Page 101 of Protecting Love

Because it just mattered too much.

This thing she had. The start of something with Fletcher. It was everything she’d been waiting for and she just wished it wasn’t so complicated.

24

LIFE LESSONS

“Hi, Fletcher. I was surprised to get your text.”

“Thanks for meeting me, Avery,” he said an hour later.

When he’d heard London talking to Paris in the apartment, he knew there was no way for him to sneak out.

Hell, if she asked him to, he would have been insulted.

So his best play was to just... let it play out.

The last thing he expected was Paris to get so embarrassed over her sister’s ribbing.

“Anytime,” Avery said. “You said you had something you wanted me to look into.”

He’d reached out to his best analyst at the bureau. One he could trust. One who had a knack for decoding and hacking into things.

If he had a need for this with The Carlisle Group, she’d be the first one on his list to present to West.

They moved up in line at the coffee shop they’d met at close to his old office. He’d texted her when he got out of the shower at Paris’s and she’d let him know a good time to talk.

He would have left Paris’s when her sister got home if he didn’t have to kill ninety-minutes.

But then leaving would have smacked as cowardice and he honestly wanted to know what Paris thought of what the two of them had.

All this dating shit, it was new for him.

He wasn’t the casual type for anything in life.

He’d thought the two of them had that conversation.

And maybe it was a bit of a test to see how she reacted to her sister’s knowledge.

Or even how London reacted.

Seemed London had no issue at all and even said, other than Spencer, she wouldn’t let anyone else know.

“I’ll take a small black,” he said to the barista.

The teen snorted and rolled her eyes as if to say he was in the wrong place for that.

“I’ll take a grande iced oat milk latte with two pumps of white mocha, one pump of hazelnut, and extra caramel drizzle,” Avery said.

“Ugh, how can you drink that shit?” he asked.

He paid and they moved to the side.

“Don’t say that too loudly or they will revoke my card.”

He ignored her, then moved to the end to wait.

His coffee was placed down immediately, but it was another few minutes before Avery got hers.