by C. C. Coburn
“You’d better get going,” she said, “and thanks for everything.” Without looking at Gabe, she climbed into her vehicle, too flustered to think to ask why Gabe had shown up on her doorstep in the first place.
After waiting over an hour to see the doctor, and with Molly growing increasingly restless, they were finally shown in to see the doctor on call. He prescribed antibiotics to clear up her ear infection and then recommended an ENT surgeon to look at Molly and find a solution to her recurring infections.
Home at last and completely wrung out, Beth turned into the driveway and switched off her car. She rested her head against the steering wheel and drew in some deep calming breaths. Now she had to ask a neighbor to stay with Molly while she went in search of the boys, when all she really wanted to do was crawl back into bed and sleep the day away.
She was bending over, about to get Molly from the back seat when Gabe and her three rowdy boys pulled into the driveway behind her. Gabe was beside her in moments, lifting Molly from her car seat and onto his hip in one fluid motion. She nestled her tiny head under his chin and stuck her thumb in her mouth. Beth’s heart turned over as she watched Gabe stroke her daughter’s back in long, soothing strokes.
“Is she okay?” Jack asked and Beth noted the concern in his voice.
Beth smiled at her son. “Sure, honey. She’s got medicine and an appointment with the pediatrician, and we’re just going to let her lie quietly for the day, because she’s really tired.” Beth tried to stifle a yawn of her own and failed miserably.
“Something tells me Mom didn’t get much sleep last night either,” Gabe murmured in her ear as they walked into the house. He was about to start up the stairs to Molly’s room, but she began protesting loudly and kicking her feet.
“She doesn’t like being alone while she’s sick. She can spend the day curled up on the sofa in the family room,” Beth explained. It’ll be easier to hear her if she wants me, too.”
Gabe carried Molly through to the family room and got her settled on the sofa while Beth went to retrieve Molly’s quilt and pillows to make her more comfortable.
“You look beat,” Gabe observed.
She stood up after tucking Molly in and making sure she was comfortable and brushed an errant tendril of hair from her eyes. “Nothing a gallon of caffeine wouldn’t fix,” she sighed and offered a weak smile. She walked through to the kitchen. “I… wasn’t expecting to see you again.”
“You thought I’d kidnap the boys?”
Beth giggled at his deliberate misunderstanding. “You know what I mean,” she said and measured the antibiotic syrup into a medicine glass for Molly and took it through to her.
Finally satisfied that Molly was comfortable and probably going to sleep for a couple of hours, she went back to the kitchen. “Can I fix you coffee? Breakfast?” she glanced at the clock. “Late morning tea?” Me?
Gabe placed his hands on her shoulders and pressed her into a chair. “I’ll fix us all a late breakfast. I picked up some muffins for the boys on the way to hockey. I hope you don’t mind,” he added then opened the fridge and brought out eggs and bacon.
“No, I don’t mind at all. Thank you for that, although I’ve got a sneaking suspicion they were putting one over on you. The first thing those little guys reach for in the morning is the cereal. Closely followed by the remote control.” She gave a wry smile. “At least on weekdays I’m up and at ‘em before the boys and can hide the remote, but on weekends I prefer a lie–in.”
And I’d have loved a lie–in with you, this morning, she thought, watching the muscles on Gabe’s back as he prepared breakfast ripple beneath the soft fabric of his shirt. “None of them bothered to notice the time pass this morning and my alarm is kaput.”
Beth resisted the urge to rest her head in her hands and have a snooze at the table while Gabe cooked. Besides, the view from where she sat was too irresistible. Lordy, he had a nice butt. He was so at ease with himself. And her kitchen, she thought with a tiny amount of alarm.
“Why did you come here this morning?” she asked.
Gabe turned to her, spatula in hand. “I think we have some unfinished business.”
Beth couldn’t help groaning and this time she really did succumb to resting her head in her hands.
“Have you got a headache?”
“No. I’m just quietly dying of embarrassment. I’ll be okay sometime mid–century, I expect.”
