Not that Gabe needed any shortcuts to her heart, but if he did, he’d just found one. Compliments about her kids or her jewelry were her soft spot.
She stared at him, trying to reconcile whether or not he was for real. Adriana wasn’t sure what she’d expected to find when she met him, but the person who was sitting beside her was better than she could’ve ever dreamed of.
And she was lying to him.
Okay. This was it. One more sip and it was cards-on-the-table time.
As she lifted the glass to her mouth, he commented, “You must be so busy with the kids, the jewelry, and the blog.”
The last word caused her to down the rest of her drink.
Go time.
Before the base of the glass hit the table, she said, “Actually, about that—”
“Sorry to interrupt, but we had to come over and tell you something.”
Adriana looked up and saw two girls standing at their table. One had a pink stripe in her hair, and the other had a purple one. She assumed they wanted to take a picture with Gabe or get his autograph or something, but they were both looking at her.
“Me?” she asked.
“Yes.” The blonde nodded a little too emphatically, and the girl with the purple stripe held onto her friend’s arm.
Adriana could see that they were a little tipsy and she had no idea what they wanted to say to her.
The mystery was solved when the blonde pointed at Adriana. “You are a lucky girl.”
Purple stripe seconded it. “Yes, you are.”
Then the blonde continued, but this time she pointed her finger at Gabe. “We tried to pick him up and not only did he turn us down, he was so classy about it. He bought us each a drink. And then when I asked him to join us, he said he was meeting someone.”
“You!” Purple stripe exclaimed. “You’re a lucky girl.”
Adriana wasn’t sure what to say to the women. “Um…thank you.”
“Okay, that’s all. We’re leaving now.” The blonde turned to her friend. “Do you have the keys?”
Neither of them were in any shape to drive so Adriana asked, “Do you need me to call an Uber?”
They both looked at her like she was crazy. “What?”
“I can get you an Uber,” Adriana offered in case money was an issue.
The blonde’s brow wrinkled. “You want an Uber to take us to the B&B? It’s just right there.”
“The Mountain Meadow B&B is behind the bar,” Gabe filled her in.
“Oh, okay. Never mind.” Adriana waved her hand.
The girls continued searching in their purses for the keys as they left the table.
When they did, Gabe was looking at her with an expression she couldn’t quite place.
“What?” she asked.
“You didn’t want them to drive,” he stated, almost as if he couldn’t believe what she’d done.
“I know.” She shrugged in embarrassment. “I can’t help it. It’s the mom in me.”
His expression grew serious. The corners of his strong jaw ticked. “They were wrong.”
Adriana was confused. “Huh?”
“About you being the lucky one. They were wrong. I am.”
Oh boy.
On paper, everything that Gabe said to her sounded like a bad pickup line. But being on the receiving end of those lines, it didn’t feel cheesy. It felt sincere.
That doesn’t matter, she told herself.
There were bigger issues at hand. Jonah. He was the reason she was here.
She lifted her glass, intending to take one more drink, but when she did, she saw that it was empty, that was the bad news. The good news was, she was feeling a little bit more relaxed. She had a reputation for having a lot to say when she had a little buzz on.
She was staring at the glass when she heard him ask, “Do you want another one?”
“Yes.”
She did. Then she was going to tell him everything.
Chapter 8
‡
Fresh, brisk air whipped over Gabe’s face as branches crunched beneath his feet. He strained to make his legs move faster as rock music blasted through his earbuds.
The sun was rising over the mountains as day broke. He was hoping his morning run would clear his head. Some people hated getting up early in the morning and exercising. He loved it. He’d always been a firm believer in starting his day by pushing his body to the limit. It was cathartic and therapeutic.
Some people meditate, and he’d tried to do that as well, but his brain just couldn’t shut off. Running did that for him. It gave his brain a break. Training took focus, running he could just be, and it was restoring for him. During his treatment, he’d been unable to do it, and since then he never took this time for granted.
This morning he wasn’t in the zone of nothingness. He was thinking about last night. After Adriana’s fourth drink, Gabe had suggested to her that it was time to go. She’d argued at first, telling him that this was her adult weekend and she didn’t have kids to take care of. Then once she agreed, it had required even more convincing to let him drive her home. She’d insisted that she could walk. In the dark. Five miles. If she’d stuck to her guns, he would’ve escorted her, but he was glad she’d finally, begrudgingly accepted his ride.
As much as he’d hated to cut her adult night short, he didn’t feel like he had a choice once she’d started slurring her words.
He’d learned a lot about her last night. The more drinks she’d had, the more personal things had gotten. Some of the things she revealed had haunted him all night. He’d barely slept.
One drink in: “I design jewelry.”
He was so impressed. It was a piece of art.
Two drinks in: “I was raised in a small town in Arizona in a commune of hippies. My mother wasn’t traditional in any sense of the word. Growing up, I was alone a lot until Emily moved in. She graduated early and was in the local community college.
“Emily was more than a cousin. She was my sister and best friend. When Emily left to go to a four-year in California, I followed her. I helped her with Jonah when he was little, and she helped me with the girls. She was my person.”
