Her Soldier Protector (4 page)

Logan leaned in closer to his childhood friend, giving him a playful whack across the back of the head.

“Don’t you breathe a word of this to anyone until we’re gone. No tipping the media off, no telling your girlfriend.”

Jimmy made a face like his head hurt, but he was still grinning. “Can I at least get an autograph before you leave?”

“Keep everyone else away from us and I’ll make sure you get one. Deal?”

Jimmy’s smile grew wider. “And a big tip, too, right?”

“You do know I have a dog that could eat you in a few mouthfuls, don’t you?” Logan said in a low voice, smiling as Candace turned to face them.

Jimmy just laughed. “I’ll get your order in and bring you some drinks. Champagne?”

Logan sat down and glanced at Candace. “Bubbly or beer?”

She made a thoughtful face before one side of her mouth tilted up into a smile. “Let’s have a beer. Why not?”

Logan didn’t let the surprise show on his face, even though he’d never have picked her choosing beer over champagne in a million years. “You heard the lady. Two beers, bottles not glasses.”

Jimmy shook his head and walked off, leaving Logan to burst out laughing. Candace seemed to be finding the entire thing as hilarious as he was.

“He knew who I was the moment we walked in, didn’t he?” she asked in a soft voice, like she wasn’t in the least bit surprised.

Logan wasn’t going to lie to her. “Yeah, he did. But there’s no way he’s going to make a fuss or say anything, okay?”

She nodded. “So you don’t think it’ll be in the papers that I was spotted out with a mystery man, knocking back beers? Knowing the paps, they’ll probably say I was out of control and ready for rehab.”

“You missed the part about us digging into two massive buckets filled with prawns, that we’ll be eating with our fingers like barbarians instead of fine dining.”

Candace dipped her head when she laughed, looking up at him like she wasn’t entirely sure whether he was ever being serious or always joking. “And here I was thinking you’d brought me to a classy restaurant.”

“Believe me, nothing in the world is better than fresh seafood eaten with your fingers, washed down by an ice-cold beer. We don’t need five forks and silver service to eat incredible food.”

“Well, I’ll have to reserve judgment until I’ve experienced it, but I’m guessing you’re probably right.”

He leaned back in his chair. “See the beautiful super yachts out there?”

She nodded, following his gaze.

“When you come here earlier in the evening, there are waiters running back and forth from the restaurant to the boats, carrying silver trays of seafood and champagne. It’s crazy, but a lot of fun to watch.”

“I was right going with my gut feeling on promoting Australia to the world,” she said with a laugh. “Next time I’m ready for a vacation, I’m heading straight back here.”

CHAPTER THREE

C
ANDACE
LOOKED
BACK
out at the water to avoid looking at the man seated across from her. There was something exciting about being out somewhere different, on the other side of the world, and with someone she hardly knew. And for the first time in forever, she actually felt like herself, like the old her, the one she’d started to slowly lose a few years earlier. When her marriage had started to crumble, so had her self-confidence, and then when her mom had died...she pushed the dark thoughts away and focused on Logan.

“Is this somewhere you come often?”

Logan leaned forward, both hands on his beer bottle. She took a sip of hers while she waited for his response.

“I’ve been coming here for years. Every time I came home from deployment, this was the first place I headed to for a meal,” he told her. “There were three of us with a standing date.”

“As in three soldiers?” she asked, curious.

Logan twirled his beer bottle between his hands. “Yeah.”

Candace could sense there was something else going on, something unsaid, but she didn’t know him well enough to pry. She knew what it was like to want to keep some things private.

“It must have been a relief coming here for the amazing food after what you had to eat over there,” she said, wanting to give him an out if he needed it.

Logan looked up and met her gaze. “It was. There’s only so much dried jerky and dehydrated food a guy can eat, right?”

She laughed, but it died in her throat as their waiter approached the table with an enormous amount of food.

“No way.”

Logan grinned and leaned back as two large silver buckets filled with prawns were placed in front of them. She’d never seen so much seafood in her life.

“You’re telling me that this is just for starters?” she asked, groaning.

The waiter returned with two dishes of some kind of sauce and freshly quartered lemons, as well as a bowl of warm water, which she guessed was for them to dip their fingers in to after eating.

“In Australia, we have a saying that you can’t eat enough seafood,” Logan told her.

“You do?” Candace watched as he picked up one of the prawns and pulled the head off, before peeling the shell.

“No, I just made that up to make you think this was a good idea.” He gave her a wink that made her heart thud to her toes. “If you don’t want to get your hands dirty I can peel yours?” he offered.

“I appreciate the gesture but I think it’s about time I got my hands dirty.” She was sick of people running around and doing everything for her, and tonight was about her just being her. “You show me what to do and I’ll do it.”

“You just have to grab your beer bottle between your palms so it doesn’t get all greasy. Like this,” Logan explained, demonstrating with a quick swig of his beer before dipping his prawn into the sauce.

