“Sure, but sports are stories, Royal. And baseball is storiesandhistory. Baseball has marked thetime.”
“Did you just quoteField of Dreams?”
“Obviously. Besides, I don’t know if you noticed, my cousin-in-law is Duncan Kirk.”
“I noticed.”
She grinned. “I’ve got his rookie card. Signed now—though I didn’t ask until the wedding was over so as not to becrass.”
“Well, as long as you weren’t that.” He narrowed his eyes. “You’ve got a baseball card collection?”
“Yes. At the ranch. I didn’t have room to store it here.” Which kept her from talking about all the other collections she had: unicorn figurines, antique toasters, her late grandmother’s gigantic salt and pepper shaker collection.
“Well, you’re going to have to show it off sometime.”
She really wished her heart would stop doing thisflutteringthing. “Sure. Yeah. I… I better get started on those cookies. It shouldn’t take more than fifteen,” she said, turning back to the kitchen, hoping she had all the ingredients necessary. Sheknewshe had chocolate chips and butter—she always had chocolate chips and butter.
She scrounged enough of everything together to create a kind of half batch. It was funny how much more relaxed she was with him there.
They were still being filmed. It didn’t change anything whether he was here or across the street watching, but itfeltdifferent. It felt safe. But once he ate some cookies she was going to have to let him go and that filled her with such dread.
Be a grown-up, Franny, she scolded herself as she pulled the cookies out of the oven. She piled them up on a plate.
“Here we…” She trailed off. He sat on her couch, head slightly bowed, though his arms were crossed over his chest. His breathing was steady and even and his eyes were closed.
She stared at him there, sleeping soundly in an upright position on her couch. Poor guy was working overtime just to keep her safe. She knew it was hisjob, but it still felt like he was going a little above and beyond.
She knew that wasn’t aboutherpersonally, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have gratitude. Surely not every police officerwho would have been assigned to this job would be quite so…kind about it.
She should probably wake him up, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it when he seemed so deep in it. She’d just…let him sleep.
Selfish, Franny.
Maybe, but it made her feel better knowing he was there.
So she got some blankets, a pillow, and wrote a little note. Then she turned off the TV and left him there sleeping and went to bed herself.
With the cookies, of course.
ROYAL WOKE INthe dark, a sharp pain his neck, and a bunch of old, ugly memories prickling at the edges of his brain.
Had he really told Franny all that about himself? What the hell had possessed him?
Well, that was easy if uncomfortable. Sympathetic green eyes and that careful way she held herself. It reminded him of someone who’d been beaten—always waiting for the next blow. He didn’t think that was her issue. She probably would have mentioned it and not called her “health issues” trauma-lite. But there was something there. A vulnerability she wasn’t any good at shoring up.
He should not like her for that alone. You had to be tough to get through life, and she was just…soft.
And sweet.
He blew out a breath, stretching his neck to one side and then the other, before doing a full neck roll.
He didn’t have a clue how his life had twisted and turned to wind up here. It felt even more unimaginable when he said things likeborn into the Sonsand she said things likeengineer dad and math teacher mom.
Upper middle class for God’s sake.
They didn’t have a thing in common, and yet he found her endlessly fascinating. She was just…unique, and there was something about her curiosity, her bravery in the face of all this that life had in no way prepared her for, and the open vulnerability that drew those protective instincts he’d honed somewhere along the way.
You either wanted to protect or you wanted to be the monster. Those were the only two options in the life he’d been born into. He didn’t consider himself that great of a guy, but he’d never had any interest in being the monster. He supposed that was the only thing that had led himhere.
