She couldn’t even get upset at his words. He was right. For instance, she knew, intellectually and from reading social media posts, that Henry Cavill was supposed to be to-die-for handsome, but for Taylor, all she noticed was how, in his popular paranormal television series, his long hair looked like it needed to be washed all the time and how dirty he looked. She had little use for handsome with her condition. For her, it was all about how someone treated her.
And how he smelled, of course.
They stood staring at each other for a moment, then Eagle took her by the hand once more. He opened the door, and she followed him out into the parking lot. He held open the door of his Wrangler for her and shut it once she was settled. They drove back to her apartment in a comfortable silence. After he pulled into a parking space at her complex, he turned to her.
“Please take what Gramps said to heart. You’re welcome at Silverstone Towing at any time. I know you’re an introvert, but we aren’t just saying that to be polite. Believe me, we don’t invite just anyone to hang out there.”
“Thanks. I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable going over there without you, but I appreciate the invite all the same,” Taylor told him.
“I’m sure you could call Skylar, and she’d accompany you,” Eagle told her.
Taylor nodded. “I liked her. She’s nice.”
“She’s very nice,” Eagle agreed. “And . . . if you ever have any questions about our missions, you can go to her if you don’t think you can talk to me about it.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll walk you up,” Eagle said, unbuckling his seat belt.
“You don’t have to,” Taylor protested.
“Yes, I do,” he insisted and opened his door.
Taylor got out on her side and met him in front of the Jeep. “I’m a big girl,” she told him. “I’ve been walking up to my apartment by myself for a long time now.”
“I know. But it would make me feel better to know I delivered you all the way inside safe and sound. Humor me.”
She couldn’t argue with that. They walked together into her complex and up the stairs. She unlocked her apartment door . . . and immediately felt nervous. “Do you want to come in?” she asked.
He smiled down at her. “No, Flower, I need to get back to Silverstone. But I’ll take a rain check.”
“Okay,” she agreed. “Be safe out there.”
“I always am,” he said. Then he leaned down toward her.
Taylor held her breath as he got close. But instead of kissing her, he brushed his lips against her temple. “Have a good day,” he said quietly, then straightened. “Lock this immediately behind me.”
She could only nod. Then he was in the hall. He raised an eyebrow when she just stood there. Taylor forced herself to move and shut the door. She threw the dead bolt and heard his steps going down the hallway.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and leaned against her door.
What was wrong with her? She shouldn’t have been expecting him to kiss her. And she definitely shouldn’t have been disappointed when he hadn’t.
“Get a grip,” she said out loud. He was probably the best friend she’d ever had. She didn’t want to do anything to mess that up, despite his suggestion that they might date in the future. And kissing would definitely change things between them. Wouldn’t it?
Taylor was so confused. But she’d always been practical. Overthinking the situation wouldn’t change anything about it. So she pushed herself off the door and headed for her bedroom. She’d shower and get to work on proofreading the history textbook she’d picked up at the post office the other day. When she had something as dry and technical as a text, she usually broke up the monotony by also proofing a shorter speech or a romance novel. It helped her brain stay focused. And today, she needed to forget about Eagle and Silverstone. At least for a little while.
So much had happened in a short period of time. She’d never expected to meet someone who would become so important to her this quickly. If she was smart, she’d put some distance between herself and Eagle, but Taylor knew that wasn’t going to happen. She looked forward to chatting with him every night, even if they just talked about how their days had been. And now that he’d opened up and told her about Silverstone, something only a handful of people knew? There was no way she could hold him at arm’s length.
She had no idea what Eagle saw in her, but she hoped and prayed he wasn’t simply amusing himself. She hadn’t realized how badly she needed a friend, and giving up Eagle might just break her.
It was a weird feeling to miss someone. Eagle had never felt as close a connection with anyone as he did with Taylor. After dropping her off at her apartment, he’d gone back to Silverstone Towing and gotten on the road. He’d worked for a few hours, then met his team back at the garage, and they’d gone over the day’s intel they’d received from Willis.
But throughout the day, Taylor was always in the back of Eagle’s mind. What was she doing? Had she eaten lunch? Had she made a dent in the new textbook she was going to start on that day?
Eagle had always been something of a loner. He’d dated women, but never felt as if he needed to talk to them all the time, to be with them constantly. He supposed that made him kind of an asshole, but none of the women he’d gone out with had seemed to mind. Everything had always been casual. Whatever the connection was that he had with Taylor felt anything but.
He’d wanted to kiss her when he’d dropped her off. Really kiss her. But at the last minute, he had forced himself to give her a casual brush of his lips against her temple. The last thing he wanted to do was mess up what they had. Taylor needed a friend badly, and he was going to prove that he could be one for her. People she’d known in the past were assholes for letting her condition scare them away.
So what if she couldn’t recognize him by his looks? He’d seen the panic in her eyes that morning when he’d walked toward her at Silverstone. But the second he’d called her Flower, all the uncertainty had dissolved from her expression. If all it took to make her relax was a code word letting her know who he was, that was easy. Why no one else had bothered to try to help her in that way was a mystery.
But that was in the past. He’d seen how touched she’d been by Skylar’s gesture. Name tags were a great idea. She could identify everyone at a glance and wouldn’t have to rely on others to constantly introduce themselves.
Eagle would do whatever it took to increase her confidence and be the best friend he could be. He wouldn’t screw that up by letting his feelings for her get in the way . . . at least not so soon.
With that in mind, he relaxed on his couch and picked up his cell. He punched in her number and waited for her to pick up.
“Hey, Eagle.”
“Hi. I just wanted to see how your day went,” he said. He heard the volume of the music in the background lower.
“It was good.”
“What’d you do?”
For the next hour and a half, they talked about nothing and everything. She told him about getting started on the history textbook and how slowly it seemed to be going. When she asked about his meeting with his team, it felt so good to be able to be honest with her about what they’d discussed. He didn’t share specifics, but when he explained that they’d read firsthand accounts of some of the women who’d been forced into prostitution in Amsterdam, she’d been extremely empathetic.