The way Adriana talked about her mother, it was clear that she loved her. But it was also obvious that the woman had let her daughter down a lot. Thank God she’d had Emily. She was her support system. Her everything.
Three drinks in: “Emily was diagnosed with high-grade Glioma only three months before she passed away. The last few weeks of her life, before she’d gone into hospice care, Emily and Jonah moved in with me. We knew that things weren’t looking good and we thought it would make the transition easier for him if he was already in the house he’d be living in.
“But now I’m afraid everywhere he looks, all he sees is his mom being sick. On the couch. In the bathroom. In the master bedroom.” Tears had filled her eyes as she said, “I’m worried because that’s all I see.”
It had been everything Gabe could do to not pull Adriana in his arms and promise her that he’d take all of her pain away. Somehow, someway he’d take it away, and he’d never let anything hurt her again. He more than anyone knew those were not promises he could keep.
Thinking of Adriana going through that time alone made him sick to his stomach. His brother and cousin had been there to take care of him, and it had taken both of them. And they only had him to worry about, no kids. Adriana had had to do that with twins and a young boy who had to be terrified, angry, and confused.
Gabe wasn’t sure how she’d been so strong and still come out the other side with the sweetest heart.
Four drinks in: “James, the father of my twins, is the lead singer of the band Resident Threat. We dated on and off for three years. Then I got pregnant, and he promised to tour less. He said that we were going to be a family. He loved me and he loved our baby.
“When we found out it was twins, he said that was even better. He’d always wanted two kids, and now we’d knock ’em both out at the same time. Cut to me, eight
months along, and he tells me he doesn’t think this is going to work and he left to go on a European Tour.
“When they were three months old, he was served with child support payments and a lawyer contacted me saying that he would sign away all parental rights to negate his financial responsibility. So he did. Without ever even seeing them.”
For the life of him, he couldn’t imagine what would possess a man to walk away from his pregnant girlfriend. The fact that it was Adriana made it close to impossible to believe. Then to sign away his parental rights to avoid paying child support. James was a colossal piece of shit in Gabe’s book.
He still wasn’t sure why she’d pretended to be the blogger, but he didn’t care. Even before she’d opened up to him, he felt like he knew her and he felt like she knew him.
The last mile he ran was fueled by all the pent-up emotions he was feeling after last night. Leaving Adriana alone last night wasn’t easy to do. He planned on calling Sue Ann as soon as she opened this morning and ordering breakfast for her to bring up to Adriana.
That way, she could put some food in her stomach and Sue Ann would be able to check on her for him. He’d do it himself, but he didn’t want to overstep.
Adriana was special. That was undeniable. He had feelings for her he couldn’t completely understand or describe. He knew she’d been hurt. Badly. Life had been harsh and cruel and he didn’t want to be another thing that overwhelmed her.
He needed to take his time. To let her open up to him and just be there for her. She was leaving tomorrow. But he could visit her. He wanted to meet her kids. He wanted to be there for her, even if it was just as a friend. In his heart, he knew that’s really what she needed. A friend. So that’s what he would be for her.
The back of Gabe’s rental house was accessible from the Riverside Recreation path. It was one of the reasons that he’d chosen it. He could walk out his backyard and the only thing that separated him from his preferred morning ritual was a gate.
When he arrived back home, sweat was running down his back. He’d just lifted his arm to unlock the latch when his music was interrupted by a call. As he stepped through the gate, he pressed the call button on his blue tooth.
“Hello.”
“Men get drunk off your beauty?” His brother’s baritone voice traveled through the buds in his ears.
Gabe stopped to catch his breath. He put his hands on his hips and let his head fall back as he closed his eyes. His brother must’ve talked to Jake.
“How’s the little nugget?” Gabe ignored his brother’s opener.
“She’s good. She’s parked in front of the TV watching—”
“Frozen,” Gabe spoke in unison with his brother.
Since the movie came out on DVD, she watched it every Saturday morning. Even last Saturday in the hotel room she’d watched it on her computer.
“Tell her I miss her.” Gabe hated not seeing her on a regular basis.
Before he’d come out to California to train, he hadn’t gone more than a couple of days without seeing her. In just the month that he’d been out here she’d changed so much. She’d gotten even sassier, and she’d already outgrown the princess sandals he’d bought her before he left.
Kids were like weeds. They sprouted up overnight.
“You sure you don’t want me to tell her that she’s so beautiful men would fight wars over her?”
“You can tell her that, too.” Hearing someone else say the words aloud did make Gabe cringe internally, but he couldn’t let his brother know that. If he did, he’d never live it down.
Who was he kidding? Whether or not his brother and Jake knew that it bothered him made no difference. He was never living this down.
For some reason, he was okay with that.
*
Adriana stared up at the ceiling fan that was spinning above her as she breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth. Her head was pounding and her stomach was one wrong move away from emptying itself all over the lovely comforter she was lying on.
She would be all right if she stayed perfectly still. The nausea only kicked in if she dared to lift her head, arms, or legs. She’d discovered this when her mother had kept her word and called as soon as the girls had woken up. Facetiming with three-year-olds is not the best cure for a hangover, but she’d been happy to see their sweet faces.
