Me too. “At least now I know the truth. I wasn’t abandoned because they didn’t love me. They hid me away to protect me and died trying to do the right thing.”
“Is Austin in the CIA?” she asked, putting two and two together. “I got LEO vibes from him and Ryan.”
She loved using terms she’d learned from watching police shows.
Austin. How much can I tell her? How do I tell her I’ve fallen in love with the steely-eyed man who did everything in his power to protect me?
“He is.”
When Jay cleared his voice in the living room, I quickly added, “But I can’t tell you any more than that.”
“How intriguing.” A glint of humor sparkled in her eyes. She probably assumed his job entailed all sorts of crazy, TV worthy things.
Didn’t it? The things that had happened in the last two weeks of my life felt like something right out of Hollywood.
Images of Austin being shot flashed through my mind, sending a shiver down my back.
“Are you okay, dear?”
“Yeah. I, uh, it’s just, I can’t really talk about it yet.” That wouldn’t keep her from questioning me, so I said, “But there is something I want to tell you.”
“Okay, go ahead.” She prepared herself for bad news.
“It’s about Austin. Or I should say, my feelings for him.”
“I knew it. You like him.”
“I love him,” I finally admitted.
Cate chuckled in the living room and whispered, “Called it.”
My young ears heard her; Nana’s older ears didn’t.
“Does he love you?”
“He does.” It still didn’t seem possible that a gorgeous, older, successful silver fox could love me, but he did. I felt it in his touch. Saw it in his eyes. Heard it in his voice.
Happy tears filled Nana’s eyes. She desperately wanted me to be happy, and to her, that meant finding a man to share my life with.
But that was getting ahead of things. We might love each other, but that didn’t mean we could spend our lives together.
Four months later...
Austin
Nana Sue, as I was now required to call her, told me my cane made me look refined and mysterious.
“Thank you, Nana Sue,” I said before leaning down and kissing her cheek. “You’re one good looking cop.”
She’d insisted on dressing as a policewoman for the Wyatt Foundation’s annual fundraiser.
Nina and I didn’t have a choice; we were both voluntold we’d be helping at the event. We’d enlisted Gibson to help take care of Nana Sue, who likely wouldn’t make it to next year’s event, and she was beyond ecstatic.
“When will my date get here?” she asked.
As if summoned, Gibson rang the doorbell.
“I’ll get it,” Nina called as she hustled from the hall to the front door.
