Guarding Sophie

by Julie Brannagh

  “What if he finds me?” she whispered. His couch wrapped them in a cocoon of overstuffed comfort.

  “We’ll deal with that later,” he whispered back. “I’ve wanted to kiss you for years now, Sophie. I think you want to kiss me too.”

  She looked into his soft eyes. He moved even closer, and his hand slid to the back of her neck. His mouth was a breath away from hers. She reached up to hold his face in her hands too. Her fingertips slid over the stubble on his cheeks. He was a man, not a teenager. She was a woman who knew how painful love could be, instead of a girl who still believed in happily-ever-afters.

  She wished she could let go of the fear she carried around like a knapsack day in and day out and, for once, just feel.

  “You can tell me no if you’re not into it,” he said. “I can handle it.”

  “I don’t want to say no,” she said.

  He closed the space between them and covered her mouth with his own. He tasted like the wine they’d been drinking. His lips were soft and gentle on hers, and she smiled as the tip of his nose tickled her cheek. He pulled her closer.

  She heard the Pitch Perfect soundtrack start on his TV. She opened her eyes long enough to see him reach out with the remote control and click the “Power Off” button with one finger as he kept kissing her.

  “Hang on,” he muttered as he pulled his mouth off hers, clicked again, and succeeded in getting the TV to shut off. Night had fallen; the only light in his living room was the spillover from the kitchen. He flopped back on the couch, tugging her with him, and dropped the remote onto the cushion. “I’m such a smooth guy, aren’t I?”

  “Don’t worry about it,” she said. She’d never forget watching him blindly stabbing at the “Power Off” button. His momentary awkwardness was adorable. She wished for a love that made her laugh instead of cry. “You taste so good,” she said.

  “You’re sure I don’t have food in my teeth?”

  “Nope.” She snuggled up to him and laid her head on his shoulder. “We could try it again.”

  “We could,” he said. “There’s something we should probably talk about before we do any more kissing.”

  “Is this when we’re supposed to talk about what’s going to happen next?” She nodded at the staircase leading to his bedroom.

  He got the message. Despite the dimness of his living room, she could see fresh color rising in his cheeks. “Well, yeah, we should talk about that, too, but right now, maybe we should discuss whether or not you’d like me to drive you home.”

  “Are you kicking me out?” she teased.

  “No. No. I didn’t want you to think that I expected you to stay if you needed to get home—I—shit, I’m happy to do whatever you’d like to do, up to and including driving you anywhere you’d like.” He let out a breath. “I know we said we were taking this slow.”

  If Sophie had had any hope of resisting Kyle before, it was gone. He’d made it clear he was interested, but he asked her what she was comfortable with rather than talking her into spending the night and regretting what they’d done the next morning.

  “I hope you don’t think I’m teasing you,” she said.

  “I kissed you first, remember?”

  “I do,” she said. She wrapped her arms around his waist. “I enjoyed it.”

  “Are we going to be those people who go to a movie and kiss through the entire thing?”

  “Probably,” she said. She felt his chest move as he laughed.

  “I guess this means we’ll at least have to start the movie first.”

  KYLE POINTED THE remote control toward the flat-screen on the other wall and clicked. The movie they downloaded popped up as the TV flickered on. He hit some more buttons on the universal remote someone had programmed before he moved in; the flames in the gas fireplace leapt to life too. He could envision a lot of happy evenings cuddled up with Sophie on his living room couch in the future, or at least during the six months or so a year he didn’t have to be back in Bellevue for football.

  She’d made a home here. He might live in Noel a few months a year between football seasons. He didn’t want to get ahead of himself, but he’d like to spend more time with her. He wondered if the sparks of strong attraction he’d felt for her would grow into a flame that might warm them both. Obviously, they hadn’t seen each other for years, but now he didn’t want to dwell on what would happen when he had to go back to his life with the Sharks, and she’d be here for months on her own.

