Scotland for Christmas. Cathryn Parry

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СКАЧАТЬ how she felt now, after her breakup...unanchored, mortified, upset. He understood why she wanted to go home and lick her wounds, but he couldn’t let her. He needed to get her to go to Vermont with him. The only way he knew how to convince her was to continue to talk to her, which felt strange to him.

      Secret Service agents were taught never to confide with their protectees. His training was working against him.

      He rubbed his face with his hands, cold with sweat. He was so close to John Sage. Maybe if he’d had his backup team with him, including some female agents, it wouldn’t be so difficult. Jacob wasn’t used to working alone, especially with an attractive woman.

      She was just so beautiful. That blond hair, those big blue eyes that brimmed with tears. So expressive, but only here with him. She hadn’t cried in front of the boyfriend, and Jacob took some satisfaction from that.

      Jacob flexed his hands on the wheel. He had no template to work with in this situation, so he was winging it. So far, nothing had worked in getting her to really trust him, and he knew why, because he remembered this feeling. Slammed upside the head by a lover’s betrayal. Crushed in the heart, and in the most public of places.

      “What are you thinking?” she asked, darting a glance at him nervously.

      It had started to rain, so he’d turned on the wipers. They thump-thump-thumped against the window at regular intervals. He glanced in the mirror and saw his own expression. No poker face here. That’s what she was reacting to—what he felt about her situation, not what she felt.

      He got the impression that she was usually more in tune with what other people thought of her than with what she thought. To some extent, she was a people pleaser.

      Maybe Rachel had been that way, too.

      He leaned back and closed his eyes. “I was in your shoes once,” he remarked. “I was just thinking about that.”

      He felt a change in her energy. The leather seat made a squeaking noise as she sat up straighter. Her eyes were boring into him; he could sense that, too.

      “You were dumped?” she asked in a low voice. Anticipating. Wanting to hear more about it.

      He inhaled deeply. Danger zone. He’d never even discussed this with Eddie. Not really. “That’s not the point.”

      “Oh-ho!” She sat up straighter. “So it’s okay for me to be crushed and for you to know every detail about it, but it’s not okay for you?”

      “Hey, I’m just your driver.”

      “Really? I don’t see you driving me home the last few blocks like I asked.”

      He opened his eyes. “Is that what you want? To give up? A successful woman like you? You don’t think it will make it seem like you’re hiding because you failed?”

      She winced, defeated, as if he’d just kicked her to the curb. Honestly—he didn’t know how to deal with her. She was actually pretty brave. From what he could see, she had big plans and was making a courageous, bold and disciplined journey to reach them, much like he was.

      “Look,” he said, “your main concern is that I not pass on what just happened to your uncle, right? Because you don’t want him to think less of you for it. Am I close to the truth?”

      “You’re avoiding my question,” she said softly.

      “What question?”

      “I want to know how you were dumped.”

      “What does that have to do with anything?”

      “Everything. It’s a power issue, Jacob.”

      “A...what?”

      “If you know my deep dark secrets and I don’t know yours, then we’re not on equal footing. I never should have spoken so loudly inside that coffee shop.”

      “So...you’re more concerned about being vulnerable than about losing the so-called love of your life? Interesting.”

      Her lip quivered.

      Damn. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” Cripes, he was handling this all wrong.

      He laid his head back and looked at the skylight. Watched the rain come down. The truth was, he just couldn’t give anyone any more of himself. What was private with him, he kept locked away. He had to solve this standoff with Isabel some other way.

      Abruptly, she opened the door and stepped out into the rain.

      “Isabel?” he called. “Where are you going?”

      “My luggage, please,” she said, leaning into the open door. “I’m going to phone for another driver. You and I obviously can’t work together any longer.”

      He threw open his door and got out of the SUV, then jogged around the front until he was beside her on the wet sidewalk. The rain was cold on his head and face. “You want me to talk? You want to know how I’ve been in your shoes?”

      She nodded, gazing into his eyes. “I do.”

      They were both getting wet. Fat raindrops were spilling onto her cheeks. He wanted to brush them away.

      “I...was supposed to get married,” he said. “Instead, on our wedding day...she arrived late and made this little speech to everyone as if she were doing me a favor to have shown up to the altar at all.”

      “You were left at the altar?” she asked.

      He focused on the raindrops running down her cheeks. One on her nose. Her top lip.

      “Were people there?” she asked gently. Her tone was the musical Scottish voice he’d heard in the coffee shop. Her true accent. The voice she’d shown for Alex, and he hadn’t cared about it.

      “Jacob?”

      “All of my friends were sitting in the church. My colleagues from the NYPD, their wives and girlfriends. My mother. My stepfather. My half siblings. My stepgrandmother and stepaunts.”

      She put her hand to her mouth. “How did you ever face them all afterward?”

      He let out a breath, remembering. “For a long time, I didn’t. I focused on getting into the Secret Service. I worked long hours so I could stay away.”

      Which probably wasn’t helping him much now, but he didn’t want to go into that.

      “Bottom line, Isabel, don’t let the bastards get you down. Don’t give Alex the satisfaction of having the power to damage you. Because you’re not damaged. You’re strong and you’re independent and you’re doing the right thing with your life. Things don’t happen by accident—he put himself into that situation where he was open, just as Rach—just as my ex did. And then blamed it on fate. On me. On whomever. On everybody but her...”

      He caught himself. Whoa. Where was this coming from?

      But Isabel’s eyes were bright. And now her hand was on his arm. Just lightly. СКАЧАТЬ