Guarding Sophie

by Julie Brannagh

  A few minutes later, Sophie glanced up from checking out some tourists who were asking her questions about the best place to get a burger in Noel and saw thirty-one guys walking through the front door. Kyle was leading the group.

  “What are you guys doing here?” she called out.

  “We need some groceries. Lots of groceries,” Tom Reed responded. “It’s going to take hours. Right, guys? Gotta stock up.”

  “Right.”

  They were nuts. What if things got dangerous? It was bad enough that the seniors refused to leave. She wanted to believe that Peter was not going to walk into the store with a weapon, but he was desperate, and she didn’t want to think about what would happen if he showed up.

  Her stomach churned. She pasted a smile on her face and tried to make small talk with the customers, but mostly she wondered if she’d made a terrible mistake. If anyone else got hurt because of her plan, she’d never forgive herself.

  The tourists at Sophie’s check stand stared at the guys who’d taken over the entire coffee area and glanced at her. “They look really familiar. Don’t those guys play for the Seattle Sharks?”

  “I’m not sure,” she said.

  She bowed her head for a moment so the customers wouldn’t see tears rising in her eyes. These guys didn’t know her. They had wives and families. They didn’t need to put themselves in harm’s way for her, but they were here anyway.

  Sophie made sure the customers’ groceries were bagged up. She wiped down the check stand with a clean damp cloth while she waited for more people to make their way into the line. The noise level from the coffee area was increasing, and there were so many people milling around she didn’t have a clear view of the front entrance of the store. She glanced over to see Derrick raise his coffee cup to two of the senior guys and call out, “That’s what I’m talking about!”

  She bagged up the tourists’ groceries and told them “Have a nice day” as they walked out of the store.

  It happened so fast she didn’t have time to grab the intercom. She was so absorbed in watching Kyle’s teammates joke around and buy coffee for the older people that she didn’t see Peter until he seized her.

  “There you are, bitch. You’re coming with me,” Peter said. He yanked hard on her arm. “You’re not getting away from me this time.”

  She tried to scream, but all that came out was a whispered, “Let go of me.”

  He looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. He’d probably been on the road that long. His clothes were dirty, his hair was tangled, and he smelled like alcohol. She tried to pull herself away from him, and he redoubled his efforts. The intercom was right by her hip. All she had to do was hit the button. Detective Diaz was dealing with customers blocking her view as well. Sophie was so scared she couldn’t talk, let alone scream.

  “Let’s go,” he said and jerked on her arm hard enough that she felt something in her shoulder twinge.

  With one last burst of strength, she managed to knock the intercom off the hook. She scrabbled around with her other hand until she managed to hit the button that turned on the amplification. A huge burst of feedback came over the store speakers.

  A very large man came out of nowhere, pulled Peter away from Sophie, and tossed him onto his belly on the floor. He dropped his knee into Peter’s back, grabbing both of his wrists and wrenching his elbows behind him as well.

  Peter grunted loudly and said, “Get the fuck off of me.”

  The man’s voice rang out in the sudden silence.

  “Hey, son of a bitch,” Kade Harrison said. “You move one muscle, and I’m going to hurt you. Bad.” He glanced up at Sophie and smiled. “Hey, darlin’. Do me a favor and get the cops.”

  Detective Diaz cleared her check stand in one leap and knelt down next to Peter as she whipped handcuffs out of her pants pocket. “Peter Hutchinson, you are under arrest,” she said. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of law.” She continued to recite the Miranda warning as she glanced up, caught Sophie’s eyes, and winked.

  Seconds later, Kyle stepped around both his teammate and the detective, pulled Sophie into his arms, and switched the intercom on again. “We’ve got this, babe,” he said. He put the receiver up to his mouth to speak.

  “Would all police officers in the store come to check stand 2? Cleanup on check stand 2.”

