Page 20 of Lone Star Country Protector
His grandparents’ conditions reminded him to slow down and take a look around. Was he afraid of what he’d see?
“Can we play?” Chase asked, bringing over a plastic horse that was sized for a Barbie doll.
“I’m afraid I can’t right now,” Dalton said. He regretted the words the second Chase’s shoulders rounded in defeat.
“I get it,” the boy said. “You’re too busy, just like my dad always says.” He turned to walk away.
“Do you have a baseball?” Dalton asked.
Chase spun around, his face lit like a tree on Christmas morning. “Do I?” He bolted upstairs to what was probably his room. Despite his small size, he made quite a racket on the stairs as he ran up then down.
“Outside with that,” Blakely warned, pointing out the back door. A second later, she realized that she’d just asked them to stay outside where Chase would be exposed in the open. “Or, maybe just go to your room to play.”
Chase let out a disappointed sigh.
“I just don’t want anything to get broken in the living room,” Blakely explained.
“We should probably listen to your aunt,” Dalton said.
“Will you go upstairs with me?” Chase asked, expecting Dalton to bail based on the kid’s expression.
“Why not?” Dalton reasoned. “Let’s go.”
“Yay,” Chase said, then chanted all the way up the staircase.
The little boy had a way of wiggling into even the coldest heart.
* * *
“Are you goingto tell me what happened between you and Greg?” Blakely asked her sister as the two moved to the couch and then sat side by side.
“You go first,” Bethany countered.
“Not sure I have anything to discuss.”
“What really happened last night?” Bethany asked. “Who is he?”
“That’s a question for law enforcement on the case,” Blakely said. “Believe me, I wish I had an answer.”
“Are you going in to work tomorrow?” Bethany asked.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
Bethany made eyes at her. “Oh, I don’t know. Because you were attacked in your driveway and could have been killed.” Her sister’s lips formed a thin line. Brackets formed around her mouth. Worry lines etched her forehead.
“I have twenty-four-hour protection,” Blakely pointed out. “The chances of the bastard returning, let alone getting to me, are almost nonexistent.” It was the crack in the sidewalk that allowed weeds to grow.
“Dalton will be staying over again?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “It’s his job, and he pulled the ‘lucky’ card to protect me.” She made air quotes with her fingers when she said the wordlucky.
“That must be how you guys know each other,” Bethany surmised. “I should have guessed. The two of you probably run into each other at the courthouse.”
Not really. But Blakely had no plans to tell her sister the two of them hadn’t seen each other before the Galveston weekend. Clearly. What were the odds he would pull this assignment?
When you considered her luck, they were high, actually.
“I’m guessing there’s no word on a suspect yet,” Bethany continued.
