Page 20 of Guarding Truth
Time to change the subject. “What are you doing in Savannah?” she asked, taking another sip of her coffee.
“Do you remember me telling you about my friend from West Point, Blake Abernathy?”
She nodded.
“Blake asked me to join him and start a cybersecurity company. His offer came at the right time and we moved about a year ago. Ivy and I both needed a change of pace, so it seemed like a good idea.”
An employee arrived at their table and offered to take their used cups. She might need another one to go.
“So, how have you been, Jules?”
At the sound of her nickname, she froze. Leave it to Caleb to cut to the heart of the matter with one word. He was the only person she’d ever let call her Jules. His familiarity unnerved her. He knew her in ways no one else did.
“I’ve been back in Savannah for about a year. Since my grandmother left me her house, I decided, like you, it was time for a change. Before that, I was in Columbia, South Carolina.”
He watched her with those deep brown eyes that probed her soul. With Caleb, surface-level conversation didn’t exist.
“Why?”
Another one-word sentence that shattered Juliette’s confidence. She took a deep breath. The man deserved an explanation.
She looked him in the eye. “When I was in the hospital—after the mountain—they told me I had breast cancer. It wasn’t the injuries from the attack that sent me home. It was my own body.”
“Oh, Jules. I’m so sorry. I would have been there for you if I’d known.”
His eyes probed hers for her to continue. “That was my concern. You had your whole life ahead of you, and I’d washed out of the Army. Losing Tank and Laz—the grief hit me hard. And then realizing I’d have to give up the Rangers, the loss was more than I could bear. You deserved to have a future without my baggage. You needed to heal too.”
Caleb cleared his throat. “It took me a long time to get adjusted to life with Ivy,” he said, “and when I was in a place that I could track you down, I tried. I called your parents, and they said that you’d moved but wouldn’t tell me where. I tried, Jules, but I had no idea where you wound up once you were stateside.”
She wrapped her hands around her cup to steady them. “You tried to find me?”
He nodded. “I didn’t like the way we abruptly ended a great friendship.”
The formation of tears took her by surprise, and she turned away to gain her composure. After all these years, she’d thought their friendship had been severed permanently. Yet he’d tried to find her.
She rallied, looked at Caleb and smiled. “After the Army discharged me, I moved back home while I underwent treatment for breast cancer. But the second I was cleared, I moved to Columbia.”
“I’m just glad you’re well now.”
“It was a long and hard battle, but after about a year, I went into remission. But my time with the Rangers was over, and I thought it best to find a fresh start. So I joined the Elite Guardians and became a bodyguard.”
“That’s great news about your remission—you’ve always been a warrior. I’m glad you chose a different battlefield to tackle head-on.”
His words soothed the hurt places she wouldn’t admit existed. He understood. The surgery, doctor visits, chemotherapy, and radiation had bullied her into the fight for her life. And she’d refused to let cancer win. But in the end, it had destroyed one of the biggest things she’d loved.
Being a Ranger.
He broke through her thoughts. “How did you become a bodyguard? It’s a perfect job for you, Jules.”
Had he read her mind? “My friend, Olivia Savage, owned the Elite Guardians Agency and offered me a job. My first assignment was working withthePreston Whittaker.” She fanned herself in mock gushing of Preston’s celebrity status. Laila Rabbinowitz had become one of her closest friends. Make that Laila Whittaker now.
“Right. Like you’d ever fall for someone’s celebrity status.”
“True, but one thing led to another, and when my grandmother left me her three-story house in the historical district, I convinced Olivia to open a branch in Savannah. The Elite Guardians lease the top two floors for office space, and I live in the basement apartment.” She sighed. “But let’s get to the real reason we’re here.”
Caleb’s face fell. “Yes. Let’s. Ivy. I can’t believe she tracked you down. Obviously, we can’t hire you to babysit me without a known threat. I don’t know what’s going on, but so far it’s nothing I can’t handle. Ivy’s emotions are a whole different story though.” He shook his head, concern for his niece etched into the fine crinkles around his eyes.
“It must be hard becoming an instant parent,” Juliette said. “But she cares about you, meaning you’re doing something right.”