by Carmen Cook
Regan was trying hard to follow the conversation, but was almost afraid to ask for clarification. Was her mother really going to have the sex talk with her? Now?
“Mom. I really don’t think it’s necessary—“ Since she had no idea what she’d been about to say, Regan was almost relieved when her mother waved again to cut her off. From the corner of her eye she could see Becca and Chloe staring as though their mother had lost her mind. She was sure she wore a very similar expression.
“We’ve never been very demonstrative,” her mother began again, and Regan admitted to herself that it was like a train wreck. She couldn’t not stare as her mother held court. “We just never thought to worry about you, Regan. Not even when you decided to give up med school to be with Todd. We always knew you’d do the right thing, even if we couldn’t see it at the time.”
Regan straightened, unsure how to steer this conversation back to safer waters. “I didn’t give up on med school, because I never wanted to go. And I’m not going to talk about Todd,” she added. Might as well just lay it out and see what happened. That certainly seemed to be the approach her mother was taking with this bizarre conversation. “Nor am I going to talk about my current love life.”
Her mother straightened her shoulders, wrapping her dignity around her and making Regan feel like a heel. “I didn’t even know you had a current love life until I ran into Anita McCabe at the grocery store. She was so pleased that you and Gavin are finally having your chance that she couldn’t wait to share the news and ask what I thought. Do you have any idea how humiliating it is to find out other people know more about your child than you do while you’re standing at the deli counter? It leads me to all sorts of conclusions that I’d really rather not think about.”
Chloe took a slurp from her soda, making the gurgling noise that drinks made when you hit the bottom, effectively breaking their mother’s concentration and avoiding the histrionic tears that Regan was sure were about to be shed. The “bitterly disappointed in you” tears. Not to be mistaken with the angry tears, although there would have been some of those mixed in as well. She hadn’t been on the receiving end of one of these lectures in a long time and was out of practice on how to diffuse the situation.
Setting her to-go cup aside, Chloe kindly picked up the conversational gauntlet for her. “Then don’t think about it,” she offered helpfully, earning yet another glare from their mom. She shook her head, her pink hair swinging around her face, which Regan was sure just irritated their mother more. “I’m being serious. If you don’t want to think about Regan and Gavin together, then don’t. But you don’t have to jump to all sorts of conclusions. Regan’s been driving his truck a lot ever since that tree fell on the Mini. It’s a friendly thing for him to offer, right?”
Regan closed her eyes against the screech her mother let out. “I didn’t mention that, did I?”
“Regan Christine Sinclair. You were in an accident and didn’t tell me?” All that was missing was the back of her hand tossed dramatically against her forehead and she’d be striking the perfect pose for an all-suffering woman who was about to faint.
“I didn’t want to worry you,” Regan said, knowing there was no use. Sliding past her mother, she passed through the archway and into the kitchen where she started filling the kettle for tea. But her mother followed.
“Worry me?” Joyce had slumped into a kitchen chair and was fanning herself with her hands. “Why would I worry about a tree falling on your car?”
“She wasn’t in it at the time,” Becca called helpfully, while Regan wished the kettle would whistle instantly and give her something to do.
“I should hope not. Although if you had been, maybe someone would have told me about it.”
Regan looked through the doorway and caught Becca’s eye and had to stifle a laugh as her younger sister rolled her eyes at their mother’s dramatics. For a woman who was a solid academic, teaching ancient civilizations at the University of Montana, she had a flair for the dramatic. Regan often wondered if her mother hadn’t secretly had ambitions for the stage instead of the classroom.
The kettle let out its shrill alarm and Regan went about making tea, hoping to take her mother’s mind off fallen trees and her love life and anything else she might want to give her unwanted opinion about. “Here you are,” she announced, setting the mug of tea on the table. “Was there a reason you came by today? Or did you want to help paint?”
Bobbing the tea bag into the water, Mom shook her head. “Don’t be ridiculous. I really wish you three wouldn’t encourage Catherine by doing all of this for her.”
“She’s doing me a favor by letting me stay here.”
“Which is another thing I don’t understand,” Mom muttered, lifting her mug to her lips before taking a small sip. The house was a point of contention between Regan’s mother and her aunt. Catherine had originally purchased the small house for their parents, taking over the larger, family home outside of town when it became too much for them to keep up and keeping the little house as a rental. It had been an arrangement that had worked well for everyone, but for some reason it had always rankled Regan’s mother that she hadn’t been able to do it instead of her sister.
“It’s a fine house. It just needs a little TLC and it’ll be good as…well, not new.” Still out in the dining room, Becca wrinkled her nose at the thought, making Chloe laugh. “Better than it was.”
“Those last renters didn’t take care of it like they should have,” Chloe commented.
Their mother waved her hand again, wiping away their words. “It’s done. I don’t know why you girls feel the need to get involved in this but you’re right, that’s not why I’m here.”
Regan waited. So did Chloe and Becca.
“Thanksgiving is next week.” Joyce made the announcement as though they’d forgotten her birthday. When no one said anything, she sighed and picked up her mug again. “I wanted to make sure you weren’t going to be off with your new boyfriend and would be with us for the family dinner.”
