifteen and the twins were twelve?”

  I shrugged. “Something like that.”

  “All I am saying is that you’ve concocted the story that Troy has been madly in love with Samantha for years, and I’m not saying that at one point maybe they didn’t consider taking their friendship to the next level. But what I’m saying is that there might be another side to the story that you didn’t consider because you were too young.”

  I squeezed Chloe’s hand and then slid mine out from between them. “You just might be right, Clo,” I said.

  “Or not,” said a voice from a man walking up behind our booth, making both Chloe and I jump in our seats.

  Maxwell Palmer stood, leaning down with his hands poised on the end of our table. My stomach soured at the sight of him and I tried not to sigh audibly when he slid—uninvited—into our booth next to me. He pressed his thigh up against mine, and I cast him a vicious side-eye and moved over so that we had as much space between us as the booth allowed.

  “Hey, El,” said Max and curled his upper lip in a cocky looking smirk, and a thread of unease slid through my stomach.

  It was nothing like Troy’s slow half-smile that made my stomach clench pleasantly and made me feel warm all over.

  Although Troy and Max were both blonds, Troy’s was the color of rich, dark honey whereas Max’s mop of bright-blond hair was streaked with white. Max was also extremely tan for it only being early May. He looked as though each night he hopped into a tanning bed to go to sleep. His tanned complexion actually served him well because his eyes were an unearthly pale shade of gray. So pale that sometimes I wondered if he were part zombie.

  “I was eavesdropping,” he said and laughed.

  “We gathered that,” I sneered.

  Max was not my favorite person. He walked around Bloombury as though he were a celebrity. He acted as though he was entitled to whatever and whoever he wanted just because his father was the college president. Max would never move away from Bloombury, not because he loved his hometown, but because he loved being well known. Here he was a big fish in a small pond, and it suited his personality perfectly.

  Max and I had studied abroad in Paris in the same cohort. He had proved to be a jerk the very first night we’d arrived in the city by getting drunk, entering a girl’s bedroom, and exposing himself. The girl had let him in to use her bathroom after he’d walked her home after a night out.

  Max claimed that the girl had no sense of humor. According to him, the girl had flirted with him all night at a Paris club and that all he did was come out of her bathroom with his pants around his ankles as a joke.

  It had upset the girl so much that she called her parents and considered filing a sexual harassment suit against Max, but his dad, President Palmer, was able to smooth things over through a series of phone calls. The entire time Max asserted that he’d been the one who had
been treated harshly and unfairly. His tactic was to turn the tables of people and play the role of the victim each time he acted inappropriately.

  Max leaned toward me, and his tongue darted along his lips. “Eloise Evans, you always were a smarty-pants, weren’t you? Maybe I wouldn’t have to eavesdrop on your conversations if you’d just answer my texts or pick up my calls.”

  “What do you want, Max?” I asked and exchanged glances with Chloe, who looked ready to kick Max in the crotch underneath the table.

  “I overheard you talking about Trooper Troy,” he said and put a snarky emphasis on Troy’s name.

  Bad blood had developed between the two men when Troy had pulled Max over in Frost Forest for reckless driving which resulted in a DUI. Max thought he deserved a warning and then he became even more irate when his father couldn’t get the DUI charges dropped.

  “It’s none of your business who we were talking about,” I ground out.

  “Calm down feisty,” said Max and tilted his head thoughtfully to the side.

  “You need to work out some of that aggression. I have a few ideas on how I could help you.”

  I gave him a tight smile. “I’m good thanks. What do you want, Max?”

  “Spit it out already, you’re interrupting our conversation,” said Chloe.

  I loved how Chloe didn’t care who Max or his father was but was even more amused about how Max was on his best behavior around her since he knew she was engaged to a Brocker. Bloomsbury millionaires were always trying to get into the good graces of Clear Creek billionaires.

  Max’s mouth pinched into a fake smile then turned toward me, “I wanted to warn you about Troy Witmer. He sleeps with married women.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “What? I don’t believe you.”

  “Exactly! That’s how he gets away with it,” Max explained and threw his hands in the air, animatedly.

  “Troy isn’t like that,” I insisted, giving up all pretenses of who we were talking about.

  “Oh, but he is. He’s crafted the perfect reputation around here that allows him to sneak around in the shadows and do whatever he wants without being called out for it. He knows that none of the women will say anything because they are married and they have social consequences to consider. Plus, the women know Troy’s only it in for the sex.”