Fix It Up - Mary Calmes Page 0,111
face into his hair and rubbing his back before he started breathing slowly on his own. It still sounded a bit shaky and labored, but his eyes weren’t glazed over with bone-deep fear.
“There you are,” I praised him, tucking him up against me. “It’s okay, you’re okay.”
“Who cares about me? You’re the one who…you…I could have lost you.”
“No,” I assured him, kissing his temple. “You were the one who was in danger. He wasn’t aiming at me.”
He lunged at me, arms around my neck, climbing into my lap, and I had to brace a hand behind me so I wasn’t shoved over onto the ground.
“Everything’s fine,” I promised, my hand on the back of his head, massaging gently. “We’re fine.”
His face was pressed to the side of my neck, and he was still trembling, holding so tight, his breath not quite evened out, stopping and starting.
“We should find out why he wanted to hurt you, don’t you think?”
Nothing.
I cleared my throat. “You know,” I said, trying another tactic, “I’ve been shot more than once and I’m still here.”
The choked cry, as he clutched even tighter, told me that was not the way to go about calming him down.
“When I’m in the field as a bodyguard, that’s the job, right? You trade your life for—”
“Oh, fuck no,” he barked, pulling back enough to look at my face. “You will never be a bodyguard again.”
“Honey, that might be the only kind of job I—”
“You’re full of crap,” he stated flatly. “We both know you’d make an amazing high school counselor or a substance abuse counselor or, even better, a social worker.”
“Social worker?” I squinted at him. “What did we say about the drugs?”
“You’re a knight,” he told me, and I saw him take a deep breath and exhale normally, letting go of the last of his panic. “You are. You can’t see the armor, but it’s there. You’re a champion, and you would make an amazing advocate for children.”
“I would scare the crap outta kids, are you kidding?”
“No,” he assured me, taking my face in his hands. “They would understand that you’re the guy standing between them and the world, just like me.”
“Yeah, but if I had a job like that, I wouldn’t be able to travel with you.”
“I can fly back from anywhere, you’ll have weekends, and you have to go back to school first anyway, though I bet having been a cop that you’ll get credit for some things. We’ll make an appointment at UC Santa Barbara when we get home.”
I scowled at him.
“What?”
“You’re just makin’ plans for my life,” I groused at him, even though the idea of helping kids before they became broken adults was very tempting.
“I know you’re about service,” he mollified me, pushing the hair back from my face. “It’s why you became a policeman to begin with. But I don’t think you could help everyone you wanted to that way, and so another path is the way to go.”
“That’s hard work, you know.”
“You’re not afraid of that.”
God. It was like he knew me.
“Taking care of others is your true calling,” he affirmed, his gaze steady. “It’s why you gravitated to being a fixer. But Loc, think of the difference you could make.”
“That’s ego talking.”
“Even saving one kid, putting one on a different path, wouldn’t that be worth it?”
I glared at him. “That’s a helluva lot of faith you have that I would be successful.”
“Yes,” he agreed, his smile brilliant. “Because I have every faith in you. All you’ve ever been for me is a rock. Others deserve to have you in their life too.”
I cleared my throat. “You know all of that, and me being how I am, I’m gonna drive you nuts,” I warned him.
“Yes, well, you drive me nuts now,” he admitted, launching himself at me again, this time slamming me into the soft ground.
“You know, you need to learn some finesse.”
Apparently, coming from me, that was funny as hell.
Seventeen
The Netflix crew was over the moon.
“Family drama, attempted murder, crime and punishment?” the producer gushed excitedly. “Are you kidding? We could get an Emmy.”
“I shouldn’t have worried,” I told her.
Gabriella Nuñez shook her head. “No, you shouldn’t have,” she assured me. “We’re calling the documentary, Redemption Road, and we’re going to coordinate with Nick to have it out a month before his album.”
“You don’t think Redemption Road is a bit heavy-handed?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s gold.”
As in Emmy gold. We were back to award nights.
“And may I say that you and Nick