“Ansley won’t judge you. She’s a good person.”
Garnet still looked worried, but he knew once they met, it would go smoothly.
He pulled into the driveway and stopped his car. “Oh, do you own a car?”
She shook her head. “No. I take public transportation.”
“Well, that might be a good thing. At least your car won’t be tracked to this area.”
“Yeah.”
She glanced around, looking a little lost as she stepped from the car. He didn’t blame her. Her life had turned upside down in the last week. A lot of bad things had happened to her and around her. She had to be afraid that it could happen again.
He would make sure she stayed safe. No way would she be a pawn of some terrorist cell that wanted to create havoc. They would search out everyone responsible and take them down.
Garnet didn’t need to spend her life afraid of living. She deserved to have a great life, whether it was with him or someone else.
He led her inside his house. “It’s not much.” He looked around, making sure he hadn’t left anything out that would embarrass him.
“It’s perfect.”
He couldn’t help but smile. He was glad she liked the place. “Thank you.” When he moved in, he hadn’t wanted to rely only on his fashion sense, so he hired someone to help him decorate. He hadn’t taken all of her suggestions, but he didn’t have neon signs on the walls, and the place didn’t look like a bar. He did have a bar set up in the corner, but it was hidden in the furniture, and it looked good.
“It’s really nice. Better than my place.”
“Honestly, I hired someone to help. I didn’t want my place to look like a sleazy bar.”
Garnet laughed. “I should have hired someone. My place is functional. There honestly aren’t many decorations. I have one picture on the wall, and it’s a photo of a bear I took while I was in the Appalachian Mountains.”
“Wow. How close was the bear?”
“Close enough for me to smell it. I didn’t like the smell. I’d gone out to Appalachia because someone I worked with told me I should take a vacation. It wasn’t bad, but I spent the entire time reading technical magazines and manuals. I ended up going home early because I ran out of things to read.”
“Oh, wow. So you don’t really take vacations.”
She shrugged and shook her head. “I’ve not really had anyone I’ve wanted to spend time with, and spending that much money on myself never made sense.”
“But you are worth it. Trust me, you are worth the expense.” He felt for her. She was smart, but he could tell that she had some hangups about herself.
The conversation they’d had at the dinner in DC had shown him one side of her, but she was complex. She had layers, and he wanted to get to know her better.
The doorbell rang, and he flashed a smile. “That must be Link and Ansley.”
“Yeah. Great.”
Garnet didn’t sound convinced that everything would be okay, but hopefully she would see soon enough that everything would be good. Ansley was nice, and he knew they would hit it off.
Chapter 14
Garnet threw back her head,laughter spilling out at Ansley’s statement. She wasn’t sure she’d ever connected this way with another woman. With all her other friends, they’d bonded over technology. With Ansley, there wasn’t any talk about computers or programs. There didn’t need to be because the connection felt natural.
“So there I was, standing in the middle of the park with some kid’s sandwich, waiting for him to come back and get it.”
“The mom didn’t come over?” Garnet asked.
Ansley shook her head. “No. I guess the kid saw me doing yoga and thought I was the person to give his food to. I didn’t even see where he’d gone on the playground. And they all looked alike. It wasn’t like I’d been paying attention to him.”
“What did you do?” Garnet asked.
