“She looks normal, but she doesn’t work anymore. Except to play at Red’s when Tessa begs her. She still plays really good. We’re both musical people. Tessa named the bar after my mom way back.”
“She worked? As what?” Gabe asked as we sped through the rain.
“She did accounting and bookkeeping. She told me once she worked for her dad after college. Tessa was my babysitter until I started private school. She told me I don’t have to worry about anything, that my mom can afford school and groceries just fine. She’s good with money. Leon said knowing her is better than having mob connections. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about most of the time. She worked for him and his buddies until one time she said no more, but he got really mad and she broke up with him. We don’t have any other family. My grandma died when I was born.”
Gabe bit his lips hard. I could tell the wheels in his mind were spinning.
“So what do you know about HalRem?” he asked.
“Leon says it’s a gazillion-dollar industry. Do you work for it?”
“Sorta,” he replied.
“He talks a lot about North Dakota and a Williston Basin with billions of barrels of oil under it and some rock named after a guy.”
“The Bakken formation,” Gabe said.
“Yeah that. Does your…does our dad really own the whole oil business? Does he own land too? You know, Leon says he’s like a tycoon, and my mom had something to do with the Remington part. Leon says your dad stole it. He says he’s a crook.”
Gabe took his time. I couldn’t tell if he was bothered or intrigued by her remarks. “How did you get to the grocery store in Benjamin? What were you doing there?” he asked, switching up the conversation.
“I hitchhiked. I needed to see if I had a real family. I ran out of money, so I was hanging out at the bus depot next door trying to hitch a ride and I saw you. Man, was I floored. All I had was a picture of your brother, but I knew you were one of the Haldens. Those jerks in the parking lot were chasing me, but I got away in time to hide in your truck. By the way I meant what I wrote.”
“You could’ve been hurt or worse,” I said.
“Oh please. I can take on a handful of dweebs,” she said.
“So you never got to my house. Never saw anybody,” Gabe asked. He tapped the wheel with his thumbs. Rain washed the windshield. He seemed calmer, but he sped like a bandit.
“No. Can you take me? I know the address by heart. I’ve been trying to get there for months. I need to get there.”
“Not so fast. You don’t need to be anywhere. I got more questions,” he told her.
“Shoot,” she said spinning around to stare out the back window.
Gabe took a deep breath and asked, “Why didn’t I know I had a sister?”
I closed my eyes and waited for her response.
“Sonofabitch,” Deliah muttered.
“Hey now, girls shouldn’t cuss. Didn’t your mom teach you that?” Gabe scolded. Then he let off the gas a touch. “Oh shit.”
“Gabe!” I shouted into the dashboard. “Slow down!”
Blue and red lights lit our faces. I saw them before the siren went off, but they didn’t register until the sound filled the car.
Gabe let off the gas and turned on his signal to pull over. I held my breath. He wasn’t exactly in a cooperative mood. I had a feeling this roadside stop wouldn’t go well.
“I thought this day couldn’t get any better,” he muttered.
The wipers swished rapidly across the glass.
“My heart is pounding. How can you be so calm?” I asked.
“It’s just another piece of paper, Av’ry. Worse things are happening. He’s the one who’s gotta stand in the rain.”
“Oh no. I knew it.” Deliah crawled between us. Her knee practically sat on the shifter. “Don’t pull over. That’s not a cop.”
“You want me to run?” Gabe laughed.
“That’s not a cop,” she repeated.
The Mustang slowed along the side of the highway. The lights followed. The siren stopped blaring.
“It’s not a cop! Listen to me.”
“Is so,” Gabe said childishly. I watched him squint in his glasses and look in the rearview mirror.
“It looks like a patrol car. The undercover ones,” I told her. “Gabe can’t run. He’s got a hundred tickets already.”
“I swear it’s not the police. You gotta listen to me,” she urged.
“He’s already running the plates. I know a cop car when I see one. Trust me,” Gabe said as he rested his head on the headrest.
