Opening
When movie star Jack Stapleton doubts the tiny, deadpan Hannah Brooks, she drops him flat and lands the job—twice. But his real ask complicates Protection and Security: to shield his sick mother, Connie Stapleton, he needs Hannah to pretend she’s his girlfriend. The charade forces them into close quarters, where performance keeps colliding with feelings neither of them plans to have.
What Happens
Chapter 6: You're Double Hired
Their first meeting sours when Jack decides Hannah looks too small to protect him. He challenges her to “jujitsu” him. She agrees—and with one smooth throw, plants him on his back. Wincing but grinning, he declares her “double hired.”
Then the catch: Connie has cancer, and she can’t know about stalkers or bodyguards. Jack proposes a cover story—Hannah will be his girlfriend. The pivot from physical defense to emotional shielding is immediate, and Hannah bristles at being drafted into a lie.
Hannah storms to the office to confront Glenn Schultz, who admits he knew the plan. He calls it low-risk, high-pay, and dangles a dream Korea assignment if she plays along. As she weighs it, Robby saunters in and sneers that no one would buy Hannah as Jack’s girlfriend. Before she can answer, Jack arrives, drops to his knees, and begs her to help him protect his mom. The public plea—and the chance to spite Robby—tips Hannah over. She agrees, claiming a quiet, hard-won victory.
Chapter 7: The Very Personal Questionnaire
The next morning, Hannah rides shotgun to the ranch in a “girlfriend” sundress, not her armor-like pantsuit—pure Appearance vs. Reality. While she runs her intake questions, Jack opens up: he has recurring drowning nightmares and a phobia of both water and bridges, hinting at buried loss and Grief, Family, and Healing.
When they reach the Brazos River, Jack halts the car, gets out, and walks the bridge on foot. Hannah drives it over alone. The workaround is a literal act of Facing Your Fears, and it reframes Jack from swaggering star to a man managing real terror. As they finalize the rules of their fake relationship, he assures her she’s “totally his type.” They agree on hand-holding and a “stage kiss,” where his mouth touches his thumb, to sell the story without crossing the line.
Chapter 8: The Cows
They find Hank Stapleton in a field off the long gravel approach. The air crackles. Jack walks out to meet him; the exchange is curt and cold. Hank says Connie isn’t well enough for visitors and turns them away, exposing a family rift as wide as the pasture.
Back in the car, a curious cow shoves its head through Hannah’s open window and licks her arm. She yelps. Jack sprints back, then bursts into laughter when he sees the bodyguard paralyzed by cows and a halo of bovine faces crowding the car. As they drive off, he’s still laughing—grateful for the lightness in a grim week. The moment cracks their tension and gives them their first unforced connection.
Chapter 9: I'm Allergic to Everything
At Jack’s house, the security team finishes building a garage command center. Hannah slips back into her pantsuit and control—until she spots a surveillance feed of Robby kissing her best friend, Taylor, by the pool. The betrayal floors her. Jack finds her crying, and, almost without thinking, brushes away her tears with his sleeve.
Robby tries to corner her, but Jack slides an arm around Hannah and shuts it down with calm authority. He drives her home in her car, asks gently if Robby is her boyfriend. “Anymore,” she says, breaking her no-personal-info rule. In a clean reversal, Jack becomes the protector and Hannah the one who needs guarding—early proof of Love and Vulnerability weaving into their ruse.
Chapter 10: Someone Real
Hannah and Doghouse escort Jack to the hospital for Connie’s surgery. Standing watch in the hall, Hannah mistakes Hank for Jack and blurts that Jack isn’t supposed to leave his room. Cornered, she introduces herself as Jack’s girlfriend. Hank remembers her as “the one who’s afraid of cows” and ushers her into Connie’s room anyway.
Hannah, out of costume and rattled, freezes—until Jack steps in. He cups her face and performs a perfect “stage kiss,” thumb and all. The room warms. Doc and Connie welcome her; Connie calls Hannah “someone real.” The doctor delivers good news, and Connie asks them to come stay at the ranch until Thanksgiving, locking the lovers-pretending-to-be-lovers into close quarters.