“I know you think of me as merely a sex toy…” Beth thought she saw a twinkle in his eye as he said it, but then he sobered. “But I can’t help wondering if this—we—could be something so much more. In a nutshell, I can’t stay away.”
Beth didn’t know what to say to that. Should she let him amuse himself for a while? Until he got bored, like JJ did, and leave? She needed space and sleep to contemplate his remark. In the meantime… if he couldn’t stay away, maybe that meant that he’d enjoyed their session on the couch almost as much as she had. And that couldn’t be a bad thing, could it?
Gabe dished up eggs, bacon and warmed muffins, then called the boys in from the backyard where they were engaged in an impromptu game of touch football. Applebee was the fourth player.
The Retriever wasn’t to be left out and came inside, and sat and watched everyone eating with a soulful look in his eyes. Beth eventually capitulated and fed him some of her bacon.
Gabe couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. His plan was working out just fine.
“I thought I’d take the boys to the game down at Coors Field this afternoon.” He threw the comment in casually over the breakfast table, knowing full well what sort of reaction it would get from the boys.
“Yeah!” the boys cried in unison and high–fived each other.
Beth frowned. “I can’t go. I have to stay and watch Molly.”
Gabe grinned. “You weren’t invited. It’s a guys’ day out thing.”
When Beth continued to frown, he said, “I figured Molly wasn’t up for any activity today and that you’d have to be home with her, so I wondered where the guys would like to go without their mother or their sister and came up with Coors Field.”
“Yeah!” the boys all chimed again and repeated their high–fives.
Beth frowned at them. “I didn’t say you could go.”
Their faces fell in unison as they said together, “Aw, Mom.”
Beth shook her head and looked at Gabe. “I’m sorry. Let me get this straight. You’re volunteering to take three overactive boys who aren’t even related to you to a ball game? By yourself?”
“They’re all toilet–trained aren’t they?” Gabe asked.
“Of course they are!”
“Then what’s the problem? You and Molly can have a quiet day at home and catch up on some sleep, and I’ll take the boys off your hands and give them a treat for getting downstairs so fast this morning.”
Beth groaned, if only it was always so easy to get them downstairs and into the car when she was in a hurry. “Isn’t it a little late to get tickets?”
“No problem. My college room–mate is one of the coaches. I gave him a call earlier and he’s holding four seats right behind the Rockies dugout.”
“Cool!” the boys cried and all raced upstairs to get changed. Never mind what their mother had to say about it.
“I take it that’s okay with you?” Gabe asked. “I mean, I can cancel.”
“Oh, yeah, right,” Beth said. “And leave me with a mini revolt on my hands. No thank you!” She stood up to clear the table. “You’d better get going then if you want to make it in time. And Gabe?” she turned from the sink, intending to tell him off for not running it by her first. But the look on his face was of such obvious anticipation that she simply said, “Thanks, I appreciate your consideration for the boys.”
“No problem. They’re great kids. I’m looking forward to getting to know them better.” He bent and placed a kiss on her cheek just as the boys came hurtling downstairs. He followed them out the kitchen door
.
Beth groaned and leaned back against the countertop. “That’s what I was afraid of,” she said and threw the dishcloth at his retreating back.
Beth and Molly spent the afternoon catching up on sleep. Beth curled up with Molly on the couch to be near her if she was sick again and, as much as it pained her, tried to figure out how she would get Gabe out of her life and especially away from her kids. She had a feeling he had a plan. A plan to win the kids over, figuring that she wouldn’t be able to resist a man her kids adored. He was trying to build a relationship with her kids in order to build a relationship with her, and she wasn’t having it!
All she wanted from him was sex. Pure and simple. Why couldn’t the man just give her that? They could meet whenever he was down in Denver. She could have the children sat and she and Gabe could book into a hotel and enjoy several hours of very fulfilling lovemaking. And then they could go their separate ways, no strings attached, no hearts to be broken.
The problem was, she had no idea how to implement her plan, especially since Gabe wasn’t going to co–operate. He had his own agenda!
