The Bodyguard: King Family, Book Two Read online

  So even though I was supposed to have a brother…he was gone.

  Even though I had a mother. I didn’t have a…mother.

  And even though I had two sisters…I never really felt like I had sisters.

  Sisters I could talk to about my feelings for Garrett. Sisters who would understand this complete and total longing I felt anytime I saw him. And the pain of watching him wrap his arms around another girl.

  He was playing with her hair now as I lay flat on the bleacher, keeping my limbs from dangling so I could just peek over the edge.

  Not that I was hidden from view. Too much of my body spilled over on either side. All they had to do was look up and they would know I was there. But why would they do that when they were too busy making out?

  He was cupping her jaw in his hand and brushing her bangs out of her eyes and looking at her…looking at her as if he saw everything about her. It wasn’t fair. That was my look.

  “Hey, Garrett, you know my parents are out of town. We could go back to my place,” Caroline said to him.

  Her place! No, not that. It was bad enough that they were making out. If they went back to her place, they would have sex.

  That would be one more person who was going to have sex with Garrett before I could. Because, while I knew I couldn’t have Garrett now, I had a long-term plan. A plan that involved growing up and becoming someone he would be interested in dating. Like, when I was eighteen.

  Realistically I knew that between now and then there were would be other girls in his life. Other women. But I wanted that number to be as small as it could be and I certainly didn’t want skanky Caroline to be one of them.

  I didn’t care that she was beautiful. I only cared that she wasn’t good enough for him.

  Because Garrett was perfect. Tall, built like the football quarterback he was, dark hair, crazy green eyes that made every girl in school swoon when they saw him. But he was more than hot. He was the best thing a person could be.

  He was kind.

  Kind and understanding and he didn’t deserve Caroline who would sleep with him and then might go back and sleep with the TWENTY-EIGHT-year-old guy.

  “Yeah,” he said. “That sounds like a plan.”

  I don’t know what came over me. It was like I blanked out and forgot who I was. Forgot everything that made sense.

  “No! You can’t!” I shouted it down to them and then I quickly ran down the bleachers to stop them.

  I was out of breath by the time I got to the bottom and the two of them were standing there, holding hands, looking at me like I was crazy.

  I might have been a little crazy.

  “Were you spying on us?” Caroline demanded.

  “Garrett,” I panted. “You don’t want to do this.”

  “Brin, what’s up?”

  Brin. My nickname. The one that made me feel special.

  “You can’t have sex with her,” I told him. Pleaded with him, really.

  “Brin…” he started to say, and I could see his face turn red. He didn’t feel comfortable with my talking like that. It was too personal. Too in his business. I got that, but it didn’t matter.

  “She’s not good enough for you.”

  “You fat little piece of shit. What did you just say?”

  I let the fat comment roll off me. I had been doing that ever since Garrett had encouraged me. Own your shit.

  That’s what he’d told me to do. It was in that moment I’d decided my weight was my issue and nobody else got to tell me how to feel about it. Not Hank, not my mother. Not the other kids in school. Certainly not Caroline.

  “She’s cheating on you. Everybody knows it.” It was a lie. I didn’t know if she was cheating on Garrett. I only knew she had cheated on other guys.

  “You bitch!” she screeched. “That’s a fucking lie. Garrett. She’s lying.”

  “Brin, what’s this about?” He walked up to me then and put his hand on my shoulder, and suddenly I wanted to cry. Because I was too young and too fat and not nearly good enough for him, either.

  Because I was lying to him.

  “She’s not good enough for you,” I muttered, my bottom lip trembling.

  “Oh, jeez, does the little fatty have a crush on Garrett? Is that what this is all about?”

  “Hey, cool it, Caroline. All right?” Garrett barked at her. “Brin, look at me.”

  I shook my head. I couldn’t look at him. I knew that if I did I would seriously lose it.

  “It’s not cool to spy on people. Or to lie, for that matter.”

  I nodded. I knew that.

  “Garrett, let’s just leave.”

  I stood there while he made his way back to Caroline. Took her hand. She smirked at me as if to show that she’d won the battle.

  I suppose she had. They were going to go back to her parents’ place. They were probably going to have sex. She was going to get to have him. For a time.

  While I was going to have nothing.

  “You should run a few laps around the track while you’re out here…might do you some actual good,” Caroline said over her shoulder as they walked away.

  I saw Garrett tug her hand and heard him mutter. “Not cool.”

  She was a bitch. She wasn’t nice or kind, which meant she wasn’t good enough for him.

  Suddenly I felt this deep well of rage in my stomach. None of this was fair. Not the fact that my dad wanted me to be a boy, or that my mother thought I wasn’t good-looking enough to be her child, or that my one half sister hated me and my other half sister had too much going on in her life to really care about me.

  That Dylan had just left me.

  That Caroline got to have Garrett just because she was older and pretty.

  I looked at the track and suddenly the idea of running felt great. Felt freeing. Yes, that was exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to run. I wanted to run until all this anger and all this hurt went away.

  So I did. And I didn’t stop until I collapsed.

  2

  SABRINA

  High School—Senior Year—Prom

  “And the winner is…of course, Sabrina King! Our new Prom Queen!”

