Burned again. How could I keep falling for it?

Dahlia didn’t rest well at night after Cy left the house. Alone with the thoughts of what he said and his kiss that still left a scorching mark on her mouth, she tossed in bed. She let her emotions get control of her again when it came to him. Of course, he was always quick to master his. The job, the mission, always came first.

She hired him to protect her. It wasn’t as though she had a reason to fault him for delivering on his promise. She just wished he wouldn’t keep using it as an excuse to brush away the attraction he felt. Dahlia knew it was there in the way he looked at and touched her.

She pulled the covers higher to her chin. What did she want, to date him? Cy was a billionaire owner of a security firm, a very busy and powerful man. Aside from being her bodyguard, he probably thought they had nothing in common. Maybe the kiss and them making out on the couch brought nostalgia for him, but nothing else. So he left because he didn’t want things to go further and mislead her into thinking they could have a real relationship.

Why am I doing this to myself? Dahlia turned over in bed, annoyed with her thoughts. She wasn’t eighteen anymore, hurt and preoccupied with her boyfriend leaving to join the military. She was grown and had her own goals and dreams, yet here she was, tossing in bed thinking about Cy and a few kisses cut short.

The launch of her line was in six days. From this point forward, she would take Cy’s advice and focus on what she needed to do. No more distractions. He was there to be her bodyguard. Nothing less.

And definitely, according to him, nothing more.

***

SHE SPENT THE REST of the week and half of the next with her head down working to prepare for her makeup line’s launch. Cy was always quiet. She didn’t have time to decipher his moods, and chose not to make time to do so.

The day before the launch, Nelle showed her the list of orders on the computer. “We haven’t even officially launched yet and we’re nearly sold out of the lip and eyeshadow kits.”

“That’s incredible.”

Nelle set the tablet aside. “Are you sure everything’s going well with you?  You seem distracted a little today. No, scratch that. You’ve been quiet all week.”

She chose her words with care. “I guess I’ve had a lot on my mind lately in addition to the launch.”

“I feel so bad about Mary Marsters.” Her intern nodded, with understanding and sympathy. “At least we can be positive about this, right?”

“Absolutely.” Dahlia straightened her work area and got up to stretch. It wasn’t doing any good for her to let Nelle see her in a sour mood. Her interns worked hard to help her make this launch possible. She owed it to them and herself to be happy about the accomplishment. She willed herself to focus on that instead of letting thoughts of Cy and the ongoing Mary Marsters investigation compete for her attention. “Did you hear from the news studio about tomorrow’s segment?”

“I just got off the phone with the station manager. They’re expecting you on set at seven sharp tomorrow morning.”

“Bright and early, huh? Guess I better go home and get some rest so I’ll be able to wake up and put my game face on straight.”

“You know you’re gonna rock it.”

Dahlia was glad she hired Nelle and Brandon as interns. They were both positive in an industry that could often be mean and petty. She hoped wherever they went to next, they didn’t lose their enthusiasm. “See you late tomorrow morning, then.”

“Nope. We’ll be seeing you at seven, along with everyone else in the greater Atlanta metro area.”

“Now that you put it that way, I’m really nervous. I’ll try to tell myself it’s like uploading a video on social media, only in real time with thousands of people watching.”

Nelle looked doubtful. “Are you sure that’s a better way of looking at it?”

“Probably not.” Dahlia laughed it off. “See you tomorrow.”

She left the office and joined Cy outside by the conference room. He was looking over something on his phone. She was certain the app designed by his firm had more coding and programming in it than two blocks of real estate in Silicon Valley.

“All done preparing for your launch tomorrow?” He asked, putting the phone down.

An emotion ran through her as she looked at his face. She tried to move past the momentary feeling. “Yes, finally. Now I just need my beauty sleep. I’m going home and calling it a day.”

He drove her home. Along the way, she let him in on the details surrounding tomorrow’s launch and television spot. “I’m supposed to be live on the air at seven in the morning, so that means I need to be there by six-thirty at the latest. Which also means—”

“I need to be at your house at dark-thirty to pick you up.” He turned to her with a handsome half-smile. “I got it.”