Thankfully, everything seemed to be going well at home. When she’d spoken to them, the twins were happily eating pancakes and Jonah was getting ready for his Saturday morning karate class. She’d gotten a chance to speak to each of them separately, and she’d managed to hide the fact that she was seconds away from tossing her cookies.
Her mother, however, was a different story. She’d taken one look at the screen and known that Adriana had tied one on the night before. After hanging up, Naomi messaged her a hangover cure that she promised would kick in twenty minutes after digesting.
Just as she’d ended the call there was a knock at the door. Sue Ann was there with breakfast. It was the works. There was a muffin, toast, pancakes, oatmeal, coffee, and orange juice. When Adriana asked if this was a perk of renting the apartment, Sue Ann winked and said it was a perk of having friends in Hope Falls.
Adriana only knew one person in this town other than Sue Ann, so she was pretty sure she knew which friend she was talking about.
Gabe Maguire. The man that she still hadn’t managed to tell the truth to. However, if her choppy memories of last night were correct, she’d been able to tell him everything else.
After Sue Ann made her promise to call if she needed anything else, Adriana had taken the food back to bed to eat and was surprised to find she was able to eat a lot of it. Then she’d lain back down and closed her eyes and ended up falling back to sleep. When she woke up, she found the essential oils her mother had secretly packed in her bag and followed her written instructions. Now she was just waiting to see if this was one of her mother’s hippy-dippy tonics or not. She hoped it worked.
Her eyes were closed when her phone dinged. She groaned at the thought of picking it up. But since she was away from the kids she couldn’t afford to ignore any incoming messages or calls.
So she grabbed it and saw that it was a text from Gabe.
He was asking how she was feeling. Then he mentioned that he was downstairs and asked if she was still interested in going horseback riding.
“What?!” she said aloud to herself.
Had she agreed to go horseback riding?
Last night was kind of a blur, and it was clear she would definitely be reinstating her self-imposed two-drink maximum.
As she started puzzling together the night before, pieces started clicking into place. She’d talked. Too much. She opened her mouth, and random sentences came out.
Closing her eyes, she did a mental search of keywords that she hoped would lead her to a clue about the horseback riding. A vivid memory immediately came to the forefront of her mind.
She’d just finished her second drink when a couple approached their table to congratulate him on his win. Gabe introduced her to the pair that looked like Mountain Ken and Barbie, whose names she was pretty sure were Amanda and Jason. Or Justin. They owned and operated Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures. When she had looked online for a place to stay she’d checked out their accommodations. They had stables and she’d mentioned that she’d never been on a horse. Amanda graciously invited them both for a ride the following morning at ten a.m.
Without hesitation, she’d accepted the invitation. In fact, Adriana had done more than that. When Amanda had offered to move the time to a sunset ride, Adriana had assured Amanda that seven a.m. was sleeping in for her.
It was the truth. Normally the twins were up at six thirty a.m. She always got up an hour to an hour and a half before them because the house was quiet and she could get uninterrupted work in. Even on days that she technically “slept in” she was still up when the girls were.
She checked her phone; it was nine forty-five.
Inhaling deeply through her nose, she pushed off the mattress so she could sit up to try and deal with the text at hand. As she did, she was happy to discover that the nausea, headache, and general flu-like symptoms that she’d been experiencing weren’t as severe.
It looked as if her mother’s potion had worked after all. Which meant that horseback riding didn’t sound like the death sentence it had moments ago. It was something she’d always wanted to do. She also needed to talk to Gabe. Really, this time.
No pretend interviews. No alcohol. No excuses.
Her fingers had just started typing back her response when her phone rang. Gabe’s name appeared on her screen. Her heart skipped like a kindergartner playing hopscotch.
“Hello,” she answered on the second ring.
“How are you feeling?”
His deep voice caused her breath to catch. “Okay. How are you?”
“I’m great, but I wasn’t the one that had to be carried up the stairs last night.”
A vision projected in her mind like it was a scene being shown at a drive-in movie theater.
Gabe had driven her home.
When they’d arrived at the back entrance of Sue Ann’s, Adriana had firmly told him that she did not need his help up the stairs. In fact, she even refused to let him help her out of he SUV. She might have even quoted Helen Reddy and told him, “I am woman, hear me roar.”
Side note: Besides running her mouth, another fun side effect of Adriana being drunk was an inflated sense of self. Get a few drinks in her, and she fancied herself Wonder Woman, Joan of Arc, and Amelia Earhart all wrapped into one little superhuman.
In her mind’s eye, she saw herself making it two steps before wobbling and landing on her backside. Then next thing she remembered was Gabe’s arms around her and him setting her down at the door. He offered to help her inside to make sure she was okay, but she, of course, refused and sent him on his way.
Not her finest moment.
She cleared her throat. “Thanks for bringing me home last night. Sorry if I was…rude.”
“It was my pleasure.”
Hearing the word pleasure out of his mouth was like snapping a glow stick. His words were the snap, and they made everything inside of her glow.
Fire and Foreplay Page 9