by Amity Hope
“So your grandpa just gave this Cst f that.
“He left it to me in his will, yes. I used to spend hours out here in the summertime. He’d take me fishing or sometimes he’d fish and I’d just lounge around in the boat and read. I know it’s nothing fancy,” Ava began.
“No, it’s…” Gabe faded off, searching for the right word.
“Cute?” Ava suggested as she glanced around, trying to see the cabin through his eyes.
“Yes!” Gabe said with a teasing smile. “‘Cute’ was exactly the word I was going to use.”
“I figured,” Ava teased back. “That or ‘girly’”.
“It is that, too,” Gabe agreed.
She knew the place wasn’t all that impressive. The log siding had been painted brown and was in need of a new coat of paint. Ava planned on tackling that later but first she’d concentrated on transforming the inside to her liking. After her redecorating it was comfy and cozy and uniquely her own.
She’d painted the kitchen cupboards cream and the walls a pale turquoise to accentuate the 1950’s style formica table and chair set that was in shades of cream and aqua. The living room she’d painted navy blue since it coordinated with the plaid jewel-tone furniture set her grandpa had left. For the bedroom she’d chosen the same deep plum as her bedroom at home. There was a small woodstove in the corner of the living room but Ava rarely used it since they closed the cabin down for the winter.
“Your grandpa lived out here?” Gabe asked as he threw himself down in the overstuffed chair. Ava, disappointed, sat on the sofa across from him.
“Yes, after my grandma passed away, he did. He always loved it out in the country. He used to preach at a small country church not too far from here. It closed down after he retired. It was over a century old, like a lot of country churches,” she explained. “It had become almost impossible to maintain so when he retired, the church council decided to close it down and most of the parishioners moved into town.”
“He was a pastor too?” Gabe acknowledged with a slight frown.
“Is that a problem?” Ava asked. She was confused by the look that had crossed over his face but it had quickly evaporated. She had seen this look before. Or at least she thought she had. It faded so quickly that it usually left her wondering if she’d imagined it due to her unquenched curiosity about him.
“What? No. I mean, I know you mentioned he was a chaplain in the war, I just didn’t realize he was a full-time pastor after he came back.”
“Why would you know that?” she wondered.
">He shrugged. “No reason.”
“Okay, well, it’s getting late but there’s one more thing I wanted to show you.” She rose from the couch and took Gabe firmly by the hand, leading him outside. It was the first time she’d taken his hand in hers. She instantly liked the feel of her much smaller hand getting lost in his.
The evening air had cooled off considerably after the sun had set. She was glad she’d worn her boots and a denim jacket.
“This is it,” Ava said as she led him onto the dock that jutted out into the lake. It wobbled and swayed gently under their weight. “I just wanted you to see the view at night.”
The lights from town splashed a hazy, amber glow over the treetops on the far side of the lake. The water glittered as it reflected the stars above.
“I love it out here,” Ava told him. Gabe stood beside her at the end of the dock. Her fingers still comfortably entwined with his. “My dad is really into astronomy, gazing up into the heavens and all that. We used to sit out here at night with a telescope.” Ava sighed happily. “In fact, for my tenth birthday he had a star named after me.”
“Really?” Gabe asked, curious.
“I can show it to you,” she offered.
Gabe’s eyes swept over the night sky. “Ava, do you realize there are like a million stars up there?”
She laughed. “Actually, you can only see about a thousand at any given time.”
“Well, that does narrow it down some,” he teased.
“Here,” she said as she stepped in front of Gabe. She automatically leaned back into him as she tried to align her sight with his. Her body curved into his like it was meant just for him. His hands went to her hips and she relaxed against his chest.
“See that star that’s pulsating slightly?” she asked as she pointed to it.
“I’m not sure where you’re looking,” Gabe admitted. As he leaned over, his cheek rested against Ava’s as he followed the path of her pointing finger. “Okay, yes. I think I see the one you’re pointing at.”
Her heart did a little tumble in her chest as she felt his slightly rough cheek rest against her smooth one. She shivered, hoping he would attribute it to the cold. Or maybe she wasn’t hoping that at all because when he slid his hand around her waist, pulling her back ever so slowly until there wasn’t a sliver of space between his body and her own, she felt all traces of the frigid night melt away.
“Is that it? The one that’s twinkling?” he asked.
“Then go up two, and over three.”
“That one?” he asked as he took over the job of pointing out one single star in the midst of a thousand other stars. His hand bumped into hers. Instead of removing it, she took his hand in her own, pointing along with him.
“Yes, that one,” she whispered. She lowered their hands to her waist, where his other hand was firmly nestled. She let herself melt back into his chest, tilting her head back against his shoulder, his body contouring perfectly with hers as he looped both arms firmly around her. His breathing, which had become heavier, was now perfectly in sync with hers. She felt his cheek lean into hers slightly and then neither of them dared to move as the electricity between them continued to spike and spiral around them.
When she couldn’t take it anymore, Ava turned her head subtly to the side and upwards, her lips nearly brushing his. “Would you please just kiss me already?” she sighed.
