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"Good morning," Juliet said, sending a shy smile my way from where she sat at the kitchen counter, a coffee cup wrapped between her small hands.
"Good morning, Miss Manchester," I said. "Chad."
Chad gave me his cocky adventure-hero grin and wink combination, and I nearly gave Chad my signature throat punch.
But I restrained myself, filling my water bottle instead and reminding myself that he was a good bodyguard, a smart guy, and also had military training. Even if it was in the Air Force.
Elvis waddled in then, and I squatted down to give him a few pats around his thick little neck. He raised his lolling grin and google eyes my way and then gave an enormous yawn and toppled over, asleep.
"Elvis," Juliet sighed, her lips hooking up on one side.
"Miss Manchester, your dog is officially useless," Chad informed her. Jerk. If he wasn’t so busy flirting with the client, he might have actually bothered helping her instead.
I scooped Elvis up and deposited him into the soft little bed in the corner. This one was black and had rhinestones all around the edges. “There you go, buddy,” I said softly.
"What are you doing with your day off?" Juliet asked as I turned back around and returned to the counter to screw the lid on my water bottle tight.
Her eyes met mine and I felt that same pull I'd felt the night before, the same fire of recognition that something lay between us. I ducked my head. If Chad picked up on it, my job would be history. The firm had a strict no-fraternization policy, and I needed the job. My family needed me to keep it too.
I cleared my throat, reminded myself that most guys in this situation wouldn't feel a need to tell their client all the details of their day. "Just going for a quick run, then I'm going to take care of a few personal things."
"Getting your pubes waxed?" Chad muttered as he moved past me, too low for Juliet to hear.
"Some family stuff," I clarified, partially for jerkwad Chad. "Hey, Chad, did that rash ever clear up, man?" I asked him as I moved toward the back door, sliding my sunglasses on and pushing my earbuds in.
I turned back to see Juliet looking concerned and Chad's face reddening. "Hey, man, that's not cool."
"Just wondered if it was like, you know, contagious or whatever." I kept my volume low for now so I could hear him.
"Dude!"
Juliet was on her feet now, moving toward the living room. "I'm going to get a workout too," she said, glancing between us. "Maybe you can just keep an eye on things down here?" she suggested to Chad.
"Of course, Miss Manchester. Also, ma'am, I do not have a rash." I heard this last part as I slipped out the door for my run.
The streets around Juliet's house were wide and clear, winding and tree-lined, and they lay between houses bigger than any I'd even known existed as a kid. Juliet and I had been running together weekly since I’d been working here, but we usually kept our own music going, me giving her space out of respect. Today I wished she were here, found myself longing for her company, even if it was silent. I let my mind wander, turning over the strange intimacy I'd felt the night before, even as I assured myself it was one-sided and that it was probably only natural to develop a crush on a movie star as beautiful as Juliet.
Only it hadn't felt one-sided.
I pushed my body harder, hoping to reconnect it to reality. My reality. This was a job, one I needed to pay for the degree that was just one course away at this point. And one I needed to keep to pay the rent on Mom’s house. Once I'd gotten the degree, I could look at jobs that didn't rely completely on my physicality, positions that might require some intellect as well. I knew I wasn't a smart guy, but I still wanted a future that might support a family, a job that would let me be home at night to enjoy that family if I ever had it.
Being a bodyguard was temporary. But the pay was good, and for now it was all I had—all my mom had too.
After the run, I let myself back into the house, where Chad was seated at the kitchen counter reading a tabloid magazine. We had a lot of downtime. You learned a lot about the other guys by watching how they chose to spend it.
"Juliet's in here," he said, holding the magazine up.
"Don't let Miss Manchester see you with that," I told him. It wasn't our business to get involved in the rumors surrounding our clients unless those rumors affected their personal security. I thought about what Juliet had confided the night before about Zac. I hoped that wouldn’t slip out any time soon.
He made a noise, sucking his teeth. "She's stayed in her room since your little rash comment. I should thank you—probably gonna be an easy day for me now.”
"You're welcome," I told him, taking a protein bar out of my cabinet in the kitchen and heading for my own room to shower.
I could hear the fitness app Juliet used when she was at home through her door, and I did my best not to picture her lean fit form, glistening with sweat as she moved in the small studio attached to her bedroom. She didn't like working out at the gym, and once when Zac hadn't been home, she'd asked me for help getting a weight bench set up. Despite her small frame, Juliet was pretty strong, and her workout ethic was impressive. We went out for a run together most Mondays, once the neighbors cleared off for work. I was pretty sure she worked out six days a week.
I sighed, left Juliet's door, and returned to my own room.
An hour later, I was in the car, headed to Mom’s.
