Page 27 of Guarding the Billionaire

Flora

Taking Teresa for her first manicure had been an interesting experience. She’d seemed really uncomfortable at first – although she’d done her best to hide it – but by the end, I think she really enjoyed herself.

“Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

Teresa looked up from whatever meal she’d ended up with tonight. Mine was roasted chicken with vegetables. I already knew she’d make herself a bowl of cereal or a big sandwich when she was done. Maybe it was her vampire blood, but my bodyguard seemed to have a super fast metabolism.

“What?”

“Do you have sisters?” I asked.

“No, only boys in my family,” she responded. “I’m the only girl in my generation, all my cousins are male too.”

“And your mother?”

“She was female,” Teresa said seriously, but her eyes sparkled with humor at her own joke.

“Was she, um, girlie would you say?”

“I don’t know,” Teresa said. “She died the day after I was born.”

My hand flew to my mouth. “Oh my God, what happened?”

“Internal bleeding,” Teresa said. “I guess I tore her up on the way out, or maybe it was something the doctor did. My father said she was complaining about pain and weakness and they kind of blew her off, like they thought she was just trying to get pain meds or something. It must have been bad for her to say anything, because supes have a high pain tolerance.”

She shook her head. “The U.S. healthcare system is a nightmare, as you know, and maternal mortality rates are worse here than they are in some underdeveloped countries.”

“Your dad raised you then?” I asked.

She nodded. “My dad and my older brothers, yeah. Why?”

“Oh I was just wondering about how you’d never had a manicure before, and the way you seem to not understand why people wear make-up.”

“I was raised like another one of the boys,” she said. “I ran around behind them, trying to keep up. They taught me to fight and be wild. It was a great childhood.”

She seemed nostalgic. “But you left for the military as soon as you turned eighteen?”

She shrugged. “It’s what people do in small towns when they have no money and no prospects.”

I could tell she didn’t want to talk about it, so I changed the subject.

“Is someone coming to relieve you this weekend?”

Teresa frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well, they don’t make you work every day, do they?” I asked. “This is your sixth day in a row on duty.”

“It’s not unusual for us to stay the length of the assignment,” she explained. “It depends on whether we’re undercover or not. When the threat level is higher we might also alternate. Like a while back we were on a personal protection case for someone on the run from the mob, and there were two of us, one for days and one for nights.”

“Did you save the person?” I asked.

“What person?”

“The one on the run from the mob.”

Teresa gave me a small, wistful smile. “Yeah, we kept her safe and now our client just married my coworker, Martha.”

“You’re allowed to have personal relationships with your clients?” I asked in surprise.

---