  He wasn’t entirely kidding when he told her he had two guest rooms upstairs, either. She was in love with his kitchen; he had a state-of-the-art security system—it could work well for both of them. She could save the money she was forking out for rent to buy a car. He could sneak into Noel on his day off each week during football season and spend some time with her.

  They’d kissed each other a few times, and he was already moving her into his house. Maybe he needed to slow his roll.

  Maybe he should kiss her some more instead of planning their entire future in the next thirty seconds.

  He glanced down at her.

  “Sophie?” he said.

  “Mmph,” she said.

  Her head was on his shoulder, her arms still around him, but he grabbed the remote again and turned the volume down. Her breathing was deep and peaceful. She was fast asleep. He clicked the movie off and settled back into the cushions too.

  They could solve their problems tomorrow.

  KYLE DIDN’T DRIVE Sophie home last night. The combination of a delicious dinner, a little wine, and an evening full of laughter and conversation (and the luxurious couch the designer installed in his living room) was enough to lull them both to sleep. The sun was flooding his living room with industrial-strength light when he awoke. He glanced over at Sophie, who was still curled against him. She rubbed her nose with her free hand and made a little snorting sound in her sleep. She was adorable, and it was all he could do not to laugh.

  He felt his cell phone vibrating in his pants pocket and grabbed it out to look at the time. He stared at the readout in shock. He couldn’t remember the last time he slept until 10 AM on a weekday. Maybe it was the quiet. He didn’t hear traffic noise in Noel. There weren’t sirens. Nobody came to the door. The first night he’d stayed in his cabin, he couldn’t sleep because it was too quiet. He went out the next day and bought one of those white noise machines. He made a mental note to unplug the machine later. His lack of sleep didn’t have anything to do with the quiet. It was because he hadn’t been this relaxed in years. He was having the time of his life hiding out with Sophie.

  Speaking of Sophie, maybe he should wake her up. She didn’t have to work, but she might have things to do. He heard another little snort from her as she shoved herself into a sitting position. She smiled sleepily at him as she stretched.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey.”

  They stared at each other for a few seconds. Her hair was rumpled. She was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. A delicate flush rose in her cheeks, and he remembered how soft her skin was as he held her last night.

  “Did you sleep well?” he asked. “You weren’t uncomfortable? I didn’t mean for us to fall asleep on the couch.”

  That wasn’t the whole truth. He didn’t want her to leave. He’d promised to take things slowly, which was now biting him in the butt. He got that she was scared. He was too. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to do whatever he could to spend as much time with Sophie as possible.

  “I did,” she said. “I’ll be right back.” She scrambled off the couch and hurried into the downstairs powder room.

  Twenty minutes later, she’d pulled eggs, milk, and cheese out of the refrigerator to make them an omelet with toast and more fresh fruit. He glanced at his phone’s screen again after feeling it vibrate.

  His mom. He shut the phone off.

  “Still want to go on a picnic by the river today?” he asked.

  She glanced up from cracking eggs into a bowl. “I’
d love to,” she said.

  Chapter Eight

  THE NEXT MORNING, Sophie opened her eyes to an initially unfamiliar room with a soaring ceiling flooded in the pinks and oranges of dawn. It took her a moment to remember exactly where she was.

  Beautiful house.

  Noel.

  Kyle.

  She heard his quiet snores. He was still holding her. His long legs sprawled out over the upholstered coffee table/ottoman he’d shoved up against the sectional to give them more room last night. They’d spent the past couple of days hanging out at his house when they weren’t visiting the sites around Noel.

  They went on a picnic yesterday. They’d stopped by the town square for a weeknight concert by a Scottish band called Sassenachs Gone Wild. She could now say that she’d heard “Silent Night” played on bagpipes. Kyle had asked her if she wanted to go to her place for a while.

  “Do I have to?” she had said.

