Page 64 of Guarded Secrets
Keeley nodded even though her friend couldn’t see her. “I’ll think about it.”
“Good. So what happened with Jaxon outside your cottage?”
“I called 9-1-1. The dispatcher was calm and reassuring, but officers were seven minutes out and Jaxon was on the back patio. He was pacing back and forth and becoming increasingly agitated. Then he picked up a chair and raised it over his head. I’m sitting on the floor with the dispatcher on the phone and a butcher knife in my hand getting ready to scramble out of the kitchen so I won’t get cut by flying glass if he throws the chair through the window. Then Owen’s there, gun drawn, so calm and in control.”
“Oh wow. Sawyer wasn’t with him?”
“He was on his way. Owen was a cop, and it showed. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but Jaxon simply deflated. All the bravado and energy evaporated out of him. Owen gave him orders, and Jaxon obeyed. Then Sawyer arrived and cuffed him.”
“Hot damn. I bet Owen was allme big protector man, my woman’s in danger,which led to get-it-out-of-your-system sex. That’s the best kind.”
She wasn’t wrong.
Owen appeared in the doorway. “You ready, princess?”
“I still need to pack my toiletry bag. Five minutes.” Owen disappeared and she said to Delaney, “I’ve got to go, friend.”
“Okay, but remember you’re welcome to hang out at our place or stay overnight if that’s what you want to do. Don’t hesitate to call.”
“Thanks, Delaney. You’re the best.”
“That’s what bffs since fifth grade are for.” She paused. “One last observation? Every time Owen calls you princess, he’s announcing you’re his.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Owen drove along a narrow road past A-frame and log cabin homes set back from the road. A glance at the Bronco side mirror confirmed Keeley was still behind him in her CRV. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.
Last night had been incredible. Amazing. But making love with Keeley had done heavy damage to the walls he’d built between them because now they were kissing and holding hands, and acting like goddammed lovebirds.
Bringing her to his house was going to mess with his head. There was no other place he was confident she’d be safe. But having her in his home was like giving him a glimpse of heaven with the realization it could never be reality.
He’d damn well keep her safe from Romero and whatever that fucker was involved in, but would she be safe from him?
That she seemed to want his sorry ass nearly as much as he wanted her was a problem because all she had to do was blast her sunshine his way and he couldn’t help himself.
She offered herself openly and with affection, and he’d rather cut open an artery than reject her. He needed a strategy to keep her from being hurt, and he had a bad feeling to do that he’d have to explain his past, something he’d never shared with anyone except his mom and stepdad.
As much as it went against every instinct he had to pull back and protect himself, he’d have to tell her straight up why they couldn’tbe together. The deaths of the two most important people to him were on his head.
Once she knew that, she’d realize why he was a bad bet. He’d hate doing it. Hate her seeing him for what he really was, but it might be the only way he could ensure she kept her distance.
In the meantime, he’d start working on rebuilding those walls around his heart without being an asshole.
He went around a bend in the road before it straightened out. His neighborhood sat on what was basically a long bench of land at the border of Sisters that edged up to the National Forest boundary. His grandparents had chosen well when they’d bought the house some sixty years before. The spot provided the best of both worlds by being near town, but not too close, and they’d handed it down to their grandson.
With his property abutting the National Forest boundary he was protected from development behind him, and with the edge of the bench dropping off across the street, there’d be no development there either.
He liked having neighbors, and liked having them far enough away that they didn’t bother him.
Owen lifted his hand to a couple kids whizzing by on mountain bikes and turned onto his paved driveway. He passed the front of his property with its widely spaced pines and cedars on either side before reaching the clearing where the house sat.
He wondered how Keeley would see his place, what she’d think of it, and didn’t like that it mattered to him. Because that confirmed how muchshemattered to him.
To his eyes the house looked homey with its stone chimney and wide wraparound porch, but some people liked fancy, and his home wasn’t fancy.
He pulled up in front of the detached garage. Half of the garage was a shop and there was space in the other half to park his Bronco if he chose.
Keeley parked next to him and stepped out of her CRV, her purse slung over her shoulder. She shut the door, turning in a circle to take in his place.
