by Amy Vastine
“I’m a girl!” Avery said, raising her hand like she was at school. “Tell me.”
“You don’t know this kind of girl stuff, Avery,” Graham said, trying to let her down easy.
“Maybe I do,” she asserted.
“You don’t. You have to be older to know this stuff.”
Donovan wasn’t sure how to proceed. Graham needed the support of a mother-like figure. Donovan was afraid to let that person be Kelly. Not because she wouldn’t be good at it. Maybe because he knew she would be.
CHAPTER TEN
KELLY TOOK OUT her hair tie and marched back into the bathroom to get her comb so she could braid her hair instead. Why was she so worried about how she looked when all she was doing was going to Donovan’s to cook dinner and practice some self-defense? Donovan was her bodyguard. He worked for her uncle. He was a police officer.
This wasn’t a date. She didn’t need to impress anyone, so why was she so worried about how she looked?
As much as she wanted to deny it, she was attracted to the man. Anyone with eyes would be. His looks weren’t the only thing causing her to question her feelings. She was also impressed by him. He had so many layers.
When she first met him, she only saw him one-dimensionally. He was a cop and that was all she had to know about him. Then, she met his family and he became something more. He was a parent. He was a caregiver to two children, two orphaned children. Everything about Graham and Avery melted Kelly’s heart. Lastly, he was a teacher, a coach, a mentor. He took on a leadership role when needed and did so with compassion and patience.
Her doorbell buzzed and her stomach was in knots. His patience would be greatly appreciated today. She would be testing it a bunch tonight. Besides asking him to wait for her to finish getting ready, it was likely she would ruin dinner. She didn’t even know what goulash was until yesterday.
She hit the button to let him in the building and ran back to the bedroom to finish getting ready. The buzzer went off again.
Why was he buzzing twice? She hit the intercom. “Hello?”
“Did you seriously buzz me in without even checking to make sure it was me? You could have let your stalker in and not even known it.”
Kelly couldn’t believe she just did that. She hadn’t been thinking. Well, she had been thinking. She’d been thinking about Donovan so much that she never imagined it could be anyone other than him.
She buzzed him up again and quickly changed out of her workout shorts and into some leggings. Checking her reflection in the mirror, she once again chastised herself for worrying about what she looked like. This was not a date.
Donovan knocked on the door and she sprinted out of her room to answer it. She yanked it open. “Sorry.”
“You didn’t even look through your peephole to see if it was me before you opened your door, did you?”
Kelly closed her eyes, so she didn’t have to see the disappointment on his face.
“Kelly, you can’t be so careless. You’re letting people in the building without confirming who they are. You’re flinging your door open, welcoming whoever is standing on the other side right on in.”
She dared to look at him and he was definitely angry, but she didn’t need to see him to know it.
“Did you hear that?” she asked.
“Hear what?”
“Your mad voice. Avery is so right about your mad voice.”
Donovan shook his head and furrowed his brow. His patience had run out quick. “I am not using a mad voice. I am speaking in my normal voice.”
Kelly disagreed. “That was not your normal voice. You weren’t yelling at me, but you might as well have been.”
He cocked his head. “Kelly, someone is out there trying to get to you and you just made it really easy to do so. I’m not yelling at you, I’m simply pointing out things you can’t do if you want to stay safe.”
“I don’t know what I was thinking. Or why I wasn’t thinking. I won’t make that mistake again. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me. I’m not the one who is going to be hurt if you are careless with your security, you are.”
He was right about that. The only person who would suffer because of her thoughtlessness was her. She’d spent the whole day frustrated that she couldn’t go wherever she wanted without constantly looking over her shoulder. Then when she should have been a tad bit paranoid, she completely let her guard down. This situation was the absolute worst.
Suddenly, something else hit her. “Why did you come up instead of texting me to come out?”
“Exactly!” He threw his hands up. “Something told me I should see how you manage a visitor. I hadn’t expected to have this much to talk to you about.”
She was embarrassed to have failed his test so miserably. “Can we get out of here? I’d like to get this cooking lesson over with because I fear this dinner is going to go about as well as this little test did.”
He held the door open for her. “I’m hoping for a major comeback. I thought we’d go back to the farmers market and get some of the ingredients. Fresh is best.”
“So we won’t be taking something out of a box and putting it in the oven? I am occasionally successful at that kind of cooking.”
Somehow, she’d managed to make him smile. “You’re occasionally good at heating something up in the oven?”
“I can burn water, Donovan. Okay? That’s how bad I am at cooking.”
“You can’t—” He stopped himself from responding to her nonsense. “Let’s go. I’m going to show you it’s not as hard as you think it is.”
The farmers market was bustling on a late Saturday afternoon. The fragrant smell of fresh flowers coming from the garden center caught Kelly’s attention when they walked by. She checked the price on one of the hanging baskets full of purple petunias.
