Fool's Gold Collection Volume 4: Halfway There / Just One Kiss / Two of a Kind / Three Little Words. Susan Mallery
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Out of high school, but barely. Anyway, I got pregnant. Ned wasn’t happy but said he wanted to do the right thing. We got married. I worked part-time at Morgan’s Books. A couple of months after Lillie was born, Ned told me he was leaving. He’d met someone else. She was a little older and very well-off.”
She glanced out the window, willing herself not to show emotion. It wasn’t that she was so crushed by what had happened. Not anymore. It was that she’d been so stupid and trusting.
“I thought he would be there because he promised he would be,” she admitted. “Like I said, I assumed from the way he talked about his dad walking out on him that he would never do that to his kid. I was wrong. I was shocked when he admitted he’d been having an affair and wanted out.” She returned her attention to Justice. “He already had the paperwork ready. Her lawyer had prepared it. Ned walked away from me, and from Lillie. He made no claim on her.”
She sipped her soda. “I thought about it for a long time and finally realized he wouldn’t be there for her. He didn’t want a child and, sure, I could have forced him to pay and have visitation, but to what end? So he could make her feel she wasn’t important? On my good days, I tell myself he realized he was too much like his dad to commit to his daughter. On my bad days, I think he was a bastard. In the end, I signed everything. I moved back with my mom, went to beauty school and you know the rest of it.”
He reached across the table and took her hand in his. His fingers were warm and comforting. “You never saw Steve through all this?”
“No. Never heard from him or anything. Yesterday I turned around and there he was, saying he wanted a relationship with Lillie.”
“I’ll find out everything I can before I go.”
She pulled back her hand before she could stop herself. The temperature in the restaurant seemed to drop about fifteen degrees, and any hunger she’d had disappeared. She shouldn’t be surprised, but she was.
“You’re leaving?”
“For a couple of weeks. I still—” He leaned toward her. “Patience, no. I’m not leaving town. I’m still under assignment for the company I used to work for. I have one last job with them. I’ll be gone about ten days. No longer.”
“Oh.” Relief washed through her. She cleared her throat and hoped she’d managed to maintain an expression somewhat close to normal. “Right. What kind of job is it?”
“Typical bodyguard assignment.”
She smiled. “What does that mean? I’m not sure I know a single person who has ever needed to use a bodyguard.” She held up a hand. “I take that back. My friend Charlie’s mother has used them in the past, but she was a famous ballerina. You were here with her last year, right?” When he hadn’t bothered to come see her.
Why couldn’t she make sense of Justice? He was so supportive and friendly and sexy, but he’d stayed away. What did that mean? She really needed his help with Steve and she liked being around him, but was she paying too high a price for that?
Stay on topic, she reminded herself. “So, the bodyguard thing. You know, most of us manage to get through our day without protection. So, who’s this guy?”
“I can’t tell you.”
She waited, but he didn’t seem to be kidding. “Okay. Does that also mean you can’t tell me where you’re going?”
“Yes.”
“Wow.” She wasn’t sure what to do with the information, although she knew she didn’t like it. “Do they speak English in this mystery place?”
“No.”
“So it’s dangerous.”
“Not every non-English-speaking place is dangerous.”
“I know, but if you were going to a place where they spoke English, it probably wouldn’t be dangerous. I can’t see there being a lot of perilous moments on the Great Barrier Reef. Unless you count the sharks.”
She did her best to keep her tone light, which was more for his benefit than hers.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” he told her.
“I’m not. Maybe a little. I don’t want you to disappear like you did before.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
Was that promise for this specific trip or did it include all of eternity? She had a feeling that asking that would change her from charming friend to scary, overintense nonfriend.
Wilma appeared then and placed their lunches in front of them. Patience thanked her and reached for a fry, all the while wondering if she could trust Justice to keep his word. She wanted to say she knew the man, but he was still a mystery to her. She knew who he had been, but that was a long time ago.
She knew she liked him and adored his kisses and would, perhaps foolishly, jump into bed with him, should he ask. But that wasn’t the same as trusting him. Trust had to be earned. She just hoped she wasn’t at risk of falling for a man who didn’t deserve her heart.
* * *
JUSTICEWAITED ON the sidewalk outside the elementary school. Kids streamed past him, a few climbing into waiting cars, but the majority walking home with friends. It was that kind of place where children were safe walking around on their own.
He scanned the crowd, then spotted Lillie. She was talking to a couple of other girls. She looked up and saw him, then waved enthusiastically. She said something to her friends and hurried over.
“Hi! You’re here.”
“I wanted to talk to you about my research.”
They walked together toward her house.
“Zack’s been different lately,” Lillie told him. “I knew you’d said something to him.”
“We had a talk.”
She gazed up at him expectantly.
“He’s not stalking you or acting weird,” Justice told her. “He likes you.”
Two days before Justice had met with Ava, the school counselor, Zack’s parents, the kids’ teacher and Zack himself. What everyone had quickly discovered was that Zack liked Lillie. He wasn’t trying to be stalker-guy. He was a kid with a crush.
His parents had been understanding and promised to teach him that staring at the object of his affection wasn’t the best way to win her over, and Justice had agreed to share the results of the meeting with Lillie.
“I don’t understand,” Lillie said. “Why doesn’t he just talk to me?”
“He likes you.”
“But he’s a boy. Boys are strange.” She wrinkled her nose. “This isn’t like TV, is it? With kissing?”
“There’s no kissing.”
“Good. Mom keeps saying that one day I’ll look at boys different, but I don’t think so.” She looked up at him. “Thanks for helping me. I guess I just need to stay out of his way.”
“He should be better now. Less intense.”
“That’s good.” She smiled. “Are you going to send me a bill? I’ve never had a bill before.”
“No. I did this one because I know your mom.”
“That’s nice. Thank you.”
They had reached her house. He paused on the sidewalk.
Lillie was bright, friendly and sweet. A great kid. The kind of kid who made people who didn’t want children second-guess their plans.
“I need to get going,” he told her.
“Okay. Thanks, Justice.”
“You’re