“Because you’re the steady, dependable one. Gotcha.” Gunnar nodded, suddenly having a much clearer vision of what Lexi’s non–Whisper Creek life looked like. “But even the good kid deserves a vacation from the crazy sometimes, right?”
“Yes. She absolutely does.” Lexi smiled. “But because she’s the good kid, she can’t help but still feel guilty about it.”
“It’s just eight weeks, right? In the scheme of things, that’s not all that long.”
“For a woman who calls at least twice a day, every day, it’s an eternity. She’s left me so many voicemails out here that my mailbox is full.” She stopped, putting a hand to her mouth. “I’m sorry, Gunnar. That was—insensitive. Here I am complaining about my mom, and you—”
“It’s okay. I’ve lived with my situation for a long time, and I came out the other side just fine. I don’t actually hold it against my mother. She wasn’t…strong. And her worst crime was loving my deadbeat father.”
Lexi tipped her head. “Pretty sure her worst crime was abandoning her child while she chased your father around the country, Gunnar.”
“Well, there’s that, yeah.” He smiled, loving how quickly she allied herself with him—loving how fierce the set of her jaw was as she tried to understand how a mother could basically abandon her own kid. Yes, he’d been sixteen, but still.
Damn. As he watched her in the candlelight, her cheeks pink and that little sundress leaving not a hell of a lot to the imagination, he couldn’t help but think about what Jasper had said earlier. But he didn’t want a casual hookup with Lexi.
He didn’t—because he wanted so much more.
“So, you’re headed home in three weeks still? Haven’t changed your mind yet?” He winked, like staying here was really a choice she had.
“Well, there’s the small matter of my job and home.”
“But we can get lobster here! Doesn’t that sway you at all?”
She laughed. “Absolutely.”
“And—maybe this is out of line—but there is the whole kissing thing. Because I think we’d be really good at it, you and I.”
“Gunnar.” He watched her face flush, and it made him inordinately pleased.
He put up his hands. “Can you honestly tell me you haven’t been thinking about it?”
“Um.” She blushed harder, which just made him push further.
“I’ll be honest with you, Lex. I can’t stop thinking about it. And I can’t stop thinking about you. It’s kind of killing me here, actually.”
She laughed quietly. “Okay, yes. Maybe I’ve been thinking about—it. A little.” He raised his eyebrows. “Fine. A lot.”
“Well, that’s a relief.” He sat back. “So what should we do about it?”
“Stop thinking about it? Given that it’s killing us and all?”
“A valid proposal.” He nodded. “But a terrible one.”
“Do you have a better idea?” She looked up shyly, and he could hear the tremble in her voice.
“I have a lot of better ideas.”
“I was sort of afraid of that.”
He raised an eyebrow. “But sort of not?”
“God, Gunnar. I don’t know. I’m leaving in three weeks, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to come back. It seems inordinately stupid to start something we both know can’t ever work out, as amazing as it might be for those three short weeks.”
He nodded, knowing full well that she was right. He should stand up right now, walk her to the door, and do his best to stay out of her orbit until she was back in Maine.
Yeah, that was exactly what he should do.
“You’re right.” He sighed, draining his glass.
“That it would be stupid?”
“No. That it would be amazing.” He reached over to touch her cheek, and she leaned into his hand as it caressed her. “Right now I’m just enjoying watching your eyes sparkle and your face flame with the thought of being with me.”
He traced a finger down her neck, then back up, feeling her pulse quicken as he did. “And seeing you flush here makes me just want to keep you off balance, because what’s really killing me is wondering what you’d look like if you were really…undone.”
—
Lexi let her head fall back, her breaths coming faster than she wanted him to see. “God, Gunnar.”
Then she felt his lips on her neck—soft, commanding, dead sexy as he brushed her hair back from her ear. Before she could figure out whether to push him away or just sink into the bliss of it, his lips were on hers. This time, there was no one around. This time, there was no phone to stop them. This time—oh, God. This time, she didn’t want him to stop.