“Just go,” she begged adamantly and shook Gabe’s shoulder. “Drive!”
He twisted his neck and glared at her through his glasses. “Hey there, relax. I won’t tell on you. He isn’t gonna know you stole my truck and lifted some dude’s wallet. He can’t read minds,” he told her.
“That’s not what I’m talking about. He’s not a cop!” she shrieked into our ears. “It’s Leon.”
Eight
The Mustang pulled ninety miles an hour and cut halfway through the state in little more than an hour. Gabe took Deliah’s advice when she gave a hasty description of Leon and his pension for driving defunct cop cars and waving guns in people’s faces, just as he made his way to Gabe’s door to interrogate him. He hit the road like a vigilante and left the cop standing at the foot of his burnout tracks. Thank goodness the rain had stopped for a short time. When we arrived in Little Rock, Caleb conveniently found us at a rest stop. A short while later, I was collecting my bag from the bed of his truck.
Leon was lost.
“Catch,” Caleb said as he tossed me a key card. “They only had rooms with singles. You take the grump and shack up. I’ll take the girl. We’ll swap later. She probably needs girl time. Unless you want those two to room together.”
“I’ll see you later, Deliah…I mean Mona¸” I called as Gabe took the key card from my hand and stormed down the hallway to find our room.
Deliah waved.
Gabe had a sister. A living, breathing sister.
“I need a shower,” Gabe told me as I shut the door. Thunder struck with a bang. I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw. It seemed the weather hadn’t changed heading back to Texas.
I crawled onto the middle of the bed and pulled off my socks. I reached into my bag and found Gabe’s yellow T-shirt. But instead of changing, I rolled over and buried my head under a pillow and yawned. I was a fool to think flying to Williston for a holiday with the Haldens would be easy.
I heard the bathroom door open. The fan was on high. The bed dipped in the corner, and I turned my chin enough to catch Gabe drying his hair with a towel. The mattress bounced up and down. I had dozed off for the length of his shower.
He wore only jeans. He sure looked normal. I wished he could act normal. The idea that he couldn’t commit to one mood killed me.
He sighed and fell onto the back of my knees. “Am I really supposed to believe she’s related?” he whispered.
“Gabe, she looks just like you. You said she acts like Caleb. It’s obvious now. She has your father’s eyes. It’s so weird because she’s a girl.”
“Well, don’t that just spoil the whole girl ratio now? Meggie’s probably having a girl and maybe Molly too. God, I’m gonna be outnumbered if we have a girl.”
Blood rushed to my face and my eyes widened under the pillow. What on earth was he talking about?
“Did you flush your brain down the toilet?” I said.
“I’m serious. You got a little sister and that makes it more likely.”
“You can’t be serious. I’m never having a baby.”
“But I like kids,” he said in a lighter tone, a deep drawl. “I might want one. Or a bunch.”
Did I hear him correctly? My racing heart took off.
“You lost your marbles back in Memphis.”
Was Gabriel Halden seriously thinking about a future with me?
“I didn’t lose nothing today…but you
might,” he replied.
His hand slid up the side of my leg and onto my back. My skin prickled all over as if tiny needles were stabbing me. I rolled onto my side and trapped his hand. “The Leon guy worries me. What do you think he wants?”
Gabe looked up through his eyelashes and made a devious grin. My eyes followed down his neck to land on his shoulder as he pulled his hand out from under me and grabbed my hips to yank me closer.
“He won’t find us. It was dark. I drove faster than the speed of light.”
I closed my eyes, suddenly nervous that everything I ever imagined I wanted to happen between me and Gabe would happen in an unfamiliar state, in an unfamiliar hotel, in an unfamiliar room.
“Don’t you want to talk about what happened?”
“I got a sister who looks like me, my mom’s alive and kicking, there’s a psycho dressed as a cop tailing my ass, and my girlfriend is lying here all cute and inviting,” he said. “Now what is it you think I wanna talk about?”
“You just saw your mother for the first time in how many years?”
