Page 62 of The Bodyguard

The consensus really did solidify pretty fast: I was being ridiculous. I needed to appreciate my good fortune. And suck it up. And stop whining.

In the face of all that unanimousness, there really wasn’t much I could say.

Glenn was loving it, too. “This is your chance to show me your stuff for London,” he said.

But it wasn’t funny. This was my life. “What stuff?” I demanded. “Nothing about this will show anybody any stuff! It’s just forced seclusion with—”

“The Sexiest Man Alive,” Kelly finished.

Glenn thought it was all endlessly funny. “Strategy, flexibility, innovation,” he said then, to answer my question. “Plus, maybe most crucial: that all-important leadership quality of being willing to take one for the team.”

“Fine,” I said. But I let myself pout a little.

“Be nice to poor Jack,” Glenn finally said. “He can’t help it that he’s handsome.”

AFTER FINALLY LOSINGthe argument spectacularly in a vote of everybody-else-to-one, I decided to step out for some air.

I needed a minute.

And that’s when, out in the circular drive, I ran into Taylor—arriving late.

She slowed to a stop when she saw me. Now that I knew the situation, her body language was unmistakable: The downcast eyes of guilt. The tight shoulders of shame. The shallow breaths of betrayal.

How had I missed it before?

I’d been blinded by warmth and trust and affection. By the idea of what a friend should be.

It’s so easy to see what you expect to see.

I narrowed my eyes into a glare, but it was too dark for her to notice.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Uh. Coming to work?”

“You’re late.”

“Yeah. Traffic.”

“Is that a lie?”

“A lie? No. There was traffic.”

I could hear it in her voice now. She knew something was up.

“Everybody’s inside,” I said, tipping my head toward the garage. “In the surveillance room. The room where we monitor all the surveillance footage.”

She frowned. She could tell I was trying to say something more than I’d said. “Except you,” she said, like that might be a clue.

Dead end. “I’m taking a break.” I gave her another shot. “But I have spent a lot of time in that surveillance room. Surveilling things.”

“Well, yeah. You’re the primary, so—”

“It’s amazing what those cameras can catch. Things you would never—in a million years, if you lived your whole life over and over again—expect to see.”

And then she knew.

I saw it the second the comprehension hit her. The little zap of shock in her eyes.