Page 24 of Mistletoe and Malice
But he wasn’t her date. They weren’t even friends. He was there to protect her body, not her heart. Yet something inside of her sprang to life the second she’d taken his arm. That had never happened with Graham. With anybody.
Together, they walked with the rest of the guests out to the stately home’s veranda and beyond it to a large, elegantly trimmed white tent erected on the lawn. Tables had been set up and tastefully dressed in black, white, and gold for the $500-per-plate dinner.
He led her toward the main table, music from a string quartet wafting through the tent. “You were very impressive. You have a definite gift.”
Her gaze snapped to his. Had he actually paid her a compliment? “Thank you.”
“What you accomplished over one cocktail hour was astounding. You certainly know how to charm folks into opening up their wallets. I think I counted up to about ninety thousand in pledges by the time all was said and done.”
“One hundred five, to be precise. Even I’m surprised by how much we accomplished tonight. Now we can start on the classrooms at the shelter. Educational needs are different forhomeless children since their schooling can be so sporadic. It’s difficult to integrate them into the public school system unless they’re already there and up to speed with their classmates, so if we can accommodate them at the shelter, all the better.”
At the table they would share with the Cantrells and three other couples, he held her chair before taking his own. “Your passion for the project is obvious. I can see why they made you chairperson.”
“I do have a soft spot in my heart for these kids.” She placed her cloth napkin in her lap. “On Thursday’s tour through our downtown Lend a Hand shelter, you’ll see the new beds and full-service cafeteria. We’ve incorporated Save the Children with it since many of our homeless are families.”
“Yes, the tour.” He leaned in. “You’re sure keeping our Tech Ops folks hopping,” he said in a low voice, so the others wouldn’t hear, she assumed. No use everybody knowing he was her bodyguard, not her charming and handsome date. “Doing security checks on all these places and people. Even Mack’s gone out on some reconnaissance. I can’t remember the last time he did field work.”
“Reconnaissance?” Leaning her head close to his, she spoke just as quietly. “You make it sound like a military operation.”
“It almost feels like it. You are one busy lady. And we can’t wing it. We have to know well ahead of time where we’re going, when we’ll be there, who will be there once we get there, what the surrounding area’s like, whether the building’s secure, where all the exits are. You have no idea.”
Her eyes widened as he’d counted off his list. “You’re right. I had no idea. If it’ll help, I’ll get you next week’s schedule by tomorrow. There might be a few things added later, but it’ll at least give your people some notice.”
“That’d be great. I appreciate it.” With a smile, he sat up and panned his gaze around the room. Out of habit, more than likely. Leaving her wondering if he did the same while off the clock.
They spent the rest of the gourmet, five-course dinner visiting with the others at the table. After the way he seemed to have judged her, she didn’t know how he would relate to them. If he might feel out of place or consider them all society snobs.
She needn’t have worried. He was gracious, attentive, asked intelligent questions, and answered queries with confidence and an obvious deep knowledge base. When asked about his profession, he simply stated he worked for an international security operations company. And as she’d known they would be, her tablemates were warm and friendly, funny and smart.
Letting her gaze roam around the table, she smiled with what she could only define as pride, in its most selfless form. Pride in how everyone watched him as he answered a question posed to him by the senator. Pride that they found him engaging and intelligent. Pride as if he truly were her date, and she was showing him off.
Her cheeks heated again. She needed to get her wits about her, having only known the man coming up on forty-eight hours. Nowhere near long enough to entertain such absurd notions.
“Miss Hudson?”
Her head snapped around at his voice near her ear and found him staring at her with a crease in his brow. “I’m sorry. Did you ask me something?”
“Can you pass the butter, please?”
She picked up the butter dish on her other side and passed it to him. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.”
He doctored up his still hot roll, the aroma of yeast and rich butter wafting toward her. She’d have to remember this catererfor future events. They’d knocked it out of the park with their succulent prime rib dinner.
“You okay?”
She met his eyes again. “Yes. Sure. Fine. Just thinking how much I was enjoying this dinner.”
“Amazing dinner. If I keep being fed like I have been the past two days, I’m going to have to up my workout intensity. Or buy new pants.”
Doubtful he’d have to worry about that. “Feel free to use the gym at the estate any time. In fact, you can join the girls and me tomorrow morning, if you’d like.”
He chuckled and picked up a forkful of baked potato. “I used it yesterday before church, but I’ll leave it to you ladies tomorrow, since you all were so agreeable to moving your workout to the house.”
“Afraid we’ll show you up?”
“That’s it exactly.”