Candace just shook her head, finding it hard to believe that she’d been performing live in front of twenty thousand people only an hour earlier, and was now sitting at a restaurant, tucking into a meal with the man who’d been assigned her personal head of security. Add to that the fact she hadn’t been asked for even one autograph...it was insane. She shouldn’t have trusted him so easily, but she hadn’t been so relaxed in a long time. Maybe she’d wake up and realize it had all just been a dream, but if it had been, at least it had been a nice one.

She peeled her first prawn and dipped it in the sauce.

“Good?” he asked.

“Amazing,” she murmured, hand over her mouth as she spoke. “You were right.”

They sat in silence for a while, both eating their prawns and sipping beer. Something told her that Logan wasn’t usually a big talker—that he was comfortable not saying anything at all, and she liked it. Where she’d grown up, the men had a motto of speaking only when they’d had something worthy of being said, but her adult life had been filled with men who couldn’t say
enough
to make themselves sound important.

“So have you always lived in the city?” she asked.

Logan looked up, finishing his mouthful and dipping his fingers in the lemon water to clean them. She watched as he dried his hands on the napkin.

“I actually grew up in the Outback,” he told her, finishing his beer before leaning back in his chair. “I’m based here a lot of the time, but when I’m not working I head straight back there just to be away from the city and out in the open air.”

So, that’s why she felt so comfortable around him. It had been a while since she’d hung out with a country boy.

“Your family all ranch out there?”

He grinned. “We call it farming here, but yeah, it’s my family property.”

Candace paused, slowly peeling a prawn. “So your dad runs the place or a brother?”

Logan took a deep breath, she could see the rise and fall of his chest, before he waved to a waiter and gestured for another beer. He glanced at her, but Candace shook her head—hers was still half-full.

He cleared his throat. “My parents both died a few years ago, and my sister lives on a farm with her husband,” Logan explained. “The property has been in our family for generations, so I’d rather die than sell the place, but I’ve had to have a manager employed while I’ve been serving so the place can continue to run smoothly.”

Candace sighed. “I shouldn’t have been so nosey, Logan. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. Sometimes it’s just hard to say out loud, because admitting it makes it real, as stupid as that sounds.”

She knew exactly how that felt. “My mom died a couple of years ago, and if I’m honest, that’s why I’ve put up with my management team for longer than I should have. She was the one who dealt with all that stuff so I could just focus on singing, and I’m still pretty lost without her. She was the business brains and I was the creative one, and it had always been just the two of us. We made a good team.”

Logan took the beer that arrived at their table, his eyes leaving hers to look out at the water. She did the same, because it seemed wrong to keep watching him when he was obviously troubled about what they were talking about. He was silent.

“I didn’t mean to just unleash all that on you,” she apologized. “I don’t usually spill my thoughts so easily, but...”

“It’s nice to tell someone who actually gets it, right?” he finished, gaze meeting hers again.

“Yeah,” she murmured, “something like that.”

“Losing a parent is tough, and it doesn’t get easier, so don’t believe anyone if they try to tell you otherwise,” he told her. “But you do learn to live with it.”

Their table was cleared then and within minutes two large white plates were placed in front of them.

“So these are the bugs, huh?”

Logan nodded, but he was more reserved now than he’d been before—his enthusiasm dulled.

“You just scoop the white meat out of the shell,” he told her. “It’s incredible.”

Candace spread her napkin over her lap, smoothing out the wrinkles, before picking up her fork and following Logan’s lead. He was right—again—the food was great.

“Thanks for a lovely evening,” she told him when she’d finished her mouthful. “It was completely unexpected and I appreciate the gesture.”

He gave her a weird look. “Sounds like you’re ready to leave.”

“No, I’m just grateful that I’ve actually enjoyed a night in someone else’s company. You’ve given me some perspective at a time when I needed it.”

Logan went back to getting every last piece of meat from the shellfish, and she forced herself to stop watching him and just eat, too. There was something so refreshingly real about him.

“Another beer?”

She looked at her bottle and was about to say no, before she changed her mind. “You know what? Yeah. I’d love another. Why not?”

“So, I told you where I grew up. How about you?”

“I grew up on a ranch, too. My parents split when I was a baby, so we moved to my grandparents’ ranch. I used to ride my horse and sing into a hairbrush, pretending it was my microphone. I spent every day outside, even if it was raining, just making up songs and enjoying the fresh air.” She smiled just thinking about it. “It was the best childhood I could imagine, and my grandfather made up for my not having a dad. He was great.”

He chuckled. “Ever wish you could go back in time?”

“I don’t know about back in time, but I’d love to go back to living on a ranch. I have a place in Montana, but it’s not somewhere I get to very often these days, so it’s not really where I call home.”

“Why don’t you just make time?”

