Riggs: TUCKER IS ON BODYGUARD DUTY FOR KASSIDY'S BOOK LAUNCH
Riggs: this is the greatest day of my life
Decker: it's 7 AM, Riggs.
Riggs: THE GREATEST DAY
Calder: This is an operational assignment. Treat it accordingly.
Riggs: can I come? I'll be professional. mostly.
Calder: Denied.
Riggs: what if I bring flowers for the author?
Calder: Still denied.
Riggs: what if I buy the book and get it signed?
Decker: ...that's actually reasonable.
Calder: Fine. Buy the book. Do not engage the principal. Do not embarrass this organization.
Riggs: SIR YES SIR
The drive to Tidehaven feels like a homecoming. The coast road is different from the last time I drove it---no hurricane, no debris, no white-knuckle visibility. Just autumn sun on water, live oaks arching over the highway, and the salt-sweetness of low country air.
Three months since I showed up at Kassidy's apartment with Thai food and a speech I barely got through. Three monthsof the relationship she outlined for us---and yes, she literally made an outline, complete with milestones and communication schedules, which she presented to me over coffee the next morning like a project proposal.
I loved it. Not because I need structure, but because watching Kassidy Monroe apply her considerable organizational powers to something she cares about is like watching a force of nature with a color-coded planner.
The relationship works. Not perfectly---we're both too stubborn for perfection---but honestly. She writes in the mornings, and I work, and we talk every night, and every other weekend one of us drives the three-hours to close the distance. She's met Calder (who was polite), Decker (who was quiet), and Riggs (who asked her to sign his chest, which she declined).
She finished the book.Breaking Point---the novel that started as a desperate attempt to outrun writer's block and became something real. Her editor called it "a masterpiece of romantic tension." Her agent cried on the phone. Diana Hartwell sent a bottle of champagne and a note that read:You bled on the page. Now let them read it.
The book launch is at the Tidehaven Community Center---a white clapboard building on the harbor that's been decorated with twinkle lights and book displays and an alarming number of flowers. The local bookstore co-hosted, and the turnout exceeds expectations. Two hundred chairs. A signing table stacked with hardcovers. A podium with a microphone that Kassidy will stand behind in approximately one hour and address a crowd about the book that changed her life.
My job is to keep her safe. My personal mission is to keep from staring at her like a man who can't believe his luck, because that's unprofessional, and Calder is watching.
Kassidy arrives forty minutes early, which surprises no one. She's in a dark blue dress that matches the book cover, herhair deliberately loose, and when she sees me standing by the entrance in my security detail posture---feet apart, hands clasped, earpiece in---she stops dead.
"You're here."
"Calder assigned me."
"Calder is a menace."
"Calder is my boss."
She crosses the distance between us, and the professional in me saysmaintain position,and the rest of me pulls her into a kiss that is absolutely not in the operational briefing.
"You look beautiful," I tell her.
"You look like a bodyguard."
"I am a bodyguard."
"You're my boyfriend pretending to be a bodyguard."
