Page 31 of Serve ’N’ Protect

“Oh, no.” Her face turned ashen.

“Cassidy?” Markus kept his eye on the angry-looking dude on the porch. Ghost had stopped barking but stood with his head hung low, the hair on his spine threatening to go vertical. Since this guy was apparently here to see Cassidy and not to kill him, the tension in Markus’s shoulders should have eased. Another look at Cassidy…and that tension magnified.

She pushed to her feet, her eyes wide and glassy as she came up behind him and peered outside.

“Who is it?” he asked, never taking his eyes off the guy. “Is it your brother again?” Although why her brother would instill such fear in her didn’t make sense.

“Worse.” She let out a strangled groan, her lips trembling before pressing together so tightly they turned white. “It’s Hugh.”

Chapter Eleven

The pounding continued, and the doorbell rang incessantly. Hugh was standing on her front porch. After all this time. But why?

Do I want to see him?

Yes. And no. Cassidy gulped.

“You sure you don’t want me to shoot him?” Markus’s eyes emanated sympathy as he stepped away from the window.

Ghost stood like a statue, his head lowered as he stared at the door and the hair along his spine as rigid as a pin cushion.

“Tempting.” She forced a smile that she didn’t feel in the slightest. “If I don’t talk to him, he’ll never leave.”

“Cassidy?” Hugh bellowed. “I know you’re in there.”

“Give us a minute. I don’t want him to see us.” Markus motioned for Ghost to follow him. “We’ll leave out the back door.”

She nodded, although part of her wanted him to stay for moral support, the way her family would have.

When Markus and Ghost had disappeared into the kitchen, she took a deep breath and opened the door.

Through the glass, Hugh looked exactly the way she remembered him. Tall and fit. Working in construction his entire life had given him a strong build, although he wasn’t quite as tall as Markus and not quite as muscular. She’d seen Markus completely naked, but that was hardly the same thing as being intimate with someone. She knew everything about Hugh’s body by heart. Perhaps one day she’d be able to stop thinking about all the times they’d made love.

Sunlight glinted off his short, straight blond hair—hair she used to sift her fingers through when they’d snuggle and watch movies together.

He didn’t wait for permission and pulled open the outer door. “Are you going to let me in? We need to talk.”

Talk? Seriously? She took a calming breath, willing her pulse to stop hammering. The last thing she wanted was for him to see how rattled she was. Inside, she wanted to scream. To pound on his chest the way she’d been physically incapable of doing that night in St. Mary’s Hospital.

Balancing on her cane, she pivoted awkwardly, making enough room for him to walk past. As he did, his arm brushed against hers. She waited for her skin to prickle with goose bumps the way it always had when he used to touch her. Oddly, her skin didn’t react at all.

She closed the door. “I believe you said all there was to say at the hospital.”

He opened his mouth then closed it as he looked around the living room. “Did you get a dog? I heard one barking.”

“It was my neighbor’s dog.” She tried keeping her voice flat and without the barest hint of the emotional tornado swirling inside her head. “They left out the back door.” Come to think of it, she hadn’t actually heard the door open and close.

Hugh’s eyes were still the clearest shade of light blue that she’d once fallen so deeply in love with. They used to joke about their wedding cake topper—Barbie and Ken. Their children would have been blond-haired and blue-eyed, too.

“What do you want, Hugh?” she asked, gratified that her voice hadn’t trembled. Well, almost.

“I wanted to see you.” He cupped the side of her face. “I miss you.”

“Miss me?” She batted his hand away, starting to feel a little annoyed. “It’s been ten months. Why all of a sudden did you start missing me?”

“I—” He clenched his jaw, calling attention to all the angles and planes of a face she’d once thought handsome. “I don’t know. I just had to see you.”

“Why?” she repeated. “Did you forget something? A screwdriver or a hammer?”