Page 12 of Defender (Omega Sector: Under Siege #1)

How could she have been such an idiot?

Ten hours later, Summer paced back and forth at her house. Ashton would be there in a few minutes so they could talk.

She’d turned and left the grocery store this morning without a word. What could she say to him there, surrounded by his colleagues, surrounded by people who obviously knew who he was and who she was?

She could tell by the looks on their faces that his SWAT colleagues had all known he was in trouble. Which meant they’d obviously known he’d been lying to her for months.

Chloe had thrown an absolute fit when she’d been unable to go to her precious Ah-ta. Summer hadn’t cared. She let her daughter wail as she’d stuffed her stiff legs into the holes of the stroller and buckled her in. They’d both been crying by the time they’d made it home.

Why would Ashton have lied to her for all these months?

Just to make sure she had the facts straight, that Ashton didn’t work for Joe on the side or something, she’d texted Joe.

Need to clarify: does Ashton Fitzgerald work for you?

It hadn’t taken Joe long to reply.

Works with me. Not for me. At Omega.

Does he do handyman jobs on the side? Is that why you sent him to fix the garbage disposal in my unit a few months ago?

It had taken Joe much longer to respond to that one. He must have gone to talk to Ashton to find out what the hell Summer was talking about.

Evidently there was a miscommunication a few months ago. I asked Ashton to find you a handyman. He knew he could fix the problem himself so he did that.

Logical. Summer had to admit it. Joe had asked Ashton to do him a favor, and Ashton had just done the work himself rather than call in a stranger. Ashton had been able to fix everything she’d needed him to over the past few months, so it wasn’t like he wasn’t capable.

Why didn’t he just tell her from the beginning he was a colleague of Joe’s? At least then she wouldn’t have kept calling him back to fix every little thing. Pulling him away from his real job.

A sick feeling pooled in her stomach. She texted Joe again.

Did Ashton know about Tyler? About how he died?

A few moments later, her phone rang. But it wasn’t Joe, it was Ashton. She let it go to voice mail. She couldn’t talk to him right now.

But she pretty much had her answer, didn’t she? The rest she could piece together.

He had known about Tyler all along. Had come back to help her all those times because he felt sorry for the poor widow of the man Omega Sector couldn’t save. They probably all did.

Her phone pinged. Joe again.

Ashton wants to talk to you.

I don’t want to talk to him right now.

Give him a chance, Summer. He’s pretty torn up.

After that, she’d set the phone down and cried again.

By the time Summer had pulled herself together, Chloe had been waking up from her nap. Snuggling with her daughter—as Chloe was so prone to do when she was first waking up and sitting with her sippy cup—made everything a little better.

When Summer picked her phone back up, she had six missed calls from Ashton. And a text.

We need to talk about this. I’m coming over tonight at seven.

She texted him back.

Fine.

So here it was, almost seven. She had taken Chloe over to Joe and Laura’s to spend the night.

One, because she didn’t want her daughter to hear all the yelling she was sure would happen when Ashton got here.

Two, because damn it, Summer’s heart all but melted every time she saw Ashton and Chloe together.

He was so gentle around her. Cared about her so much.

Maintenance man or SWAT, Ashton still loved her daughter. And Chloe loved her Ah-ta right back.

Summer didn’t want any distractions—any chinks in her armor—when it came to giving Ashton a piece of her mind. Seeing him with Chloe was both.

He rapped on her door right at seven.

He was wearing a dark blue T-shirt tucked into his jeans. She didn’t know if he picked it out because it framed his chest and abs so well, but if he hadn’t, he should have.

She opened the door wider to let him in and noticed his eyes darting around everywhere that could be seen from the doorway. She’d always assumed he’d done that because he’d been too nervous to look her in the eye. But now she realized he was scanning the room, looking for any potential danger.

Ingrained training. Ashton probably wasn’t aware he was even doing it.

Once his eyes rested on hers, she could see his discomfiture. His hesitancy.

