Page 24 of A Very Titan Christmas
“None.” Bryce smiled. He couldn’t help it. Rachel Porter, who hated him, had just tied them together for the holidays. There were worse ways to spend the next few weeks.
“You’re lucky you’re good at your job because I can hear that shit-eating grin on your face.”
“Not grinning, Boss Man.”
“The hell you’re not.” He sighed, resigned to the situation that Bryce had created. “If you start catching feelings, you need to be pulled off this job. You get me?”
“Loud and clear.” Bryce spotted Rachel and Eloise speaking with a man showing off mittens at the end of an aisle. The mittens had their attention, and Bryce guessed that Eloise’s interrogation was over. Roman flanked them from behind. “Anything else before I go?”
“Keep it in your pants.”
“Loud and clear,” he repeated and ended the call.
It wasn’t as if Rachel were searching for an actual boyfriend, and it wasn’t as if Bryce had any interest in filling that role. Rachel had only to keep her mother at bay, and he had only to remember that this was a public-facing situation. They’d been good together once. Hell, they’d been great—so great that he’d broken her heart to avoid shattering it when their long-distance relationship crashed and burned. It would have. They’d practically been kids.
He rubbed the back of his neck. He and Rachel could work out the details of her expectations while playing pretend. For now, he had to make sure both Porter women were safe and secure.
Bryce scanned the perimeter and didn’t see them anymore.
“Sugar Plum separated. East toward the town hall,” Roman said in his earpiece. “You’re coming this way?”
“Affirmative.”
“Snow Queen is taking another meeting with a gentleman suitor.” Roman snickered.
What the hell was happening with that woman? Bryce had thought Rachel was exaggerating, but at this point, it was obvious that Eloise had an agenda.
He didn’t see Rachel but spotted Eloise and the man who ambled alongside her. The gentleman suitor, as Roman called him, seemed to know as many people as Eloise. They both waved hello and smiled, but they didn’t stop to chat.
Then he spotted Rachel far past Eloise and Roman.
Roman told Bryce, “I’m closer. You’ve got the Snow Queen.”
“I’ve got her,” Bryce confirmed. Keeping an eye on Eloise was easier than talking to Rachel now anyway. He could linger behind Eloise and deal with all of this later.
Eloise and the man stopped between two tables. Bryce couldn’t read lips, but their body language differed from what he’d seen when Eloise was with the other man. Their conversation didn’t appear as uncomfortable, and they shook hands before the man departed. Perhaps not a potential suitor after all. She waved Bryce closer.
He took a bracing deep breath. “Ma’am?”
“I’m your girlfriend’s mother. Don’t ma’am me.”
“Yes—” He caught himself. This whole thing was too weird to figure out. “Mrs. Porter.”
She gave him a slight side-eye and readjusted her heavy jacket. “That was the mayor.”
Bryce nodded. “Okay.”
“William and I will have dinner with him tonight.” She gestured to the marketplace. “You and Rachel are off the hook for this evening.”
He nodded. Whatever it took to keep everyone happy. “Would you like me to update headquarters with the schedule change?”
“Yes.” She studied him closely. “Will you still have dinner with Rachel?”
“I don’t have her security plan yet, and—”
“I don’t mean as her security detail.”
A blush warmed his cheeks. “I’m not sure. I might be working.”
