Page 22 of The Bodyguard
He chuckled and pulled on his oversized belt buckle. “I’ll start with a picture and then we’ll see where it goes from there, sweetie pie.”
I took a deep breath. “First, we have to establish a few things. I’m not a girl, I’m a woman. I’m not a sweetie pie, my name is Sabrina. Unfortunately, I’m not interested in having a conversation with you, but if you would like to take a selfie I’ll allow the five seconds to do that before the bartender serves me my wine.”
His face changed immediately. “Sounds like you’re a snooty bitch. Figures, with Hank King as your father.”
“Yes, I suppose it does. So I guess you’re not going to want that picture. Byeee.” I gave him my famous blow-off wave and smile.
I turned back to face the bar and the bartender was there with my drink.
“Chuck giving you trouble?” he asked.
Chuck, of the large belt buckle, had made his way back to his table where he was telling all his friends right now what bitch I was. It would keep the rest of them at bay. At least for a while.
“Nothing I can’t handle. I survived LA and Dallas. I can handle the men from Dusty Creek.”
“I’m Jack. Just shout if you need something.”
He was about to move on to other customers but I reached out to grab his hand. He stopped, clearly confused by what I was doing.
I let go and took a sip of my wine.
“Just do me a favor will you? Anyone comes into town asking about me or The King’s Land, could you give me a heads-up?”
“Expecting trouble?”
No. Because that would be crazy, right? Someone following me all the way here.
“Just taking precautions.”
Jack nodded. “The sheriff usually comes in around this time after his shift. I’ll let him know.”
“Let me know what?”
I stilled at the voice behind me. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t forgotten it. I couldn’t believe it still made my heart race. I couldn’t believe…how much I missed it.
I turned and there he was. Still tall and handsome. Still with those amazing green eyes that I had never found in the face of any other man. I knew that, of course. I had seen him at the funeral. I’d known he was there. I had felt him.
Now we were talking. Something we hadn’t done since... The memories of our last conversation came crashing down, reminding me I had cried myself to sleep for months after it.
But that had been years ago. I was different from the person I was back then.
At least, I thought I was. More mature, certainly. Stronger, hopefully. Strong enough to face him again.
I cleared my throat and tried to lift my chin without making it look like I was lifting my chin too high in the air. “Hello, Garrett.”
“Brin. Sorry…Sabrina. You’re back home?”
“For now.”
“We didn’t talk at Hank’s funeral,” he said.
Of course we hadn’t talked. I had done everything in my power to make sure we didn’t talk. I had looked. That’s all I had done. Just looked. However, I suppose if I was going to be staying in town for a while, there was no avoiding him. Dusty Creek was too small.
“Things were a little crazy.” I offered it as an excuse, although he probably had no idea how true it was.
“It’s good to see you.”
He smiled as he said it. As if it didn’t occur to him that the last time we talked he’d humiliated and crushed me.
