Protecting His Beautiful Lover (Southern Soldiers of Fortune 3)

Tara nodded, slowly unwrapping her legs from around him and sliding to the ground. While she gathered her clothes, Clint padded down the hall to the guest bath to clean up, then returned to pull on his own jeans and shirt.

Trying for a joke to break the sudden silence that had fallen between them, she said, “Well, I guess that’s one way to change the subject.”

Tiny splotches of crimson darkened Clint’s high cheekbones that had nothing to do with the physical exertion they’d both just experienced. He was back to not meeting her gaze too, Tara noted. He grabbed his phone from the charging pad and headed for the living room with barely a grunt of response.

“Hey, I was just kidding,” she said, trailing after him.

“I know,” he said, his thumbs flying over the screen again. “Why don’t you go on to bed? I’ll be in in a minute.”

“Oh.” She walked to the other end of the sofa and perched on the arm. “I can stay up with you. Maybe we can talk some more.”

He glanced at her then, his expression remote. Gone was the heat in his eyes from moments before, replaced with a cold stare. Polite, but chilly. Her heart sank, along with her hopes for them working through all this together. Yeah. Something was definitely wrong and she didn’t know what. Nor did she know how to fix it. All Tara knew was that Clint had more important things to deal with than her. He’d made that abundantly clear just now, and damn if she wasn’t right back to feeling like she wasn’t a priority at all. Same as she had growing up.

Then he looked away again and shook his head. “You go on. Have a nice bath. Relax. I’ve got work to do tonight before I sleep. Need to keep you safe.”

Resigned, she got up and headed for the bedroom, stopping at the end of the hall and looking back to where he sat in the living room, laptop out now too on the coffee table. She’d never felt more alone or rejected in her life. Over her shoulder she said, “Don’t work too hard.”

No response.

Tara doubted he’d even heard her. She shuffled down the hall, feeling totally isolated and defeated. Clint might be able to protect her physically from whoever was trying to stop the legislation from passing, but she feared it was already too late to keep her heart safe from him. And in the end, he might just hurt her far more than any unknown attacker.

17

Unfortunately, the next day proved even more frustrating for Tara than the night before. She’d fallen asleep way before he’d come to bed and he’d been gone when she woke up. He’d left a note, saying he was going into the office and to have a good day.

So she was trying to do just that, but it wasn’t easy. Especially given the fact that her own employer seemed determined to side-line her even more.

Then there was the fact that since they’d moved into her place, she’d gradually become more and more Ashley’s caretaker. She liked Ashley and all and didn’t mind helping out, but she had a life and work of her own to do and it felt like Clint was using her as a free babysitter sometimes.

“When can we go outside?” Ashley whined for what felt like the umpteenth time from the kitchen table where she was coloring. “I want to ride my bike again.”

Tara sighed and rolled her neck, glancing at the little girl from over the top of her computer. She’d been working from the sofa all morning, which was probably her first mistake. The thing was comfy with its overstuffed cushions and great for lounging. Not so good for keeping your posture aligned when working. She winced slightly as she unfolded her half-asleep legs from under her and set her computer aside to stretch.

Considering she was only making herself more frustrated by sitting there and butting heads with the Go Green Energy board of directors or waiting for their email responses that never seemed to come, maybe a break was in order. She looked out the window at the bright sunny day and blue sky for miles, then stood. “All right, kiddo. Let’s do it. Go put on your shoes.”

“Yay!” Ashley bounded off down the hall and Tara shook her head, smiling. She really was a good girl. Smart too. She slid her feet into her own shoes and waited by the door for Ashley to return. “Got your helmet?”

“Darn.” The little girl ran back to her room and came back with the bright pink helmet on her head. “Ready!”

They walked out into the warm midday and Tara took a deep breath. Blue sky for miles, and it helped to bolster her spirits and restore her faith that everything might work out okay.

Ashley wheeled her bike around from the garage where it was stored and climbed on. She’d been riding for about a week now with the training wheels, and was doing well and building her confidence. Tara stood by and watched the little girl pedal back and forth around the patio, her mind returning to the problem with the legislation.

Even though Clint hadn’t said much about his meeting with Bartlet the day before, other than mentioning the lead about John Berger, she couldn’t help wondering if Bartlet wasn’t part of the reason why GGE was withdrawing support from the bill during these last, crucial days before the vote. It made sense, considering his business had a vested interest in making sure the legislation went nowhere. If Clint didn’t want to include her in his investigations, maybe she’d just do some snooping on her own. A girl had to be proactive, after all.

And speaking of proactive…

“Hey, Ashley,” she called, walking over to where the little girl had stopped to take a break. “How’d you like to try riding on your own for once?”

Ashley blinked up at her, her eyes wide and uncertain. “You mean without the training wheels?”

“Yep.” Tara crouched beside the bike and smiled. “You’ll never know you’re ready unless you try, right? And you’ve gotten really good at riding the past few days. What do you say?”

The little girl seemed to consider it a moment, then gave a solemn nod. “If you think I can do it, then yeah. Let’s try it!”

Tara grinned and straightened to set aside the tools she’d used to remove the training wheels from the bike. “Okay. Now don’t think about it. Just ride like you have been and you’ll be fine, okay?”

“Okay.” Ashley’s smile faded into determination. “You’ll stay with me though, right? Catch me if I fall?”