I pushed up on my elbows and he sat back, looking like he was posing for a photo shoot. I had a difficult time not staring at him half-dressed and glistening. But I knew he wasn’t okay.
“Thirteen,” he drawled.
“I don’t even know if you’re still mad or happy or what,” I murmured as thunder rumbled in the distance. The curtains were drawn.
“I don’t have any feelings. She’s dead to me, okay? We’re finally alone. You wanna ruin it?”
“What about your father?” I pressed.
“What about him? He was born sorry.” He pulled a thread out of the bedspread and strangled his finger with it until it was blue. “I told you he’s wound tight like he is because of what she did to us. I gotta find Lane.”
“What are you going to do with Deliah when we get to your house? You can’t just walk in with her and give her a tour.”
Gabe threw his head back and all of his hair fell off his face. Droplets of water trailed down his chest to his scar.
“Jeezus crow, Av’ry Ross. You really don’t want to do this now,” his voice warned.
He was right. I forced him into another bad mood.
“Sit up,” he said.
“Not if you’re going to snarl like that. I’m pretty comfortable where I am.”
“You’re pretty overdressed,” he said. “Why are we wasting time?”
He tugged on my sleeve until I sat up and crossed my legs and arms. On the drive from Memphis, I had allowed myself to imagine us alone like this, yet in my dream he was all over me and I was just as receptive. In my dream we weren’t bickering.
“How’s the leg?” he asked, staring me down, his hand playing with the hem of my jeans.
“It feels strange. Like I have no skin. I can have the medic check it out.”
Gabe’s expression went from light to dark in a split second.
“I’m not as blind as I look,” he said.
“I know that.” I reached out and touched his leg. He jerked back and a chill circled my neck. “I try to stay away from him, but he’s always being friendly. Must be a Texas thing.”
“Friendly, my ass, Av’ry. He’s not gonna stop until he gets what he wants. And you and I both know what that is.”
“He’ll stop.” I knew at that moment I could never let Gabe find out what happened at the cabin with his brother. It was partially my fault for letting the kiss happen.
“You better not do him any favors or encourage him.”
“Did you not hear me say I try to stay away from him? You don’t have to tell me what to do,” I told him.
“Maybe I do.”
“Who are you really mad at?”
My hands fidgeted in my lap, and I tried not to look up. If I looked in his eyes, I would lose my cool. Suddenly, it hurt to breathe. I should have taken the room with Deliah. Gabe perfected being miserable, whether he would admit it or not. I wanted to scream at him to stop prolonging the rivalry with Caleb and snap out of his funk.
I got up and tied my shoes.
“You leaving? It’s raining.”
“I’m going for a walk. I don’t care,” I said under my breath.
As I grabbed for my bag, he stretched out on the bed and rolled onto his stomach. I didn’t want him to let me leave. I wanted him to reach out and grab me, tackle me down to the bed and make it worth my while to stay. I could have stared at his pose for an eternity, but I wasn’t about to condone his behavior.
It was just my luck that the rain was pelting the building sideways when I got to the exit at the end of the hall. I considered asking for Caleb’s room number at the desk, but I knew that would only drive Gabe insane.
I needed fresh air, even if it was wet air.
The overhang on the building didn’t stop the rain from hitting my feet. I stood in front of Gabe’s rental car where he parked beside the silver truck with Texas plates. After a moment of longing and second-guessing, I thought about going back in the room to work it out with Gabe. His window was right there.
“Had enough?” I heard the voice. I knew the voice. I couldn’t see the voice.
My better judgment told me to run to the door and not look back.
“Over here,” he said. “Climb in. He won’t come after you.”
My better judgment never won. I glanced over my shoulder and spotted Caleb’s arm hanging over the side of the truck bed. He was sitting in the rain.
“You’re soaked. No way,” I told him.
“Don’t be a chicken, legs.” He swung his hands in the air. “It feels great. You don’t get warm rain like this, do you?”