***
I am so screwed, Gabe thought to himself as he stripped down to his boxers. He had realized this the minute she’d slid onto his bike behind him. He’d never given anyone a ride before, though they had asked. The feel of Ava behind him had set his body on fire. Every time he felt her fingers slide under his jacket he had to fight to keep his concentration on the road. He had never doubted, or questioned in any way, how Ava felt about him. But if he had, that single gesture would have cleared things up. When she began flirting, he knew he was in a knee deep pile of trouble.
He cursed himself for his lapse in judgment.
Rafe had gone to great lengths to tear the cross from her neck. Gabe didn’t know why. What he did know, was that Rafe never did anything that didn’t directly benefit himself. He talked as though he’d done Gabe a favor. But doing favors was not something within Rafe’s realm of capabilities.
So, aside from the obvious protection it had afforded him, Gabe had wanted to replace the pendant for the sheer purpose of thwarting whatever it was that Rafe had planned. Or, more likely, what their father had planned as Rafe’s actions were typically a direct result of their father’s requests.
However, since Rafe refused to admit anything to him, Gabe had decided to do the only logical thing. He was going to replace it. Therefore, correcting the problem.
He had gone into the jewelry store with every intention of buying Ava a pendant similar to her old one. But the moment he’d walked through the door it was as though he’d fallen off a cliff into an ocean of foolishness.
His jarred thoughts twisted into a jumbled mess. What if the cross didn’t have the same effect? The other one had belonged to her Congs Newgrandfather, a man of God. Certainly it was more potent than just any gold cross from inside of the glass cabinets. That was his first step off of the path of sanity. His second was thinking that if it wasn’t as strong, it wouldn’t work. It would only make him uncomfortable as opposed to the power of the first one making him miserable. To Gabe, discomfort was nothing. His third step toward ruination was
realizing that he could live with the discomfort. And that he would be willing to pay that price after having kept Ava at a distance for so long. That thought led to the last step in his fateful mental journey. If he was willing to pay the price, why even bother replacing her original cross for one less powerful? Why put himself through it? Why not just skip it altogether? And then he’d spotted the infinity pendant and something about it had struck him so strongly that he had decided to buy it, instead. A light pearl and a dark pearl; opposite, separate, yet infinitely fused together. Like he and Ava.
He realized, not for the first time, how wrong Rafe had been about her. Either assuming she’d be a stuck up prude or completely wild. Instead, she was somewhere right down the middle. A perfect combination of innocence and excitement that he had not wanted to find himself attracted to.
But he was.
Oh, was he ever.
He tossed himself down on his bed, knowing sleep was not likely.
He’d barely been able to move when she’d leaned back into him. She was tall enough to fit comfortably against him. As if the feel of her body against his wasn’t already enticing enough, her luscious scent of peaches and cinnamon nearly overwhelmed his senses.
When she’d whispered, Would you please just kiss me already? her lips were already so close to his all it had taken was a slight tilt of his head. Then Ava had twisted around in his grasp, sliding her arms around his neck so she could pull him closer, deepening the kiss. Her mouth and her tongue were warm and insistent in the otherwise chilly evening. She had held on to him like she never intended to let go. He was surprised to find himself doing the same as he slowly slid his hands all over the delectable parts of her body that he could reach. The only thing that kept him from getting too carried away was their precarious position at the end of the dock.
So now what? he wondered.
He had a feeling that now that he had crossed that line, he was simply one step closer to ruining everything. An unwanted thought occurred to him. He wasn’t nearly as concerned about ruining his father’s plans as he was about ruining things with Ava for his own sake. It was a startling realization. His father needed to be kept happy at all costs.
But for tonight, he was going to forget about his father.
For once, it wasn’t hard to do. Having Ava so near him all day, it C allign="justwas hard to get her out of his head.
Now that he had kissed her tonight there was no going back. All he could think about was how long he would have to wait until he could kiss her again.
Chapter10
“You’re quite happy today,” Grier noted from her perch on Ava’s bed. As always, her long blond hair was in a low pony tail. She was twirling the ends of it around her fingers.
“I am,” Ava admitted. She adjusted the necklace from Gabe so it rested against the neckline of her ivory peasant shirt just right. She grabbed her brown suede boots and sat on the bed next to Grier while she put them on. She had gotten out of work late and was rushing to get ready on time.
“Because of that boy? What is he like?” Grier asked.
Ava sighed happily. “He’s polite and sweet and just really…I guess charming is the word I’m looking for.”
Grier had always asked about Ava’s boyfriends. Perhaps because she had no interest in dating herself, she liked to hear about Ava’s dating experiences. What Ava found comical was that Grier always seemed far more disapproving than her parents ever were.
“Have you met his family yet?” Grier wondered with a frown.
Ava’s heart squeezed a bit in her chest. Leave it to Grier to bring up the one thing that could pull a cloud over her sunny mood. “Not yet,” she told her with forced cheer. “His dad is out of town and he doesn’t get along with his brother.”
“Why?” Grier asked.
