Page 37 of A Texas Hero

“Aw, that’s sweet. But I imagine no one wants these boring assignments. There’s no action for you adrenaline junkies.”

“What makes you say I’m an adrenaline junkie?”

“You seem like the type.”

“Boring is good.” He removed his shades and pocketed them. “But yes, I made a mistake on a past assignment. And I’m a new hire.”

“What was the mistake? Did you get involved with your client?”

Hope sprang eternal.

He chuckled and shook his head. “No. I mistakenly thought that a man was reaching in his jacket for a gun, so I tackled him. It turned out he was the client’s brother and he was just reaching for his cell phone. No threat to her at all.”

Zoey bit her lower lip to keep from laughing out loud. “Oh, dear.”

“It’s okay, you can laugh.” Archer’s lips quirked in a smile. “It is funny now. Even to me.”

“It seems like a mistake anyone could make.”

“There you go, being too nice again.”

“Is that a crime? I don’t know why we can’t all be kinder to each other. You never know what kind of battle someone is fighting. You don’t know what kind of day they had when they cut you off in traffic and curse. Maybe they just got fired, or their spouse asked for a divorce. It could be the worst day of their life. We need to stop judging each other so much.”

“More people should be like you, Zoey, but then I would be out of a job.”

“Well, I don’t want that.”

They simply gazed at each other for a long moment. Then Zoey looked away because his intensity was almost too much for her. He was…simply smoldering. And that mouth of his, so generous and sexy.

“You would never consider getting involved with a client?” Zoey asked. “Just…out of curiosity.”

“It’s against the rules and unethical.” His amber eyes were shimmering.

Damn, she hated rules that cost jobs.

“I wouldn’t want you to lose your job.”

She lowered her head, not meeting his eyes. This felt so impossible.

Archer rose. “I’ll wait for you inside.”

She watched him swing open the patio doors and disappear inside the house.

Why were the good ones always out of reach?

Chapter Fourteen

Zoey took off her cap, styled her hair and was getting dressed for work when her father called to check in.

“You still mad at me?”

She sighed. “No, I understand why you did it. You were in classic overprotective daddy mode and I should have seen it coming.”

Daddy chuckled. “Are you not getting along with him?”

“I never said we weren’t getting along.”

“You wanted him to leave the day he arrived.”