Page 44 of The Bodyguard
10
SABRINA
Pine’s Ranch
“I don’t think this is such a good idea.” I put the bag he’d made me pack down in the foyer and wondered for the thousandth time how he had talked me into coming back to his ranch with him.
“What do you mean? It’s a perfect idea. You need protection and I’m the sheriff.”
“Last time I checked you were responsible for all the citizens of Dusty Creek but I don’t seem them camped out in your living room.”
“Yeah, well, no one other than you is under an immediate threat. Besides, you’re a target at The King’s Land. Everyone knows who you are and where the ranch is. Now he has no clue where you are and that’s to your advantage. You let everyone in town think you’re still at the ranch and this can work. Tell me again the timeline of events. When did it become scary?”
“I told you I had been getting emails for as long as the show has been on, but it feels like it was after Hank’s funeral that things just seemed to go from weird to crazy to super intense. I came home and we found out about the will from his attorney, Madison. Then everything blew up between Ronnie and Clayton…”
“Wait,” he said, coming to a pretty obvious conclusion about their upcoming wedding. “Is Ronnie only marrying him because she has to? Because that’s not right. There has to be a better way. Contest the will. Something.”
I shook my head, trying to understand what Ronnie was thinking. “Honestly, I didn’t understand why she was doing it at first. Probably for Bea, maybe me, too. But the crazy part about it was that they had never stopped loving each other. Now they’re together and really happy.”
“How is that for irony?”
“I know. Right. But back to your original question, that’s when it got scary. After the funeral.”
He seemed to think about that for a second and nodded. “It makes sense that Hank’s death might have triggered this person to act. It was national news. He would know it happened and would see you as being more vulnerable now.”
That was almost funny. “More irony. They wouldn’t know how unprotective of his daughters Hank actually was.”
I made my way back inside to the kitchen. All of the food he’d been planning to serve was still out. I realized two things. I was hungry and there was a reason I had left in the first place.
“I can fire up the grill. There’s still time to save dinner.”
He came up behind me and then around to the refrigerator. “You can put your stuff away if you like. Down the hall, last door to your right. It’s my old room and I haven’t had a chance to turn it into a proper guest room, so ignore all the trophies and stuff.”
Right. Because Garrett wanted me to sleep in his room tonight. “Not good.”
He poked his head out of the fridge and was now holding a plate of chicken he’d prepared for grilling. “Did you say something?”
I shook my head. Instead I went back to get my bag and then I made my way past the kitchen down the hall that led to the bedrooms. The Pine family home was a sprawling ranch with an old Spanish hacienda feel to it. I also knew he raised rodeo bulls and had a stable out back with two horses.
I opened the door and stepped inside a teenage boy’s room. His dresser was covered in the various athletic trophies he’d won. There were ribbons and school certificates, too.
Maybe it had been easy for him. After all, Dusty Creek High School had probably only had five hundred students total. It’s why Jennifer had wanted to send me to private school. She felt my education would be lacking if I went to a local school.
I, however, had been determined to go for at least one year where Garrett had been going. It was one of the few battles I won with Jennifer because Hank didn’t concern himself all that much with a girl’s education.
Now here I was. In the place I always wanted to be. Only not an hour ago he’d basically listed all the many ways he didn’t like me.
I inhaled and thought I could still smell him. High School Garrett. Protector Garrett. It was my most favorite smell ever. I was less certain about Bodyguard Garrett.
I made my way back down the hall taking in all of the family pictures hanging on the walls. Garrett was an only child and his parents had been a little older when they had him, so all the photos were of him at various stages of life. Baby, toddler, teenager.
I stopped in front of the picture where he was on one knee in his high school football uniform.
That Garrett made me feel awesome.
Today’s version made me feel…cautious.
When I got back to the kitchen I could see the sliding glass door was open and Garrett was laying out chicken on the grill. I could also see he’d poured me a new glass of wine.
