Page 12 of Her Surprise Protector
“Oh, hello,” I managed to respond, thoroughly surprised by Riker for the second time in two days. “How are you?” The naturally programmed response sounded normal enough.
“I’m fine, but that’s the question I called to ask you,” Riker said. “Did you have a safe night?”
If you don’t count lying in bed wide awake for hours, listening to every tiny noise, yes.“I did, actually.”
“That’s great, and you can count on being safe tonight, too. I’m assigning a private security detail to surveil your property starting this evening. And someone will be there every night. If this Oscar guy shows up… and I’m betting he will. We’ll have the evidence to put him behind bars.”
Riker’s voice sounded matter-of-fact. He had clearly thought this through and probably already made the arrangements. “I’m not very familiar with security and how it works,” I ventured. “What exactly does a private security detail do?”
“A private security detail is a man in a van, basically,” Riker explained. “Two men will come to your house this evening and introduce themselves. First, they’ll set up a few cameras… And, don’t worry, they won’t invade your privacy. Then, one of them will leave until it’s time for his shift to start. The other guy will park the van somewhere on that secluded road beside your property that leads to the beach… and… well… watch and wait. You don’t need to worry about him. In fact, you don’t need to worry about anything at all. If he sees something suspicious, he’ll take action.”
Ordinarily, I would have felt strange about the idea of someone I didn’t know watching me and my house 24/7, but anything that would keep Oscar from sneaking around my property and scaring us sounded perfect. “That’ll be wonderful, thank you,” I said enthusiastically. Maybe tonight I would get a good night’s sleep. “I really, really appreciate this. That’s one safety concern I don’t have to think about anymore.”
“Are there others?” The worry in Riker’s voice made my heart skip a beat.
“I can’t child-proof everything,” I told him, remembering Bree’s escapade toward the ocean
“How old is she...three?”
“Close. Two and a half. She’s just starting to ask a lot of questions. Do you – do you have kids?” Something hit me like the stray, airborne leaf that had just smacked into my windshield. I was having a normal conversation with Riker, not a talk about the security for my house or an apology battle.
“Nope. I guess you could say I haven’t found the right person yet.”
After listening to Oscar talk and manipulate, I had developed a decent ear for lies. What Riker had said didn’t sound like a lie – not exactly – but it didn’t sound like the whole truth either. My thumbs rubbed the steering wheel under my hands, remembering the hurt that I had seen in his eyes when we met at work. “Maybe the right person just hasn’t found you yet,” I joked, trying to lighten his mood a little.
“Could be, but I don’t believe in sitting back and waiting for good things to happen. I’m more of a go-getter. Comes with growing up with parents who owned an international business.”
I found that easy to believe. Riker oozed with confidence, and I had already seen how protective he could be of someone he didn’t even know. The people he cared about - whomever that might be - were lucky to have him.
Awkwardly shifting the phone to my other hand, I pulled into a parking spot and turned off the car. Opening the door but not getting out yet, I explained, “Hey, Riker, thank you for everything, but I’ve got to go. I don’t think I can juggle a child and a phone at the same time, and I have to get Bree out of the car so we can do some shopping. But really, thank you so much. It feels awesome knowing that I don’t have to worry tonight.”
“Tonight or any night,” Riker promised. “I’ll text to make sure you’ll be home when my team is ready to head out to your place.”
We said our goodbyes, and I turned to my impatient and curious daughter so we could get this day of shopping going. My mind was no longer on clothes and toys, though. It was back on the first time I had seen Riker, standing out on the beach and staring out over the waves.
Come on, Elena. Don’t get your hopes up. Didn’t you learn anything from Oscar? The handsome ones always seem so attractive at first, both physically and personality-wise.Then things always go downhill.Don’t fool yourself.
Besides, there was no way Riker didn’t have a girlfriend. I did believe that he genuinely cared about my safety, probably because of Bree’s adorable face. A billionaire couldn’t possibly be interested in me beyond apologizing for his rudeness with a security detail he could easily provide.
Oh well.Now,I probably wouldn’t hear from Riker again, except to let me know about the “man in the van,” as he had put it. My surprise protector surely had better things to do than keep track of me. But it quickly became apparent that I needed to stop trying to predict Riker’s actions.
On Sunday morning, Riker texted me with a friendlyGood morning! How’d things go last night?
Of course, I had told him that both his employees had been courteous and friendly as they went about their business and that Saturday night was the safest I had felt in a while.
Oh, Elena, one more thing,he had replied.
Yes?
You’re a kind person, so I feel like I have to warn you not to bring the security guards anything to eat or drink. They stock up for themselves, and it could draw attention to them.
Instead of feeling embarrassed, I laughed aloud. I had actually planned to do that later that afternoon when it started getting hot. Bree and I would be sitting in the air conditioning drinking lemonade, so I had figured I would share at least some of the lemonade.Okay,I responded,got it. Definitely wasn’t planning to do that.
I bet.Even on a screen, the text had come across as smug, but I had to smile anyway.
Texting turned out not to be an isolated incident. We chatted on and off throughout the workweek, sometimes about nothing at all and other times about deeper, more meaningful topics.
I liked the first kind of conversation. I loved the second. When Riker, and I began talking about things that really mattered in the world and about people in general, his words became serious, thoughtful, and reflective. He had an incredible knack for taking a complex subject and using just a sentence or two to show me his thoughts.