  Chapter Twelve

  LATER THAT DAY, Kyle put the finishing touches on his tie as he listened to Sophie’s light footsteps moving around in his master bathroom. They didn’t want to leave Abendblume, but the fact that Peter was now behind bars meant that he and Sophie could keep their promise to Derrick and Holly. Kyle had to go home and put on a suit. Sophie managed to find a dress to wear and some heels that fit. They were chaperoning Michael’s prom.

  Kyle also managed to get a wrist corsage for Sophie at the last minute. He hadn’t been this nervous at his own prom, and it seemed like she was taking all night in there. They’d decided to skip the pre-prom dinner Derrick offered. They could have dinner with the guys over the next few nights. He wanted Sophie all to himself tonight if he could manage it.

  He must have shaken hands with Kade Harrison and thanked him twenty times this afternoon. Harrison was a real asshole, but he saw Peter grab Sophie before anyone else and he took care of things. He didn’t break Peter’s arms, but Kyle was willing to bet that Peter had a cracked rib or two. He had to admit a real pang of jealousy when a shaken Sophie threw her arms around Kade’s neck to hug him after Noel’s police force had Peter in the back of their squad car.

  “You saved me,” she said.

  “Oh, no, darlin’. I helped,” Kade said. He patted her on the back and gave Kyle a nod. “You did me a favor. I loved kicking that bastard’s ass.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re not going to cry now, are you?” Kade tugged gently on the copper-colored braid that hung over Sophie’s shoulder. “It’s all going to be fine. See you later.” He raised an eyebrow as he locked eyes with Kyle. “Take care of her, bro.”

  He sauntered out of the store.

  “He must have a girlfriend,” Sophie said to Kyle.

  “He can’t have mine,” Kyle said.

  Sophie wrapped her arms around him as he pulled her closer. She was safe. Things were fine. All he had to do now was figure out how he was going to deal with it if she decided to go back to Cocoa Beach.

  KYLE HEARD THE bathroom door open, and Sophie stepped into the early evening sunlight that draped his room. He almost fell to his knees when he saw her.

  She wore a gauzy, pretty dress that brought out her blue eyes and swirled around her knees. She’d put on a little makeup and high heels. Her hair was done in some fancy braid, with wispy pieces that escaped and framed her face. He could smell the same perfume she’d had on last night too. She looked so beautiful, and he didn’t know what to say for a minute or so. He held out the corsage box the florist had put her creation in.

  “This is for you. I wasn’t sure what to buy.”

  “Oh. It’s gorgeous,” she said. Her face lit up. He knew she would have been thrilled if he went out in the backyard and pulled some weeds or whatever, but he wanted her to have something pretty. “And you remembered that I love roses too. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Let me put it on you,” he said. He’d never been this nervous on a football field. He could grab a TD pass on third and twenty with ten seconds left in a game, no problem. He sure as hell was when he stood in his room in front of the prettiest girl he’d ever known. He managed to get the corsage out of the box, though, and he slipped it over her hand and onto her wrist.

  “It’s lovely,” she said. He saw color rising in her cheeks. “And you look so handsome.”

  If he hadn’t already promised Collins, he would have tossed her on the bed and sent the guys a text later. He held out his arm.

  “Shall we go?”

  “I’d like that,” she said.
>
  They arrived at Noel High School’s gym a few minutes later. He was a little shocked to see some very large, formally dressed men (accompanied by some familiar-looking wives and girlfriends) clustered around the gym doors.

  Derrick Collins stepped out of the crowd. “I told you to be on time.”

  “We’re on time,” Kyle said. “It doesn’t start for ten minutes. And I thought you were going to be in Seattle tonight.”

  “The radiologist had a hole in his schedule tomorrow. Plus, Holly had to wear her new dress, didn’t she?”

  Kendall McCoy stepped forward and held out her hand. “It’s so nice to meet you, Sophie. I understand we’re all chaperoning the senior prom tonight.”

  “Yes. I think it’ll be fun,” Sophie said.

  “Maybe we’ll get some ice cream afterward,” Kade Harrison called out.

  “Hey. I like ice cream,” Tom Reed said. “Let’s get the hell in there, shall we?”

