Page 18 of I Think We’re Alone Now

Elle

The tablein the Reverb Records conference room seated twelve, which made it about ten people too big for my needs right about now. When Linda told me this morning that I would be meeting with the candidates for the new head of my security unit in here, I figured that she and other members of the team would be joining me. But it had become abundantly clear just how wrong I was after she dropped me off in here and told me the first guy would be in shortly.

Letting out a sigh, I slumped down in the chair, closing my eyes, trying to make this nightmare end. I’d spent all day talking to the top candidates the label had selected, and other than one guy, a former special ops member who was a little too intense, they’d all be perfectly okay. But that was it, they were just okay. Each one came with a résumé full of experience in personal security, ranging from military, to other celebrities, to one who had even been a member of the secret service. I was also equally impressed that none of them balked when I told them who my alter ego was, and that they would probably be spending a lot of time surrounded by screaming teenage girls.

“Sounds a lot like my life at home actually,” the former secret service agent joked, which had made me giggle as well.

There was just one glaring issue with each and every one of them. They weren’t Travis.

I knew that I needed to lower my standards—no, lower wasn’t the right word. Adjust my standards. I was hiring a bodyguard, not a boyfriend. Just because Travis and I had flirted with that line while on my break didn’t mean that my new guy was going to do the same. Hell, I didn’t want the new guy to even think of doing anything other than what Randall had done before. Trouble was, my heart was too busy breaking and fogging up my brain.

“Ready for the next one?” Linda asked, poking her head into the conference room. “It’s the last one.”

“Sure,” I groaned, pushing myself back up into a sitting position, looking down and picking at my fingernails. At least after this interview I could go back to my shoebox apartment and just crash.

“I think you’ll like this one,” Linda said, just before dipping back out.

Great…this one is obviously the favorite, so the one they’re gonna force me to pick…at least that makes it easy…

Not bothering to look up from my nails, I heard the conference room door close and the candidate take a few steps into the room.

“Hello.”

My head jerked up like I was a puppet and someone had yanked on the string. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I blinked rapidly, as if somehow the view in front of me was going to change with each flutter of my eyelids. There’s no way. I had to be seeing things. Standing before me, looking all kinds of dapper in a pair of khakis and a navy blazer over a crisp, white T-shirt was the one person that I never expected to see here.

Travis.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, popping up out of my chair.

“I'm here to interview for a job. I’m told there is an opening for Glitter’s new head of security.”

“And what makes you think you’re qualified?”

“My résumé includes six years in the US Army, time as a security guard at the Pine Grove Galleria, and I have an intimate knowledge of Glitter’s life.”

“And you think this ‘intimate knowledge,’ as you put it, gives you a leg up?”

“No, if anything, I think it’s probably working against me.”

I lifted my eyebrows in surprise, waiting for him to continue. He stood there, hands clasped in front of him, spine straight, like any good soldier. My body felt like a magnet drawn to his, pulling us closer, but I stood my ground. My heart was racing a million miles an hour, and I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about him being here.

“You see,” he continued, taking a step toward me. He was close enough to touch, and my palms itched to do so. “Glitter is just the surface. She’s what the outside world sees. But underneath that shiny exterior is something even more precious. There’s Giselle. And Giselle keeps herself hidden for a number of reasons, but mostly because she knows her true value and isn’t willing to let just anyone in on that. I was given the key to that door and, like an idiot, acted like I didn’t know what to do with it.”

“And now?”

“And now I just hope that the key hasn’t been destroyed. Because there is something else that I think makes me the best candidate for the job.”

“What’s that?”

“The girl that’s underneath all that paint and the funky blue wig? I’m falling for her.”

I felt my breath catch, my thoughts bouncing back and forth in my head like a Ping-Pong ball. Travis was falling for…for me? No, I heard that wrong. There was no way that he actually returned the feelings I had for him—have had for him for so long. I was just Bryan’s little sister. Could that have really changed for him?

“Falling for?” I repeated, unable to say anything else.

“Yes,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“What about Shreveport? The police academy?”