Page 36 of Protect and Serve

Cade looked from one to the other. “Of course it will.” He frowned at Lisa. “I just wish you could come too.”

“So do I, hon,” she said. “But my sister needs me.”

“She should stop having so many children.”

“Talk to Gregg about that.”

Cade huffed a laugh. “Yeah. I’m not going to be the one to tell a former Navy SEAL to quit having sexy time with his wife.”

“Good call.” Lisa smacked his hand when he reached for a cinnamon bun. “Those are for Claire.”

“All of them?”

“Of course.”

Cade made a disgruntled noise, and then pulled Lisa into his arms for a proper kiss. While she was distracted, he stole a cinnamon bun. “Oh, there’s a letter or you, Claire,” he said as he turned away—with a grin—and began to wolf the pastry down.

She sat at the table and began sorting through the mail. “They’re all for me,” she grumbled. Bill, bill, political mailer, insurance offer she’d never requested. Ah, there it was.

Her address was handwritten and it had no return address. She flipped it over, but there was nothing on the back. With a shrug, she ripped it open with her thumb.

There was one sheet of paper inside, and on it, a poem.

This morning, I awoke with thoughts of you

As ever, always. What’s a man to do?

I’ve never known a woman so fine

I’ll do what I must to make you mine.

Her lips quirked and she glanced triumphantly at Lisa. Granted, it wasn’t the most romantic poem she’d ever read, but it was from Charlie, and that was all that mattered. She’d never envisioned him as a poetic type—him being ex-military and a cop and all—but it proved one thing. He was willing to do whatever it took to win her.

And the thought was fascinating.

“Who’s it from?” Cade asked, his mouth full of pastry.

Claire stood and bit back an exultant grin. “Just never you mind,” she said. And then she headed for her room as though she were floating on a cloud. She had lots to do to prepare for this weekend and no time to lose.

When Charlie arrived at the ranch house with his weekend bag in hand, Cade met him at the door with a dour look. It would have been a dismal greeting if Lisa hadn’t been at his side, smiling.

“You can pick any room on the second floor,” Cade said. “But you are not, under any circumstances, to go up to the third floor.”

“That sounds pretty Gothic. Do you have your crazy first wife locked in the garret?”

Lisa snorted a laugh, but when Cade frowned at her, she fixed him with a wide-eyed stare and said, “Well, do you? Have a crazy first wife in the garret? As your fiancée, I think I have the right to know.”

He must have assumed it was a rhetorical question, because he didn’t respond to Lisa. But to Charlie, he said on an ominous thread, “Claire’s room is on the third floor. You are to avoid that room like the plague.”

Charlie fixed an innocent look on his face. If Claire was interested enough, they wouldn’t even have to climb the stairs for what he had in mind. “Understood.”

Cody clomped down the stairs with a suitcase in his hand. He frowned at Charlie, which was, all things considered, a bit rude, because Charlie was doing them a favor, after all. “Did you tell him to stay off the third floor?”

Hell. Had they had a meeting about this?

“He says he understands.” Both men studied him through narrowed eyes.

“Look, if you don’t want me to stay, I can leave.” He and Claire could spend the weekend at his place. He had a nice bed. Not a four-poster, but he could work around that.