  Going to the prom with Sophie Hayes was even better than Kyle dreamed. There were so many chaperones that there wasn’t much to do, so he danced with his new girlfriend instead. He also slipped the DJ a hundred bucks to play a song for them. He felt pretty sure the performer in question must have been thinking about his and Sophie’s love story when she wrote it.

  “This one goes out to the football player and the prettiest girl on the bleachers,” the DJ said.

  Kyle reached out for Sophie’s hand when he heard the first few notes. He led her onto the dance floor. She let out a happy sigh as she nestled against him.

  He didn’t want to ruin such a beautiful moment, but he couldn’t wait any longer.

  “What happens next for us, Sophie?”

  “We could dance a little more,” she said. He felt her fingers slip into his hair. “We could go home later.”

  “Home to Cocoa Beach?”

  She took a breath and rubbed the tip of her nose against his.

  “No, silly,” she said. Her smile lit up the darkened high school gym. “We’re home now.”

  “And you belong with me,” he said. “Always.”

  Keep reading for a look at USA Today bestseller Julie Brannagh’s

  CHASING JILLIAN

  Score a touchdown with Julie Brannagh’s latest Love and Football novel about discovering who you are and finding love along the way.

  Jillian Miller likes her job working in the front office for the Seattle Sharks, but lately being surrounded by a constant parade of perfection only seems to make her own imperfections all the more obvious. She needs a change, which takes her into foreign territory: the Sharks’ workout facility after hours. The last thing she expects is a hot, grumbly god among men to be there as witness.

  Star linebacker Seth Taylor had a bad day—well, a series of them recently. When he hits the Sharks’ gym to work out his frustration, he’s startled to find someone there—and even more surprised that it’s Jillian, the team owner’s administrative assistant. When he learns of Jillian’s mission to revamp her lifestyle, he finds himself volunteering to help. Something about Jillian’s beautiful smile and quick wit makes him want to stick around. She may not be like the swimsuit models he usually has on his arm, but the more time Seth spends with Jillian the harder he falls.

  And as Jillian discovers that the new her is about so much more than she sees in the mirror, can she discover that happiness and love are oh-so-much better than perfect?

  Available Now from Avon Impulse

  Chapter One

  ALL SHE HAD to do was not get caught.

  Jillian Miller let herself into the Sharks’ silent weight room. The coaches, players, and other front-office personnel had all gone home for the evening; it was just her and an exercise DVD. She couldn’t afford a gym membership on her salary. John, the owner of the Sharks, was a great guy to work for, but she was in her first year here. She wouldn’t get a raise for another six months at least.

  She wasn’t sure about the rules involved in using the team’s weight room, but she was fairly sure it might be frowned upon. “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission,” she muttered.

  The Sharks’ weight room was approximately the size of an airport hangar. One wall was mirrored; the opposite wall consisted of a garage-style glass-and-metal door opening onto the practice field. The room was filled with what Jillian imagined must be hundreds of thousands of dollars of state-of-the-art exercise equipment and smelled surprisingly good for a place seventy guys spent hours each day in working up a significant amount of sweat. She didn’t spend a lot of time working out, let alone hanging around in any gym. She was unsure what she should expect, besides feeling like she’d landed on another planet.

  The last straw for her had been such a little thing, in retrospect. A tall, thin, perfectly groomed woman had eyed the contents of Jillian’s shopping cart at the grocery store yesterday. Two pints of Ben & Jerry’s Late Night Snack, a large bag of dark chocolate M&M’s, and a stack of low-calorie microwave meals. She’d caught Jillian’s eye, shaken her head, and walked away. It had happened before, but the memory still made her flinch.

  Jillian didn’t want to be a supermodel or a size two. Mostly, she’d like to feel more comfortable in her own body, and the feeling had been building for quite some time before yesterday’s incident in the grocery store. She also knew most people spent their weekends in active outdoor pursuits, especially in the Seattle area. She’d never been a big fan of exercise, but she’d like to meet some new people. Even more, she’d like to meet a guy. She’d like to fall in love, and she’d like to have a family. She wasn’t going to accomplish this by spending most of her weekend evenings on her own. A little exercise (and trying some new pastimes) couldn’t hurt.