He reached out with a small bouquet of lilies.

“These are for you.”

She hadn’t been expecting that. “Oh.”

“I actually bought a similar bouquet before our date on Friday got...cancelled.”

She took them. They were lovely. “Friday got canceled because of work. I’m assuming that had something to do with Omega Sector, not with having to rush over to fix someone’s toilet.”

He had the grace to look sheepish. “Did you see anything on the news about a shoot-out at The Blooming Idiot on Main?”

Summer could feel her eyes widen. “That was you? Your truck was the one I saw burning all over the news?”

Ashton shrugged. “Yeah. Calling you without giving away everything was difficult.”

“You know what could’ve solved that?”

“What?”

“You telling me the very first time you met me who you were and what you did for a living.”

* * *

S UMMER WAS MAD .

Not that he’d really expected any differently, but Summer mad didn’t really fit into his mental image of her. Her personality had always matched her name. She’d always been lighthearted, kind and smiling.

Her smile was nowhere around now.

She’d at least taken the flowers, and was now in the process of putting them in a vase.

He could tell her the story of how he’d tracked down Marcel, the owner of The Blooming Idiot, to find out what had been in Friday’s original bouquet and where he could purchase them.

He could tell her how Marcel had laughed when Ashton had told him he was definitely in the doghouse with her now.

But he wasn’t sure if she would appreciate the story or not.

Honestly, he was just glad she’d let him through the door.

When he’d heard Chloe’s sweet little voice this morning calling out to him with such joy at the grocery store, he’d been thrilled.

He wanted to squeeze her little legs and hear her talk to him in her gibberish like she always did.

And he’d known, without even consciously thinking it, wherever Chloe was, her breathtaking mother wasn’t far behind.

When Summer turned around, face devoid of all color, he’d remembered where he was. That he was in full SWAT gear. What he was doing.

He remembered every secret he’d ever kept from her.

Lillian had patted him on the shoulder and taken his rifle. “Good luck, dude. You’re going to need it.”

Ashton wasn’t sure what he was going to say to Summer, but he knew he had to say something.

Then she’d turned and left. Without a word. Chloe’s cries breaking his heart.

He’d wanted to go after them right then and there. To explain. To at least try to get Summer to listen to him.

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t leave an active crime scene while he was on the clock, even if it looked like the crisis had already passed.

Plus, what exactly would he say to Summer there in front of dozens of other people?

So he’d watched her walk away, worry burning like acid in his gut. He’d been terrified that her rigid back and quick pace in the other direction might be the last time he ever saw her.

When Joe had hunted him down this afternoon, asking Ashton what the hell was going on with Summer, demanding why she wanted to know whether Ashton worked for Joe, the situation had gotten worse.

Ashton had explained the misunderstanding about him being the handyman, since he’d fixed her garbage disposal himself a few months ago.

Nobody blamed him for that.

He’d told Joe what happened, how it had basically just accidentally grown over time. Joe wanted to know the same thing Ashton was sure Summer wanted to know: why hadn’t he just told her afterward that he wasn’t the normal handyman? Maybe she would’ve laughed.

Haha. My mistake. If I can’t pay you, can I take you out to dinner?

Maybe that’s how it would’ve gone, what she would’ve said. And Ashton wouldn’t be standing here now afraid he was about to lose the person who had been his first thought in the morning and last thought at night for the past six months.

Now she was glaring at him where he stood awkwardly in the middle of her living room, “Where’s Chloe?” he finally asked.

“She’s at Joe and Laura’s house. I didn’t want her to be around for a bunch of yelling.”

He winced. They stared at each other.

She took a step closer, then stopped. “You told me you were the condo’s handyman.”

“No. I never said that.” He shook his head. “That first afternoon, I told you Joe asked me to deal with the broken garbage disposal, that I wanted to look at it myself first and that we could call a specialist if needed.”

“But you knew what I thought.”

