“Settle,” she told him and tried to go back to sleep.
A few minutes later, Fred barked again and again, louder and more ferocious. She let him out of his crate and followed him to the back corner of the apartment, where he stopped and barked at the ceiling. She turned on the light, squinted, and saw a small access panel in the ceiling, probably leading to an attic. “Fred, shh.” She wrapped a hand around his muzzle to quiet him for a moment and heard a flutter and banging around in the ceiling.
There was something there. Fred started lunging at the ceiling and barking ferociously. She got a chair, climbed up, and pulled on the small metal ring on the door. It creaked open and something black flew out. She turned as it swooped through the apartment, and Fred took off after it. She jumped down from the chair. It was a bat! She ducked down as the bat made multiple swooping trips through the small apartment.
She grabbed Fred’s leash, clipped it to his collar, grabbed her boots, and rushed out the door. She hurriedly stuffed her feet into the boots and went straight next door to get Gabe. There was no way she could sleep with that thing swooping overhead. Didn’t bats carry rabies? Fred was inoculated, but she wasn’t. This was definitely a landlord problem.
She rang the doorbell frantically—it was freaking cold out—while Fred pulled to go back to the bat. Several long moments later, the door opened to Gabe wearing gray jogging pants and nothing else. She was momentarily distracted by his beautiful chest. His muscles were defined, and a smattering of light chest hair led to a happy trail that had her licking her lips.
“Zoe, what’s wrong?” His voice was rough and gravelly from sleep.
She rushed inside. “There’s a bat in my apartment! It’s flying all over the place.”
He rubbed a hand through his hair. “A bat? How did that get in there?”
“It was in the attic and when I pulled open the attic door, it flew out.”
He turned and headed back inside. “I’ll call someone.”
“Who?”
“Critter Control.”
That was a thing? He’d done this before?
He left briefly and returned a moment later, cell phone up to his ear. “Hey, Bert, it’s Gabe Reynolds. We’ve got a bat loose, so could you stop by in the morning?”
He hung up and looked at her. “I left a message. He’ll get back to us tomorrow.”
“You mean he’s not coming over right now?”
He checked his cell. “It’s three in the morning.”
“I know, but…there’s a bat in my apartment. What if it sucks my blood when I’m sleeping?”
He chuckled. “You know bats don’t turn into vampires, right?”
“Says you.”
“You want the sofa?” He indicated the sofa in his living room. “I’d offer you a bed, but there’s only mine.” He raised a brow. “I don’t mind sharing.”
“I’ll take the sofa,” she said. There was no way in hell she was sleeping at her place with a bat. Or with Gabe, for that matter. Hell, she probably wouldn’t sleep at all tonight.
“I’ll get you a blanket and pillow.”
“Thank you.” She set her boots by the door and headed for the sofa.
He returned a few moments later with a blanket and pillow that she clutched to her chest. She still felt weirded out by the middle-of-the-night bat encounter. Fred had already settled down on the floor to sleep, his legs in the air, his belly exposed. That dog could sleep anywhere.
“You all right?” he asked. “Need anything?”
“Can you stay with me for a little while?” she asked in a small voice.
“Sure. Nice pajamas.”
She glanced down at her pink top and gray flannel pants with sheep all over them. She’d nearly forgotten she was wearing pajamas. “You too,” she said, staring at his chest.
He sat on the sofa next to her and stretched his legs out to rest on the nearby coffee table. “C’mere.”
She scooted closer to his warmth. He wrapped an arm around her, and she started to relax again as the adrenaline left her body. He reached for the lamp on the end table.
“Don’t turn it off yet,” she said.
“You really did get scared.” He pulled her closer and kissed her hair. “That bat was more afraid of you than you were of him.”
“I doubt that.”
He tilted her face up, cupping her cheek. “You’re safe now,” he said, brushing his lips over hers.
She leaned back. “You know you really are my landlord. I am going to pay you rent.”
