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“You’re obviously not. I’m all for you getting out of the house, but not when you’ve pushed yourself beyond your limits.”
He grumbled. “Stop hounding me, woman!”
She snapped her teeth together and gazed around them. Cason had insisted on stopping at a nearby park where there were few people enjoying the fresh air, and the tweet of the birds in the trees relaxed the mind. Not far off, a couple of parents pushed their toddlers in the baby swings while chatting and laughing with each other.
Solette sat in silence, stewing in annoyance. If he woke up tomorrow all sore and whining about it, she would make sure he knew she had told him so. Hard heads needed to have the truth proven to them.
“I see you arguing with me in your head,” Cason teased.
She looked away and then changed her mind. “Why did you make me come with you? You could have gotten Romy to drive you wherever you wanted to go—or one of the other staff.”
“You wanted to know, didn’t you?” Tension appeared around his mouth, making the dark hairs stand out against the pale skin. He desperately needed some sunshine. Yet, even pale, he was incredibly sexy.
“Know what?”
He turned his face up toward the sky, a movement that should have spelled peace, but she saw the stiffness. “About the accident.”
Silence reigned between them. Solette’s emotions swung between telling him it was none of her business and listening to see what he would say. From all she had heard, Cason had gone through such trauma, and it wasn’t just about his physical challenges now. She knew guilt when she saw it.
“I was driving,” he said out of nowhere. She stilled. Perhaps he needed to tell someone. “I loved that car. The faster I could push it, the better. I liked the feel, as if I was almost losing control. Such power under my hands was like…” He paused, an expression of embarrassment crossing his features.
Solette pretended her lap fascinated her so he wouldn’t stop talking.
“I was trying to outrun my guy so I could have some total alone time with a woman I was talking to.”
That surprised Solette into speaking. “A woman? You mean Bambi?”
He eyed her with a slight grin. “Are you jealous of her?”
She frowned. He never just came right out and said Bambi meant nothing to him. It was as if he held her between them as a shield. Solette could have told him it wasn’t necessary. Regardless, the attitude hurt her a little. She hid her feelings because she was used to doing so. “I’d have to be involved with you to be jealous. I’m your employee.”
He looked disappointed in her response. “Someone else. I’ve ducked my guard plenty of times. It kept him on his toes. He was sharp and caught me more than I’d like to admit. He stuck to me like glue, and he was worth every cent we paid him.”
On the last few words, Cason’s voice turned raw. Now she knew what the real problem was.
“You feel guilty,” she said. “As if it was your fault that he died?”
“It was my fault!”
“Cason—”
“Don’t.” He raised his right had as if he would push fingers through his hair, paused, and looked at his hand. So much of the strength had returned with their hard work over the last few months. The tiny scars remained and were a constant reminder. “I’m here, and he’s not. I have the money to erase the evidence that the accident ever happened. That’s sick, isn’t it?”
“You’re not having surgery on your hands.”
“You know what I mean.”
She laid her hand over his, and Cason curled his fingers with hers. The move wasn’t one she would do with any other patient. Yet, she’d been unable to resist. Her heart pounded, and desire washed over her, but she ignored the physical response from her body. He needed words of encouragement, and she scoured her mind for the right ones. The problem was, there were no perfect words that could heal his emotional pain.
“You have a decision, Cason. You can wallow in self-pity the rest of your life as a sort of atonement, or you can live. Before you say anything, remember, you’re capable of hurting others even now.”
His eyes widened. “You suck at this encouragement stuff.”
She winced. “What I mean is, you’re thinking of your lost bodyguard, but it hurts your family to see you unable to move forward. They live for your smile.”
“You’re exaggerating.” Color rose in his cheeks. A few weeks ago, her comment wouldn’t have fazed him.
“What about Romy?”
