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I felt so much guilt, and I begged them to come with me. In the end, Garrett refused. Being an extension of him, Archie wouldn’t leave Garrett alone. So, neither one of them took the opportunity in front of them.
I hated leaving them, but I knew I had to do the best thing for me.
I just wished I hadn’t completely lost them in the process.
FOUR
Leo
Present day
I was ahead of schedule today.
That wasn’t exactly anything new, though, so perhaps I was right on schedule. It was just that I was ahead of schedule in the sense that I didn’t need to leave my place to go right to work.
But since I’d already gotten up, had some breakfast, gotten my workout in, had a protein shake, and was ready to leave, I decided it was worth stopping in at The Early Bird to grab a box or two of doughnuts for the office.
I wasn’t a coffee drinker, and I tended to steer clear of the sweet treats, but I occasionally gave in and enjoyed them. Today felt like a good day to do that.
So, I locked up, hopped in my Cayman since it was a nice day, and took off to the coffee and doughnut shop.
I made the short drive to The Early Bird and didn’t waste any time making my way inside. As was not surprising, even at the early hour, there were quite a few customers ahead of me.
Tarryn, the owner and my boss’s wife, had built quite the business here. There was never any shortage of patrons.
Given the nature of my job working in the private investigation unit at Harper Security Ops, I often found myself standing back to observe people in a variety of situations.
This morning was no different.
Only, instead of observing all of the people in the shop, my eyes had homed in on the exquisite bare legs of one individual.
I was a guy who had a genuine appreciation for members of the opposite sex, but at that moment, I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen a better pair of legs in my entire life. Standing behind the woman, another patron between us but slightly to the one side, my eyes lingered a bit before they traveled up those legs and settled briefly on her ass. It was just as fantastic, if not better, than her legs.
Eventually, I forced myself to continue my ascent. Blonde hair with big curls cascaded down her back and stopped just beneath her shoulders. It looked incredibly soft, and for a second, I considered what it might feel like to have my fingers tangled in it.
The customer in front of the woman I’d been eyeing had stepped away, which meant we all took a few steps forward. It wasn’t particularly loud in the coffee shop; there was soft music playing over the speakers, but it wasn’t cranked to a point where conversations couldn’t be had.
Despite that, it was only the movement of the blonde hair on the woman’s head and the focus Presley—Tarryn’s younger sister—had on the woman’s face that indicated she was speaking. Either she was exceptionally quiet, or my hearing was starting to suffer.
As Presley took the woman’s order, I stood there, waiting impatiently. Only, I wasn’t in a rush to get out of the coffee shop.
Nope.
I was waiting for the moment the woman turned around. I wanted to see her face. Because, for some strange reason, something about this woman felt familiar.
I couldn’t explain it, but one of the things that had helped me tremendously in my career had been relying on gut instinct. Granted, I’d always used it to help solve a case or investigate something further, but that didn’t mean it would let me down outside of work.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t recall an encounter with this woman. I just needed to see her face, so I could set my mind at ease and move along.
But then, she stepped to the side to wait for her order. As she did that, the person in front of me moved to the head of the line, and I followed. The woman I’d been watching turned her body to the side, and she twisted her neck to look at the rest of the people in line.
When her gunmetal blue eyes met mine, I couldn’t miss the way her body reacted. She tensed, and I realized it had to be because she recognized me the same as I’d recognized her.
“Hanna?” I said.
For a brief moment, I thought I saw fear wash over her, but the look was there and gone so fast, I wondered if I’d imagined it. “Leo,” she replied quietly.
I nodded, feeling lucky that she remembered me. “I thought I recognized you. How are you doing?”