He sighed heavily. “This again? What are you trying to tell me, you just want to be friends? Fine. We’re just friends.” He made a big show of taking his arm off her.
“It’s just that I tend to dive in with the physical and regret it later.”
“Yeah, me too.”
She turned, surprised. “Really?”
“No. Guys never regret diving in with the physical.”
“Well, that’s honest.”
“It’s three a.m. I’m too tired to put on a front.”
She smiled to herself. “Tell me what’s on your bucket list.”
“You mean things I want to do before I die?”
“Yeah. What are your dreams?”
“I don’t have any.”
“Come on. Everyone has dreams.”
“I don’t.”
She drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around them. “I’ve been following my dream of making it with a recording contract for so long, and it feels like it’s further away than ever.”
He grunted. “What else do you dream?”
She shook her head. “So much.”
He grabbed a pillow and leaned back against the arm of the sofa.
She shifted to the other end with her pillow. “Here, you can stretch out.” They sat on opposite ends of the sofa, legs stretched out and entwined. Her leg was between his.
“Be careful where you move that foot,” Gabe said. “You’re in a sensitive location.”
“Don’t worry, my legs aren’t that long.”
He looked more awake now. “Tell me what you dream. Maybe it’ll give me some ideas for myself.”
“I dream of my own album…ooh! To drive a Porsche and-and make homemade ravioli! And it would be so awesome to learn to surf and be a—” She stopped herself. “I’m a dreamer. I could go on and on. Enough about me.”
He squeezed her foot briefly and then lifted it onto his lap, starting a slow foot massage. She would’ve pulled away, but it felt so good. She closed her eyes, relaxing even more.
“What was that last thing you were going to say,” he said softly, peeling off her sock. “Be a what? Rock star?”
“It’s silly.”
“Anything you say here will never be held against you.” His fingers pressed into the sole of her foot, warm and deep. She sighed.
She opened one eye. “Lawyer-client confidentiality?”
“Yes.” He was massaging her foot again, stroking down to her toes.
“And no laughing?”
“Never.” He chuckled. “Just getting that out of the way.”
“It’s sort of embarrassing.”
He snagged her other foot, peeled off that sock, pulled both feet into his lap, and squeezed gently. “Now you have to tell me.”
“Only if you confess something too.”
His hand wrapped around her ankle while his other hand rubbed the top of her foot. “Okay. You first.”
“I always wanted to be a princess in a castle, with a big, poufy dress.” She covered her face with her hands. “I watched too many princess movies as a kid.” Three to be exact, but she’d been very impressionable.
His hand slid up her pajama pants and squeezed her calf. “That’s awesome, Princess Zoe. Here’s mine.”
She dropped her hands in her curiosity and watched him massaging her foot again. His gaze was entirely focused on her foot with its pink-painted toenails.
“I wish for once I could just relax an
d do something spontaneous.”
“Like massage my feet?”
He laughed. “That wasn’t exactly spontaneous.” He coughed out “seduction” and grinned. She pulled her foot out of his hand, but he just pulled it back and started massaging again. “No, I mean, like…just close my eyes, point to somewhere on the map and travel there. Like anywhere in the world.”
Her eyes widened. “I love that!” She sat up in her excitement. “You know what would be even more spontaneous? Just show up at the airport and take the very next flight out.”
He straightened up. “To anywhere?”
“Absolutely!”
“You want to go with me?”
“Oh. I-I don’t know.”
“Too soon.”
She didn’t know what to say. It was too soon, though she loved the idea of spontaneous travel. Just go wherever fate sent you. He turned off the light on the end table, and this time she was glad. She scooted back down onto her pillow and closed her eyes as he resumed massaging her feet.
“Tell me all about you,” he said in the dark. “Start at your earliest memory.”
“I was born in New York,” she said.
“Keep going.”
She talked and talked and talked, her life story coming out in fits and starts as different memories crowded in, taking her off on tangents. He was so attentive, so encouraging that she just kept going, telling him start to finish her love of music and all that she’d gone through to get where she was today. All of the hard work—the training, the auditions and rejections, the glory of performing.