She was assessing Ava with a sour look. Ava tried not to take offense. Grier never wore a drop of make-up. Her entire wardrobe consisted of one style of jeans, long and short sleeve t-shirts in every bland color imaginable and a pair of battered brown hiking boots. Ava had pleaded endlessly over the years to take Grier shopping but she insisted she was happy with the simple clothes she wore.
Ava, however, was not. She enjoyed dressing up. She appraised herself in the mirror, adding a little eye shadow as she thought of how to respond. “He doesn’t talk about him much but it sounds like he and his brother disagree on almost everything.” She turned to face Grier again. “You know, he’ll be here any minute. You could come down and meet him.”
“No thank you,” she replied as she rose from the bed. Ava tried not to be annoyed. She knew Grier was in a grumpy mood. She had asked if she could come with Ava and Gabe. Over the years Ava had never been successful at convincing Grier that she would feel uncomfortable tagging along on a date. Of course, this could be because Grier wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. But it was Ava’s first real date with Gabe and as much as she adored Grier, sisterly love only went so far.
“You know, Molly and I talked about a double date pretty soon. Maybe we could change it to a group thing. Then you and Julia could come along?” The moment she said it out loud she realized how terrible the idea sounded.
But Grier smiled, making Ava feel bad all over again. “I would like that.”
She sighed as Grier left the room. She grabbed her purse and skipped down the stairs as Gabe rang the doorbell.
Instead of being met by Gabe, she was met with the most enormous bouquet of flowers she’d ever personally seen.
“What is this?!” she asked as she carefully pushed the flowers aside so she could find Gabe behind them.
“This is a date, right? It’s proper to bring flowers.” Gabe said this as though it were a fact he’d read somewhere, which caused Ava to laugh.
“These are incredible,” she said as she finally Ks s
Gabe crinkled his brow. “Why?”
“Because I’m just happy to spend time with you,” Ava explained. “I don’t need anything from you.” She left to put the flowers on the counter, knowing her mom would likely fall over when she got home and spotted them.
When they got into the car Ava leaned across the armrest and pressed her lips to Gabe’s. After the kiss on the dock and the kiss they’d shared after he’d brought her home last night, they were up to kiss number three. Ava didn’t want to take the chance of them reverting back to their old ways so she made quite the production of kiss number three. It was a little bit silly and a little bit sloppy and a whole lot sexy all in one.
“Mmmm, you smell amazing,” Gabe told Ava as she finally pulled away. “Like a chocolate covered cherry.”
“Raspberries,” Ava muttered as she buckled her seat belt.
Keeping his eyes on the road and not on Ava and her long, long legs Gabe said, “Cherries are more fitting. They’re sexier.”
“No. It’s really raspberries. I worked this afternoon. My friends always joke that I smell like a box of assorted candy. I guess I must be used to it because I never notice. Anyhow, a special order came in for ten pounds of raspberry fudge. Not only did I have the honor of making all ten pounds,” she said with the slightest bit of sarcasm, “I then got to spend the next hour boxing it up all nice and pretty. I wasn’t sure I was going to have enough time to finish. But I did. Ribbons and all.”
She interrupted herself to ask, “You think I’m sexy?”
Gabe spared a hazardous glance in her direction. “Ava, any male between the ages of ten and a hundred and fifty would find you sexy. I don’t suppose you would know that. You probably don’t think that way.”
“What way?” Ava wondered.
“You know. I’m sure you don’t think about that kind of stuff. Being a good little church girl and all.” His voice was just polite enough to take the edge out of words that could have been cutting.
“What? You think I’m this paragon of virtue that blew in from the Puritan Era? Is that why you never got around to kissing me until I was practically begging you for it?” Ava teased. Her min
d drifted to the kiss, that first kiss that had been so worth the wait.
“Aren’t you?”
“No,” she admitted with a small shake of her head. “Not any more or any less than almost any other girl I know.”
“You’re always so good at doing the right thing,” Gabe told her, sparing her another glance. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Sometimes I have impure thoughts,” she admitted with a playful smile.
“About me?” Gabe asked not daring to take his eyes off the road this time. Afraid he wouldn’t be able to put them back where they belonged.
“No,” she said with an exaggerated sigh. “About a certain pair of diamond earrings I saw last weekend.”
“Where at?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” she wondered, realizing they’d suddenly gone off track.
“Which store? I’ll buy them for you,” he told her.
“Gabe, no!” Ava said as she swatted his arm. “Besides, I was kidding.”
“About the earrings or the impure thoughts?” He sounded disappointed.
“The earrings.”
“So you do have impure thoughts?” he demanded sounding so surprised it made Ava laugh again.
“I’m only human.” He tensed at that but she said, “Yes, they involve you.”
“What are they?” he wondered his voice dropping lower again, as it had the day before on his motorcycle.
“Come on Gabe, a girl is entitled to some secrets,” Ava teased.
Gabe gave her a look that was meant to invoke pity.
Ava smiled and raised her eyebrows questioningly. “Like you don’t have any secrets?” The goofy look instantly evaporated, leaving Ava feeling a little taken aback. “Did I say something wrong?”
“Not at all. I just realized you’re right. You’re entitled to your privacy,” Gabe told her as he forced a smile that Ava realized was not the least bit genuine.