Her Soldier Protector. Soraya Lane
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Morton Bay bugs for two, and maybe a Caesar salad.”
Jimmy was nodding, but he was also spending most of his time glancing at Candace, who was looking out at the water, her body turned away from them.
Logan leaned in closer to his childhood friend, giving him a playful whack across the back of the head.
“Don’t you breathe a word of this to anyone until we’re gone. No tipping the media off, no telling your girlfriend.”
Jimmy made a face like his head hurt, but he was still grinning. “Can I at least get an autograph before you leave?”
“Keep everyone else away from us and I’ll make sure you get one. Deal?”
Jimmy’s smile grew wider. “And a big tip, too, right?”
“You do know I have a dog that could eat you in a few mouthfuls, don’t you?” Logan said in a low voice, smiling as Candace turned to face them.
Jimmy just laughed. “I’ll get your order in and bring you some drinks. Champagne?”
Logan sat down and glanced at Candace. “Bubbly or beer?”
She made a thoughtful face before one side of her mouth tilted up into a smile. “Let’s have a beer. Why not?”
Logan didn’t let the surprise show on his face, even though he’d never have picked her choosing beer over champagne in a million years. “You heard the lady. Two beers, bottles not glasses.”
Jimmy shook his head and walked off, leaving Logan to burst out laughing. Candace seemed to be finding the entire thing as hilarious as he was.
“He knew who I was the moment we walked in, didn’t he?” she asked in a soft voice, like she wasn’t in the least bit surprised.
Logan wasn’t going to lie to her. “Yeah, he did. But there’s no way he’s going to make a fuss or say anything, okay?”
She nodded. “So you don’t think it’ll be in the papers that I was spotted out with a mystery man, knocking back beers? Knowing the paps, they’ll probably say I was out of control and ready for rehab.”
“You missed the part about us digging into two massive buckets filled with prawns, that we’ll be eating with our fingers like barbarians instead of fine dining.”
Candace dipped her head when she laughed, looking up at him like she wasn’t entirely sure whether he was ever being serious or always joking. “And here I was thinking you’d brought me to a classy restaurant.”
“Believe me, nothing in the world is better than fresh seafood eaten with your fingers, washed down by an ice-cold beer. We don’t need five forks and silver service to eat incredible food.”
“Well, I’ll have to reserve judgment until I’ve experienced it, but I’m guessing you’re probably right.”
He leaned back in his chair. “See the beautiful super yachts out there?”
She nodded, following his gaze.
“When you come here earlier in the evening, there are waiters running back and forth from the restaurant to the boats, carrying silver trays of seafood and champagne. It’s crazy, but a lot of fun to watch.”
“I was right going with my gut feeling on promoting Australia to the world,” she said with a laugh. “Next time I’m ready for a vacation, I’m heading straight back here.”
CHAPTER THREE
CANDACE LOOKED BACK out at the water to avoid looking at the man seated across from her. There was something exciting about being out somewhere different, on the other side of the world, and with someone she hardly knew. And for the first time in forever, she actually felt like herself, like the old her, the one she’d started to slowly lose a few years earlier. When her marriage had started to crumble, so had her self-confidence, and then when her mom had died...she pushed the dark thoughts away and focused on Logan.
“Is this somewhere you come often?”
Logan leaned forward, both hands on his beer bottle. She took a sip of hers while she waited for his response.
“I’ve been coming here for years. Every time I came home from deployment, this was the first place I headed to for a meal,” he told her. “There were three of us with a standing date.”
“As in three soldiers?” she asked, curious.
Logan twirled his beer bottle between his hands. “Yeah.”
Candace could sense there was something else going on, something unsaid, but she didn’t know him well enough to pry. She knew what it was like to want to keep some things private.
“It must have been a relief coming here for the amazing food after what you had to eat over there,” she said, wanting to give him an out if he needed it.
Logan looked up and met her gaze. “It was. There’s only so much dried jerky and dehydrated food a guy can eat, right?”
She laughed, but it died in her throat as their waiter approached the table with an enormous amount of food.
“No way.”
Logan grinned and leaned back as two large silver buckets filled with prawns were placed in front of them. She’d never seen so much seafood in her life.
“You’re telling me that this is just for starters?” she asked, groaning.
The waiter returned with two dishes of some kind of sauce and freshly quartered lemons, as well as a bowl of warm water, which she guessed was for them to dip their fingers in to after eating.
“In Australia, we have a saying that you can’t eat enough seafood,” Logan told her.
“You do?” Candace watched as he picked up one of the prawns and pulled the head off, before peeling the shell.
“No, I just made that up to make you think this was a good idea.” He gave her a wink that made her heart thud to her toes. “If you don’t want to get your hands dirty I can peel yours?” he offered.
“I appreciate the gesture but I think it’s about time I got my hands dirty.” She was sick of people running around and doing everything for her, and tonight was about her just being her. “You show me what to do and I’ll do it.”
“You just have to grab your beer bottle between your palms so it doesn’t get all greasy. Like this,” Logan explained, demonstrating with a quick swig of his beer before dipping his prawn into the sauce.
Candace just shook her head, finding it hard to believe that she’d been performing live in front of twenty thousand people only an hour earlier, and was now sitting at a restaurant, tucking into a meal with the man who’d been assigned her personal head of security. Add to that the fact she hadn’t been asked for even one autograph...it was insane. She shouldn’t have trusted him so easily, but she hadn’t been so relaxed in a long time. Maybe she’d wake up and realize it had all just been a dream, but if it had been, at least it had been a nice one.
She peeled her first prawn and dipped it in the sauce.
“Good?” he asked.
“Amazing,” she murmured, hand over her mouth as she spoke. “You were right.”
They sat in silence for a while, both eating their prawns and sipping beer. Something told her that Logan wasn’t usually a big talker—that he was comfortable not saying anything at all, and she liked it. Where she’d grown up, the men had a motto of speaking only when they’d had something worthy of being said, but her adult life had been filled with men who couldn’t say enough to make themselves sound important.
“So have you always lived in the city?” she asked.
Logan looked up, finishing his mouthful and dipping his fingers in the lemon water to clean them. She watched as he dried his