Falling for Her Bodyguard--A Clean Romance

by Amy Vastine

Graham had talked to Mia about Donovan and Kelly? What else did Mia know?

  “No one is messing anything up,” he called up after him. Maybe he was. Donovan had been outside kissing her a minute ago and now was trying to convince his nephew there was nothing going on. With the kids involved, he was deeper than he’d ever been.

  Back in the family room, Kelly had her feet up on the coffee table and the bowl of ice cream in her lap. She spooned some ice cream into her mouth and didn’t say a word about the conversation she most definitely overheard.

  “Whatever this is—I am totally going to mess it up,” he said, taking a seat next to her.

  She handed him the other spoon and held the bowl of ice cream in between them. “Well, if you don’t, I will. So...”

  Now they had two things in common. They both would not be able to stop thinking about kissing and they were sure one or both of them would ruin everything.

  It would be interesting to see who would wreck it first.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  IT HAD BEEN a very long time since Kelly had slept on a twin-size mattress on the floor. Probably not since college. It was as uncomfortable now as it was then. It was highly unlikely that Avery would understand if Kelly went back to the couch, though.

  “Are you awake?” Avery whispered in the dark.

  Kelly was sure it could not be time to wake up yet. She lay still, hoping Avery would fall back asleep.

  “Kelly?” No such luck.

  “Avery, it’s not time to get up yet.”

  “Why not? You’re awake. I’m awake. We can get up and make pancakes.”

  Kelly had no intention of trying to cook in this house unsupervised again. One smoke detector fiasco was enough.

  “Let’s wait until your uncle is awake. I bet his pancakes are way better than mine.”

  “He’s awake. I heard him go downstairs.”

  Kelly propped herself up on her elbows and scanned the floor around her bed for her phone. It was just after five in the morning on a Saturday. There was no reason anyone needed to be up this early on a Saturday unless they were a first responder or they delivered babies. No one else was needed.

  “Are you sure it was your uncle?”

  “I think so.”

  Kelly rolled out of her bed and onto the floor, army-crawling to the door. Her body resisted as she pulled herself up to her feet. It was way too early for this, but it made her nervous that Donovan was up. Maybe there was news about the stalker.

  “Maybe he went to get us doughnuts!” Avery hopped out of bed and bounced all the way over to Kelly like a carefree bunny. “Remember he said he would get doughnuts this weekend?”

  Doughnuts was reasonable at this unreasonable time of day. “Let’s go check.”

  The door made a noisy creak when she opened it. Avery would never be able to sneak in and out of this room when she was older. The two of them padded downstairs in search of Donovan. No one was on the first level, either.

  “See, he went to get doughnuts,” Avery said, gripping the hem of Kelly’s sleep shirt.

  The sound of metal clacking on metal came from the basement. He was working out? They followed the noise down the second set of stairs.

  Donovan was in the basement wearing shorts and a tank top. He had dumbbells in each hand and he lifted them parallel to the floor or until his arms were even with his shoulders. The muscles in his biceps and shoulders bulged under the strain.

  Strength and power emanated from him. Donovan didn’t just look like he was in the military, he looked like he could take on an army. Watching him made her feel like she had a superhero for a bodyguard.

  “Are we getting doughnuts for breakfast?” Avery said, scaring Donovan half to death. He dropped one of the weights as he spun around and clutched his chest.

  “How long have you two been standing there?”

  “Only for a minute,” Kelly said, hoping he didn’t think she was a creeper.

  “You said we could have doughnuts today, remember?” Avery persisted.

  “Let’s leave your uncle alone to finish his workout and then we can talk about breakfast.” Kelly grabbed Avery by the hand and tugged her gently up the stairs. “Sorry for bothering you.”

  “I’m really hungry for doughnuts now,” Avery complained.

  “Let’s go back to bed until the sun comes up.” She tried to get Avery to follow her back to her room. Kelly stopped halfway up the stairs. “Come on, Avery. It’s too early.”

  “Did someone say they were hungry for doughnuts?” Donovan’s voice came out of the darkness.

  “Me!” Avery squealed.

  “We can go back to bed for a little bit. You can finish your workout.”

  “Or we can get doughnuts,” Avery suggested. “Can I go with you?”

  “Why don’t we all go? Run upstairs and get dressed.”

  Avery sprinted past her. Donovan stopped one step below Kelly so their faces were even.

  “Sorry,” she said again. “She’s an extremely early riser and, since she’s my roommate, she makes me one, too.”

  “Did you sleep okay?”

  “Yeah,” she lied. “Did you?”

  “I tossed and turned because I can’t turn off my brain,” he admitted. “That’s why I got up and tried to work out. Thought maybe I needed some physical activity to calm my mind down.”

  “Why do I feel like I’m responsible for the overthinking?”

  He reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear and cupped her cheek. “Probably because you were.”

  Even in the shadows of the early morning, she could see that warmth in his eyes. She put her hands on his shoulders and gave a little squeeze to reduce some of the tension there.

  “If it makes you feel any better, thoughts of you kept me up for a while, as well.”

