Page 43 of Not the Bodyguard's Princess
Andrew hustled his mother out with only the briefest of goodbyes, then waited until September’s house was in his rearview mirror. “Mom, Jordan is a client. Why are you asking her to the house?”
“You mean other than it would be rude to make her stay at September’s alone with her dog tomorrow afternoon? I thought I raised you with some semblance of manners.”
“I understand, but she is a client, and we rarely have clients to the house. The whole personal-boundaries lecture comes to mind here.” Andrew’s weak defense sounded worse out loud.
“Are you having issues with boundaries regarding Miss Lee?” His mother stared at him as he merged back on to the freeway.
“Things are more complicated with her. I’m spending more one-on-one time with her than I do with other clients. I’m glad Tonie came as we aren’t talking on the phone as much, which is helping.”
“Then there was the kiss.”
“How do you know about that?” Andrew racked his brain for a way the news could have reached her.
“I’m a mom. It is my job to know things. I’m concerned it might have affected your working relationship.”
“In what way?”
“You can’t play that game with me. I’m not going to give you the answer I’m looking for.” Not the mom-lecture voice.
“So the question is, am I having boundary issues? Yes, I am. But I think with Tonie on duty, we are getting back to a more normal bodyguard/principal relationship. Jordan is used to relying on Mr. Blake as almost a father figure.” No sense mentioning how Mr. Blake had basically gone all protective dad on him.
“I know how much you want to be your own person and not follow in your siblings’ footsteps. Remember when you insisted on being called Drew?”
He took the exit for Alex and Kimberly’s condo. “I thought it would make it so my name wouldn’t be AdamAlanAlexAbbieAndrew, and all it changed was I became AdamAlanAlexAbbieAndrewImeanDrew.”
“I’m sorry. At the time, I thought it was cute. I still do. But back to my point. Sometimes you’ve made choices with the only purpose being to not be like your siblings. I know most of them have taken the rule not to be emotionally involved with a client as a guideline. And to a certain extent, they were all correct. Although I still can’t believe how Alex’s fake marriage turned out. Anyway, don’t make Adam’s mistake. He shouldn’t have walked away. In the end, some rules were meant to be broken.”
Andrew pulled into Alex’s condo as Alex and Kimberly were pulling out. They rolled down their windows. The short exchange had his mother switching cars and Andrew going home alone.
17
Harmony stuffeda pink giraffe in her mouth and kicked her feet against the seat. Jordan had never ridden in a back seat with a baby and found the spectacle entertaining.
September turned and looked over her shoulder. “Don’t let her fall asleep on the ride to Grandma’s. She gets cranky if we wake her up.”
“You refer to Mrs. Hastings as Grandma?”
September gazed adoringly at Adam, who drove. “Even though it isn’t official, it seemed like the best way to teach her since by the time she is talking, Adam and I’ll be married and he will legally be her dad.”
“Mom thinks she already calls her GeGe.” Adam turned into an eighties-era subdivision.
“She calls Adam A-da. I’m working on getting the firstDin there.”
Jordan didn’t ask about Harmony’s birth father. His conviction for attempted double homicide had been all over the papers. By the time he got out of prison, Harmony would be in college.
Adam pulled into the driveway. “Here we are—the weekly Sunday dinner.”
The front door opened, and a man who could only be the patriarch of the family came out. He reached the passenger door next to Harmony before Adam and September. “There’s Grandpa’s little angel.”
Melanie Hastings stood on the front porch. “Never mind Jethro. He is jealous I had Harmony all to myself the past couple days. Like he didn’t have four grandsons he could have visited.”
Jethro carted Harmony into the house. “But this is my only granddaughter.”
“Come on in, Jordan. We are very informal around here. Where’s Princess?”
“I left her at September’s. There is a nice fenced yard there.” Jordan looked around the front room. Andrew had told her his home was one of the securest in the country because they kept using it to test different security systems, but there wasn’t a camera she could see.
Melanie ushered the group through the house. “Come out on the back porch. The boys are back there. This morning’s rain dried up, and today may be the last good Sunday we get. The last one in September usually is.”