Her stomach did a little somersault. Even a decade later, his smile could still cause a reaction. Did he know what he was doing? Likely not, because if he knew how she felt, he’d probably frown. Or worse, grimace. “Don’t stay up too late tonight.” She got the car and went to her house.

During the next couple hours, she ironed her dress and picked out shoes to get ready for tomorrow morning. She made sure her makeup bag was fully-stocked for the demonstration. She shampooed the makeup brushes and let them dry on the sink while she prepared a quick dinner of spaghetti noodles and parmesan cheese, an old standby from when she had to work long days and spend her evenings in cosmetology school.

By the time she ate her dinner and got everything together for the next day, it was a little after nine. She changed into a t-shirt and pajama pants to go to bed. She hoped the chamomile tea she made would do the trick to send her off to dreamland.

Sure enough, she felt the first of its calming effects by a quarter to ten. She turned out the light and drifted off.

Sometime later, she was jolted awake by the blaring sound of an alarm. Was it a police siren? It sounded like it was coming from inside of the house. That’s when she realized it was her burglar alarm system going off.

Her heart tried to tear a hole in her chest. Someone was either breaking into her house or already inside.

She jumped up from the bed, grabbed the softball bat from under it, and scrambled to lock the bedroom door. She heard another ringing sound, this one softer than the blaring alarm. She looked to her nightstand and saw that her phone was ringing. She scraped it up and glanced at the caller ID. It was the alarm system company. “Someone’s trying to get into my house.”

“We received the alarm signal,” a man’s professional, monotone voice droned calmly from the other end. “Am I speaking to Dahlia Dean?”

She tucked the bat under her arm and covered one ear so she could hear him over the loud alarm. “Yes. Can you help me?  I don’t know what’s going on. I was asleep when the alarm went off.”

“Yes, ma’am. A call has been dispatched the police to come to your house. May I have the code to turn off your alarm?”

Dahlia had to focus hard to remember the code. She never thought she’d have to use it. When she remembered it, she gave it to him. “One five five one seven.”

“Thank you. Just a moment.”

Ten seconds later, the alarm stopped. Dahlia’s ears were still ringing. She dropped down on the bed, relieved the loud alarm was gone, but knew she wasn’t safe if there was an intruder in the house.

“The police should be on their way.” The man on the line talked to her as though they were discussing some pizza she ordered online. “We’ll call back later to schedule a system maintenance check. In the meantime, is there anything else I can do for you, ma’am?”

Not unless you know who or what tripped my alarm. “I’ll wait for the cops.” She hung up and dialed Cy’s number. He answered on the fourth ring.

“Yeah?” Sleep made his voice heavy.

“It’s Dahlia. I know it’s really late, but I need you to come over. My alarm went off. Somebody tried to break into my house and I don’t know if they’re still here.”

“Where are you at in your house?” His voice became clear. He sounded completely awake.

“In my bedroom. I locked the door when I woke up and heard the alarm. The alarm company said the police are on their way.”

“Stay in your room. Don’t unlock the door. I’ll be right over.”

She got off the phone and sat on the edge of the bed. She rested the bat on her knees. Dahlia listened for sounds inside the house. The house was still. She got up and carried the bat with her to the window. Using the head, she peeled back the curtain at the corner.

The streetlamp shone in the cul de sac. Everything looked normal. She edged closer to the window to peer down in the driveway. What happened to the night patrol? Shouldn’t they be circling the neighborhood? She wondered why tonight the night patrol went missing.

She stepped away from the window and picked up her phone to check the time. It was a quarter past one in the morning.

She heard a car door open and shut outside. She went to the window again and looked out to see Cy’s car in the driveway. He approached the steps to the front porch.

She unlocked the door to her room and flipped the light on in the hallway. It was clear. She shot down the stairs and went to unlock the front door.