  His thumb brushed across her cheek, sending a shiver down her spine. She stared at his lips, remembering how nice it was to kiss him yesterday. She had been imagining it for so many days, she had worried the actual kissing wouldn’t live up to the fantasy, but thankfully she had been so very wrong.

  “We are really good at torturing each other,” he said.

  All Kelly wanted to do was kiss him again. She closed her eyes and prepared for takeoff.

  “I’m ready! Let’s go!” Avery came racing by, causing them to jump apart. “Why aren’t you ready? I’m hungry.”

  Kelly marched up the stairs and slipped into Avery’s room. She pressed her back against the door and caught her breath. As much as she wanted to be here, he wasn’t wrong about the torture.

  She changed into some shorts and a T-shirt and brushed her hair into a ponytail. Nothing fancy needed for an early-morning doughnut run. She opened the door to find Donovan in the hall.

  She held up her toothbrush. “I’m going to brush my teeth and use the bathroom. Are you going to wake up Graham to see if he wants to come with us?”

  “Are you serious? Have you ever tried to wake a teenager before dawn on a weekend? Not only do you risk your life by doing that, if you do survive, it makes them extremely irritable the rest of the day.”

  “I vote we let him sleep. We can bring him back a couple of his favorites for later.”

  “Much better idea,” he said with a wink.

  Kelly finished her morning routine quickly, knowing Avery’s patience was running thin.

  She found the two of them waiting for her by the front door. “Come on, Kelly. I’ve starving.”

  “How can such a little girl eat so much?” Kelly asked, giving Avery’s side a tickle.

  She giggled. “I don’t know. My belly just growls.”

  Donovan opened the door and held it open for the ladies. “Your carriage awaits, princess.”

  They took off for the doughnut shop. Donovan swore the best doughnuts could only be f
ound at Three Sisters Donuts. It was owned by three actual sisters who loved different flavor combinations and unusual toppings.

  It was an adorable little shop with a country farmhouse theme. The menu was written in pastel-colored chalk on chalkboards hanging on the wall behind the counter. At least two dozen varieties of doughnuts filled the display cases.

  “I want the one with the Froot Loops!” Avery said, her face practically pressed against the glass.

  “If you like chocolate, those white chocolate brownie doughnuts are pretty amazing.” Donovan came up behind her and reached around her to point at some delicious-looking goodies.

  “I think we need to get all of them and do a taste test to determine the best.”

  “All of them?”

  Kelly turned around to face him. “You’re not going to make me choose, are you?”

  “How does someone so small eat so much?” he asked with a smirk.

  “My belly just growls. I need all the doughnuts. Except the jelly-filled. I am not a jelly fan.”

  “What? Strawberry jelly doughnuts are delicious.”

  “If you’re an old man.”

  “Wrong. Old men eat plain doughnuts dunked in black coffee.”

  Kelly made a face. “That’s so gross.”

  “The things you learn about a person when you go doughnut shopping,” Donovan said, shaking his head.

  As unwilling as he had been about sharing their feelings with one another, once they did, he seemed to lighten a little. She already liked him on a regular day, but silly, doughnut-buying Donovan was almost irresistible.

  “We will take one of each except for any jelly-filled or plain doughnuts. My friend here is not a fan,” Donovan told the woman behind the counter.

  * * *

  “MY FAVORITE IS the bacon one,” Avery said, picking the last piece of bacon off what was left of the maple bacon doughnut they had cut into four pieces.

  Donovan figured Graham would either be amused or a bit disturbed to find a quarter each of eighteen different doughnuts when he finally dragged himself out of bed. They had massacred them all so they could each get a taste.

  “I am going to have to vote for the s’mores one. I love marshmallow,” Kelly said, leaning back and giving her belly a rub. It wasn’t growling because it was empty anymore. Now, it probably moaned from being so full.

  Donovan hadn’t been able to really tell the difference between them after about doughnut number five. They all started to taste sweet and capable of putting him in a sugar-induced coma if he ate one more bite.

  “I’m voting for the old-fashioned. Those are the kind I remember eating when I was a kid.”

  “Back in the olden days?” Kelly teased.

  Donovan didn’t know how old Kelly was exactly, but he figured she was still in her twenties. At thirty-six, he was probably close to ten years older than she was.

  “You know what doughnut your dad would have liked, Avery?”

  “Which one?”

  Avery had only been three years old when Ollie died, and the majority of those three years, he had been in Afghanistan. She never really knew her father and that made Donovan sad for both of them.

  “He would have liked the milk and cookies one because he was obsessed with cookies. Our squad used to call him a cookie monster because he would trade everyone for their cookies at dinner.”

  “He did?”

  “He did. Sometimes he’d eat a whole plate of them for dinner.”

  Avery laughed like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. “I bet Mommy didn’t let him do that. She says no dessert until you eat your dinner.”

  Jess was a stickler about healthy eating habits. She and Ollie were so different, but somehow it worked. They complemented each other because where one was weak, the other was strong.

  Avery and Graham were a lot like that. They both had different traits of their mom and dad in them. Avery had her dad’s laugh and his love of sugar. Not only did she look like her mom, but she had her compassion and love of family. Graham had his dad’s temper and technical skills. From Jess, Graham got his artistic ability and her seriousness.