  I tried to act like I was surprised. I gasped. I put my hands on my cheeks. I shook my head as if in disbelief. The reality was that I’d known I was going to win. I was the richest, prettiest, and most popular girl in school these days. Something that had taken years, but I’d finally done it.

  In my designer gown and seven-hundred-dollar shoes, I went up on the stage that had been set up in the gym for this purpose. I stood in front of the senior class while Mrs. Rugger, the vice principal who had called my name, put a ridiculously cheesy crown on top of my head.

  Everyone was clapping and screaming. I was waving back to everyone.

  David, my date for the evening was high-fiving his friends. He probably thought he was getting lucky tonight. He was so not getting lucky tonight.

  Because I had a plan.

  A four-year plan that was going to culminate tonight.

  Finally, Garrett Pine was back in Dusty Creek.

  He’d gotten a degree in criminology and was now working for the sheriff’s department. I had seen him the other day on the street and my heart almost stopped. Then I’d quickly hidden around the corner of a building so he wouldn’t see me.

  Not that he might recognize me. I was a long way away from the fourteen-year-old fat girl he’d saved from being bullied.

  That day when I’d spied on him and Caroline I had been so angry I started running. And I kept running. And any other time I was angry I ran, which was a lot. And it was crazy, because the more I ran, the more weight I lost.

  The more weight I lost, the more people wanted to be my friend. Wanted to make out with me. Wanted to have sex with me.

  The more weight I lost, the more my mother wanted to hang out with me. Go shopping with me.

  Was I the only person who understood how superficial that was?

  Being thin didn’t make you co
ol. It didn’t make you nice or kind or a good friend. It was like all these people in my life just saw me as a body.

  Fat, don’t like her. Thin, like her.

  They wanted a Barbie doll. So, in a lot of ways, that’s what I became. Kind of this character everyone expected me to be, which kept the real me, the awkward fat girl, tucked inside where nobody could see her.

  But here was what I didn’t do. I didn’t judge other girls for the way they looked. I was nice to everyone. I made sure no one bullied anyone around me. Ever. If they wanted to be considered one of my posse, they had to be cool to everyone.

  So people liked me. The nerds and the jocks. The beautiful and the not so beautiful. The honor students and the special-needs kids. All of them. Because I knew the secret. How a person looked said nothing about who that person was. But how a person looked could mean everything when it came to how they were treated by others.

  No, I hadn’t wanted Garrett to see me that day on the street. That seemed too insignificant. Our meeting, when it came, had to be an event.

  It had to be shocking. It had to be impactful. I had to look my absolute best because I knew there was power in that, especially over guys. Tonight’s outfit was perfect. When he saw me he would see the sexy black strapless dress, the killer high-heeled sandals, my thick dark hair that I had paid to have blown out so it was long and shiny down my back. My makeup, also professionally done, to highlight my cheekbones and dark brown eyes. I knew my way around a makeup kit, but tonight it had to be perfect.

  It wasn’t as if I could invite him to go to the prom with me. He was a college graduate. He would think that was lame. Which meant I had to do something else. Given that he was working as a deputy sheriff, I figured it would get his attention if a crime was committed.

  Not a real crime, of course. A fake crime. I was looking for some drama, but nothing too crazy. Just something that might lure Garrett to the school where he would see me again for the first time.

  Startle him a little. Shake him loose from his perception of me as a kid. I wanted him to see the woman I was. The person I had grown into, even though part of it was a farce. He didn’t need to know that right away.

  I walked through the crowd of my fellow juniors and seniors. Smiling, kissing cheeks, laughing at how silly the crown was. Showing off my shoes, which everyone wanted to see. I danced with David, but when he tried to grab my ass I pulled his hand up around my back.

  David was okay, but he knew we were just here as friends. I had been totally up front with him about that when he asked me. Because the whole time I knew I had this plan.

  I made excuses about heading to the ladies’ room and instead found a trash can into which I dropped (sorry, Hank) my very expensive diamond pendant necklace. The plan was to retrieve it, but I didn’t want to put it somewhere obvious. As long as I recovered if from the trash before Monday morning it would be fine.

  In the meantime…

  “Help!” I screamed as I ran back into the gym. “Someone stole my necklace!”

  I held my breath as the principal’s door opened. I knew it would be him. Not because I had hope, but because I had done my research. This plan hadn’t just happened. It was carefully crafted. I knew his shift at the department. Knew that a low-level emergency would warrant the least senior deputy.

  When he walked in, I tried not to suck in my breath. He hadn’t changed at all. Same dark hair that was never quite tamed. Same build, maybe bigger, only now decked out in a deputy’s uniform. He was a cowboy in a cop’s attire, and my mouth nearly went dry at the sight of him.

  “Thank you for coming, Garrett,” Mrs. Rugger greeted him. She was in charge of the matter since she’d been chaperoning the prom.

  “No problem, Mrs. Rugger. Good you see you again. So what’s the…”

  “Hi, Garrett,” I said, leaping out of my chair. I pushed my hand at him so he would have to touch me. Have to acknowledge me.