She needed to think this through, but at the moment, her mind was too fogged with lack of sleep for her to think up an effective plan to make Gabe forget his silly notions of having a relationship before they had sex. Beth closed her eyes and drifted off.
By the time Molly awoke a couple of hours later, she was much perkier. They spent the time waiting for the boys to come home, reading. Molly was an advanced child who preferred to be left alone with a book, in spite of her conning Gabe into reading to her the other night. Beth was grateful for Molly’s independence. She had a pile of novels to catch up on. They sat at opposite ends of the couch, their feet touching as they lost themselves in their respective tales.
Beth was deeply involved with the plot twists and turns of a Tom Clancy novel when the kitchen door slammed open and her three sons charged in and went straight to the refrigerator in search of sustenance. It took her a few moments to gather her wits and get back into the present.
“Didn’t you feed them?” she inquired of Gabe with a smile on her lips. She knew perfectly well her three hellions would have gobbled hotdogs and drunk gallons of soda all afternoon. It was probably all those carbs making them so hungry so soon.
Gabe strode in and she caught her breath. He was beautiful—if such a description could be applied to a man. Marina Hunter had been one lucky woman. Having a man like Gabe to make love to you every night would have been bliss. Beth sighed as she contemplated what it would feel like to have Gabe pressing you down into the mattress, to have him sliding into you, filling you…
“Mom,” Mikey bleated round a mouthful of chocolate chip muffin, “what’s for dinner?”
Beth snapped back to the present. She had to stop daydreaming about Gabe, especially in front of her kids! She might unwittingly moan or do something else equally embarrassing.
“I would have thought you’d eaten enough this afternoon not to need dinner,” Beth said as she got up from the sofa and walked into the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator door and peered inside. “Let’s see. You’ve probably been eating garbage all day, so it’s time for some vegetables to balance your diet.”
“Aw, Mom!” the boys chimed.
Gabe pulled out a chair, turned it around and straddled it. The boys watched him with interest and then imitated him. Beth couldn’t suppress a smile.
Gabe raised an eyebrow at her. Beth had the distinct feeling that Gabe was enjoying the power play immensely. She collected broccoli, cauliflower, peas and corn from the crisper and laid them on the table. “Vegetarian lasagna sounds like a good idea to me,” she said.
“Aw, Mom!” the boys chimed again, but were cut short by Gabe rubbing his stomach.
“Sounds delicious. Can I do anything?”
Beth didn’t want him making himself too comfortable in her kitchen, even though he looked as though he belonged there. “No, thanks. I can manage on my own,” she almost snapped.
Gabe’s brows rose. “Fine,” he said, rising. “Then I’ll go supervise while the boys run their baths.”
“Yeah!” the boys all cried and thundered up the stairs.
Gabe set off to follow them.
“You won’t win, you know,” Beth said to his retreating back.
He turned towards her, a look of innocence on his face. “Excuse me?”
“You won’t win me by winning them. I’m a much harder nut to crack.”
“Yes, I had taken that fact into account, darlin’” he drawled and gave one of his knee–buckling smiles. “But I’m an expert nutcracker,” he said and popped a walnut from the dish on her sideboard between his teeth. The sound of cracking nut filled the room. He extracted the nut from his mouth, peeled away the shell and then slowly, ever so slowly, brought the walnut flesh back to his mouth and closed his lips around it.
Beth swallowed. Oh, my. She was never going to win this war if he kept that up. With a tiny snort of disapproval, she turned away, feigning more interest in the cauliflower than in anything Gabe Hunter might want to do to her walnuts. Or to her.
After a very noisy half–hour the boys returned downstairs dressed for bed.
“You’ve changed your minds about dinner?” Beth inquired.
“Nope,” Jack told her. “Gabe said if we put our pj’s on now we’d save time later, plus he said we can watch TV until dinner’s ready. Will it be soon?”
Beth blinked. Gabe was laying down the rules for television viewing now, was he? She’d have to have a word to him about that. Just as soon as she got him alone.
