Watched from a Distance

by Allison B Hanson

  Hell, he wasn’t even sure if he remembered how.

  Chapter One Hundred Five

  Lena sat dangling her legs over the edge of the pool in the backyard of the new house as Kenzie splashed around in swimmies and a life vest a few feet away.

  Lena knew she was being overprotective. Kenzie could swim like a fish, and she knew not to go any deeper than chest-height. Still, it wasn’t the fear of drowning that caused Lena to hover close to her daughter every minute of the day.

  She hoped it would get easier. It had to. Soon. She was starting a new job next week and would have to leave her daughter for nine hours a day. Fortunately, Denise and Alan would be watching Kenzie and had promised to text her regular updates throughout the day.

  “Come on. It’s time for lunch,” Lena announced and got up to get a towel. They’d only moved into their new home last week. There were still boxes everywhere, but unpacking the swim stuff and towels had been a priority.

  Kenzie didn’t complain or whine about having to get out of the pool. She was always on her best behavior these days, which broke Lena’s heart. Kenzie’s therapist said it was to be expected, considering what she’d gone through.

  No matter how many times Lena told her daughter she hadn’t done anything wrong, and that Lena hadn’t left her behind on purpose, Kenzie was still suffering some abandonment issues. The things Brandon had said to her when he took her from the daycare didn’t help, the bastard.

  At least with his death, Brandon had provided for his daughter—if unknowingly. Their new home was bigger than what they probably needed. And the pool was a luxury they definitely didn’t need. But the house was in a safe neighborhood, and Lena had wanted Kenzie to have the nicest home possible.

  The therapist had identified that behavior as a manifestation of Lena’s guilt over not protecting her daughter better.

  Obviously, both she and Kenzie had some things to work out. But they were together again, and that was all that mattered.

  Well, almost.

  Lena’s heart pulled uncomfortably as she thought about the one thing that was missing from the happy scenario.

  Dane.

  She tried not to think of him. She’d start to get weepy again and didn’t want Kenzie to misinterpret.

  “You’re dry enough to go inside,” Lena said cheerfully, ruffling her daughter’s hair with the towel. “Do you want PB&J for lunch?”

  “Yeah! And can I have a popsicle, too?”

  Lena put on her mother face. “After you eat the real food. What color do you want?”

  Kenzie jumped up and down. “Red!”

  “Red, it is.” Lena hung the towels on the back of a chair and followed her daughter inside. She stayed back as Kenzie scrambled up onto the tall stool and took a sip of the water that had been in her cup since that morning.

  Making their sandwiches, Lena took care in making sure the peanut butter reached out to every corner. She used to just smear it around the center without a thought. But everything was important now. She cut the sandwich into four neat squares and pushed it across the island to her child. “There you go, kiddo.”

  “Thank you, Mama.”

  The doorbell rang as Lena put the jelly back in the refrigerator. “I’ll be right back. Stay here.”

  Lena’s pulse took off. They hadn’t been living in Charleston long enough to expect visitors. The Scotts always called first, and the cable guy had already been there.

  She stopped briefly in her bedroom and pulled her new gun from its safe before going to the door.

  Her heart pounded in her ears as she checked the peephole.

  And froze in shock.

  Chapter One Hundred Six

  When the door opened, it took every bit of strength Dane had not to just grab Lena and kiss her. Then he looked her over and decided he wouldn’t have been able to stop with just kissing her.

  Her brown hair was pulled up in a messy knot on top her head, with a pair of sunglasses holding it back from her face. She was wearing a bright pink bikini top and a pair of black cotton shorts that were on the short side. The very short side.

  His mouth actually watered.

  “Mama?”

  He heard a small voice from inside the house. Mackenzie.

  “It’s okay,” Lena called over her shoulder. She turned back to him and opened the door wider. “Come in.”

  As she closed the door behind him, he noticed a gun in the hand she’d had hidden.