As his lips searched hers, gentle and demanding at the same time, she felt her bones turn to jelly, one by one. As he shifted his body to pull her closer, she reached for him, clung to his shirt, whimpered low in her throat as his impossibly warm hand traveled up her thigh.
But just as she actually started to wonder if he might pick her up and head for the bedroom, Gunnar pulled back slowly, carefully. He looked down at her, tracing her eyebrows, her nose, her jawline with a gentle finger.
He brushed a wave of hair back from her face. “Lex, I can see thoughts moving at a hundred miles an hour across your face. And I get it. I can feel you questioning every moment, every word I say. I know The Idiot did a number on you, and maybe other guys did, too. But I’m not them. I’m just…not.”
“I know.” Her voice was strangled, soft, as she felt herself falling into his eyes.
“This is real, Lex. Whatever’s going on here—and however we decide it ends up—it’s all real. I feel like I don’t trust that you know that, and I really, really want you to know that.”
“What does that mean?” She struggled not to melt into his fingers as they caressed her cheek.
“It means I’m head over frigging heels for you, Alexis Maguire. That’s what it means. And despite a hell of a lot of effort to resist it, I can’t seem to.”
Lexi laughed softly, feeling tears pricking her eyes. “So, you don’t order lobster from Maine for just anyone, then? This isn’t your standard repertoire?”
“No.”
“Even the part about chickening out on cooking it? Because omigod, that kicked the adorable quotient right off the scales.”
He shook his head. “Adorable wasn’t quite the thing I was going for, and no. Really never thought that would have been an attractive quality in a guy, gotta be honest.”
“What would we do, Gunnar? We’ve got separate lives—like—really separate lives.”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head slowly. “But somebody really smart about this stuff gave me some advice earlier today.”
“Oh?”
“She said planning is overrated, and analyzing is overrated. Loving, however, is not.”
Lexi heard the word come out of his mouth, and she couldn’t help but put her fingers to her lips.
Was he saying—could he really—no. Love? No. They barely knew each other.
“Don’t freak out, Lex.” He smiled. “We hardly know each other. I know that. But I’m sick of trying to pretend I don’t look for you every morning when I come up the hill. I’m tired of finding excuses to walk by your cabin, then feeling like a fourteen-year-old with a crush. I’m tired of avoiding finding out what maybe we could…be.”
“Wow.”
He laughed softly. “You’re incredibly verbose when someone stuns you, you know.”
“I know.”
He leaned toward her, and she felt her eyes close, aching for him to kiss her again. Thunder rolled in the distance, and she almost laughed, because how perfect was that?
But just before his lips might have touched hers again, there was a loud knocking on the door. “Gunnar? You in there?” Lexi recognized the voice of Jimmy, one of the stable guys. “We’ve got a situation. Duke. Thunder.”
Gunnar pulled back immediately. “Shit. I’m so sorry. I have to—he freaks out—I gotta g
et to him before he hurts himself.”
“Of course,” she said. “Go. I’ll clean up.”
“Gunnar?” The guy’s voice came through the screen again.
“Coming! Hold on.” Gunnar looked at her apologetically, then whipped on his hat and headed for the door, leaving Lexi sitting at the table…wishing her heart hadn’t just left the cabin with him.
—
“Cowboy report. Go.” Katie’s voice came over Lexi’s phone before she had time to say hello the next morning.
“Huh?” She tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes. Even though it was early August, Katie still hadn’t processed the whole time-zone thing. It might be nine o’clock where she was, but it certainly wasn’t in Montana.
“I haven’t received my elopement invitation yet, so I’m just checking. We’re running out of time for you to find a cowboy husband to bring home to meet Mom.”
Lexi laughed. “Sorry, Kit-Kat. Not eloping.”