  “Your dad was my kind of man,” Kelly said to Avery. “I could have handled making him dinner every night. Open up some Chips Ahoy one night, Oreos the next. Super easy.”

  “Can we have cookies for dinner tonight?” Avery asked.

  “No way, kiddo. You just ate a million grams of sugar for breakfast. I need to make sure your mom doesn’t strike me down with some lightning.”

  “Mommy can make lightning?”

  Donovan and Kelly exchanged a look. He knew he had to watch what he said around Avery, but things still slipped out that she took literally.

  “No, it’s just a saying. Some say that when people do things that make someone in heaven mad, the person in heaven throws some lightning at them.”

  Avery seemed satisfied with that answer and asked if she could watch some cartoons. Donovan agreed but asked her to keep the volume low so they didn’t disturb Graham.

  He scooted his chair closer to Kelly’s and reached for her hand. “What do you want to do today? I was thinking we could do a little self-defense training.”

  “I need to find a new place to live.” She held his hand in both of hers.

  “You’re serious about that?”

  “I can’t go back there. My lease is almost up. I was thinking about actually buying a place once I signed my new contract at work. When you’re in radio, you run the risk of having to move from town to town. A new contract at K104 means I can put down some roots finally.”

  “Roots are good.” He intertwined his fingers with hers and lifted her hand to his lips. “We can fire up my laptop later and search the web for the best house in Nashville to put down roots.”

  Her smile was crooked and perfect. “You think we’ll find the right house if that’s what we put in our Google search?”

  “Why not?”

  She leaned in close and he wanted to kiss her just like he had wanted to kiss her on the stairs earlier that morning.

  “Why are you guys up so early?” Graham’s voice startled them both.

  Donovan pushed away from Kelly. “Your sister wanted doughnuts. We brought some home for you.”

  “Well, we have some parts of doughnuts for you,” Kelly said, flipping open the lids to the boxes. “This one was my favorite, this one is your sister’s favorite and your uncle is an eighty-year-old trapped in a thirtysomething’s body and this was his favorite.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Donovan said. “I am very young at heart.”

  Graham narrowed his eyes as he checked out the decimated doughnuts. “Did you guys eat part of every doughnut? How are you not sick from eating all that?”

  “We’re going to go downstairs and do some self-defense training. One of the moves we’re going to learn is how to barf on the guy so he runs away from you,” Kelly said.

  “Wow. If I’m an eighty-year-old, you’re a twelve-year-old in a twentysomething’s body.”

  “Twenty-year-olds think barf is funny,” she argued.

  “No one thinks barf is funny,” Graham countered.

  “What?” Kelly dared to look shocked. “Avery, do you think barf is funny?”

  “Barfing is gross!” Avery yelled from the couch.

  “Not even the seven-year-old thinks it’s funny,” Donovan said with a laugh.

  “You guys need to get a sense of humor.”

  “Uncle Donovan?” Avery said, running into the kitchen.

  “Avery?”

  Her little face scrunched up in pain. “I don’t feel good. I think I ate too many doughnuts.” Before Donovan could respond, she threw up all over him and it was the least funny thing he’d ever experienced.

  * * *

  “
I AM SO SORRY. I feel like I jinxed you,” Kelly said as they threw some clothes into the washing machine.

  “I don’t think it was all the talking about barf as much as it was the eighteen pieces of doughnuts she ate. I’m pretty sure the barf was my sister’s version of lightning.”

  “The good news is Avery seems to be feeling better.”

  Donovan started the wash. “This is what I get for being the fun uncle. From now on, it’s fruit and cereal for breakfast only.”

  “Poor Avery will never forgive herself.”

  Donovan’s laundry room was barely big enough to house the washer and the dryer. They were in very tight quarters and finally alone. He put his hands on her hips and finally got that kiss he had been waiting for. Kelly’s hands slid up his arms and rested on his shoulders.

  “Why does it feel like we’ve known each other forever?” he asked when she pulled away.

  “It does, doesn’t it?”

  Less than two weeks and he was attached. Donovan Walsh didn’t get attached. He was too logical for that. Yet, here he was in his tiny laundry room, thinking about how he wanted to ask her to forget about buying a house and move in with him and the kids instead.

  That thought was actually running through his head. He had lost his mind. Somehow, in just under two weeks, this woman had managed to get him to completely reconsider how he saw the whole world.

  “What?” She lightly scratched the back of his neck. “That scares you, doesn’t it?”

  “It doesn’t scare you?”

  “I promised myself I would never, ever let myself fall for a police officer. My parents were cops and I was not going to spend the rest of my life living in a house that was run like a police station. You walk into my life with your matter-of-fact attitude about everything and I hate you at first. Then I find out being a cop is one sliver of who you are and that there are all these beautiful facets. You have totally changed the way I think about everything.”

  “So, yes. You are as terrified as I am?”

  “Completely,” she said with a laugh.

  “I need to find your stalker so we have one less thing to worry about.” Donovan kissed her forehead and let her go. “I think we should do something to lure him out into the open. There are a couple things that make me believe you know him. He said you’ve always been kind. How would he know that if he hadn’t met you?”