“Sorry to have made you go there.”
“No. Don’t be. They had a good marriage, really, they did, even if my old man could be tough as nails sometimes. Even when I enlisted, he didn’t like my choice of the Navy branch I selected because it wasn’t the same as his or my grandfather’s, but it fit my interests. And now that I’m doing bodyguard work instead of holding down a regular job with the military, he sees it as shirking my duties again.”
“But you were medically retired. You didn’t have much choice there.”
“He doesn’t see it that way. He thinks I could have fought harder to get re-upped once I recovered.”
“Are you, though?”
“For the most part. I’ll never be cleared to fly again in combat.”
She nodded and went back to eating her salad.
“What about you?” he asked.
“What about me?”
“Did your family have expectations for you? Did your grandmother want you to pursue a particular career goal?”
She laid down her fork and her jaw tensed. “You’ve been talking to Sheraton about me, otherwise you’d have said my parents. He told you about their accident, didn’t he?”
Grimm nodded. “When he told me how your grandmother instilled independence in you and how his parents lived next door to her, and that is how he got to know you.”
“Well,” she laid her napkin on the table and pushed back, getting up. “It sounds like you covered a lot of ground during your talk this afternoon. Is there nothing you didn’t talk about? Possibly even my dating life?”
“Nonexistent.”
Her mouth dropped open, and she glared at him.
“Ouch, I hit the nail on that one. That was just a wild guess, especially since you didn’t wildly object that you had a boyfriend when I suggested the old flame scenario. Plus, I haven’t noticed any photos here or at the office of you with a significant other.”
“Very attentive.”
“It’s my job to be.”
She picked up her empty dishes and took them over to the sink. “My dating life is none of your business.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to offend. It was just an observation.” He finished up his meal and took his dishes to the sink as well. “Look, we need to get along if this assignment is going to work out. It will be easier all around if we can do that.”
“I didn’t ask for protection,” she reminded him, wiping off the stove with the dishcloth.
“I know.”
“I still believe I can take care of myself.”
“No one is saying you can’t. I’m here to make sure you stay safe while doing it. We don’t know if whoever threw that brick through your car window has other plans for when you don’t stop writing your articles. And we know you’re not stopping because it’s your job to report the news. We need to wait it out. But I will make you a deal. If nothing happens after the second or third article, I’ll check back with my boss, and if he agrees that it looks like there is no further threat and Sheraton is on board as well, we will call it a day.”
She nodded and held out her hand to him. “Thank you for understanding my position on this.”
He grasped hers to shake, surprised by the electrical jolt that surged up his arm when their hands touched. Instead of a shake, it turned into more of a squeeze on his part, and he pulled his hand away.
He cleared his throat and looked away. “Can I help clean up?”
“There isn’t much left. Just rinse your dishes and put them in the dishwasher. I’ve already got the pots done up. And I’ll wipe off the table.”
“What do you do around Altoona at night?” he asked.
“Not much. I’m usually working on my notes for the next story in the evening,” she said.
