Free Here With Me by Megan Nugen Isbell

afraid she’d misheard him.
    “The Secret Service?” she asked quietly and he nodded.
    “Yes.”
    “And Nate too?” she asked, thinking back to her conversation with him earlier.  The FBI agents.  The men in suits.  It made sense.
    “Yes, Nate too.   We’ve been assigned to the former President Bush and his family.  That’s why we’re here in Kennebunkport.”
    H er mouth opened and closed as she tried to think of what to say, but nothing came out.
    “There was an incident at the estate today,” Ryan continued when he realized Mallory was tongue-tied. “Some crazy guy with a gun tried to get past the gates, which is how I got shot.”
    Sighing, she reached for the chair against the wall, pulling it over and sitting down.
    “I hadn’t heard of any incident happening.  You’d think that would be pretty big news.”
    “You’d be surprised how much stuff happens that the public doesn’t know about.”
    “So all the conspiracy theories are correct then?” she grinned.
    “Well, not all of them,” he laughed.
    “Why didn’t you come out and tell me what you did from the beginning?  Why the ruse?”
    “My job…it’s not something I go around broadcasting.  We keep it as quiet as possible, especially when it comes to an assignment like this.  We don’t just protect the President physically, but we have to maintain his privacy as well.  The less people know, the better, which is why I didn’t say anything.  If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t ask questions.”
    “It makes sense,” she said softly.
    “It’s just easier to stay anonymous.” 
    The room was quiet again.  Her fingers strummed anxiously on the arm of the chair and when she looked up, Ryan was staring at her.
    “So,” she finally began. “Was any of it real?  Was anything you told me the truth?”
    “Yes,” he said quickly. “Everything I told you was real, aside from my job.  My time in the service, my growing up in Arizona, my dad and brother…all real.”
    “Well, that’s good to know,” she said as her anxious fingers stopped.
    “I only told you about the security company because I didn’t expect to go out with you.  When Nate and I ran into you and Kenna at the bar, I thought we’d have a couple drinks, nothing more.  I never intended to go to the clam bake.  We weren’t going to go, but the more I told myself I shouldn’t go, the more I wanted to see you again, even though I knew I shouldn’t.  It’d just be easier to stay away.  Nate did everything to discourage me from going.  In our profession, we barely have time for ourselves, let alone a personal life.  He knew it was a bad idea, but I figured we’d go to the clam bake and that would be it.  But, obviously it wasn’t and now here I am laid up in a hospital bed and my nurse just happens to be a beautiful woman I thought I’d talked myself out of ever seeing again.”
    Mallory felt her cheeks burning and she looked away for a moment before turning back to him. 
    “Well, that is a complicated story just like you said it was when you came by to blow me off,” she said and he grinned.
    “I’m sorry I lied.”
    “So that’s why you disappeared after our date?  This was the complication you told me about.”
    He sighed and nodded.
    “President and Mrs. Bush had to leave town suddenly and I had to go with them.”
    Looking at him now, seemingly so helpless on the hospital bed, she knew he was sorry and he hadn’t meant to hurt her. 
    “I can see why you lied,” she began. “But thank you for telling me the truth now.”
    “When I looked up and saw you when they brought me in, I figured it wasn’t a coincidence.”
    “You don’t believe in coincidences?”
    “Not really.  I think there’s a reason for everything and seeing you again wasn’t a coincidence.”
    He cautiously reached through the railings of the hospital bed and took her hand.  It was soft and warm, just as she remembered when she’d held it earlier.  His