“I’d better be pushing off,” he announced as dinner finished. This caused a cacophony of cries of protests from her kids, leaving Beth feeling a little left out of their affections. She wondered if she announced she was heading for the hills if they’d object so strongly.
Gabe laughed and held up his hands. “Hey! Enough already. I have to get home to my ranch. My horse will forget who I am if I stay away any longer.”
“When will you come back?” Mikey demanded.
“Tomorrow?” asked Ben with hope in his voice.
“Maybe next weekend?” Gabe asked, looking at Beth for confirmation that would be okay.
“Please, Mom!” the boys cried in unison.
Beth was both pleased that Gabe even wanted to return, but a little jealous that he’d managed to get her kids to love him so readily. Obviously boys were a pushover for hotdogs and baseball.
Beth shrugged. “If Gabe wants to come back, that’s fine with me.” She turned her back and loaded the dishwasher. What was wrong with her? Hormones maybe. She tended to her kids’ every need night and day and they barely greeted her with a Hi, Mom, or Bye, Mom. Yet Gabe had flown into their lives for one day and they were acting as though the world would stop spinning if she didn’t agree to having Gabe come visit them again. Maybe she was just over–tired? She needed some space of her own and suddenly her kitchen seemed too small for the six of them.
“Looks like we’ll see each other again Friday, guys.” Gabe said as Beth turned back to him.
“Going to see me out?” he asked her, but the boys thought they meant them and all rushed towards him.
“Yeah!” they shouted in unison.
Beth was definitely overtired because now she was feeling distinctly irritable. “I… think I hear Molly waking up,” she said and excused herself.
Gabe caught up with her in the hallway. “Hey, have I done something wrong?” he queried while Ben hung off his leg as though Gabe was the last lifeboat on the Titanic.
Beth picked up Molly and started for the stairs, refusing Gabe’s offer of help. “No, why would you think that?”
“Because you’re suddenly snooty with me, that’s why. Hey guys,” he said to the boys, “Leave your mom and me to talk for a minute, will you?”
“Gabe, I’m tired,” Beth explained. “I’m not into grand goodbyes. So thanks for taking the boys to the game and for helping out an
d… stuff. See you on Friday, okay?” she turned and carried Molly upstairs, wanting to kick herself for being such a bitch. It wasn’t Gabe’s fault her kids were so fickle about who they showered their affections on.
Monday morning after dropping the boys at school, Beth hit the phone and was stunned to find how long she had to wait to get an appointment with the ENT specialist for Molly.
She sure couldn’t take many more nights of interrupted sleep and it was doing Molly no good to be continuously fed antibiotics, so she put a call through to the children’s pediatrician, Dr. Peter Grenville, to see if he had an earlier appointment and a solution to Molly’s problem. She left a message with the receptionist, explaining her problem and asking if Dr. Grenville had a moment, could he call her? She was surprised when he phoned fifteen minutes later.
“Beth!” he boomed with his usual enthusiasm. “Long time, no see, eh? What can I do for you?”
Beth felt embarrassed she hadn’t taken the children to see the friendly pediatrician since each of them had been given a clean bill of health within a few months of their births. JJ had objected to the cost, so she’d instead taken them to the GP at the local medical center for treatment.
“It’s Molly, Dr. Grenville,” she said. “She has recurring earaches and I can’t get an appointment for her with the ENT guy for over a month. I was hoping you could help.”
“For starters, it’s Peter, if you don’t mind, Beth. And you can’t usually get an appointment with me for at least two to three months.”
“Oh, dear,” Beth couldn’t help groaning. “I… I’m sorry I troubled you… ah…Peter.”
“You’re welcome,” he boomed. “Hey, I hear you and that useless skinflint of a husband of yours got divorced a while back?”
Beth wondered where that had come from, but anyone calling JJ a useless skinflint had her full attention. “Ah, yes. Why do you ask?”
“Just hoping you’d agree to join me for dinner tonight?”