“I… I…” he stuttered weakly as his eyes raked over my body slowly.

Oh, he likes my new clothes! “You… You… what?” I asked, grinning.

He blew out a big breath and shook his head. “Shit, Anna, you look beautiful.”

I blushed at the compliment. “Um, thanks.”

“I’m not kidding. Damn. I think I’m gonna need to buy another gun,” he shrugged, finally dragging his eyes up to mine.

“Another gun?”

He nodded, grinning at me wickedly. “Yeah, looks like I’ll need the extra bullets to keep all the guys away from you next week.”

“Well, thank goodness I have a badass boyfriend then,” I joked, picking up the towel and throwing at him. “You have any plans for today? I’ve thought of something for us to do, if you’re not busy.”

A sceptical, worried expression crossed his face as he winced. “Please tell me it doesn’t involve walking around any more clothes stores,” he whined.

I couldn’t help but laugh at his begging voice. “No more clothes stores,” I confirmed. I swallowed around the lump that was rapidly forming in my throat. “I was actually thinking that you could teach me how to shoot, like you’d said. There’s a shooting range that my dad goes to sometimes. It’s about an hour away, I think. We could go as soon as you’re ready.”

His eyes widened as he walked over to me, reaching out and setting his hand on my waist as he bent and looked straight into my eyes. I could feel the heat from his hand seeping into my skin through my clothes. I gulped at the intimacy of this small touch. “I thought you didn’t want to do that,” he whispered, eyeing me worriedly.

“And I thought you said you wanted me to learn,” I countered. I didn’t want him to talk me out of it now. I’d been psyching myself up to it for the last half an hour. “It’ll be fine. If it gives me nightmares then my big, bad bodyguard can protect me,” I teased, grinning. He smiled at me cockily. “I may have to pay Dean overtime, but I’m sure he’ll be up for it,” I added quickly.

He snorted and rolled his eyes playfully. “You’re gonna let Dean in your bed? Can’t see that happening,” he replied, grinning mischievously as he tickled my waist. I wriggled and twisted out of his grasp, laughing uncontrollably. I had a very ticklish spot on my ribs, and it appeared that he’d just found it.

He laughed and stepped back, letting his hand drop from my side. “I should shower. Why don’t you go have some breakfast and then I’ll meet you in there in a bit,” he suggested. I nodded in agreement, and headed out of the room, holding the door open for him to walk through too. He shot me a little smile as he walked in the opposite direction to me.

As I stepped through the door to the kitchen, I groaned inwardly and wished I’d skipped food today. Both of my parents were sitting at the breakfast bar sipping coffee. They stopped talking and looked up at me as I walked in.

I forced a tight smile. “Morning.” I kept my greeting short, not wanting to instigate a conversation with them.

“Annabelle, you look beautiful!” my mom gushed. “Did you get that shirt yesterday?”

I nodded, frowning as I strutted to the coffee pot and poured myself a cup. Did everyone know my every move? “Yeah. I got a few things to take with me to the new school. I spent on the credit card, hope that’s okay.” Too late if it wasn’t. Maybe I should have asked first…

“Of course it is. It’s your allowance, you never spend it,” my dad answered. I turned back to see him smiling at me – a genuine smile. I hadn’t seen one of those for a long time. Generally our relationship could be classified as ‘strained’ so I never really saw them smile much around me anymore. I could see the hopefulness in both of their eyes. Clearly they were reading something into the new clothes. I hated the little, meaningful smile they exchanged because they thought I wouldn’t notice.

Roll on tomorrow, so I can get the heck out of here!

I pulled out a stool at the end of the breakfast bar and sat down, pulling a bowl and box of cereal towards me. The air was thick with awkwardness, and you could probably cut the tension with a knife as I sat there with them. It was probably strange for both of them to be sitting here having coffee with a daughter they had all but been estranged from for the last three years. It appeared no one knew what to say.

Needing to break the silence because it was practically deafening me, I cleared my throat and said the first thing that popped into my head. “Agent Taylor is taking me shooting today.”

My dad’s eyes widened as he regarded me quizzically. Either because I’d volunteered to start a conversation, or because of the topic. “Oh really? I didn’t know you had an interest that that kind of thing.”

“I don’t. Ashton thinks it’ll be good for me,” I replied, shrugging and focussing on pushing my cereal around my bowl with my spoon.

“Well, maybe it would be a good idea,” my dad agreed. I could practically hear the cogs of his brain ticking over, trying to work this all out and read things into it. “I’ll put in a call to a friend and have you some guest passes ready so you don’t have to join and fill in paperwork.”

My mom chimed in then, asking my dad when the last time was that he went shooting, and thankfully the conversation required little to no input from me, so I sat quiet and chewed on my cereal, silently willing Ashton to hurry up.