“Oh.” Regan felt a stab of guilt. She’d been so focused on everything else, she hadn’t thought about Thanksgiving at all. “Of course I’ll be there. I don’t know what Gavin has going on, if the kids will be with him or Kathy,” realizing too late that she was confirming their relationship. She quickly shifted gears. “Do you want me to bring anything?”
Some of the tension seemed to leave her mother’s shoulders at the question. “You can bring a pie. We can discuss your job options over dinner. Among other things.”
Regan nodded, understanding that her mother had felt slighted when she’d decided to stay at her grandparents’ old house when she returned to Sapphire Creek, but there was no way she was going to sit still for a conversation where her parents told her everything she was doing wrong and what they thought she should do.
Looking over at Chloe, she saw the mischief in her sister’s eyes and grinned in return. Maybe she could count on a suitable distraction after all. If nothing else, maybe she could come up with a case of food poisoning or something equally bothersome to keep her from attending.
Their mother left just as Bethany pulled her car over in front of the house. “Am I late?” she called as she climbed out.
“Not late enough,” Becca answered. “There’s still plenty to do.”
Bethany laughed as she came up the walk. “I’m going to take some pictures of the carpentry you want done. Zach should be home by Christmas at the latest, so he can get started whenever he’s settled,” she said, referring to her brother, who was currently serving in the Army.
“Are you sure he won’t mind?” Regan asked, leading the way to the back bedroom where the closet needed to be built along with some repairs where there’d been water damage along the baseboards.
“Are you kidding?” Bethany asked, taking her phone from her purse and moving around the room to try to get some decent photos showing the extent of the damage. “He’s been talking about starting this business for ye
ars. Being able to work for himself, use his hands for something other than—well, other than whatever he’s been doing for the past fifteen years. Zach will love the challenge.”
Regan only vaguely remembered Zach. He’d been one of the football players a couple years older than them in high school and hadn’t held her interest at all. Not like Gavin. She shook her head. She couldn’t go ten minutes without thinking of the man. Her phone blared the train whistle from her pocket and she grabbed for it, hoping Gavin was calling.
She was pathetic. She glanced at the phone and froze. Not Gavin. Todd. There was no reason for him to be calling her. A little pit of alarm settled in Regan’s stomach. She ignored the call.
“I wanted to ask you something.” Bethany’s voice held an odd note that cut into Regan’s thoughts.
“What?”
Bethany looked around making sure they were alone before asking, “Will you go shopping with me?”
Regan blinked, not sure why that request sounded so ominous. “Um. Sure.”
“I need to find something really sexy for when I tell Connor about…” her eyes cut to the door and she dropped her voice to a whisper. “Well, you know.” She waved her hand in front of her midsection.
It was obvious that Bethany was worried, although Regan had no idea why. Connor was as crazy about Bethany now as he was when they’d been teenagers. Anyone could see it. “And you need to find something sexy why?”
When Bethany’s eyes filled with tears Regan became alarmed. “What’s wrong? Has something happened?”
“No, it’s nothing. I’m just terrified that he’s not going to be happy.” She flapped her hands in front of her face. “Pregnancy hormones. Ignore me.”
“Good Lord,” Regan said. “Are you this emotional all the time?”
“We ran out of peanut butter yesterday and I cried.”
“Holy cow.”
Bethany shook her head, a small smile on her face. “I think part of it is the stress that I haven’t told him yet. So I have a plan. Get him drunk and sex him up before I tell him things are going to change. Again.”
This time Regan couldn’t hold back her laughter. “Did you really just say you were going to ‘sex him up’?” Soon Bethany was laughing along with her, holding her sides as she bent over.
Regan was relieved that her friend’s tears had disappeared. “So what do we need to go shopping for to help you sex up your husband?”
Bethany wiped her own cheeks with the backs of her hands as her laughter died down. “I was thinking we could get some lingerie. Maybe some lotions or massage oils or something. Something to knock him on his ass.”
“Of course.”
“And you can get some too,” Bethany added. “It’ll be easier if I have some moral support.”
“Oh boy.” Regan breathed as her cheeks burned at the images that flooded her mind. Shoving her phone back into her pocket, she nodded. “Count me in.”
Chapter Fifteen
The paperwork had somehow multiplied overnight. Gavin dragged his hands over his eyes trying to ease the grittiness there. Last night had been—well. There weren’t words to describe the night adequately. Regan had come alive in his arms, waking a deep yearning he’d thought he’d squashed.
He wanted her. Deeply. Permanently. With an ache he barely recognized as his own. She completed him in a way he’d never experienced before. He wasn’t going to let go of that.
Tipping his chair back, he tried to sort out his thoughts. She wasn’t ready for forever. And they’d have to navigate through the landmines their lives had created for them—his kids, her parents, her job situation, hell, his job situation. He’d called Gwen after dropping Regan off, needing to hear directly from her what was happening with Jason.
“What do you want me to say?” she’d asked. “He’s your partner and friend.”