  She still loved her little apartment, but she didn’t want him to leave, either. She knew she’d told him she wanted to take things slow, which made her a huge liar. She knew they’d camped out on his couch two nights in a row because he didn’t want her to feel pressured to get physically involved. She also knew she should try to maintain some air of mystery (or make him chase her a little; guys didn’t want what was easy to get) but she was having so much fun with him she didn’t want to go back to her quiet, solitary life quite yet.

  “We still haven’t finished watching Pitch Perfect,” he had said.

  “Are we ever going to finish watching it?”

  “If we can stay awake long enough,” he had joked.

  She extracted herself carefully from his embrace.

  He muttered something she couldn’t make out and wrapped his arms around his midsection. If she was quiet, he might sleep for a while longer.

  She used the bathroom and walked into the kitchen. It wasn’t 7 AM yet. Maybe she should go back to sleep too. Right now, she’d like to stand on the deck off Kyle’s living room and admire the view.

  She glanced over at him as she passed the living room couch. He didn’t stir. She unlocked the French doors leading outside, strolled onto the deck, and took a deep breath of fresh, pine-scented air. It was one of those mornings she wished she had a really good camera. There was an okay one on the burner phone she was using right now. The really good camera was on her Samsung, which was shut off and buried in the bottom of her purse. She wondered why she couldn’t bring herself to throw it away. Then again, it hadn’t been cheap. Maybe she could sell it to someone else.

  She stared at an impossibly blue sky, puffy white clouds, and evergreens as far as the eye could see. She saw the snow-capped mountains ringing Noel, and she could hear birds calling out to each other. She laid one hand on the railing that surrounded Kyle’s porch.

  An odd flash caught her eye. She glanced in that direction. The sunshine was almost blinding, and she saw the flash again. She shielded her eyes with one hand and peered in the direction of the two flashes.

  A tall, broad-shouldered man with sandy blond hair stood next to a late-model car with a pair of binoculars in one hand. She didn’t call out to him. In an instant, with the shock of recognition, she was too afraid to cry out or to scream. She knew who he was. And she couldn’t figure out how he’d managed to find her, despite all of her efforts to leave no trace of where she’d gone.

  He lifted his other hand in a half wave as he started running toward Kyle’s house.

  She turned and ran back inside.

  Chapter Nine

  KYLE WOKE OUT of a sound sleep to a frantic Sophie and banging on his front door. She pushed the panic button on the security system pad that was mounted on the wall next to the door.

  “Do you have a landline?” she asked. “I need to call the police. He’s out there. I saw him from your deck, and now he’s here—”

  “Who’s here?”

  He still heard banging on the front door. The person standing on his front porch had added continuous doorbell ringing to the repertoire as well.

  “Peter. He was out there. He saw me. He’s here. Oh, God.” She ran into his kitchen. The entire front of his house was windows; there was nowhere for either of them to hide. He had no idea if a 911 call would reach the Noel Police Department from his place in the woods, but he had to try. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and dialed.

  “Noel Police Department.”

  He pulled breath into his lungs. “This is Kyle Carlson. Please send the police to my house. My guest has a stalker who’s just shown up at my front door.”

  “What’s your address, Mr. Carlson?”

  “I just moved in here. I think it’s on Whispering Pines Drive. It’s the A-frame cabin at the top of the hill if that helps at all.”

  “One moment, please,” the 911 operator said. “Stay on the line.”

  “The guy has a restraining order. He came here from Florida.”

  The man on his front porch was still banging on the door and ringing the doorbell, and now he added shouting. “Answer the door, bitch. I know you’re in here. We need to have a talk.”

  Sophie appeared in the kitchen doorway. Kyle could see her shaking from across the room.

  “He’s not going to leave,” she choked out.

  “Mr. Carlson, police are on their way. Please stay on the line. Do you have a weapon?”

  “No, I don’t,” Kyle said.

  “The officers will be there as soon as possible.”

  “Open up! I know you’re in there, Sophie!” the man yelled.