“Dahlia, I told you not to unlock your bedroom door.”

“How else was I supposed to let you in?”

“I was going to call you after I checked your property to make sure it was clear.” He held his hand out to keep her from coming out of the house any further. He stepped inside and walked through the kitchen before climbing the stairs. She heard the door to the guest room open and close before he came down. “There’s no one else inside your house. Wait here.”

She lingered in the doorway while he went around to the side of the house. The draft from the front door sent chills she could feel through her pajamas. She shivered, both from the cold and the fact her alarm went off with apparently no one or nothing to trigger it.

Cy reappeared at the door. “All clear outside, too.”

She made room for him to step inside. He closed the door after him. He cast a look at the bat in her hands. “Is that from when you were on the softball team during junior year?”

“I thought it might come in handy one day. Was I wrong?”

“Good thinking. I got in touch with night patrol. He drove up the road to the gas station and got a flat. Said he found a couple nails in his tire.”

“Did he run over them?”

“I found these along the curb.” Cy reached into his pocket and withdrew three nails. “Were your neighbors doing construction work today?”

“No. It’s been quiet here.”

“Somebody either dropped these or put them there, because they weren’t by the curb when I took you home yesterday or I would have gotten a flat tire.”

She put the bat down and took one of the nails from his hand. The tip gleaned sharp in the light. “Somebody could have left them there on purpose. This is crazy.”

Sirens wailed up the road. The police were on their way.

Within a minute, two cruisers pulled up to her driveway. One officer came inside while the other canvassed her property as Cy had done a few minutes ago.

“Did you see or hear anything suspicious after your alarm went off?” asked the officer. “Footsteps or glass breaking?”

She shook her head. “No, I didn’t hear anything.”

The second officer the house. “Everything looks good outside. No signs of break-in.”

It should have been good news, but the uncertainty left Dahlia nervous. “Why did my alarm go off?”

“Anything could have triggered it. The wind, a neighbor’s cat. We get calls like this often.”

Cy showed them the nails. “I’m with Iron Guard Security. She’s my client. I found these along the curb. They caused one of my night patrol guys to get a flat tire.”

The officers looked at the nails and shrugged. “Someone could have dropped them there.”

“ On purpose, you think?”

“It’s hard to say. If there were signs of break-in, maybe, but we can’t find anything.”

The police did one last check inside and outside the house before they left. Dahlia watched their cruisers get swallowed up by the night when they headed up the road. She drew her shoulders up and forced them down on a loud exhale. “The cops don’t think it’s anything, but something triggered my alarm. The night patrol got a flat tire and then you found nails on the curb. Doesn’t sound like a coincidence to me.”

“This isn’t enough evidence for the police to go looking for someone.”

“I know that. I’m just wondering if it was something harmless that set off my alarm or someone did it on purpose. And if it was on purpose, who was it? Kids pulling pranks late at night? The person who threw the brick in my window before?”

“I don’t know. I hate not having an answer for you.”

Dahlia rubbed her arms. She turned the heat down earlier and now truly felt the chill in the house. “I don’t want to stay here alone tonight. I’m going to pack my stuff and check into a hotel.”

“I can stay here. Your house is closer to the news studio, anyway.”

“I don’t want to ask you to do that for me.”

“You’re not asking. It was my idea.”

Her breathing slowed and she felt her body start to calm down. “I have a guest room. I’ll run and get sheets and towels.”

“Don’t go through all that trouble. I’ll be down here on the couch.” He pressed a button on his car key fob. “I just have to get my bag with a change of clothes from my car.”

A twinge of guilt went through her. “Sorry to have to make you deploy your emergency kit.”

“Dahlia, stop apologizing,” he said, on his way to her door. “You have to get up in a few hours. Go back upstairs and get some sleep.”

“Easier said than done.” Her nerves were jumpy enough to launch her into next Tuesday. Dahlia figured it would be a while before she became drowsy again. At least with Cy here, she didn’t have to worry about an intruder again. She went upstairs and back to her bedroom.