“Tell me your story too,” she urged.
“You don’t want to hear about being a lawyer.”
“Sure I do.”
“Let me tell you about my family. They’re more interesting.” He slid to join her, rolling her out of the way to fit his larger body against the back of the sofa, nearly making her fall off.
“Hey!” she cried, but then he was pulling her back against him, tucking her legs against his, propping her head up on his arm.
“There.”
She sighed. The perfect spoon. His bigger size somehow fit her perfectly. She tucked her feet between his legs to keep her toes warm. “Talk,” she said.
They ended up talking all night, easier somehow in the dark, not looking at each other. Sleep finally claimed her just as the sun peeked through the front windows at dawn.
~ ~ ~
Gabe yawned at work the next day, trying to focus on the will in front of him. He’d never talked to a woman all night before. The more he knew about Zoe, the more he liked her. He couldn’t sleep holding her in his arms; he wanted her too much for that. He’d stayed up all night, and then he’d slipped off the sofa, got in touch with Critter Control one more time, made sure the bat was gone, took Fred out, and gently woke her so she could feed Fred his breakfast.
She’d moved, zombie-like, stumbling around for a few minutes with Fred excitedly following her. Then she seemed to wake more fully, stopped, and looked at him. Her brows furrowed in confusion.
“Morning, sunshine,” he said. “You slept on my sofa to avoid the evil bat.”
She smiled and yawned. “Oh, yeah. Morning. How long did I sleep?”
“About three hours. The bat’s gone if you want to go back to your place.”
“Thank you!” She leaned up on tiptoe, kissed his cheek, grabbed her things, and headed home.
He wished he could’ve gone with her. Not just to hook up. When he was with Zoe, it was like being close to the sun. She pushed the dark reach of death further away from him. For as long as he could remember, death had haunted him. He’d shared the womb with his dead twin. His mom had always been honest about it. Had told him that he’d survived because he was the stronger one. For a long time, he’d felt guilty, like he’d taken what was rightfully his twin’s chance at life. Later, when he’d finally confessed his guilt, his mom had explained that it was common for one twin not to make it in the early stages. Still, he’d spent his childhood looking out for his brothers, and later his stepbrothers, making sure they stayed alive. He even used to check that they were still breathing at night sometimes. Aside from a few broken bones, they’d all made it through alive.
Then there was his dad dying right in front of him. And a few days later, his fiancée Alyssa died. He’d let that slip when Zoe brought up baggage and immediately regretted it. Though it did score him a date, which he selfishly wanted even as he worried that getting close to Zoe would only doom her to the same horrible fate. He knew it wasn’t logical, yet it felt so true he broke out in a cold sweat whenever he thought about it.
But he wanted Zoe’s sunshine in his life.
She’d be fine, he reassured himself. She wouldn’t be sticking around long. She had great things in her future, great opportunities.
He forced himself to focus and read the will a second time. “Miss Smith,” he said patiently, “we’ve talked about this. You really shouldn’t leave your house to your cat. I thought you were marking this up with changes.”
“I left the library a larger donation,” she pointed out. She’d worked for the library for fifty years and left the library exactly fifty dollars. She’d added a zero to the previous amount.
“Who’s the next of kin?”
“It’s the only home Oreo’s ever known,” she said. “How else will I make sure he’s happy once I’m gone?” With that, she sniffled and quietly broke down crying.
He handed her a tissue. This was going to be a very long day.
~ ~ ~
Zoe hadn’t seen Gabe since that night they talked all night. Their schedules were opposite. He worked days, and this week she’d worked long dinner and late evening shifts at Garner’s to make up for taking Friday and Saturday night off for gigs. But she frequently replayed their conversation. The thing that came through for her the most was how much he loved his family, even when he spoke of his brothers’ flaws and their battles growing up, the love just shined on through.
