Free Guarding Sophie by Julie Brannagh Page A

night.
    â€œDid you sleep well?” he asked. “You weren’t uncomfortable? I didn’t mean for us to fall asleep on the couch.”
    That wasn’t the whole truth. He didn’t want her to leave. He’d promised to take things slowly, which was now biting him in the butt. He got that she was scared. He was too. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to do whatever he could to spend as much time with Sophie as possible.
    â€œI did,” she said. “I’ll be right back.” She scrambled off the couch and hurried into the downstairs powder room.
    Twenty minutes later, she’d pulled eggs, milk, and cheese out of the refrigerator to make them an omelet with toast and more fresh fruit. He glanced at his phone’s screen again after feeling it vibrate.
    His mom. He shut the phone off.
    â€œStill want to go on a picnic by the river today?” he asked.
    She glanced up from cracking eggs into a bowl. “I’d love to,” she said.

Chapter Eight
    T HE NEXT MORNING , Sophie opened her eyes to an initially unfamiliar room with a soaring ceiling flooded in the pinks and oranges of dawn. It took her a moment to remember exactly where she was.
    Beautiful house.
    Noel.
    Kyle .
    She heard his quiet snores. He was still holding her. His long legs sprawled out over the upholstered coffee table/ottoman he’d shoved up against the sectional to give them more room last night. They’d spent the past couple of days hanging out at his house when they weren’t visiting the sites around Noel.
    They went on a picnic yesterday. They’d stopped by the town square for a weeknight concert by a Scottish band called Sassenachs Gone Wild. She could now say that she’d heard “Silent Night” played on bagpipes. Kyle had asked her if she wanted to go to her place for a while.
    â€œDo I have to?” she had said.
    She still loved her little apartment, but she didn’t want him to leave, either. She knew she’d told him she wanted to take things slow, which made her a huge liar. She knew they’d camped out on his couch two nights in a row because he didn’t want her to feel pressured to get physically involved. She also knew she should try to maintain some air of mystery (or make him chase her a little; guys didn’t want what was easy to get) but she was having so much fun with him she didn’t want to go back to her quiet, solitary life quite yet.
    â€œWe still haven’t finished watching Pitch Perfect ,” he had said.
    â€œAre we ever going to finish watching it?”
    â€œIf we can stay awake long enough,” he had joked.
    She extracted herself carefully from his embrace.
    He muttered something she couldn’t make out and wrapped his arms around his midsection. If she was quiet, he might sleep for a while longer.
    She used the bathroom and walked into the kitchen. It wasn’t 7 AM yet. Maybe she should go back to sleep too. Right now, she’d like to stand on the deck off Kyle’s living room and admire the view.
    She glanced over at him as she passed the living room couch. He didn’t stir. She unlocked the French doors leading outside, strolled onto the deck, and took a deep breath of fresh, pine-scented air. It was one of those mornings she wished she had a really good camera. There was an okay one on the burner phone she was using right now. The really good camera was on her Samsung, which was shut off and buried in the bottom of her purse. She wondered why she couldn’t bring herself to throw it away. Then again, it hadn’t been cheap. Maybe she could sell it to someone else.
    She stared at an impossibly blue sky, puffy white clouds, and evergreens as far as the eye could see. She saw the snow-capped mountains ringing Noel, and she could hear birds calling out to each other. She laid one hand on the railing that surrounded Kyle’s porch.
    An odd flash caught her eye. She glanced in that direction.