  Kyle could hear sirens from Noel seconds later. The pounding on the door stopped abruptly as one of the panes of heavy glass set into it cracked.

  “Get away from the windows,” Kyle shouted to Sophie.

  The 911 operator was telling him the police would be there in less than a minute. He pulled Sophie into his teeny office. Seconds later, he heard shattering glass and a car racing away from his house.

  The police arrived, but not fast enough to save one of the huge windows in Kyle’s living room. Peter had thrown a large rock through it. Kyle pulled the shade down in his office and set Sophie in his desk chair while two officers took pictures of the damage and two more officers searched his property.

  “We’ve got guys coming from the surrounding communities too. They’ll be here soon,” one of the officers told him. “Did you see which direction the guy went?”

  “I was trying to keep her away from the windows.” He sent a hand through his hair. “It sounded like he took off farther up the hill, but I didn’t think there were roads above the house.”

  “They’re old logging roads. He’s not going to get far. We’d also like to talk with the young woman for a few minutes.”

  Kyle walked into his office and put a hand on Sophie’s shoulder. “How are you doing?”

  She shook her head.

  “They’ll find him,” he said.

  “Before or after he hurts someone else?”

  “I’ll make sure you’re safe. I promise.”

  “You can’t do that,” she said. “You’ll end up getting hurt.” She glanced up at him. Her eyes were swollen from crying. She brushed the tears off both cheeks with impatient fingertips. “I’m going to have to leave again. I can’t imagine how he found me. I left everything and told nobody where I was going . . . ”

  “Miss, do you have a few moments for us? Officers from other jurisdictions are helping us search. We’re wondering if you could give us some more information.”

  She closed her eyes for a few seconds and said, “Please let me know what I can do to help.”

  Kyle made some calls while the police spoke with Sophie. Voices rose and fell behind the closed door to his office. He could see multiple police cars parked on the winding drive leading to his house. A satellite truck drove up and parked.

  Shit.

  Two more officers walked into his house and shut the door behind them.

  “We’ve got guys drivi
ng the logging roads behind your place. They’ve found nothing so far. We also have a police heli on the way from Seattle; they’ll be here in half an hour or so. Please tell Ms. Hayes that we are doing everything we can to locate the suspect, but it’s not safe for her to go back to her place until he’s caught,” one of the officers told Kyle.

  Kyle nodded. “She can stay here.”

  “It might not be safe for you to stay here, either. We’ll have at least one car up here until we find him.”

  “My insurance company has a glass guy on the way too.”

  Everyone was talking, but they weren’t telling him the important stuff. How did Sophie’s stalker manage to find her in the first place? Would he be arrested and extradited to Florida to face a trial when they caught him, or would he sit in jail here while she lived in terror of when he got out?

  “Good job on pushing the panic button on your security system too. Their dispatcher led us right to your house.”

  “I think Sophie must have hit that. I didn’t realize what was happening until he was banging on the door.”

  The door to his office swung open, and Sophie walked into the living room. She was still shaking and brushing tears off her face with both hands. Kyle held out his arms to her. He was going to protect her, no matter what it took.

  “We’ll find him,” he said. “He won’t be able to hurt you. I promise.”

  Chapter Ten

  SOPHIE DRAGGED THE suitcase full of her clothing and toiletries a police officer brought to Kyle’s house upstairs to his guest room a few hours later. She needed a shower and a change of clothes. Even more, she needed someplace safe to stay. The police were still looking for Peter. They’d brought in a helicopter and police were searching the surrounding communities. He seemed to have vanished into thin air.

  “We’ll be watching your place, Sophie,” the female police officer said. “It’s not safe to stay there right now.”

  “My landlord lives in the bigger house. Will she be okay? I’m worried about her.” Sophie’s worst nightmare had come true, but she couldn’t think about that right now. What if Peter tried to hurt her landlady, appeared at Kyle’s house again, or did something awful to her coworkers? They didn’t ask for this.