Page 85 of The Bodyguard

“Do you think Parker would have taken care of that?”

Of course he would have. “It’s hard to be on this side of things.”

“Being shot at is a game changer,” he deadpanned.

She laughed. “I mean, I know what I would’ve said to make sure they wouldn’t call the cops, and Parker’s IQ is off the charts.” Angela shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Yeah, you do. It’s hard to give up control.” His fingertips ran over her skin, searching for missed cactus spines. “That’s all I can see,” he finally said. “Any more?”

Carefully, she ran her palms up and down her legs. “I don’t think so.”

He handed her the tiny tube of ointment. “You should smear this on the worst spots.”

She’d thought the tiny tubes were for him. “What about you? Your arm?”

“I’ll get to it, but I’m starving.”

A car rolled into the parking lot, and a woman stepped out of the vehicle, carrying two bags from Wal-Mart.

Sawyer stood.

“I’ve got it.” Angela shooed him back to his food. “Eat.”

She approached the other woman, and, given how the woman’s eyes rounded, Angela had a solid idea of her own appearance: crazy hair, irritated red splotches covering her body, and one shoe.

The delivery woman stopped several paces away, set the bags down in a parking space, and backed away. That was fair. Angela likely appeared to have a contagious disease. Still, she smiled and thanked the other woman for the bags.

Her foot was still sore, but without the cactus needles, Angela didn’t limp back to their table.

“Anything good?” he asked then popped a hush puppy into his mouth.

“Hope so.” She dug through the bag and found the sunglasses. The UV-blockers did almost as much for her as the food. “I will feel like a new woman before we leave the parking lot.” She donned the new glasses. “What do you think?”

“You’re beautiful.”

“Aw.” She grinned, her stomach fluttering. “About the sunglasses.”

His grin hitched. “They look like the last ones.”

“Not at all.” Still, though, she beamed. He’d called her beautiful when she was a mess. Angela kissed him on the cheek. “You’re beautiful too. You know that?”

Sawyer blushed. She wouldn’t have believed it without seeing it with her own eyes. Something in society kept a certain kind of compliment away from men. Sure, they could be manlyand tough. Sawyer was the living, breathing definition of that, not to mention hot and sexy, but he was also beautiful. What else didn’t men hear enough of? “You’re also sweet and kind.”

“All right, Ange. Enough, or I’m going to have you checked out for head trauma.”

“Oh, cool your jets. Beautiful, kind, and sweet, in a jumps-out-of-helicopters-and-saves-the-day kind of way.” It wasn’t that she wanted to embarrass him, but she wanted him to know.

He rolled his eyes.

“And I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”

“Angela. Enough—”

She kissed him on the cheek again. “All right. Enough.” She sipped her lemonade. “What will we do about a vehicle and a doctor?”

He relaxed now that she’d turned the subject away from him. “Wait until something shows up.”

“From Parker? We just wait?” No phone. No updates. Angela didn’t handle an absence of tasks very well.

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