“And I thought you were going to change this summer. What a waste.” Katie laughed. “Have you at least dated a cowboy? Please tell me you haven’t let all of those chaps and hats go to waste. I might have to kill you.”
Lexi was silent as she found a hangnail that suddenly required attention. Yeah, she’d dated one, all right. And then, just when things had been about to get interesting, a thunderstorm had wreaked havoc on the evening. Poor Duke had gone ballistic in the storm, and Gunnar had had no choice but to stay in the stable with him for the night. He’d been apologetic as he’d sent Lexi back to her cabin, and as she looked at the clock again, she realized he’d left an hour ago for a three-day trip south, to pick up a horse.
Timing.
Twelve hours after he’d injected her with a vial full of hope, off he’d gone.
“Oh-h. You’re not talking.” Katie’s voice went all sing-song. “There is someone! Is it Gunnar? Have things gotten hotter?”
“Katie, come on.”
“They have!” Lexi could picture her curling up in the round papazan chair in her office at the bed-and-breakfast she managed, eager for the dirt. “Dish to your little sis, Lexi. She’s desperate for someone to have success with men here.”
“Another bad date last night?”
“The worst. Remember Robbie from high school?”
And just like that, the focus went straight to Katie, who was so used to it that she didn’t even notice Lexi had done it on purpose so she wouldn’t have to talk about Gunnar. It was all too fresh, too stunning, too…beautiful to talk about yet. Somehow speaking of it out loud might sully it, and Lexi wasn’t ready to answer questions. She just wanted to spend the day reliving that kiss at the table…reliving his lips on her neck, on her ear…reliving the heat of his hand sliding torturously upward as he’d deepened the kiss.
She shook her head, trying to clear him from her mind. “Is Robbie the one who got tattoos before they were cool?”
“Yeah. Only they’re not nearly as sexy now, gotta tell you.”
Lexi rolled her eyes. Robbie Humple was a loser who lived up to his unfortunate last name.
“Why did you even go out with him, Katie?”
“Because the selection of tourists is a little slim, okay? And the B and B is chock-full of honeymooners. It’s depressing.” She sighed. “When are you coming home, anyway?”
“Same date as I’ve told you a hundred times.” Lexi heard the edge in her voice and tried to smooth it out. “August 15th.”
Five weeks ago, that date had seemed impossibly far in the future. As she’d packed her shorts and T-shirts and that one new dress Katie had insisted she buy, she’d seen the weeks stretching endlessly out before her.
But now the expiration date on her summer was sneaking quickly toward her, and all she wanted to do was find the PAUSE button and stay here at Whisper Creek until—until what, really? Until she figured out whether she and Gunnar might actually fall in love? For real?
“The fifteenth seems way too far away, Lexi. You sure you can’t get here sooner?”
“Gee, Kate. Is Mom driving you crazy, by chance?”
Katie growled. “Can I tell you?”
Lexi sighed. “Of course. What’s going on?”
“She’s convinced she’s working up to a major episode.”
“She’s always convinced she’s on the verge of one. What are her symptoms this time?”
“Oh, you know. The usual. But she’s got eight medical sites bookmarked. She knows all the right things to report, whether she’s having them or not.”
“True enough. Does she think it’s going to be a heart attack this time? Or a stroke?”
“Pretty sure at this point, she’s angling for either. She’s being pretty nonspecific.”
Lexi rolled her eyes. “I assume she’ll live through the week, then. Clearly you haven’t been paying her enough attention. Her symptoms are directly proportional to the number of visits and phone calls she’s had in a prescribed period.”
“Lexi, I’ve been paying that woman far more attention than an adult daughter should have to pay a perfectly capable woman who pretends she’s not. She’s impossible.”
“Really?” Lexi injected mock wonder into her tone. “Are you serious?”
“Shut up. I know. You’ve taken the brunt of it for years.” Katie sighed. “And I know you’ve been calling her three times a week all summer. Just maybe hurry up and come back, all right? I mean, if the cowboy thing isn’t going to work out anyway, maybe you could just cut the summer short and bail me out?”
