Page 153 of Damaged Protector

I laughed. “There’s a lot of swamp land around here. I’m sure there are plenty of bodies in the water.” Shrugging, I added, “Well, not anymore. The gators would have gotten rid of any evidence.”

“Gators?” she gasped.

“Yep. My neighbor has a boat he lets me use, so we can go out on the water while we’re here, and maybe we’ll see some.”

Her eyebrows lowered with apprehension. “Is it safe?”

I nodded. “As long as you’re in a boat, you’re fine.”

“Can we go fishing?” she asked, her tone brightening.

“Sure. We’ll need to get you a Texas fishing license when we stop for groceries.”

I spotted Mel’s Bait and Tackle and pulled into the parking lot of the small store before heading inside. The floor was grimy from years of use, but the shop owner was friendly and called me by name when we walked inside.

“Hey, Mel. We need to get some provisions, and my girl needs a fishing license.”

The old man grinned with a smile that was missing a few teeth. He was wearing overalls and a plaid shirt with the sleeves ripped off.

“Well now, how about that?” Pushing over a pen and some paperwork, he said, “You just fill this out, pretty lady, and I’ll get you all set up. As long as you’re not some kind of criminal.”

“Well, I am, but I’ve never been caught,” Mallori quipped, and Mel cackled his delight.

Thirty minutes later we had two bags of groceries and a fishing license as we pulled into my driveway. Mallori gasped. “Oh my god. This is your cabin?”

Something inside me soared at her reaction. It really was a beautiful place. The walls were timber, a porch wrapping all the way around the perimeter. The house was built on stilts over the river to prevent flooding, and a set of wooden stairs led up to the door.

“Come on,” I said, unable to contain my excitement. Helping her out of the truck, I grabbed her hand and led her up the stairs.

When we got inside, Mallori’s eyes lit up as she looked around. “Hawk this is amazing.” She wandered around the room, looking at the paintings in rustic wood picture frames that adorned the walls.

“You like it?”

She turned to me, her aqua eyes sparkling. “I adore it.”

My cabin wasn’t fancy, but it was spacious and warm, and I loved being here. Mal seemed to like it too, and her delight made me so fucking happy.

“Those paintings are by a local artist, and they’re all of this river, Caddo Lake, and the surrounding bayous.”

Mallori studied one. “The detail is fantastic.”

“The real thing is even better,” I told her, taking her hand and leading her out the back door.

“Holy shit,” she breathed. The wide, dark river was below us, lined with Cypress trees that had Spanish moss hanging from the branches. It was an eerily gorgeous sight. “That’s it. I’m never leaving.”

Stepping up behind her, I wrapped my arms around her and buried my face in her neck.

If only, Little Bee. If only.

For the next three days, Mallori and I spent every single minute together, and as each day passed, the ache inside me intensified. For the first time in my life, I felt like I’d found someone I’d like to be with, but she was someone I couldn’t have.

I did my best to push those feelings down deep and tried to simply enjoy being with her. We spent a couple days out on Caddo Lake and caught lots of catfish that we fried and ate for dinner. We’d even seen a couple gators sunning themselves on a fallen log.

In the evenings, we sat on the porch overlooking the river, listening to tree frogs and crickets and counting the lightning bugs that flitted over the water.

Today we went to the nearby town of Jefferson. It was a small historic town with a cool-ass general store that we spent hours exploring. We ate some excellent barbecue and then bought cupcakes from a red double-decker bus and walked around the brick streets hand-in-hand. Like a real couple.

“I’m glad you let me bring clothes,” Mallori teased as we drove back to town that evening after getting ready for a night out. “Today would have been really awkward if I’d had to walk around naked.”

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