  Her cheeks turned pink. “I’ll be right back. I guess I don’t need this.”

  It was normal to be extra cautious after surviving an ordeal like she had. He didn’t like that she still didn’t feel safe. He hoped he could help with that.

  He stepped deeper into the living room using his cane to support his injured leg. He was able to get around without the cane, but it was better when he didn’t overtax the leg.

  He looked around. Her new home was nice. There were still boxes everywhere and the walls were bare, but it had a lot of potential.

  “How’s your leg?” she asked, hurrying back.

  Hopefully good enough to chase you, he thought.

  “It’s getting better every day,” he said. “The surgeon expects it to be as good as it had been in another six weeks. You know, after the other gunshot and dog bite.”

  She chuckled. “That’s good.”

  He followed her into the kitchen, which was also full of boxes.

  Kenzie was sitting at the counter. She turned to face him and smiled. The sight wasn’t marred in the least by the jelly surrounding her mouth.

  “Dane!” She scooted off the chair and ran to the refrigerator to grab a drawing. “This is the dragon I said I was going to send. But Mama liked it and asked if she could keep it. It was really for you, though. Are you going to swim with me?”

  He grinned. “Well, I did bring my swim trunks.”

  Actually, he’d brought everything he owned. And he’d sold his house. He was making a fresh start.

  He hoped with them.

  He’d missed Lena. A lot. His team had said he needed to make an effort to win her. That he needed to tell her how he felt about her.

  He figured it would be easier to get shot in the leg a third time.

  Chapter One Hundred Seven

  Lena excused herself for a moment while Kenzie was showing Dane her artwork. She needed a minute to collect herself.

  She looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, sighed, then washed the jelly off her hands and went back out. There was no use trying to fix herself up. He’d already seen her at her worst.

  Nervousness jangled through her. Why was he here? How had he even known her new address? Then she remembered how easy it was for Angel to find someone.

  Good grief. Had his team been watching her in the pool from a satellite?

  Seeing Dane sitting in her kitchen had the immediate effect of wrecking her carefully thought out plan to get over him. Talk about an impossible task. It didn’t matter that she now had a house and a job, and could take care of her daughter and herself very well, thank you.

  She still wanted him.

  Her heart needed him. Her body needed him.

  Maybe she would somehow get used to watching him walk out the door to face a dangerous mission. One thing was certain, she couldn’t just give up. That plan wasn’t working.

  Giving the girls a heathy shove upward in the bikini top, and tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, she stepped back into the kitchen to find Dane and Kenzie laughing like old friends.

  “Mama, we named the dragon Puffy. Dane knows a song about him. Can he swim with us?”

  Lena assumed she meant Dane and not the paper dragon. “Sure. If he really brought his suit.”

  “He did. He did!”

  “Good.” Lena smiled at him.

  “I hope you don’t mind,” he whispered as he passed her. “If you don’t want me to stay, I could—”

  “I do. Want you to stay.” Forever.

 
But she couldn’t bring herself to say that last word. She had trusted him with her and Kenzie’s life. She knew he was steadfast, and he’d saved her in more ways than he probably realized. But she was still afraid to be thrown back into that world of guns and danger.

  She knew he wouldn’t think twice about walking into fire to save her, but would he be there when Kenzie had the flu? Could she count on him to pick up groceries if she was running late? Could she trust him to keep his job separate from their everyday life?

  “I’ll go grab my bag,” he said. “Where can I change?”

  She pointed. “The bathroom is the first door on the right.”

  She and Kenzie went out to the pool, and she helped her daughter back into her swimmies.

  “Can Dane stay for dinner?” Kenz asked excitedly. “I want him to sing the Puffy dragon song for you. Do you think he likes barbeque chicken? Are we still having chicken, Mama?”

  “We’ll see.” She had to stifle a frown at her daughter’s exuberance. While it was wonderful to see her daughter so happy, Lena worried she was getting too attached to Dane.

