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“No,” Brian echoed, picking up Hayley’s hand and beginning to clean away the blood so he could see the extent of the damage and attend to it.
“Am I going to go and stay with you and Dad?” Hayley asked her mother.
“I wanted you to, but then Ryan pointed out that if Jay Turner could track you down and find out where you live, then he could easily find you at our place,” Paige explained.
“So where am I staying?” Hayley looked a little suspicious now.
“Somewhere he won't think to look for you,” Brady replied.
“With me,” Sawyer added.
Hayley shook her head.
Brian shook his head.
“No,” they said simultaneously.
“You and Ashley have children. What if he found me there?” Hayley elaborated.
“You can stay with me,” Brian said. “I can be your bodyguard.”
She gave him that funny look again. “I’ll probably be fine on my own. I don’t think he’d be stupid enough to try anything else.”
“You will have a bodyguard,” Paige said like it was already decided.
“I appreciate you wanting to do it, Sawyer,” Brian told his friend. “But Hayley’s right, you and Ashley have two little kids, and it’s Christmas, you don’t want to leave them now to stay at one of our safehouses. Hayley will be safe with me, I’m trained as a bodyguard, and a doctor, so I can keep a check on her wounds as they heal. There’s no reason that Jay Turner should think to look for Hayley at my house.”
“Hayley?” Paige looked to her daughter. “That sounds like the perfect solution. What do you think? Are you happy to have Brian as your bodyguard and stay with him until the cops get Jay Turner in custody?”
Hayley looked conflicted, and for a moment he thought she was going to say no.
But then she nodded slowly, her eyes meeting his and searching them as though trying to seek the answers to the questions that were in her head. Whatever she was looking for she must have found because she finally said the words he wanted to hear. “Okay. Brian can be my bodyguard.”
* * * * *
10:48 P.M.
“Do you want to go straight up to bed?”
“Hmm?” Hayley blinked and looked up to find Brian staring down at her. She had no idea what he’d just said even though she’d heard the words, her brain had kind of checked out, overwhelmed by everything that had happened.
“You look exhausted. Do you want to go right up to bed?” Brian repeated.
As tired as she was, she was also wired. She didn't think she was going to be able to fall asleep. “Actually, I’m a little hungry.”
“Dinner it is.” Brian took her elbow and guided her into the kitchen, pulling out a chair at his table for her. “What do you want?”
She shrugged. “I don’t care. Anything is fine.”
“What about some mac and cheese?”
“Sounds good.”
Brian got busy cooking while she sat at the table and stared aimlessly around the room. She’d been to Brian’s house plenty of times before, the downstairs was one big open plan living space, the kitchen in one corner, a large dining table that actually sat most of their families was next to it, then there were three couches grouped around a widescreen TV, and a pool table and foosball table beside them.
Over the years, they’d had a lot of fun times hanging out here together with their family and friends, laughing, playing games, eating, and just enjoying being together. Those times had been both wonderful and sad. She always had so much fun with Brian, but each time they hung out, it just served to remind her that he thought of her as a kid, a friend, another little cousin.
She wanted to be so much more.
