Page 22 of Securing His Heart

Two long denim clad legs rested on the glass surface.

“Was I really asleep for thirty minutes? It felt like five.”

“I set a timer.”

“How come I didn’t hear it?” There was nothing more annoying than the sound of an alarm waking her in the morning, but it guaranteed she got her ass out of bed.

“I had it on vibrate.” Chris shifted and lifted her so that she was upright and not against his chest.

“Right. If you have it on vibrate, then how do you wake up?”

“I don’t usually set an alarm. My body is so used to getting up at five a.m. that I automatically wake up at that time now.”

“Even on weekends?”

“Yep.”

“Well, that sucks.” Lindy stood and stretched her muscles protesting at the movement. “I admit on weekends I usually wake up when my alarm should go off, but I manage to wangle my body back into sleep.”

“Wangle your body huh? I’d like to see that.” Chris stood and she had to stop herself from wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head back on his chest. Even though he was muscular, he was comfortable to sleep on.

“Maybe you will—one day.” Lindy winked and picked up her bag from the coffee table. She pulled out her new phone. Having to change her number, reset all her contacts and apps was a pain in the butt, but at least no one would be able to use her phone. Ian should’ve sent out her new number to the relevant people who needed it.

“You hungry?” Chris asked, as he followed her out of the family room, up the stairs toward her office.

The house was large enough that she and her father had been able to have their own workspace, and for that she was glad.

Having to work at the desk her father used when he worked from home would be too much to bear. As it was, walking into the room was difficult. So many memories of when Lindy had sat on his knee and pretended to conduct business phone calls. The way her dad had laughed at her antics.

Life had been uncomplicated then and she missed him with every fiber of her being.

“You okay?”

She jolted from her memories, shocked to find that instead of standing in her office, she’d stopped in the doorway of her father’s.

“I miss him so much. He’d know what to do about this situation. If he was still alive, I wouldn’t be in this mess.” Lindy wanted to scream at the world. For the hand she’d been dealt, but her hand was so much better than a lot of other people so it would be selfish of her to complain when she had a roof over her head. The ability to buy food and feed herself. Not to mention have a job she loved—on good days.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this. I may not have met the man, but I’m sure he’d be proud of the way you’ve taken what’s happened in your stride. You could’ve easily spent the day curled up on your bed after what you’d been through. Many others would’ve. But you shook yourself off and took control.”

As comforting as Chris’s words were, it didn’t make things better. There was still the mystery of who was after her and for what.

“There has got to be a reason,” Lindy muttered to herself as she looked one last time in her father’s office and then made her way to her own.

What she needed to do was go back over the past few months, since her father’s death, and determine if one of the decisions she’d made had been upsetting to this person—for whatever reason.

“And we’ll find it.” Chris’s lips were pressed together in a firm line. His arms crossed over his broad chest and his eyes held a steely determination she’d never seen before.

Standing in front of her was the Delta soldier he’d been, and she was glad he was on her side.

“We?” she whispered.

“Yep, we’re a team now. You and me.”

“A team?” She probably sounded silly repeating his words but it seemed so unreal that he was saying these things to her.

His mouth relaxed into a smile, and he closed the gap between them.

She melted when he framed her face with his hands.