“Just men?” I ask.
“Women are far less likely to try. Plus, I work in a very male-dominated industry, so I have to go out of my way to make men respect me. I start at a disadvantage because of my gender. Men look at me and see a petite woman with long blonde hair and automatically assume I’m not as good at my job as the meathead next to me.” She holds up her hand before I can reply. “Look, I understand that my size is a disadvantage if it comes to being a human shield, but that issucha small part of the security industry. Even if you’re providing personal security for someone, if you’re doing your job right, you shouldn’t have to step in front of the person to block them from anything but a long-range camera. You should’ve already done the work to make sure the area is clear before they ever enter it.”
Kelsey, on an average day, is a sight to behold. She’s power and fury and intelligence wrapped into a breath-stealing package. Kelsey, when she’s passionate about something, is fire and brilliance—a force I can’t look away from.
“I agree with you.”
“Then you see why itisa big deal to have Trent come in and make it look like I’m not his equal?”
“I do. And I’m sorry it happened,” I say. Because I am. Kelsey is everything a boss should be, and I wish I would’ve at least given her a heads-up about Trent, even if I had no idea he was going to insert himself into the meeting. Though, in hindsight, that is exactly the type of thing he’d do.
I stare in silence at the single candle burning between us. With the dark lighting these places love so much, it has a particularly romantic atmosphere.
“I can’t believe that, even as an insanely famous musician about to kick off a world tour, Jaxon still has time to play matchmaker,” I say, shaking my head.
I can only assume he has better things to do now than play matchmaker for me and a girl I may have had a crush on. Once. In high school. Not now, I remind myself. Because having a crush on the woman I have to beat for this contract is a bad idea.
Kelsey’s fingers trace the stem of her wineglass. “I don’t think a single one of his schemes ever worked. Do you think he does it just to mess with people? Or does he genuinely think the people need to be set up?”
“Oh, come on. Shelby and Pete dated for like two weeks. That’s a successful high school relationship. And didn’t that one girl in the class below us end up married to the guy Jaxon helped with that huge prom stunt? The one where he taped balloons over the entire school and each one had a note inside asking her to be his date for the dance?”
“Jaxon was involved with that?” Kelsey asks. “I didn’t know.”
We sit in silence for a beat before Kelsey shrugs. “Either way, I’m glad we got to eat here. I love eating at new places.”
“I do, too,” I offer.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. Wherever I was stationed with the Rangers, I went out of my way to find the best local restaurants. When I was in northern Italy, a couple of buddies and I would go out at least a few nights a month, enjoying being off base and trying new foods.”
Since coming home, my dining out has been limited to the diner and my mom’s house. I don’t even pop into Wild Brews for a coffee or stop by Wild Crusts or The Cattlemens for dinner. Even if I wanted to, the only people I spend time with these days are my mom and Bill.
“I enjoyed my time with the Marines,” Kelsey says, taking another bite of her food. “I’m glad I served for a variety of reasons, but getting to travel on someone else’s dime was the best part. Though I can’t say I particularly enjoyed the food in Bahrain. I, unfortunately, didn’t get a good food assignment like Italy or Japan. I did get to travel around Southeast Asia for six months on a ship, though. Made me glad I went Marines instead of staying Navy after my time at Annapolis.”
“You just served back your five years and got out, didn’t you?” I ask like I don’t know the answer. Our assignments never overlapped, but my mom always made sure to keep me in the loop on what Kelsey was up to.
“Yup. I wanted to go to business school. Were you going to be a lifer if not for your mom?”
“That was the plan. I loved the Army—the Rangers especially.”
The conversation eventually circles back to the reason we’re here, the social profiles Kelsey’s team has pinged as potential security risks. Even though she had Jaxon’s assistant make the final call based on herknowledge of his social fans, these are also the two her team felt were most likely to be a credible threat.
After finalizing our message to the security team, Kelsey sets her knife down, her plate empty of the steak and potatoes that had once filled the entirety of it. I’d ordered the same thing, though I gave up on finishing it all a few minutes ago. The more time I spend with Kelsey, the more things I find to like about her.
“Here,” I say, handing my business card to the waitress when she approaches our table with the bill.
“We can split it,” Kelsey says, trying to hand her card over as well.
I wave her off. “That’s okay. Trent’s got it. It’s the least he can do after today.”
She chuckles but slips her card back into her pocket. No purse for Kelsey Harper.
“How are you liking Wild Bluffs?” she asks while we wait.
“Okay,” I say, unsure what else to say without oversharing. I never wanted to be back there, but it’s fine.
“Good. That’s good.”
