Page 9 of Isolated
Even if I hadn’t been one of the first to find someone and fall in love, I certainly hadn’t expected I’d be the last. My friend had declared long ago that he had no interest in ever dating anyone seriously, let alone settling down. Shouldn’t that have been enough to give me an edge over getting there before him?
Perhaps.
But then he met Reagan, and she changed everything for him.
That meant I was the only one left. Talk about isolating.
Over the years, I’d attended plenty of weddings, but there had always been a handful of us from work who were still single. Now, it was just me.
“I can’t believe how much has changed over the last several years,” Nixon declared. Like Hart, he was a member of the kidnap and ransom unit. “This family has grown not just with significant others, but there are so many babies in the mix, too.”
There had been a time when, beyond casual hookups and dating, all the men I worked with were single. One by one, they’d dropped like flies, and Nixon found his happy ending near the start of it all. He and Mallory were already parents.
“It’s crazy. Landen’s the only one left.”
That came from Ty, one of the men who worked as part of our team of bodyguards. Like the rest of them, Ty had found the woman of his dreams while working withher. Alana had needed a bodyguard, and Ty was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time.
At his declaration, all eyes came to me.
Having had the revelation I did today, this was not what I wanted. I grunted, offering a look of indifference. “Last man standing.”
“You say that like you’re proud of it.”
I shrugged, doing my best to appear unconcerned with the one thing that was now flashing in my head like a neon sign—I was alone. “I’m not wearing it like a badge of honor. I just… I haven’t met her yet.”
“Oh, I think you will soon,” Mallory insisted.
Blaze added, “We’re due for at least one more crisis, don’t you think?”
I rolled my eyes. It was no secret that with each couple that came to be ever since Royce and Tarryn at the start, there’d been what we’d commonly referred to around the office as crises. There’d been kidnappings, shootings, revenge plots, and domestic abuse in the mix, and that was just barely scratching the surface.
I didn’t doubt there was a woman out there for me. I hadn’t met her yet—at least, I didn’t think I had—but if the way the men around me loved their women was even a fraction of how I’d feel about her when I did, the last thing I’d ever want is for her to be involved in some horrible situation that put her life or safety at risk.
“I could do without the crisis,” I told the table.
The men laughed, and it was Hart who had a retort. “I can assure you we all would have preferred to avoid them. But I think you’re failing to realize that those predicaments are precisely what led to us all winding up where we are now. You’re going to have to accept it when ithappens and know that, in the end, it’s all going to work out.”
It was easy for him to say, now that he and Reagan had gotten past something truly horrific. But when he was in the thick of it, there wasn’t anything he would have done to be able to just snap his fingers and avoid it.
“Are you working on anything exciting right now, Landen?” Alana asked.
Alana was a reporter, but I thought it was strange she’d be looking for insight into any recent happenings in Steel Ridge.
I arched a brow. “Are you looking for a story, or…”
She shook her head, but it was Reagan who replied, “I don’t think Alana is looking for confidential information about your cases. I think she’s trying to get you to consider what cases you might be working on that have, perhaps, a woman in distress.”
Harlow perked up. “Ooh, that’s a great point. Does anything come to mind?”
My gaze shifted through the couples at the table. The women were beyond hopeful, maybe even more than my mom had been earlier today. And the men were simply amused, like I had no choice but to roll with it, that one day I’d understand why none of them were intervening.
Of course, it was likely they all knew that I was sifting through each of the current cases I was working on, trying to determine if there was something—or perhaps someone—I had mistakenly overlooked.
“I’m sorry to disappoint. I wish I had better news, but there’s nothing worthwhile to report.”
The women slumped back in their seats, except for Mallory. “Don’t let that get you down, Landen. I’m sureshe’s going to walk through those Harper Security Ops doors very soon. And don’t worry. We’ll be sure to tell Avalon to send any women looking to hire a private investigator to your office.”
My lips twitched as I shook my head. These women were determined. It’d be useless to even attempt to convince them to stay out of it.