“I can’t wait to buy a house someday. I want a big front porch with humongous hanging baskets and overflowing planters everywhere. I’ve dreamed of having a place with super cute window boxes bursting with colorful annuals under every window. My only fear is that I don’t have a green thumb. My mom sent me a houseplant as a gift when I moved in and I managed to kill it in less than a week.”
Donovan picked up two of the hanging baskets she had been looking at and asked, “Did you forget to water it?”
“I think I overwatered it. It drowned. I didn’t even know that was possible. I thought plants needed water.”
He chuckled once again at her ineptness. “I think Avery would like these. They’re purple,” he said as if he had to explain. “I’m going to get them for my front porch.”
Kelly’s heart skipped a beat. He was so sweet and thoughtful, she had to force herself not to sigh like a lovestruck teenager. She reminded herself that this was the same guy who came to her door to test her ability to take care of herself. That was something her mother and father would have done to her when she was younger.
In the market area, he had a very short list of things for them to buy. They needed one onion, a garlic bulb, a pound of ground beef, a bunch of parsley and three fresh tomatoes. Everything else he claimed to have at home for her to use.
“Did you go grocery shopping with your mom when you were a kid?” she asked as they walked through the aisles of produce.
“I don’t remember going when I was little, but she did take me when I was in high school. She had a whole list of things she wanted me to learn to do before I graduated. It was sort of a how-to-be-a-successful-adult to-do list. She made me navigate grocery stores and Target. I still avoid that store on the weekends because of the horrors I witnessed there with my mom.”
Kelly laughed, trying to picture Donovan afraid of a bunch of weekend shoppers. “I wish my parents would have done that with me. They were so busy making sure there were no boogeymen under my bed that they didn’t even think about how
to prepare me for the real world.”
“I feel pressure to start doing it with Graham, but he has no interest. I tried to show him how to do laundry the other day and he acted like I was speaking a different language.”
Trying hard not to visibly swoon at the thought of him teaching his teenaged nephew how to wash clothes, she focused her attention on the cart full of watermelons up ahead. “Should we get some fruit for dinner? These watermelons look good. Not that I know what a bad watermelon would look like. Do you know how to tell?”
Donovan picked up one of the melons and inspected it. He seemed to be weighing it in his hands. Flipping it over, he showed her the belly. “You want to make sure it has a decent yellow patch where it was laying on the ground. That means it’s ripe.” He hit the melon with the heel of his hand.
“What was that for? Did you pick up a naughty one?”
He cocked his head to the side and cast her a look that told her he was unimpressed with her humor. “You always want to tap the underbelly. A ripe watermelon will have a nice hollow sound. Underripe or overripe melons will sound more muted.”
“You should have your own show on the Food Network. Dining with a Detective. Oh, I like that. I would watch that.”
A smile tilted his mouth as he shook his head at her. “Let’s get home and get dinner on the table.”
When they got to his truck, his phone chimed with a text from Graham, who was wondering when Donovan was going to be home because Avery was annoying him by asking for a snack every five seconds. Another text came through that questioned how long it took to pick someone up.
“He loves to complain but can’t stand it when anyone else complains. He has no problem asking other people to do things for him but is clearly being abused when someone asks him to do something. I don’t know what to do with him anymore.”
Kelly didn’t know Graham very well, but she could remember being an emotional teenager. Graham had the added bonus of grief to muddle through. It had to be impossibly hard.
“I think you need to continue being patient with him.”
“That’s getting more and more difficult,” Donovan confessed.
“Not only is he going through this typically self-centered phase of life, he’s at a really vulnerable age to have lost both parents. There’s probably a constant fight going on in his brain. Sometimes he wants to be independent and other times he’s probably sad his parents aren’t here to take care of him.”
Dark brows rose in astonishment. “That’s a really good point. I think if someone needs a TV show, it’s you. I can’t think of anything clever to call it, but I’m sure you could.”
The way he smiled and nervously glanced at her left her boneless in the seat next to him. He had this habit of making her feel things she was desperately trying to convince herself she would never feel for any police officer. But these feels were very dangerously real.
* * *
DONOVAN LET KELLY help him hang the flowers he bought for Avery when they got back to the house. He thanked her and did his best to reject the chemistry between them. She was the captain’s niece. Captain was clearly not going to be okay with Kelly dating someone in his unit. Not that Donovan was thinking about dating her. That was not part of any plan he had. Taking care of his sister’s kids brought enough drama into his life. He didn’t need a girlfriend on top of it.
“Are you ready for your cooking lesson? This isn’t going to be like making the meatball a couple days ago. You are going to do it all—I’m just going to guide you.”
Kelly clapped her hands together. “As long as you’re fine with having to pay for a couple of pizzas later when everyone is starved because the goulash was a disaster, I’m ready.”
“Pretty flowers!” Avery said, coming outside.
“I was hoping you’d like them,” Donovan said. “I thought of you the second I saw them.”
“Did you buy Kelly some, too? Boys are supposed to buy flowers for the girls they like.”
