if you're worried about me going off the deep end if something happens to her, don't be. I'm not going to lose it if something happens to her, but I sure as hell am not going to sit around and do nothing when I know how to reduce some of the risk both she, and the rest of your team, face.” Ty wasn't convinced he was telling the truth about not going off the deep end, but he was saying what needed to be said.
“You've changed her,” Drew said.
Ty shook his head. “Whatever she's doing differently is her choice. Maybe it's because of me, I'd like to think I might be affecting her in a good way, or maybe it's this case.”
“Or maybe it's both. And as for being in a good way, well, we'll see. As her friend, I'd say yes, no doubt. As her boss, the jury is still out.”
Ty was surprised that Drew allowed himself to comment on the matter, and he knew he should leave it at that. But he couldn't. He couldn't let Drew think Dani might let him down. “You should have more faith in her, Carmichael. Even if she's changing, or probably more to the point, letting herself change, she's not going to screw up her job. It's too much a part of who she is.”
Drew raised an eyebrow in a ‘we'll see’ gesture and turned away, ending any more talk of Dani.
“We don't know when this thing with Getz is going to go down, or even if it is going to happen here. It could be a big waste of your friends' time,” Drew said, returning to the earlier topic.
“Fawkes hasn't taken leave in a couple of years, believe me, he won't mind coming to the house to hang around for a few weeks. If you don't want him here, he can stay at my place. As for Roddy, he and his wife just had a baby and her family is from a few miles south of here. He also has a lot of leave and his wife is already excited about spending some time with her parents.”
“You've already talked to them.” It wasn't a question. And Drew wasn't happy about it.
“They know enough about what's going on from when Dani was in town—when you authorized their assistance,” Ty pointed out. Drew had approved using Fawkes and Roddy as backup, so to speak, for Dani. “They know I'd like them to come and work on the team but not what we'd need them to do. I've run the logistics by them. If you agree and bring them on, it's your show, it's your job to tell them what you want them to know.”
Drew was silent again for a long while. He rose, ending the conversation. “I'll think about it,” he said.
It wasn't what Ty wanted to hear but it was better than a flat ‘no’ so he nodded in acknowledgement and left without another word.
* * *
Ty closed the door behind him and Drew wondered if he was heading to Dani's room. For the first time in possibly forever, he liked one of the guys Dani was seeing.
Except protocol dictated that they not technically ‘see’ one another.
Ty was a good man, and strong enough to handle Dani, which was saying a lot. But Drew also saw the little things Ty did for Dani, like giving her his sweatshirt earlier in the day and sending her restaurant recommendations when she was in San Diego. Things that made Drew understand that, while Ty recognized how strong and capable Dani was, she was still someone he wanted to take care of, still someone who could use a little TLC every now and then. And he did it without making a big deal out of it. Maybe that was why she seemed to accept his attentions—the most surprising development to Drew's way of thinking. It was good for Dani, but it meant additional stress for Drew as he tried to separate what he wanted for her as a friend and what he needed from her as an agent.
And he hadn't been lying when he told Ty that Dani was changing. She'd been the same woman for years—focused, determined, one of the smartest people he knew. And she hadn't changed in those respects. But there was something more to her now, an openness that wasn't there before. A willingness to look at the possibilities. And, as her friend, he did think this was a good thing. It