  Hell, she was getting too attached, as well.

  He stepped out of the house shirtless and wearing a pair of board shorts that hung low on his hips. Oh, yeah. Hello, all those glorious muscles. The ones she couldn’t help thinking about when she was all alone in her empty bed every night.

  She swallowed when he winked at her. He tossed his towel on a chair as Kenzie danced around him telling him all the rules of the swimming pool, and offering him a pool noodle.

  This was definitely not the way her sexy fantasies had played out, but for reality, this was damn nice.

  He squealed dramatically as he was urged into the water. She knew the water was a little chilly at first, but felt good once you were in. “Why is your mama sitting on the side of the pool?” he asked, raising his brows at Lena.

  “She always sits there. In case I have a distress,” Kenzie said.

  Lena and Dane laughed. “Can’t have that,” she confirmed.

  He held his hand up to his forehead to block the sun as he looked up at her with a broad smile. “Why don’t you go rest on one of those comfy-looking lounge chairs, and I’ll take care of any distresses.”

  “I’m not going to distress!” Kenzie declared. “I can swim real good. Do you want to see?”

  He relaxed onto a float. “Of course I do. That’s why I flew the whole way here from Washington, D.C.”

  Lena bit her tongue when Kenzie tugged off the swimmies so they didn’t restrict her movement. She trusted Dane to keep her safe and moved to the chair to relax.

  She watched the two of them playing in the pool. She winced as some of her daughter’s questions came out sounding a bit invasive. Though she did learn a lot from the interrogation.

  She found out he did, in fact, like barbequed chicken, and also that he planned to stay for a couple days, at least. It was the way he looked at her when he said “at least” that made her stomach do a flip.

  What was that supposed to mean?

  She found out when he calmly told Kenzie that he’d quit his job and was thinking about moving away from Washington, D.C.

  She tried not to get her hopes up…but it was much too late.

  Chapter One Hundred Eight

  Dane taught Kenzie how to play Marco Polo. He’d forgotten how much little kids cheated at games where they were trusted to keep their eyes closed. Tobey had been the same way. Even when he promised he wasn’t peeking, he was peeking.

  While Dane had spent a lot of time in a pool over the last few months for physical therapy, it was different when trying to avoid getting eaten by a six-year-old shark. Or while dragging her around on her large inflatable dolphin.

  He needed a break, and he could tell Kenzie was winding down, as well.

  “Look,” she whispered. “Mama’s asleep. I’m going to go wake her up.”

  “No,” he whispered, and put a finger to his lips. “Let her sleep. She’s tired. She’s been through a lot.”

  Plus, he’d seen her face when he’d said he quit his job. That wasn’t strictly true, but Thorne had made it pretty clear he should move on. Good thing Lena had been sitting down, she’d looked so shocked.

  “Yeah. She cried at my daddy’s funeral,” Kenzie said.

  “I’m sure it was sad,” he said sympathetically.

  He had seen a short notice about the memorial service in the Charleston paper on one of his internet digging expeditions.

  “I’m mad at my daddy,” Kenzie confessed with a frown. “Miss Tanya said it’s okay to be mad at him because he made me scared and took me away from my mommy.”

  Dane guessed Miss Tanya was a therapist and knew how to handle such things. He was glad Lena had thought to take her to talk to someone who could help her deal with the experience. Was she also seeing the therapist?

  Kenzie took his silence as approval to sneak over to her mother, where she proceeded to drip all over her. But the joke was on Kenzie, because he’d seen Lena’s lips twitch while trying not to smile. And as soon as Kenzie got close enough, she jumped up and grabbed her.

  The little girl squealed in surprise, then laughed as Lena wrapped a towel around her and pulled her onto the chair next to her.

  “Are you two having fun?” Lena asked, giving him a searching look.

  “Yes!” Kenzie shouted. “I want Dane to stay here for longer.”

