Page 14 of The Bodyguard

“No!” But her recoil softened into agreement. “Yes? Maybe? I don’t know.” She buried her face in her hands.

For one gut-wrenching moment, Sawyer feared she would cry over Paul. He wanted to knock the guy into orbit for making her cry as much as he wished Paul didn’t exist in the first place.

Angela picked her head up. Her face didn’t show tears. Just pure frustration. “You know what?” she whispered. “I don’t want his life revolving around me. Maybe he can just…” She bit her bottom lip again. “…not revolve around me. More like sort of near me? Or something.”

Sawyer leaned back. He rolled his lips together, not knowing how to feel.

“Say something, Sawyer.”

He didn’t need to. She already knew but needed to hear someone say it out loud. Sawyer didn’t know why he was that someone. The messages were manic, but her thoughts were easy to decipher. Chelsea, Jane, or Amanda could’ve handled this in their sleep. “You and Paul need to have a serious conversation about many things. That’s my take from your texts.”

Angela’s lips pressed together again. “No.”

Perhaps this was why they’d never had much of a Paul discussion. Finally, Sawyer asked, “Why wouldn’t you tell him how you feel?”

Her gaze dropped to the floor. “I just wanted you to translate. Guy speak and all that.”

“Angela… that’s not guy speak. He wants you to come home, and you think it’s for your mother’s political campaign. That’s…” He raised a shoulder. “Something you need to think about.”

Her chin dropped. Angela’s mood shifted, melancholy and miserable. She trained her eyes on the lobby floor as though it might hold the answers she was looking for. “He missed my birthday,” she said.

His stomach dropped. Had Sawyer missed her birthday too? No, her birthday was in a couple of months. The team hadcelebrated in one of the hotel’s fancy restaurants that the guys never wanted to go to but women and wives all but demanded to visit. Champagne in crystal flutes and meals that arrived in installments called plates weren’t his cup of tea, but he had been there and didn’t call any attention to his decision to go out for greasy burgers with Shah and Camden after that fancy meal.

“Actually”—she rolled her lips together—“he’s never remembered my birthday. Not while I’ve been out here and not before I was abducted.”

Sawyer grimaced. He hated the role of defending Paul. But he couldn’t let her think the guy didn’t care based solely on missed celebrations. “Some guys forget birthdays. Holidays. That kind of stuff.”

Her eyes narrowed. “He never forgets a political event where he wants me by his side.” Angela sucked her cheeks in, and whatever fight she had retreated with a deflated sigh. “It feels as though he wants to date Senator Sorenson’s daughter, but not me.”

Whoa boy. Every time Sawyer thought he had a handle on this conversation, he was dumped on his ass.

Angela turned to him, head tilted, needing someone to promise that all would be okay. She needed her boyfriend’s attention. She needed to feel important.

Sawyer squeezed her shoulder and offered the best he could give. “Paul’s an idiot, all right. He sounds self-centered, but, I don’t know, also obtuse? He’s been with you this long…” He scrunched his shoulders and didn’t know what to say. “If he wanted to date the daughter of someone important, there are easier ways to do that.” Given her expression, his best two cents weren’t doing much to alleviate her concerns. “Am I making any sense?”

“Sure,” she said unconvincingly.

He blew out a long breath. The advice she wanted to hear and the advice she needed to hear were so far apart they might have been split by the same distance as Angela and Paul. “Give me your eyes for a second.”

Her chin rose before she lifted her gaze. Her eyes were more watery than he wanted to see. Despite the threat of tears, Sawyer saw trust. Just like she’d said repeatedly, she trusted him, and it was evident. He’d earned it, starting on the day she arrived in Abu Dhabi. The threats were real and deadly and far closer than anyone realized. But keeping her safe could have many meanings. Right now, it meant answering her questions and guarding her heart. “The real question, Ange, is this: Do you want to be with him?”

CHAPTER FOUR

Angela had asked herself that question more times than she could count. But there was a better question that Sawyer wouldn’t have known to ask: was Angela actually dating Paul?

The answer was convoluted. Technically, yes. They were dating. But in name only. They hadn’t been intimate in years, nor had they regularly been on the same continent. She supposed they were occasionally confidants, but they hadn’t been yesterday when she wanted to process the shooting.

“I haven’t mentioned Paul to you very much.” Angela bit her lip. “There hasn’t been much to say.” There had been plenty of opportunities to mention her relationship problems and get Sawyer’s advice. It wasn’t that she shied away from the conversation—more like she never thought about Paul.

“That wasn’t what I asked you.” His intense iceberg-blue eyes locked onto her, patient but persistent, refusing to yield the conversation in another direction. He’d wait her out all day, but Angela didn’t have the strength to admit every problem in her relationship. If she did, Sawyer might not look at her the same way again, which would cut deeper than any slight from Paul.

“Do you want to be with him?” Sawyer pressed though he shrugged nonchalantly. “You’ve almost said as much that it seems like an easy answer.”

“Relationships are never easy.” She offered a fake smile that Sawyer didn’t seem to notice. “Nothing is as simple as yes or no. It’s not black and white.”

“You two have been together long enough to know if you want to do it for the long haul.” He studied her in a way that seemed to read her mind and search her heart. “The Angela who I know isn’t indecisive.”

“I—” Her throat ached.I… never thought about Paul. Don’t want to rock the boat. Avoid upsetting my mother. Breaking up with Paul would do those things. “I don’t know.”

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