  Four years of waiting for this moment. Hundreds of angry miles run. A stylist to make me look my absolute best.

  He looked me up and down, which was good, I thought, and then his beautiful eyes scrunched as if he was trying to look at me through some prism.

  “Brin?”

  I knew he would see me. The me beneath the expensive dress and shoes and makeup. The real me. My heart started to pound against my chest.

  “Hi.”

  He took my hand and shook it. Then he smiled slowly. “You grew up.”

  “It happens.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, I guess it does. So, it was your necklace that got stolen?”

  “Yes. I don’t know what happened. There were so many people, all of us bumping around as we danced. I thought it might have fallen off, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Eventually I realized someone might have slipped it off my neck.”

  See? Nothing crazy. Just a necklace that I may or may not have lost that someone may or may not have taken. I would need a police report for the insurance, so of course the sheriff’s team had to be called.

  “Do you have a time frame of when it happened?”

  “I can tell you it was after she was crowned Prom Queen,” Mrs. Rugger said. “You had it on then.”

  “Prom Queen, huh?” Garrett said.

  “I know. Crazy, right? Fat little Sabrina King…”

  “Hey.” He stopped me. “You were always too hard on you.”

  And there it was. His kindness. So warm and comforting you just wanted to curl yourself up in it. One day I would be curling myself into his arms and that would be even better. I knew it.

  The door to the principal’s office opened and it was one of my classmates. Cindy Bitner. She was screeching that she’d found it and when I saw what was in her hand my heart started to thud, only not the good kind. The oh, my God, I might have a heart attack kind.

  No, no, no. This was not part of the plan. He was supposed to offer to drive me home. Explain the lost necklace to my father. We were supposed to have time together to talk. To really get to know each other.

  “It was so crazy,” Cindy said. “I went to throw out a napkin, but then I lost my clutch in the garbage. So I opened the lid to get it and bam! It was right there! Do you think someone planted it there and was waiting to pick it up later?”

  Yes. I think that was exactly the plan.

  Garrett took the necklace from Cindy and handed it back to me. “Not usual for a criminal to ditch the goods. Maybe someone panicked and changed their mind.”

  “Maybe,” I said as I took it back.

  “It’s beautiful,” he said. “Almost as pretty as its owner.”

  I blushed. I had received any number of compliments since I had grown an inch and lost a bunch of weight. Things like my mother saying it was about time. From guys in my class who said things like, You’re hot now, do you want to fuck? But this was my first from Garrett. Maybe for the first time I believed it.

  I put the necklace back on and smiled at him.

  “Guess my job here is done. Not really much chance of finding out who did this. Just maybe keep better tabs on your jewelry.”

  “Thank you, Garrett,” Mrs. Rugger said. “Or I suppose I should call you officer.”

  “You’ve known me since I was fourteen. I think Garrett is fine. See you around the ranch, I suppose, Brin.”

  I nodded. It was easier than speaking in that moment. I watched him leave and I thought about my foiled plan. At least he’d seen me looking as nice as I could. Still, there hadn’t been nearly enough time to interact.

  Maybe next time I would get him out to the ranch. Someone outside the window, maybe? A potential break-in?

  I would figure out something. Because Garrett Pine was my destiny. I just knew it.

  SABRINA

  The King’s Land

  “I’m sure it was nothing, but I was so afraid. I didn’t think it was anything…”

  It was early in the evening and I was standing at the door to my home. Garrett was on the patio. I felt a niggle of
doubt about this plan, mostly because I felt like was I was establishing a pretty bad pattern of lying to him.

  I’m pretty sure lying was not the best way to start off a serious relationship. But in the weeks since graduation I had only seen Garrett a few times in town. My mother was insisting I spend more and more time with her in Dallas.

  Now that I was fashionable she wanted to show me off to her friends.

  I’d left her with the excuse that I was getting sick, and Jennifer never wanted anything to do with the sick.

  Hank was out of town on business. And Ronnie and Bea were off shopping, getting ready for Ronnie’s upcoming engagement party.

  It was the first time I could ever remember having the house to myself. Well, myself and the servants, but I had conveniently given them the night off.

  Trudy had protested until I told her it was my one shot at being the boss in this family so she should take advantage of me.

  She’d laughed, and eventually given in and gone to the movies with her husband, Oscar.

  Cue mysterious rattling of the back door off the kitchen, which I may or may not have feared was an intruder trying to break in, and a call to the local sheriff’s office. Mary, the receptionist had picked up.

  Because my one evening alone was a little fortuitous, I’d needed to get somewhat lucky. Which I had. I casually asked if Garrett was on shift and, if he was, if he’d mind stopping by King’s Land on his way back to his place because I was afraid I’d heard something.

  No big deal. Nobody breaking in. Just maybe someone snooping around the place.

  Now he was here, and the truth was, I wasn’t sure what to do with him.

  “It’s not no big deal if you were frightened, Brin. Let me in and I’ll take a look around.”

  “Okay.”

  Garrett walked inside and I could see him take in the massive, sprawling ranch house. It was funny, but I sometimes forgot how big it was until I saw it through the eyes of someone else.