Protecting His Beautiful Lover (Southern Soldiers of Fortune 3)

He coughed to get those words right out of his mouth. Instead, he said, “Because I don’t want to get in your way. And I’ll have Ashley too and—”

“Fine with me. I love your daughter. It’ll give us a chance to get to know each other better,” Tara said, bouncing on her toes and looking more adorable than should be allowed by law. “Seriously. I don’t mind at all and I’d like the company. You won’t be in my way at all. Please?”

Clint sighed. It would solve all his problems, and Ashley did like Tara a lot. Plus, it would make his life so much easier to have them all under one roof where he could keep an eye on them both. A tiny voice in his head still told him he shouldn’t say yes, but dammit. He was going to.

“Okay,” he said, grinning at Tara’s squeal of glee. “But you’re going to find out soon that my daughter’s a handful and a half. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

6

Tara was feeling pretty good about her decision to have Clint and Ashley move in with her short-term. Or at least she had, until the six-year-old arrived.

She’d known from their brief meetings and chats before that Ashley had some strong opinions for such a young kid, but in truth “strong” didn’t begin to cover it. The questions started the minute Ashley walked into the house. She’d tossed her backpack on the floor of the living room, knocking over part of a set-up that Tara had worked all day on to photograph later that night. When she’d first started at GGE, she’d been in charge of their social media, and she still kept her hand in by posting frequently both on the GGE accounts and under her own name. She loved being able to interact directly with people in the area—answer their questions, raise their awareness, direct them to good sources of information. Secretly, she thought of social media as her superpower, and hoped one day she could combine her Internet savvy and her environmental activism into a world-saving empire.

Based on the current state of her photo shoot set, though, that future was highly in doubt.

With a sigh, she bent to pick up the offending backpack, only to find Ashley now staring at her sofa like it was a nuclear warhead about to go off. “It’s beige.”

“Yeah,” Tara said, putting the backpack atop one end of the offending monstrosity. “So?”

“So you know the dyes and chemicals they use to achieve those colors are bad for the planet.”

Right. Tara did know that, actually. And if it had been her choice, she wouldn’t have picked the thing either, but since the house she was renting-to-own had come fully furnished, she’d kept it, thinking the sofa was better here, actually getting some use, than sitting in a landfill somewhere. She told Ashley that.

Ashley gave a disgusted harrumph.

“Sorry,” Clint said, ushering his daughter out of the room and into the kitchen to get a juice pack. “Like I said, she can be a lot. Hope you don’t regret the invitation to let us stay here.”

“Nah. Considering what I put up with at work, you guys are a piece of cake,” Tara said, determined to remain cheerful and positive. “So, Ashley, what would you like to do today?”

With Tara working from home these days for additional security, per the board’s decision, she’d planned to spend part of the evening helping her new house guests get settled in and maybe helping poor Ashley feel more comfortable. But as the little girl walked in and plopped down at one end of the aforementioned enemy sofa, with an organic cherry-blueberry juice box from the fridge, Tara’s alarm bells went off. She might not like the sofa, but it was expensive, and as far as she knew, the couch hadn’t been pre-treated with any stain protector.

“How about I give you a tour, Ashley, and you can pick out a bedroom for yourself?” Tara asked, standing and extending a hand for the little girl to take. “You can bring your juice box with you.”

Because better a spill on the floor than on that stupid beige sofa.

When Ashley gave her a wary look, Tara said, “Your dad can come too.”

“Oh, no. You guys go ahead. I need to get working on installing the new security system.” He glanced over at Tara. “Don’t worry. I won’t damage anything and it’s all easily removable, if you decide you don’t want to maintain it long-term. Go with her, sweetpea. There’s a loft upstairs.”

“Oh, a loft?” Ashley sprang off the sofa now, the juice box tipping precariously in her hand as she raced for the stairs. “I want to se

e the loft!”

Clint gave Tara an apologetic glance. “I did warn you.”

“That you did.” Tara snorted and followed the little girl upstairs. “Okay, kiddo. Let the tour begin.”

An hour later, she had Ashley settled in a room upstairs and thought her problems were solved. But then the godawful screech of the alarm system went off for the umpteenth time and Tara left the little girl in her new bedroom to rush downstairs, holding her ears. “What’s wrong with it now?”

“Not sure,” he yelled to be heard above the cacophony. “Keeps going off for some reason.”

Well no shit, Sherlock.

Tara sighed and went back into the living room, staring despondently at the set-up for her photo shoot. She’d been so excited about taking pictures tonight, but now it felt like all her creative mojo had flown right out the window.

“Sorry,” Clint said, finally getting that horrible alarm shut off, only to knock into her set-up, sending it even more askew as he moved the ladder to install yet another camera. “I just have a few more to do.”

“Daddy!” Ashley said, bounding down the stairs once more. “You should come upstairs and see the room I picked out. It’s got lots of windows and a big old bed and Tara said I can put my toys out wherever I want them and—”