Page 52 of The Moments You Were Mine

“You’re a moron.”

“Moron!” Theo chanted, shoving his dog in the air like he did whenever he was excited.

“Don’t use that word,” I told him. “It’s another one only adults can use.”

“Fallon’s an adult?” he asked, eyes wide and innocent.

And that took all the lightness I’d been able to tease back into her and sent it sailing. Under her breath, she muttered, “Not according to everymanin my life, and hell, maybe they’re all right.”

“Hell!” Theo said.

Fallon glanced over at him, and then she burst out laughing. “Kid, you’re going to get me in trouble.”

Theo shot her his bashful smile. “I don’t like getting in trouble.”

“Me either,” she said, shaking her head.

We were almost at the back door of the castle when she shot me a look. “Please tell me you really do know who said it. Otherwise, all my years of trying to salvage your taste in music has been a complete waste.”

“Zendaya?”

“I give up!”

I reached out and tweaked her braid. “I know, Ducky. It was your superhero, Taylor Swift.”

Her eyes crinkled at the corner when she smiled. “You might just be savable after all.”

Then, she swept into the back hall as it hit me that I wasn’t savable at all. Because that look, the satisfaction that had flickered over her face, had me craving to put it there again in all the wrong ways, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever rid myself of the desire to do so.

Chapter Fifteen

Fallon

LANDSLIDE

Performed by Fleetwood Mac

FOUR YEARS AGO

HER: *** Link to Taylor Swift song***

HER: When you get back from wherever you’re at, doing whatever the hell you’re doing with your team, I want that to be the first thing you hear.

HIM: SEAL comes home safely, only to be mortally wounded by a pop song.

PRESENT DAY

The resort had five live-in staffat the hotel. The manager, the head chef, two maids, and a maintenance person. The remaining employees were locals who came on a rotating schedule, including many of our department heads. We’d converted the old servants’ wing into a manager’s office, a conference room, and studio apartments for the live-in staff.

As I entered the back of the castle with Parker and Theo on my tail, I headed straight for the manager’s office. The teasing smile Parker had brought to my face slipped away as I considered what he’d said about needing a bodyguard. He might have been right, but as much as my body rejoiced at Parker here protecting me, I couldn’t let him be the one to take on the responsibility.

I needed him to leave, and it wasn’t just to keep them safe.

I wasn’t sure my heart could take him being here.

How many sweet exchanges and delightful teases could I handle before I was begging him to take me again? Especially with the way my emotions were zigzagging all over the placethese days.

I knocked on Andie’s open office door and entered to find her pacing behind her desk. Her dark-auburn hair was in a tight bun, and her tailored pants and silk button-down were neat and unrumpled, but her gray eyes were tired and worn in a creamy face dotted with freckles across the nose. She had her phone to her ear, listening intently to the conversation on the other end. She shot me a worried look before glancing behind me to Parker.