If she wasn’t careful, he was going to steal her heart. Which was why when she absentmindedly asked, “What would you like to drink?” during her Saturday lunch shift, she nearly jumped out of her skin to hear the masculine reply.
“Hey, sunshine.”
“Oh, hi, Gabe.” She giggled for no reason whatsoever. “How are you? Club soda, I know.”
He took her hand and squeezed, reminding her of the foot massage he’d given her. Her heart thudded in her chest. “You promised me a date tomorrow.”
“Yup,” was all she could manage.
“Pack a swimsuit. I’ll pick you up after lunch. One o’clock.”
“It’s too cold to swim. Is this one of those polar bear plunges?”
“Just trust me.”
“Do I need to find someone to watch Fred?”
“Just a short day trip.” At her silence, he grinned. “You’ll like it, I promise.”
“All right, shark boy next door.”
He shook his head. “I have no idea if that’s a good or bad thing.”
“I’ll let you know.” She stuck her pen and order pad back in her apron pocket. “BLT coming up.”
The next day she packed a bag—swimsuit, towel, flip-flops, toiletries—and puzzled over where they could possibly be swimming. Was Gabe taking her to the Y? What a strange place to take a date.
Gabe arrived at one o’clock on the dot. “Ready?” Fred leaped all over him. “Sit,” he told Fred, who immediately sat.
“Ready!” she chirped. She put Fred in his crate with some biscuits in a Kong toy to keep him busy. He still couldn’t be trusted to have free rein. She followed Gabe outside and stopped short. A sleek cherry red Porsche waited in the driveway.
“Here’s our ride,” Gabe said. “My brother Nico will kill us if we get a scratch on it.”
“Omigod!” Zoe rushed up to the car. “You remembered I always wanted to ride in a Porsche!”
“Not just a Porsche. A classic nineteen seventy-one nine-eleven
E.” He opened the passenger-side door and guided her in.
She sank into the black leather seats. The car was pristine—all black and silver with old-fashioned push buttons on the radio.
He slid into the driver’s seat. “You can drive it back if you’d like.”
“Yeah, I’d like!” She beamed. “Where are we going?”
“Ah-ah. No questions. You’ll ruin the surprise.”
He drove to the Big Bear Hotel and Resort an hour away. “Are we having a weekend getaway?”
“Come on, they have an indoor water park. You’re going to learn to surf.”
Zoe squealed and hurried in behind him.
Soon they were part of a small class of five people in a wave pool. Their instructor, a transplanted California surfer dude, kept telling them to “feel the wave” and also to “make themselves one with it,” causing Gabe to roll his eyes. Which did nothing to take away from the gorgeous vision he presented in black swim trunks. He was all golden skin and trim muscle from broad shoulders to defined abs to muscular legs. Even his calves were swoonworthy. She’d done a double take when she’d first seen him as she stepped out of the locker room. He hadn’t noticed, though, because he was too busy giving her a once-over in her modest pink tankini, which made her blush just enough to hurry into the pool to cool off.
Gabe put his hands on her waist and helped her up on the board. He’d been very handsy since they got in the water, which made it much more difficult to concentrate.
“Go-oo-od, pink lady,” Surfer Dude said to her. “Now pop up.” He popped up to his feet on his board.
She did, then a small wave came, her arms windmilled, and she hit the water with a splash. Gabe’s hands went around her waist, lifting her right back on that board. He wasn’t touching his board.
“Don’t you want to learn?” she asked him as she straddled the board.
“This is your dream. I want you to have it.”
Her stomach fluttered. He was so sweet. Also, his chest looked like an oiled-up centerfold when it was wet. She licked her lips and tore her gaze away.
“Pop up, pink lady,” Surfer Dude hollered. “Feel the wave.”
She popped up and stiffened as a huge wave rolled toward her. “Oh-hh,” she said in a shaky voice. The board rocked, she tipped over, and the wave crashed into her, carrying her a few feet away. She came up sputtering.
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