He was right. I was used to freezing rain and blizzards in November. I couldn’t enjoy the rain for very long. It was too noisy. Snow was quieter.
“Join me in my swimming pool.”
I shook my head, but my legs lifted off the ground, one at a time and walked me around the Mustang.
“Where’s your sister?” I asked.
“She’s flapping her gums at her girlfriend, telling her all about her handsome new brothers. Climb over,” he said as he got to his knees and offered a hand.
“I better not.”
Caleb looked different with wet hair.
“What are you so afraid of? I know why you came out here,” he said.
I ran my hand through my overgrown bangs and pulled them off my face. “I’m not afraid of anything.”
Caleb tipped his head dramatically and smirked. “I suspect you’re afraid of me.”
“I’m afraid for you. I’m afraid of what Gabe will do to you.”
He laughed a big belly laugh.
“I like that you’re afraid.”
“Why do you torture him?” I asked.
He swung a boot over the truck bed, proceeded to climb over, and landed in a puddle. He wiped his arms and legs off to be funny.
I didn’t laugh.
“Why do you torture me?” He spoke above me. His eyes fell under his cowboy hat.
I looked up at him and crossed my arms over my wet shirt. “This isn’t some soap opera love triangle.”
“I got real feelings for ya, legs.”
“You’ve got feelings for every pair of high heels that waddles by, Caleb Halden. You don’t fool me.”
“Well, aren’t you smart as a hooty owl tonight? I’m not trying to fool you. I’m trying to love you,” he drawled sappily into my forehead, the rim of his hat shielded my eyes for the moment.
I stepped back and bumped into Gabe’s rental car. I flattened my hands on the slippery hood to hold myself up.
“Don’t do this.”
He closed the space between us and trapped me. “I only treat you like I wanna be treated. You like being around me. I’m nice to you and you don’t get that from him.”
“Caleb, please,” I whispered into the rain. “We’ve been through this.”
His hand snuck behind my neck as I wiped the rain from my eyes. What he sa
id about his brother was true. I didn’t need to hear it.
There was no question that I loved Gabe. I loved him so much I would have followed him off a cliff and jumped into a fiery pit. He was the boy who caused me to lie wide awake at night thinking about the feel of his hands clasped around my waist or how his hair smelled like spring and it tickled my cheek when he kissed my neck. My insides melted when I imagined how he looked in worn jeans and a sleeveless T-shirt and how it elated me that he liked to curl up and read at my side. His accent made me quiver when he whispered crazy talk in my ear.
Almost everything about Gabe was perfect. I loved even the parts that were difficult to love.
“I even look like him. Don’t I got that going for me?”
“You’ll always look like him,” I replied.
“Avery, you’re all sweetness and light. Bet he doesn’t tell you that.”
I moved to the side so his hand would fall, but he held me tighter. I couldn’t let him get any closer. I knew what he was priming to do.
“It’s not going to happen again,” I warned.
“I could’ve taken you home when you were about to get on that jet in Williston,” he said in all seriousness. “You hated him then. I would’ve worshiped you.”
“I didn’t hate him. You’re wrong. You have to stop. I don’t think you want anything different from me than you can get from any other girl. Maybe you should think about Molly. You had a good thing with her.”
“You knew it was me in your bed.”
He was unrelenting. His smirking lips made me want to smile and spit. I fought back the urge to smack him. I couldn’t let him mess with me.
“No. You’re dead wrong, and you can’t ever tell Gabe. Promise me and swear you won’t.”
I grabbed his mouth and squeezed his lips together on the side. “Uh wunt. I pwumus,” he garbled and seized my arm.
“And I won’t tell him what a scoundrel you are,” I promised. “He’ll believe me over you.”
Caleb’s eyes tightened skeptically. He inclined and tapped the side of my head with his hat. His lips touched my cheek, but I wanted to hear what he had to say more than I cared to stop him. His touch gave me chills. Then he spoke gruffly and pulled me until our middles touched. “Be warned, legs. You have no idea what kind of a scoundrel I can be.”
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