He kept his gaze fixed on Avery, refusing to look at Kelly’s reaction to the little girl’s question. “I bought Kelly some stuff to make for dinner. Why don’t we go inside?” His voice was a hoarse croak.
Playing it cool was difficult when his heart was thumping in his chest and embarrassment surely colored his cheeks. He needed to set Avery straight, but explaining the intricacies of adult relationships to a seven-year-old was about as easy as teaching her quantum physics. Avery believed that everyone should be friends. She didn’t discriminate and she didn’t understand that grown-ups were sometimes more than friends.
“Thank goodness you’re home,” Graham said. “Avery was driving me nuts.”
“I was not,” Avery argued. “You’re the one who was being annoying.”
“I wasn’t talking to you, Avery. Can you mind your business for one second?”
“Hey, be nice to your sister,” Donovan warned.
Graham followed them into the kitchen. “What’s for dinner?”
“Hello, to you, too, Graham,” Kelly said.
“Hi, Kelly. What’s for dinner?”
Kelly shot him a crooked smile. “I am making you guys goulash.”
“Cool,” Graham said with little affect.
Avery, on the other hand, celebrated by jumping up and down. “I love goulash!”
“Oh, great.” Kelly’s wariness was evident in her expression. “I have to make something you love.” She glanced briefly at Donovan. “Wonderful.”
“If you know they like it in general, you’ll know they’ll be honest about whether they like yours.”
“They like it when you make it.” She was legitimately worried. He could tell she didn’t want to disappoint but feared she would.
“And I am sharing my recipe with you, so they will like it when you make it.”
Kelly took a deep breath and walked to the sink to wash her hands. “Let’s do this.”
Donovan sent the kids away. Kelly couldn’t handle the distractions. He handed her the recipe card and watched her carefully as she got started. He didn’t do anything but talk her through it. He gave her little tips, like chew gum when chopping onions to prevent getting teary-eyed and how to shake garlic from its skin by using two metal bowls.
“Make sure to set the timer,” he reminded her after she mixed the noodles in the sauce. “No one likes crunchy or pasty noodles.”
“Okay, I have fifteen minutes. What do I do while I wait?”
“You could cut up the watermelon,” he suggested.
She wiped her hands on a dish towel. “I think I can handle that.”
“How much longer? I’m starving?” Graham called from the other room.
“About fifteen minutes,” Kelly answered. “Want to help me with cutting up the watermelon?”
Donovan would have put money on there being no chance at all that Graham would lend a hand when he was hungry. Being hungry made him irritable and being crabby made him uncooperative.
“Sure,” he replied much to Donovan’s surprise. “Did anyone famous show up at the farmers market when you were working at it yesterday?”
“Nope. Nobody famous. How was school on Friday?”
“Same as every other day. Boring.”
Kelly sliced the watermelon in half and the two of them began removing the rind. “There has to be one class that isn’t a complete snore-fest.”
“The only class I like is art,” Graham replied. “I’m taking this drawing and painting class and we’re working on our final projects.”
“Cool. What are you doing for it?”
He hesitated. “I’m drawing a portrait of my mom.”
“That’s awesome, Graham,” Kelly said, briefly making eye contact with Donovan, whose heart clenched. He had no idea. Graham had never mentioned anything about art class until today.
Graham tried to d
ownplay it. “It probably won’t get me an A, but I don’t really care.”
“The grade doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you got to create a piece of art that means something to you. I think that it’s great that you decided to paint something so special.”
Donovan cleared his throat and struggled to keep his voice even. “I can’t wait to see it.”
Graham looked at him with eyes full of all the emotion he kept trapped inside.
Wishing he could tear down his nephew’s walls, Donovan moved next to him and put an arm around him. Graham quickly shrugged it off.
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” he said.
Donovan backed off. He had thought this was a chance to show Graham that he could be there for him. Once again, Graham showed he wasn’t ready to let him in.
“You can’t tell the people who love you not to worry,” Kelly said from the other side of the kitchen island. “When you love someone, you worry about them all the time. It’s just the way it is.”
“Sometimes I just need everyone to worry less,” Graham said.
Kelly let out a sharp laugh. “Man, do I get that more than you will ever know. Both of my parents are...well, were police officers. My mom still works for the Knoxville Police. No one knows about wanting people to worry a little bit less than me.”
“Both of your parents are cops and your uncle is my uncle’s captain?”
She nodded. “I always felt like they worried about me too much. But when my dad died, all I wanted was for him to worry about me—to call me up and ask me if I remembered to lock my door. Lucky for me, I have my uncle in town. I called him when my car got vandalized, and he dropped everything to help me.”
Graham didn’t miss a beat. “And now my uncle is worrying about you. If you really wanted them all to worry less, you blew it with that one phone call.”
Kelly laughed. “You’re probably right about that, but I would rather have more people who love and worry about me in my life than have no one who cared.”
She stole another glance in Donovan’s direction. He was appreciative of her sharing her story with Graham since they were so similar. Donovan gave her a friendly smile and she returned it immediately.