“And you’re my sister,” he reminded her. “If you were having a problem with one of my friends, you should have come to me.”
“I can take care of myself, Gavin.” Her tone had turned flat. “I don’t need you to fight my battles for me.”
“No, you just ask a guy you don’t even know for help instead. What the hell, Gwen?”
“Is that what this is about? My asking Mitchell to hang around some?” When he didn’t respond right away her tone softened. “Look, I didn’t mean for you to find out at all, didn’t want to complicate things. Jason was just hanging around a lot, wasn’t taking the hint that I wasn’t interested. All I wanted to do was provide a little disincentive, make him think I was seeing someone else. There wasn’t anything you could do to help, all right?”
“But—“
“Besides, it seems to be working,” she continued on before he could object that no, it wasn’t all right. “Since that night at the Bitterroot when I went home with Mitch, then again last night at the Bowl, I haven’t heard from Jason. Just, leave it alone, Gav, okay? Let me take care of this my way.”
Gavin understood what she was saying, but still didn’t like it. If his partner couldn’t take no for an answer from a woman, never mind that the woman in question was Gavin’s sister, it didn’t bode well for their partnership.
After that, he’d walked into the office, surprised to find Deanna hard at work, still doing everything she could to set the office to order after the break-in.
From the look on her face, she’d been surprised too. “I wasn’t expecting anyone,” she stammered, shoving her hair back behind her ears. “Julian is in the closet repairing the shelves. I figured it’d be easier to have him do it on the weekend.” When he didn’t say anything she rushed on. “If you’d rather he not be here, I understand.” She looked sad. Gavin couldn’t help but feel a stab of guilt.
“No,” he said, lifting a broken guest chair and moving it to the side of the room, “it’s great. Thank you. Let me know if you need any help. I’ll be in the office.” He hadn’t been keen on having her work for them, but maybe he’d been wrong. And he’d rather have the kid around where he could keep an eye on him. As far as he was concerned, the kid was still a suspect in the break-in, but if his mama wanted to put him to work, Gavin wasn’t going to object.
Sitting amid the regular reports and bills on his desk was an offer from Lilianna Myers, majority owner of Skyhawk Security. She was Mitchell and Logan’s boss. Gavin had worked with her a few times before and liked her. She was smart and ran a quality operation. She liked everything she’d heard about Peaks from Mitch and had enjoyed the partnership they’d created the few times Peaks had reached out, needing more support or manpower than they had on hand. Hence the offer.
In truth, the thought of joining forces with Skyhawk piqued his interest. They were small time, he knew that. They lacked the capital to grow into much more than they currently were, guarding the mountain estates of people who were richer than most small countries. True, Peaks had been extremely successful, but the more he learned, the more he could see that there was room to grow. Land and estate security was one thing, but that was just guarding stuff. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t make an impact. He wanted to do something meaningful. Something more than making sure some rich fucker’s house didn’t get broken into while he was off living a completely different life.
And he wanted to grow. Both personally and professionally.
He hadn’t thought too much about it before Regan came back, but watching her struggle with her next steps and hearing about her profession and the difference she’d made was impressive. She was impressive.
“You’re here early.” Jason strolled into the shared office and dropped into one of the guest chairs across from Gavin’s desk, placing one steaming mug in front of Gavin and cradling the other in his hands. “It’s harder to bounce back from those games than it used to be.”
“Take a few solid licks?” Gavin asked, trying to figure out how to approach everything else they needed to talk about. It hadn’t been that long ago that he’d considered Jason another brother. Someone he co
uld go to with anything. But the man across from him had changed somewhere along the way. It bothered Gavin that he couldn’t pinpoint when that change had happened.
“No more than usual.” Jason leaned back in the chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. “What’s on your mind, Gav?”
So much for easing into the subject. “Gwen. And the firm,” he answered, keeping his eyes on his partner. “Which do you want to discuss first?”
Jason didn’t so much as blink. Instead, he raised a brow at Gavin’s announcement and settled himself more comfortably into the chair. Fine, Gavin would decide.
“We’ve had an offer. From Skyhawk.” Jason leaned forward to take the offered letter and gave it a quick scan. “We’ve talked about it before, but I think we need to take this seriously.”
“We still don’t need them,” he announced, tossing the letter back on the desk. “We’re growing and doing fine on our own. With Erin rehearsing here we can hit her up for a contract, have her mention us to a few of her friends with homes in the area. With your girl being her friend we’re a shoo-in. We’re fine,” he repeated.
“We’re fine in property security, but that’s all. We can’t offer event security, or guards or even expand into business security. We’re not growing.” It was an argument they’d had many times.
“There’s no need to grow,” Jason argued. “We’ve got plenty to cover us.”
Gavin gritted his teeth. They’d talked about this time and again. This time, though, they had options. Solid options that offered more than they’d ever be able to build with their current circumstances. “There’s nothing to prevent Skyhawk from swooping in and opening their own services. That would put us under faster than anything.”
Jason shook his head. “They’re not going to do that. If they were, they wouldn’t be making us an offer. Our clients are loyal; they’ll stick with us rather than go with a big company.”