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What had I gotten myself into?
Andrew put his hand on her lower back, leading her across the tarmac.
It shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did. Were they dating?
Callie looked up toward me. She gave me a friendly wave, then her smile grew, and she karate-chopped the air.
I wanted to smile back. But I didn’t.
Letting myself smile back at her would be the first step down a slippery slope of letting myself feel and think about things that I knew I shouldn’t.
I couldn’t.
When they reached me, Andrew held out his other hand.
“Sheriff,” he said with a broad smile, shaking my hand.
“Andrew. Good to see you again.”
We’d said everything we needed to on the phone, so he turned to Callie. “Cal, you’ll be with Sheriff Donovan from here on out.” Finally, his hand dropped from her back, but only because she gave him a quick hug goodbye.
Cal.
I should have expected them to be on a first-name basis. He’d been Ellis’ top man for five years, and she’d been back in the States for at least a couple of those. But the familiarity still irritated me.
He gave me a salute, and he ran back to the plane.
As her bags were loaded into my car, she held her hand out. “It’s so nice to see you again.”
I took her hand. It felt small inside mine, and I didn’t want to let it go. “Ma’am.”
“Oh, please. Call me Callie.”
“Hello, Miss Ellis,” I said, dropping her hand.
“Helloagain, remember?” she said with a grin. “You came to my rescue and headbutted some creep at one of my dad’s galas years ago when he wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“Glad to know I helped.” I probably shouldn’t have pretended that I didn’t recall, but I didn’t want to get too familiar with her.
If I didn’t keep my distance, I didn’t know how I was going to get through the next several weeks of protecting her.
“You really don’t remember?” Her face fell, and I tried not to feel guilty as I gestured toward the car. I would’ve rather seen a smile like the one she’d given me at the gala.
“Maybe it’ll come back to me.”
I almost laughed at the idea that anyone could ever forget meeting someone as drop-dead gorgeous as Callie Ellis.
4
CALLIE
Blake Donovan didn’t even rememberme.
That wasn’t great for a girl’s pride. But I was impressed that he did heroic things so often that one didn’t stick out in his mind.
I’d never forgotten that night.
I’d spent so long trying to put him out of my mind and swallow down the regret of never seeing him again.