  She pulled out the DVD she’d brought with her and popped it into the player. An impossibly fit woman began barking instructions, and Jillian tried to follow along. The woman in question, though, weighed a lot less than Jillian did. She wasn’t winded at all. She looked like the professional cheerleaders that passed Jillian’s desk on a daily basis—thin, toned, and perfect.

  Jillian was already dripping. She glanced at her watch. Five minutes? That was it? Surely the United Nations would classify this as torture. The DVD woman was jumping around like a lipsticked chimp on Red Bull. Besides being relentlessly, annoyingly cheerful, she barked out a count only the Energizer Bunny could hope to keep up with. It couldn’t be good to sweat this much. Obviously, sweating was part of working out, but it seemed a little excessive. She needed to breathe too. Maybe some water would help.

  Just a few minutes more. She could do it. Sure she could: All she needed was a transfusion and an amphetamine drip.

  SETH TAYLOR PUSHED his way through the front doors of the practice facility. He needed to work out like some guys needed to get drunk to forget. He’d just had the last fight with his girlfriend. Two years of her jealous rages—her baseless, jealous rages—were more than enough. Seth had finally told her it was over, shortly before he flung his cell phone against the passenger door of his car in utter frustration. The screen shattered on impact. It was the last thing he’d lose to Kim, besides the chunks of his soul she’d already taken. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever met, but he couldn’t take it another day.

  If he was brutally honest, the problems with Kim were a symptom of what was really going on with him. He was restless. Despite the fact he already had more in life than most, he wanted even more. His inner struggle had nothing to do with wealth or fame. He wanted meaning. He wanted to find something to do in his spare time that made him feel like he’d made a difference in his world, besides attaining the high score on the latest video game. Right after that, he’d like to find a woman who wanted those same things and didn’t make him want to shatter a six-hundred-dollar cell phone against his car door any time soon.

  At least the place would be long deserted. He would lock himself in the weight room, turn the sound system up to the pain level, and sweat Kim out of his system. She was out of h
is life, and he could concentrate on things that made him happy for a change.

  He strode to the weight room door and stopped. Someone was in there.

  JILLIAN HEARD A loud, angry male voice behind her.

  “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

  All she saw was a tall, dark-haired man with dark, intense eyes. It was hard to respond to him while she was huffing and puffing. Her heart pounded with a combination of exertion and the rushing adrenaline of fear. She knew he was one of the Sharks, but she didn’t know enough about him to know whether or not he would freak out. Her embarrassment took a temporary backseat to her alarm.

  “I’m Jillian.” It seemed fairly self-explanatory what she was doing, at least to her. “I work here.”

  “I haven’t seen you before.” He moved even closer, blocking her against another wall, next to a huge white board, with his height and much-larger, rock-hard body. His muscles had muscles. “Who are you?”

  “I work for John Campbell. What are you doing?”

  She frantically looked around for an escape. She could make it out the weight room doors if she had to. She couldn’t outrun him, but her fingers wrapped around the cell phone in her pocket. She’d hit 911 and scream at the top of her lungs. She stepped away from him. Surprisingly enough, he stayed where he was.

  “Don’t we all? So, who exactly are you?” he asked.

  “I’m John’s assistant.”

  He rested his hands on his hips as he studied her. His brows knit together. “Why are you here?”

  “I’m doing my taxes. What do you think?”

  Jillian was still a bit scared. Obviously, she’d startled him. He had startled her too. The only thing left to do, though, was stand her ground. She didn’t owe Godzilla an explanation, and she took another shallow breath. Her heart was still pounding, but the panic and jitters of surging adrenaline were replaced with dismay. What would happen when her boss heard about this?

  The guy reached out and tried to grab the remote from her; she put it behind her back. She turned to extract the DVD from the player, picked up the case, and shut off the TV.