Page 121 of One Last Promise

Hard to do that when she wasn’t talking to him.

So he’d expected her folded arms and cold shoulder today when he arrived at the hangar after Moose’s call.

But he didn’t have to like it. “C’mon, London. Don’t be that way.” He’d walked up to her, waiting with her as Boo went into the Tooth, probably to check on medical supplies. He didn’t know what he expected from Moose’s cryptic call about Hazel being missing, and that had him stirred up too. So he and London needed to solve this thing between them andget back to work.

Focus on the work.

“Shep. Just leave it.” She wore her blonde hair back in a ponytail, a pair of black leggings, a pullover, and a pair of tennis shoes.

“No. I know you’re angry with me, and I get that. I should have told you about Colt and him asking me to keep an eye on you. But I thought . . . well, I didn’t think you’d like knowing?—”

“That you were spying on me?”

“I wasn’t?—”

“What would you call it, then? Babysitting? Bodyguarding?”

Okay, mouth closed. He watched Moose’s plane circle in the air, coming around for a landing, and she looked at him.

“If I’m the spy you are accusing me of being, certainly I can take care of myself.”

It might be a good thing he couldn’t see her eyes through those sunglasses.

“Yes. True. And you can keep your secrets, London. I don’t need to know them. But . . . I was trying to do right by you. We did have . . .”A connection. A moment. But clearly she’d wiped their past from her mind. He swallowed. “You’re not justanybodyto me. So yes, I agreed to keep an eye on you. Like a friend would.”

“And report my activities to Colt?”

“Nope. None of that. Just . . . making sure you . . . were all right.”

Her chest rose and fell.

Then she nodded. Looked away.

Moose’s plane landed and started taxiing toward them.

“Coming here has been the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time. I don’t want to—” She looked at him. “I don’t want to think that it’s not real.”

Not real.

He didn’t have the faintest idea what that meant, but he couldn’t help but drop his voice, take a step toward her. “It’s real, London. Everything that . . . everything that I feel for you is real.”

She pursed her lips as ifconsidering her words.

“Please, London, can’t we at least be friends?—”

“Yes.” She hadn’t moved, her arms still folded, but her voice changed, soft, almost regretful.

He stilled as the plane pulled into the Quonset.

“I’m sorry, Shep. I . . . the thing is, I’ve had people lie to me before?—”

“She’s been betrayed before.”His jaw tightened.

“But I want to trust you. You’ve been . . .” She sighed. “Yes. We can be friends. But no more secrets.”

He had nothing for that.

The plane stopped and Shep walked over. “I’ll get the plane sorted and tied down.”

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