Daryl stared up at me, his eyes wide for a moment until his expression calmed once again. I knew this whole situation wasn’t his fault, and it wasn’t right for me to shoot the messenger. It’s just that it all was too much sometimes, and this morning I was really feeling down. I sat again, feeling guilty for my outburst. It wasn’t even noon yet and I was exhausted.
“I’m sorry. I know you’re just doing your job, Daryl.”
“No problem. Everybody has to let off a little steam every so often. I understand.”
“Just tell me what you need me to do and I’ll do it,” I said, resigned to the fact that today was yet another day that I wouldn’t hear the words I so desperately wanted him to say.
“I need you to just stay strong. I can’t tell you when he’s coming back, but he will. You just have to believe.”
Nodding, I plastered a smile on my face. “Got it. Believe. I’m on it.”
“I also need you to make sure West and Varo know your every move.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he stopped me. “I know you don’t like it, but this is the way Tristan wants it. Those two are just doing their jobs too, so how about you give them a break?”
“Got it. Give the big guys a break.”
I wanted to scream that I wanted a break, but something about the way Daryl explained things made me feel like an ass for complaining. I lived a life most people would give their right arm for. I had a beautiful home, a cook who made my meals, a driver to take me wherever my heart desired, and bodyguards to ensure my safety. Tristan had made sure my bank account had swelled to a sum more than I could spend in ten years. There wasn’t a thing I couldn’t buy. What on Earth did I have to complain about?
Tristan may have felt some bond with Daryl, but to me he was merely the bearer of bad tidings. Just once I wished he would show up with a smile on his hairy face and tell me that all this was over and Tristan was coming home.
Daryl took out his small notebook from his jacket and began to flip through the pages searching for some detail he believed I needed to know. I craned my neck in an effort to see what he’d written, but I couldn’t read his handwriting upside down. He licked the pad of his thumb and flipped up one last page before he scanned what he’d written and nodded.
Raising his gaze to look at me, he said in a serious voice, “I knew I had one more thing to talk to you about. You’re going to have to hire a gardener or caretaker for the grounds now that the weather is getting better.”
“This is what you searched for in your little notebook? A gardener? I can’t just have West or Varo do it?” Actually, since West was always so abrupt with me, I liked the idea of him stuck on a riding mower for hours a few times a month, but something told me that Jordan would be all about seeing Varo shirtless and weed whacking. She’d tried in vain to get his attention for weeks since she realized the gorgeous man she’d seen at the bar that night months ago lived just yards away from her.
Furrowing his brow, Daryl groaned. “No. They guard you. They don’t prune hedges.”
Daryl was no fun at all. “Fine. Then I’ll get a gardener.”
Finished with our meeting, he stood and looked down at me to ask the question he always asked right before he left. “Is there anything you need?”
I took a deep breath in and slowly let it out, letting my shoulders sag. Looking up at him, I said, “Please tell me if you’ve talked to him. Please.”
His face was expressionless but finally he nodded. “I have. He asked about you, and I told him you were holding up.”
“Is he okay? Is he hurt?”
A shadow crossed Daryl’s face, and I knew his next words would be a lie. “He’s fine.”
Just the way his voice dropped when he said the word “fine” told me Tristan was anything but that. Fear raced through me at the thought of what condition he was actually in. My heart pounding against my chest, I asked, “Is he hurt? Tell me, please.”
“Don’t worry. If he’s hurting, it’s only because he isn’t here with you.”
Daryl moved to walk away, and I grabbed his arm to stop him. “Would you tell him something for me?”
“Sure.”
“Tell him I’ll be waiting right here.”
I let go of Daryl’s arm and he walked away without saying another word. I sat there for a long time thinking about the night Tristan and I had spent together after getting to know each other right there on that couch. God, that seemed like so long ago, even though it wasn’t even a year that had passed. So much had changed between then and now.