  So did he.

  He wanted to stay for the rest of his life.

  Chapter One Hundred Nine

  Halfway through dinner, Kenzie’s head bobbed twice before it finally rested on her arm on the table. Lena had known it was only a matter of time. A full day of swimming paired with a warm meal had put her down for the count.

  With a chuckle, Dane reached over to move her plate away from her face.

  “I’ll get something to wash her hands,” he offered and stood, wincing as he turned.

  “I can do it.”

  “So can I,” he said with a wink as he hobbled to the sink and got a wet paper towel.

  He took extra care to wash the sauce from Kenzie’s fingers and cheeks without waking her. When she was clean, he reached down and picked her up.

  “She’s too heavy,” Lena protested in a whisper.

  “I’ve got her,” he said, and shifted Kenzie’s weight slightly. Her head flopped against his neck as he walked to her room. He laid her in her tiny bed and covered her with a blanket, and Lena’s heart swelled at the sight of the man she loved tucking in her daughter.

  She was in such big trouble.

  Especially after that bombshell about quitting his job. Her whole reason for not wanting to be with him had suddenly disappeared. Which terrified the hell out of her.

  He turned to her, took her hand, and led her out of the room. The look in his eyes made her heart pound even harder.

  “Do you want a beer?” she asked, thinking he might want to talk.

  He shook his head. “Not what I had in mind.”

  “We could sit in the living—”

  His mouth claimed hers as soon as they were out in the hall and Kenzie’s door was closed. With a sigh, she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer as his tongue delved into her mouth in a delightfully possessive way.

  Oh. Okay.

  “Your room?” he asked when he lifted his head.

  She took the opportunity to fill her lungs with oxygen and pointed to the door across the hall from Kenzie’s. Hell, yes.

  She was the one to pull him inside. She closed the door and locked it, not wanting any awkward incidents.

  He had already pulled off the T-shirt he’d donned for dinner. She untied his trunks and pushed them down his legs as he worked on the knots of her bikini top.

  “I’ve missed you,” he said, kissing her cheeks and hair as he worked. “So much.”

  Joy flitted through her at his heartfelt confession.

  “I’ve missed you, too,” she said.

 
; He kissed up her neck to whisper in her ear. “It feels different.”

  She froze for a moment, unsure what he meant. “It does?”

  “Yeah. It feels better. No other worries. No hurry. No panic. It’s nice,” he whispered, then sat on the bed and reached for her to join him.

  With a surge of desire, she slipped off her shorts and—careful of his leg—launched herself at him.

  Despite what he’d said about not being in a hurry, she felt frenzied when their bodies touched. He apparently did, too. His hands caressed her everywhere as she reached for his wallet, eager to get to the condom she knew must be inside.

  As soon as she covered him, he rolled over her and pushed fully inside. He let out a happy moan, but soon she could see he was struggling.

  She used all her weight to shift him onto his back.

  “Let me be the man,” he said. He’d said that before.

  “Oh, you are the man,” she assured him with a smile. “Let your woman love you.”

  His brown gaze met hers, and he smiled back as his hand stroked her hip. “Do you, Lena?” he asked. “Do you love me?”

  He’d already opened up. This was her moment. It was time to tell him the truth about her feelings, and see what came next.

  She took a deep breath, and said, “Yes. I love you.”

  She leaned down to kiss him. It had felt so good to say it, and to know she truly meant it. She wasn’t afraid to be let down again.

  Yes, she was in a position to take care of herself. But she desperately wanted him in her life.

  And she knew in her heart he’d be there for her through it all, in both hard times and good.

  Chapter One Hundred Ten

  Lena loved him.

  The power of those simple words nearly made Dane leap off the bed and carry her off to the justice of the peace that very moment. But he knew carrying her wasn’t an option…and besides, she was moving on top of him, her heat encasing him in the best possible way. No chance he was going anywhere anytime soon.