Key Events
- The takedown: Hannah flips Jack with a clean jujitsu throw and wins the job.
- The ruse: To protect Connie, Hannah must pose as Jack’s girlfriend.
- The office showdown: Glenn plays carrot-and-stick; Robby humiliates Hannah; Jack’s knees-on-the-floor plea seals the deal.
- The bridge: Jack walks across while Hannah drives, revealing his phobias and past hurt.
- The cows: Hannah’s fear disarms Jack and opens real rapport.
- The betrayal: Hannah catches Robby and Taylor kissing on camera.
- The role reversal: Jack shields Hannah and drives her home.
- The stage kiss: The performance convinces Connie and Doc—and rattles Hannah because it feels real.
- The invitation: Connie asks them to stay at the ranch through Thanksgiving.
Character Development
Hannah’s professional shell shows its seams as the assignment forces her into softness she doesn’t trust and into a lie she doesn’t want—yet she keeps rising to the job.
- Proves lethal competence, then gets maneuvered into a fake romance she can’t control
- Feels exposed in a sundress, comforted in a pantsuit
- Reacts with raw panic to Robby and Taylor’s betrayal and accepts care from Jack
- Reveals surprising fears (cows) that humanize her in Jack’s eyes
Jack’s swagger gives way to complexity: a devoted son hiding phobias and pain, capable of both asking for help and offering it.
- Hires Hannah for skill, not image, after she floors him—literally
- Drives the girlfriend ruse to protect Connie, not his career
- Manages bridge and water fears with workarounds and honesty
- Comforts Hannah and plays protective boyfriend with effortless authenticity
Robby and Taylor emerge as sources of betrayal, clarifying Hannah’s isolation and the high emotional stakes.
The Stapletons split into two currents: Hank’s hostility signals old wounds; Connie and Doc radiate warmth and hope.
Themes & Symbols
Appearance vs. reality steers everything: Hannah doesn’t look like a bodyguard yet is lethal; Jack’s action-hero image hides terror of bridges and water; their romance is pretend—and yet the pretend moments (the stage kiss, the hand on a shoulder) land real blows.
Protection and security expands beyond bodyguarding. Hannah must keep Jack physically safe and preserve Connie’s peace. Then the axis tilts: Jack protects Hannah emotionally when her life implodes on a monitor. Protection becomes mutual, elastic, and intimate.
Grief, family, and healing flicker through quiet confessions and loud silences. Jack’s phobias hint at past loss. Hank’s rejection signals unresolved hurt. Connie’s illness pulls everyone together and creates a space where mending might actually happen.
Symbols track Hannah’s inner shifts. The pantsuit is armor and control. The sundress is exposure and risk. The “stage kiss” is their entire relationship in miniature: an illusion that feels true, a boundary that blurs the second it’s touched.
Key Quotes
“You’re double hired.” Jack’s instant reversal after the jujitsu throw confirms he values competence over optics and sets a playful tone for a partnership built on surprise and respect.
“You’re totally my type.” What starts as smoothing the ruse needles at the truth: attraction is already threading through the script, complicating the boundaries they try to draw.
“Anymore.” Hannah’s one-word confession after Jack asks about Robby distills heartbreak and isolation, and it cracks her professional distance in front of her client.
“Someone real.” Connie’s blessing both validates Hannah and frames the novel’s core question: can a fake relationship incubate the thing it pretends to be?
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters set the novel’s engine: the fake-girlfriend cover that relocates the story to the Stapleton ranch, where proximity, family tension, and Connie’s illness press every nerve. Power flips early—Hannah protects Jack’s body, Jack protects Hannah’s heart—and that reciprocity becomes the spine of their connection. The cows, the bridge, the stage kiss, and the sundress turn into touchstones for a larger arc: moving from performance to authenticity, from guardedness to trust, and from a job to a relationship that might outlast the ruse.