He grabbed her hand and kissed her fingertips. Dylan let the warm glow of her words settle over him, quieting the fears and doubts in his mind. They stayed there, staring in each other’s eyes as they lay on their sides facing one another, both of them absorbing all the confessions of the past hour.
The moment stretched between the two of them, and as Dylan began to lower his head toward hers once more, his cell phone blared out with an incoming call. He grumbled, annoyed at being interrupted in this moment with her, but pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead before rolling over.
He made his way to the table and picked up his phone, swiping to answer it as he turned around to observe Kelsi. She was propped up on her elbows, still reclined on his bed, watching him with flushed cheeks.
He couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he looked at her.
“This is Dylan,” he spoke into the phone.
“Dylan, hey!” Glasses clinking and the murmurs of a crowd filtered through the phone speakers underneath the voice of his old squad mate.
“Hey, Kole. What’s going on?”
“You still up for meeting us tonight? The guys are here already. We’re ’bout to start a game of pool but we know how you like to be the bastard who breaks.”
Dylan pulled the phone away from his ear to look at the time on the phone’s display. Shit. He’d totally lost track of time and forgotten about his plans to hang out with the other guys from his squad. It was Jace’s birthday, and they’d planned to celebrate his memory that night.
He looked over to Kelsi, who must have understood his internal dilemma, because she nodded at him, smiling.
“Yeah, man. I’ll be over in a few. Sorry, lost track of time here.” He smirked at Kelsi, who rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t you assholes dare break without me.”
Kole’s laugh was a quick bark. “Knew it. We’ll wait for you, but you’ve got fifteen minutes before we leave your ass behind.”
When he hung up the phone, he looked back at Kelsi, who had now gotten off the bed and was gathering her purse from the floor by the door. He couldn’t recall when she’d dropped it there.
“I’m sorry,” he began lamely, not knowing exactly what to say after all that had happened. They’d gotten so much out between them, but they hadn’t clarified where they stand now. He debated dragging her back to the bed and forgetting about the guys.
“It’s okay, I know you’ve been looking forward to seeing them all week. You should go.” She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Besides, I have my whiskey warm-up to do, so I should get out of here anyway.”
“Your what?” He spluttered a surprised laugh.
“My night-before-a-jury-trial routine. I call it my whiskey warm-up.”
He smirked down at her. “One day, I’m going to see this secret routine of yours.”
She giggled, and the sound made his heart thump harder and warmth spread in his chest.
“It’s not really a secret, but I’d like that.”
He lightly held her in place by her upper arms, thumbs stroking back and forth across her silken blouse. “Hey, are you sure you’re going to be okay on your own? That guy harassing you is still out there, and this is his last chance to get to you before the trial. We could go to the judge with the notes and see what she has to say.”
Her eyes softened as she met his concerned gaze. “I appreciate you looking out for me.” She punctuated this with a peck on his cheek. “But I will be fine. I’ll be in public. We can’t go to Judge Bolton, either. She can’t do anything about it because nothing ties it back to McGuinness. The police are out too. I don’t trust that he doesn’t have connections who would tell him or his attorney about any complaints we raised. Willyoube okay? He’s only been sending the notes to me, but it’s not only my safety he’s threatened.”
“Are you sure?” he questioned again. If she said she needed him, he’d tell the guys to bug off in a heartbeat. “I really don’t mind sending the guys a rain check if you would feel better withme there. You don’t have to worry about me either. I did train with our nation’s best, and if I go to the bar I’ll be surrounded by military vets.” He gave her a joking smirk. “Oh, that’s an idea. You could come with me and be protected there.”
She popped up on her toes and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips to quiet him. The familiar touch made his chest clench and his cheeks warm.
“Go, have fun. I’ll see you in the morning. I’ll be okay with Abby to protect me.”
With that, she turned and walked out of his hotel room, leaving him frozen to the spot, but taking his heart in her hands.
CHAPTER 39
Dylan
1 Day to Trial
Dylan couldn’t keepthe smile off his face as he walked into the bar to meet his friends. It was crowded for a Tuesday night, every sticky wooden table in the Irish pub occupied.