Logan’s question was serious, his voice deep.

“That’s a very good question.”

“Candace, when do you fly out?” Logan asked.

She pushed her plate away and reached for her beer. “Day after tomorrow.”

Logan pulled a bread roll apart and took a bite, looking back out at the water again. There was a lot going on his mind, she was sure of it, but it was like he chose his words carefully, thought everything through before he said it. Their Caesar salad arrived while they were mid conversation, but there was no way she was going to able to eat even a mouthful of it.

“Why?”

“I was just thinking that spending some more time in Australia would do you the world of good.”

“Meaning that I need to unwind?”

His eyes were still on the water, looking into the distance. “Meaning that if you want to remember what it’s like to just be a human being in the world, here’s probably the place to do it. The Outback heals the soul, or at least that’s what I’ve always believed.”

“Is that what the Outback did for you?” she asked, studying his side profile, the angle of his jaw and the fullness of his lips.

She glanced away when he turned, catching her staring.

“Yeah, it did,” he said. “The Outback saved me when nothing else could, and every time I go back there it reminds me what life is truly about. I guess it’s my place in the world.”

Candace didn’t know why, or how, but when she saw the hurt in his gaze, the honesty of what he was saying, tears sprang into her eyes. This man who’d been so kind to her, so polite and respectful, had a power of hurt inside of him, and even glimpsing it made her sad. Whatever he’d been through was more than just losing his parents—he’d seen pain, grief, like she’d probably never know. What he’d experienced as a soldier must have given him memories that he’d never be able to shed.

“Excuse me, I’m just going to find the ladies’ room,” Candace said, grabbing her purse, before crossing the restaurant.

A waiter pointed her in the right direction and she disappeared into the first restroom, locking the door behind her. Candace stared at her reflection in the mirror, studying her face, seeing the makeup, the woman she was on stage, and not the girl she felt like inside.

The past few months, she’d been miserable except for the few times she’d been on stage or in the studio. So unhappy that she’d clung to what felt safe, what she thought was right, but one evening in the company of someone like Logan and she was starting to question everything. Today had been full of adrenaline and anticipation, she’d been excited when she’d said yes to going out with Logan, and now she was starting to spiral down, like a party girl coming off a high.

Logan was kind and handsome, and in all honesty she was probably drawn to him because he was capable of protecting her. But in less than two days she’d be flying away from Australia and never coming back, which was why she should never have agreed to tonight. Men were supposed to be off her radar, and after everything she’d been through, that’s where she wanted them to stay. So getting her hopes up about an Australian soldier who’d probably never even think about her again, who probably just wanted what every other guy wanted from her, was beyond stupid.

Candace reapplied her lip gloss and gave herself a long, hard stare in the mirror. The best thing she could do was call it a night, not get involved in any way with Logan. For her sake and for his. She’d been stupid to agree to it in the first place.

*

Logan stood when Candace reappeared. He knew he was frowning, but the look on her face wasn’t helping him to stop.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” she replied, but he could tell from the smile she fixed that it was a face she’d perfected to hide how she really felt. He’d spent most of his working life studying people and situations, and he doubted he was wrong.

“Are you ready to head somewhere else for a drink, or...” He paused, watching the way her gaze darted away, the change in her eyes. “You’re ready to go back to your hotel, aren’t you?”

Candace nodded. “I think maybe we should call it a night.”

Logan hesitated before reaching for her hand, not sure what he’d done to upset her.

“Candace, if there’s something I’ve done...” he started.

“No, it’s absolutely nothing you’ve done,” she whispered, but as she spoke tears glinted in her eyes.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve made a girl cry,” he said, doing the only thing he could think of and pulling her toward him for a hug. “Whatever it is, I’m sorry.”

She hardly moved, but her hand did reach up and grasp his shirt as he put his arms around her, held her so she could compose herself.

“I don’t know why you’re being so kind to me,” she murmured, just loud enough for him to hear.

Logan sighed, inhaling the fresh scent of her hair, the aroma of her perfume. It had been a while since he’d been with a woman, and being this close to Candace was something he was already starting to crave.

“You sure you don’t want another drink? Something else to eat?”

She ran her hand down his arm as she stepped back, eyes fixed on his. Logan was watching her, waiting for her to reply, when a flash went off, followed by what seemed like a hundred more. Logan leaped in front of Candace, instinct warning him to protect her no matter what, anger burning inside him as he realized the threat was only a photographer who’d managed to find them.

“Crap,” he muttered, taking her hand firmly in his.

“It’s okay, it’s just one pap,” she said.

He didn’t care if it was one or twenty, he was still pissed at the intrusion. The photographer was escorted from the restaurant within minutes, but Logan knew it had been enough to rattle Candace. He had his own personal reasons to hate the media, and he wasn’t going to let them ruin Candace’s evening, not when she’d been so excited about an anonymous night out.