Page 42 of What Started In Deception
He nodded. “Okay.”
She huffed out another breath as she rolled her eyes. “I saw a clip on the news a few weeks ago about a disabled dog and his seeing-eye companion. He’s visually impaired, and his best friend helps him get around. I started following them on Instagram.” Reaching for her phone on the coffee table, she scooted closer to him on the cushion. “I was scrolling just before you came over and saw this.”
He looked at the screen as an adorable golden retriever with its eyes sewn shut leaned against a fully sighted German shepherd while they ran together through the park.
“It’s just so sweet. Look at how happy they both are—how Archie gets to play and live his best life. See how Piper grabs his leash and guides him when he needs it?”
Ty stopped paying attention to the clip, studying Lydia instead, watching the way her pretty hazel eyes grew soft and misty as she smiled and pressed her hand to her heart.
“Whenever they post something new… It gets me every time.”
He couldn’t stop staring. She was so sweet and sexy—so fucking gorgeous. Her big, tender heart was damn near irresistible.
Lydia had caught his attention from the first moment he saw her photo in the dossier. He’d liked her pretty much from the beginning, but this… This was the dangerous territory that Danny had warned him about.
He swallowed, understanding that for the first time in his undercover career, he was in serious trouble.
She looked up, meeting his gaze. “Well, there it is. Now you know. I cry over dogs on Instagram.”
He grinned, so very much in trouble. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
She shrugged. “It’s certainly not something I want to broadcast.”
He let his thumb slide over her knuckles. “Having a big heart is nothing to be ashamed of.”
She shrugged again. “Just promise me you’ll keep my secret. No one else needs to know about this.”
“I cross my heart,” he said, following his words up with the action. “I’ll take it to my grave.”
She grinned.
He grinned back. “Do you want to get out of here? We can take a break and distract you from your Instagram dogs.”
She laughed. “Yes.”
He stood, wanting a distraction himself, even as he kept her hand in his as she gained her feet. “Let’s go teach you how to shoot a gun.”
She tossed him a less-than-enthusiastic look. “I can’t wait.”
His smile was back. “It’s going to be fun.” He tugged on her hand. “Come on.”
Lydia stood next to Ty in the indoor gun range, wearing the same fancy ear and eye protection that he did. Their shooting booth was slightly dingy, and the place smelled like a pungent mixture of sulfur and spent fireworks. As first impressions went, it was slightly underwhelming, but this was something that Ty liked to do, so she was here for it.
She studied his broad shoulders in his simple black T-shirt, letting her gaze trail down to shorts that accentuated his very squeezable butt.
Clearing her throat, she slid her hands into her pockets, focusing on him loading the last couple of bullets into a clip before he put a silhouette target onto the arm of a machine and sent it out to the back of the range with a button he pushed on the wall of their booth.
He looked at her. “Are you ready to give it a try?”
She shook her head. “You go first. Show off for me. I want to see what you can do.”
“Okay.” He shoved one of the magazines into his pistol and racked the slide before she could blink, then raised the gun in two hands, firing and hitting the same spot at center mass with every shot.
She swallowed, pressing her hand to her chest, feeling the vibration every time he pulled the trigger.
Dropping his empty clip, he added a new one and fired at the head, hitting dead center on the paper face every time. He dropped the clip again, checking the chamber, then set the gun down, meeting her gaze. “That was me showing off.”
She nodded. “I’m impressed.”
