Single Mum's Bodyguard

Hopefully she hadn’t missed it. She wanted to see Penny get her happily-ever-after. The woman had planned so many for other brides that she deserved the happiest ever-after for herself.

Dane kept pace beside her in the hall. He was so big, so tall and broad and heavily muscled, and the hallway was narrow enough, that his arm brushed against hers. Once their hips even bumped. She felt an arc of awareness sizzle between them, which was ridiculous. As ridiculous as she had been to scream moments ago.

“Don’t you want to know what I found out?” he asked.

She sighed. “It was your friend,” she said. “The other one I saw standing outside with you. He must have been who I saw. He must have been checking the window.” She hadn’t been able to hear every word they’d spoken but enough, with their hand gestures, to get the gist. “I overreacted.”

“After what you’ve been through, that’s understandable,” he said.

She didn’t want his pity, didn’t want him looking at her the way Lars did. She wasn’t fragile or weak. She wasn’t crazy, either. “Penny had said she had a strange feeling.”

Dane cocked his head. “What?”

“You haven’t heard about Penny Payne’s premonitions?” she asked with shock.

He shook his head.

“She always knows when something bad is about to happen.”

“If she has that feeling today, maybe she shouldn’t be getting married.”

“This feeling wasn’t about her,” she said. The look on her boss’s beautiful face had been about Emilia. Emilia knew that.

Her own instinct was already warning her, so it was especially unnerving.

“No wonder you’re a little edgy,” Dane said.

A little was an understatement. She felt as if she might never sleep again, not without hearing that crying.

“It’s an important day,” she said. “I need to make sure everything goes well.” And she’d nearly blown that by screaming down the church.

Dane must have been the only one outside the nursery who’d heard her, otherwise her brother would have been there. Dane looked away from her now, and she saw that his hand was near his tuxedo jacket, as if he were about to reach for his weapon.

“What?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“You were right,” he said. “Manny did check the window. But it was when he first got here.”

She tensed now. “And when was that?”

“Over an hour ago.”

“So there was someone there when I thought I saw someone?”

He stared at her as if wondering if he could believe her, if he could believe that she had really seen anything at all. She had as many doubts as he had. But she stopped and turned back toward the nursery.

He caught her arm. “You had things to check on,” he reminded her. “The ceremony...”

She shook her head. “Nothing is more important than my son.” She would never let him down again. She couldn’t risk losing him. “I need to watch over him.” Or get him the hell away from the church.

But were they any safer at home?

Were they safe anywhere?

“Manny is watching him,” Dane assured her. “I told him to stay right outside that window. Nothing will happen to Blue.”

She turned back toward him. “You know my son’s nickname?”

He nodded. “I know that. I don’t know his real name.”

“Lars.”

“Good thing he has a nickname.”

Since she’d always believed he and her brother were such great friends, she glanced at him in surprise at the snarky remark, but then she realized he was kidding. His face was serious, though. He really had the emotionless expression of a soldier. Or a bodyguard...

This job was perfect for him. But she didn’t need a bodyguard. Or did she?

Was everything that was happening just in her head?

She would have to figure out that later. Right now she had a wedding to oversee. She hurried down the hall and up the stairs.

Dane stayed at her side, just like a bodyguard. “It wasn’t that bad a joke, was it?” he asked.

Her lips curved into a slight smile. “Lars wrote about you during boot camp and your deployments...” So much that she felt as if she knew him already—or at least as much as Lars knew him—which by her brother’s own admission wasn’t totally.

Dane’s an enigma, he’d written once. I trust him with my life. But I never know exactly what he’s thinking or feeling. Or if he feels anything at all...

She understood that now.

“I really need to make sure everything’s okay with the wedding.” But when she climbed the stairs to the foyer, she found Nikki Payne looking for her.

“There you are,” the petite brunette said. Her beautiful face was tense with anxiety.

“Is something wrong?” she asked. “Why hasn’t the ceremony started?” She knew Penny Payne hadn’t changed her mind and that her groom would have no second thoughts about marrying such an amazing woman, either.

“We’re not ready,” Nikki said.

Emilia had thought everything was set to go. That she’d had everything in place. The minister. The photographer. The caterer.

Every detail.

Then she noticed the eerie silence but for the slight murmur of whispering voices, and she questioned, “Why hasn’t the music started?” She had helped the musicians set up.

“The singer,” Nikki said. “She hasn’t showed up. We have the guitar players and pianist but no singer.”

A big hand nudged Emilia forward. “Yes, you do. She can sing.” She turned to Dane and shook her head.

It was one thing to sing to a nursery of children screaming their heads off. It was another to sing in front of a crowded church of quiet adults.