Lexi frowned at Katie’s assumption that the—cowboy thing, as she called it—wouldn’t work out. Maybe, just maybe, it would. Maybe it could, given the right intersection of stars or moons or planets or whatever.
“Who says the cowboy thing isn’t going to work out? Maybe I’m making plans to stay right here, Kate. You never know.”
The silence on the other end assured her that her sister was now focused directly on her. Good. It was about time.
“That’s not funny, Lex.”
“Hey, Kate? Can I remind you that you’re the one who snuck in my application for this position? I’m under contract. I can’t cut out early, even if I wanted to.”
“Which, clearly, you don’t.” Lexi heard the tiff in Katie’s tone.
“Wasn’t that kind of the goal here? For me to break away, come out here, and spend the summer putting myself back together?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“But what, Katie? You never expected I’d really be able to do it? Never expected I might actually meet somebody special?”
“I never said that.”
“I don’t think you had to.”
Katie paused, then spoke quietly. “What’s with you, Lexi?”
Lexi closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t know. There’s just—a lot to think about right now, okay?”
“Omigod. There really is someone, isn’t there?” Now Katie’s voice sounded scared.
“Yeah.” Lexi sighed. “There is.”
“And…is it…mutual?”
“I’m pretty sure, believe it or not.”
“Well, that’s—it’s great. I’m happy for you. I really am.”
Lexi shook her head. “Try to contain your enthusiasm.”
“So…what are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t know yet.” Lexi sighed, looking out the window and down toward the stables, where she could see the stable hands letting the horses out of their stalls for the day.
Katie sighed. “Oh, fantastic. Mom’s beeping in.”
“Ooh, you’d better get that.” Lexi smiled, not feeling nearly as guilty as she’d been earlier in the summer, which oddly made her feel guiltier.
“Love you, too, Lexi.” Katie blew a raspberry over the phone. “And if she’s really dying this time, I’m totally blaming you.”
“Sounds good. Ta-ta.”
Lexi hung up, smiling, relieved that she wasn’t the one who’d have to field the next twenty minutes of c
omplaints about the weather, the mailman, the tourists, or whatever else had hit Mom’s radar today.
But two hours later, Katie called back. “Lex?”
Lexi sat up straight in the rocking chair, putting down the sketch she’d been working on. There was something in Katie’s tone that had her spine tingling with alarm.
“What’s up, Kate?”
“It’s Mom.”
Lexi breathed out in relief. Oh.
“What now?”
“She—had a heart attack. For real.”
Chapter 19
Gunnar pulled into the Whisper Creek driveway two days later, exhausted from both the drive and the fact that he’d slept like complete shit for the past two nights. The horse trailer he was hauling behind him was empty, thanks to the owner changing his mind at the last minute, so Gunnar was pissed on top of his exhaustion. Three wasted days, when he had none to waste.
All that time on the road had done nothing but give him endless hours to relive his last evening with Lexi, which was torture in itself. He’d kicked himself more than a dozen times for not checking the radar that day, for not realizing a storm was coming that would send Duke into the frenzy that had abruptly ended what had promised to be an amazing night.
Next time he laid his frigging heart out, he’d check the damn weather report first.
Now, all he could think about was getting to Lexi, but first, he needed a shower. He’d texted her a couple of times, but it wasn’t till he’d crossed the Carefree town line that he realized those texts had never left his phone. He loved the wilderness he’d traveled through, but a damn cell tower might have been nice, somewhere along the lonely stretch of road.
He parked the trailer and unhooked it, then headed to his cabin. Hell if he was going to show up smelling like the road, not when he had things to say—things that he maybe should have said sooner than now. As he walked down the pathway, the sounds were the same as always, the sky was its dusky norm, and guests lingered on their little front porches, as usual.
But something felt different, and he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
Unlucky in Love Page 18