“I didn’t. Especially not that first time. You offered to pay me, but that wasn’t so unusual.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I’ve called you back like eight times in the last six months. You had to have known I thought you were the maintenance man for the condo!” Her volume rose.

He winced again. “Look, I’m not saying I handled it well. I didn’t. I was wrong and I’m sorry.”

That didn’t seem to appease her in the slightest. “I thought you were shy . I bought that ‘I grew up on a farm in Wyoming’ stuff hook, line and stupid. Was any of it even true?”

Ashton ran a hand through his hair. “Of course it’s true. It’s all true.” Now his voice rose slightly. “I wasn’t trying to lie to you, Summer. The only thing I wasn’t fully up-front about was the fact that I’m Omega Sector.”

But that wasn’t the complete truth, now was it? Yet he couldn’t bring up her husband’s death now. Not until the initial shock of his sudden career change had been dealt with. Maybe not ever.

“I feel like an idiot that I didn’t figure it out.” She wrapped her arms around herself.

Her hurt look was much, much worse than the angry one. “Summer, no. Don’t feel that way. It wasn’t like that. I wasn’t trying to trick you.”

“Then why? Why didn’t you just crack a joke when I called you the second time to come fix stuff?

” She deepened her voice to imitate him.

“‘Hey, Summer, let me get you the number of a real maintenance guy. I’m pretty good at fixing things, but I work with Joe at Omega, so I won’t always have time to help you. ’”

It sounded so simple to hear her say it.

“After I missed my early chance, there just never seemed to be the right time to say it.”

“You should’ve made the right time, Ashton. Even if we both were embarrassed.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “I know, okay? But I thought you wouldn’t have me around anymore if you knew. That you wouldn’t be interested in spending time with a member of law enforcement.”

She stared at him for a long minute, seeming to battle some inner emotion. He thought maybe he was off the hook, but then her arms dropped and her eyes narrowed.

“It was you .” She pointed her finger at his chest.

For a terrified second, Ashton was afraid she meant the situation about her husband. But she couldn’t know that. No one knew that.

“It was me who what?” he asked hesitantly.

“It was you who got me out of the fire, wasn’t it? A few months ago, when Bailey Heath kidnapped Chloe and me, you were the one who carried us out.”

She seemed quite upset about that.

“Yes?” It shouldn’t have been a question but it came out as one, wary of her reaction.

She stormed over to him. “I dreamed it was you. And convinced myself I was absolutely crazy, because how could the handyman be the person who had gotten us out of a burning building?”

Oh damn . “Summer—”

“That couldn’t possibly be right. You were shy.

Timid, even.” She began to pace back and forth right in front of him, her voice getting louder and louder.

“Which was fine, I had no problem with that. But you just weren’t the type of guy who would be a part of Omega Sector.

I’ve met some of them. They’re all alpha male, save-the-world sorts of guys who could lead a crowd to safety at any moment.

But you seemed more comfortable chatting with my toddler than talking to me. ”

She turned and poked him in the chest. “I convinced myself that I was delusional. I mean, yeah, you had the muscles, so maybe physically you could’ve been a part of Omega.

But not in personality. In mindset. I berated myself that I was so desperate for some sort of knight in shining armor that my mind was trying to make you something you weren’t. I felt horrible .”

This was so much worse than he’d thought it would be. “Summer. Don’t.”

“But now, come to find out, my subconscious was right the whole time. You’re not shy. You are one of those alpha males—a take-charge kind of guy. You’re the absolute epitome of Omega Sector.” She stood there and glared at him. “Everything I thought I knew about you was completely wrong.”

He took a step back, surprised at how hollow he felt at her words. He’d known all along Summer wasn’t interested in becoming involved with someone in law enforcement. This was it. The end.

Over before it even began.

“And that’s not what you want, is it?” he asked quietly. The least he could do was give her an easy way out.

She stared up at him. “Are you kidding? I get all hot inside just thinking about it.”