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revelation had pushed Janessa’s already strained nerves into overdrive.
    She had expected suspicions to arise about Garrett’s religious preferences as time went on, especially once he became a regular member of the local congregation in Bellamo. What she hadn’t anticipated was for the information to leak so quickly. She understood Garrett’s need for privacy, but the fact that the CIA knew of his baptism only proved that people liked to talk and that eventually someone in the media was going to find out that Garrett had strayed from the Meridian Church.
    Not willing to put a damper on their weekend with her family, Janessa had chosen to keep this new information to herself for now. Today she had enough to worry about, although she wasn’t sure if she was more concerned about what Garrett would think of her family or the other way around.
    “You aren’t nervous, are you?” Garrett asked with a touch of amusement in his voice. “I’m the one who should be nervous.”
    Janessa glanced over at him. “Why should you be nervous? You’re a potential father-in-law’s dream.”
    His eyebrows winged up. “Oh really?”
    “Oh yeah.” Humor danced in her eyes. “A handsome prince who’s also kind and generous. You’re definitely a keeper.”
    Garrett grinned at her. “Glad you think so.”
    “I know so.” Janessa leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. Warmth spread through her, but the kiss did little to calm the nerves fluttering in her stomach.
    Garrett looked over at her, his expression becoming serious. “You really are nervous. Why?”
    She shifted restlessly. “I always get nervous when I go home to see my family. They have a tendency to ask questions I’m not prepared to answer.” She glanced at the back of the plane, where her sister and brother-in-law were sitting, their month-old daughter strapped into a car seat between them. Instinctively, Janessa lowered her voice. “I don’t like lying to them.”
    “Why would you lie to them?”
    Janessa looked at him, a little surprised that he didn’t already understand her reasons. “Because they always want to know how work is going, and I hate not being able to tell them the truth about what I do.”
    “Surely they know you can’t talk about your work. That’s the nature of the CIA.”
    Understanding dawned on her, the realization that he didn’t know how deep her cover ran. “Garrett, they don’t know I work for the CIA.”
    His eyes widened. “Your own family doesn’t know who you work for?”
    Janessa shook her head. “Of course not. No one knows who I work for except the people I work with. Even when I was working in Venezuela, only a handful of people knew I was really an intelligence officer.”
    “Wait a minute.” Garrett held up a hand and shook his head as though trying to clear his confusion. “You’re telling me your parents don’t know why you’ve been in Meridia all this time?”
    “They believe what the tabloids have told them. They think I met you a few years ago and that I went to Meridia to visit you.” She rolled her eyes. “Believe me, I’ve had a ton of e-mails from my family over the past few months asking why I never told them I knew you.”
    “Surely you can tell them the truth now.”
    Her eyebrows drew together as she considered the implications. Then she shook her head again. “No, I couldn’t do that. Besides the fact that I signed a secrecy agreement with the CIA, I don’t think either of us wants to take the chance of one of my siblings sharing my secrets. Could you imagine what would happen if the newspapers got wind of the fact that I work for the Agency?”
    “Don’t you trust them?”
    “It’s just safer if they don’t know the truth,” Janessa insisted. She drew a breath as though steadying herself, and he was surprised to see the raw emotion in her eyes. “A few years ago, a friend of mine was working undercover for the CIA. His brother was all bent out of shape about holiday plans,