The Bodyguard

Hannah wakes up in bed with Jack and finds several unread texts about a seemingly intimate picture of her and Jack at the hospital; the pictures has gone viral. Jack’s stalker has also shared details about his location online and has left a note at his Houston house describing her intentions to kill his new girlfriend. At the surveillance headquarters, Glenn and Robby are convinced that Hannah should be removed from the case now that her life has been threatened. They tell her to reveal the truth to Jack’s family, and Glenn assigns Robby to take her place but assures her that she is not out of the running for the London promotion. He tells her to lay low at her apartment while Taylor watches over her.

Jack has seen the news by the time Hannah gets back to the ranch house, and the two go down to the river. Hannah explains what is going on with his security detail, and Jack thinks that she should stay and be protected with him. She tells him that this will be the last day they will ever see each other, and Jack is determined to make it a good day. Jack carries her back out to the river, and they talk about his movies; Jack tells Hannah that even the acting she found most realistic in his movies is actually fake.

At dinner, Hannah begins to bring up the truth about her and Jack’s relationship, but when she attempts to tell the family, Connie and Doc assume that they are about to announce their engagement, and this misunderstanding makes it even harder to admit the truth. When they tell the family that Hannah is Jack’s bodyguard, Connie does not believe it because she thinks they are in love with each other, but each reaffirms that their “relationship” was a sham. Connie only gets angry when Jack tells her that Hannah has been sleeping on the floor. Hank gets angry and calls Jack selfish for putting their family in danger.

The brothers begin to fight again, and for the first time in the novel, Hank directly accuses Jack of causing Drew’s death. Furious, Jack confesses that he was not driving during the accident. Jack says that Drew was driving, and that he had not realized that Drew had been drinking until they were already on the road. He reveals that Drew only sped up when Jack told him to pull over, and that Drew’s last wish was for Jack not to tell his parents or Hank what had actually happened. After his confession, Jack feels guilty about failing to keep Drew’s secret, but he and Hank begin to reconcile. Once the brothers have gone outside, Connie asks whether they will ever see Hannah again. Hannah says no but admits that she has become more attached to them than she ever has with any other clients. Hannah confesses that the Stapletons felt like the family she had always wanted. When Connie tells her that she thinks Jack really does like her, Hannah suggests that he is a better actor than she thinks.

One of Hannah’s co-workers comes to pick her up before Jack and Hank return, and although she waits for Jack for a moment, she knows that she has to go. As they are driving away, Hannah sees Jack chasing after her and goes to talk to him. He sincerely thanks her for everything she has done and apologizes for putting her life in danger. She tells him that he did the right thing by telling the truth about Drew, but she is forced to leave so much unsaid about her true feelings for him. They part on professional terms, but as she walks away, Jack tells her that he really will miss her and that he is not acting.

Hannah returns to a new apartment that she rented unseen after hastily moving out of her previous apartment, which was located right next to Taylor’s. Her attempt at escape is unsuccessful, however, for Taylor is the very EPA whom Glenn assigns to guard her in her new apartment. Refusing to turn her new place into a proper home, Hannah plans to leave her things packed so that nothing will tie her to Houston and she will be able to leave both her hometown and her problems behind, as was her intention before she ever met Jack. She tries not to think about Jack, but three nights after her departure from the ranch, she comes across a video of Kennedy Monroe, Jack’s suspected Hollywood girlfriend, paying Jack a visit in Houston. Hannah texts Glenn to see if he knows about the camera crew that Kennedy brought to Jack’s house, and he says that the situation has already been handled. In the video, Kennedy surprises Jack with an interview, and Hannah finally realizes that she can tell when Jack is and is not acting and she perceives that he is not actually attracted to Kennedy. At the end of the video, Kennedy asks Jack to marry her, and the video abruptly cuts off. When Hannah replays the video to make sure she has not missed anything, she sees her beaded safety pin on Jack’s necklace.

Hannah does not have time to react because Robby is at her door, trying once again to talk to her and convince her to resume a romantic relationship with him. He tries to explain that he knows he made the wrong choice by breaking up with her, even though Taylor is within earshot of his pleas as she fulfills the task of guarding Hannah’s apartment. Robby tells her once again that he is the victim in the relationship because she would not let him in, and although Hannah recognizes that the latter part of his argument is true, she realizes that she did not love Robby but she does love Jack.