Deep Focus. Erin McCarthy
repeated what he had just said. “Oh, my God. Really? For a guy who looks so serious all the time, you crack an awful lot of jokes.”
“I’m multilayered.” Actually, it was a coping mechanism. The shrink he’d been ordered to see after his injury had told him that. It seemed to be working just fine for him, so he wasn’t going to bother making any changes.
“Why did you become a bodyguard?”
“Because I’m not qualified to do anything else.”
“Is that the only reason?”
He hesitated, resting his forearms on the railing and staring down at the rippling water. The dolphins were making clicking sounds in the background, and somewhere on the other side of the resort mariachi music was playing. “No. I wanted to protect people. Do something useful. Leaving the military made me feel as though I didn’t have a purpose anymore.”
“I can see that about you,” she said quietly. “So you think you’ll keep doing this line of work? Do you work for a firm?”
“Yes. I’m not good at paperwork.” It was true. He preferred action, and he hadn’t wanted to be bothered with starting up his own business or doing consulting work. It was easier to sign on with a security firm and be out in the field. He had expected it would give him the adrenaline rush he had experienced in the Marine Corps, but he had learned that the work was mostly monotonous.
The other thing he had discovered was that it opened him up to conversations with his clients. Or mostly, it opened him up to them telling him about their lives, while he played the listener the way he always had. His mother had always told him he had a face that made people confess all their sins, and honestly, he had no clue why. Maybe his silence was the only invitation they needed. Plus he didn’t judge. “It’s not what I expected,” he said honestly. “I was looking for more action.”
“I’m sort of a bummer of a client, then, aren’t I? You aren’t going to see much action with me. Zero action here.”
She had no idea what that particular phrasing did to him. It was a good thing only the dolphins could see that he was tenting his dress pants. “You never know. Sometimes there’s action when you least expect it.”
The dolphin snorted from his blowhole.
Damn right.
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