The Long Ride: A Billionaire Romance

by Jane Keeler

  Chapter 5

  Karlee took Gabriel to the bus driver.

  “We have something important to tell you,” she said to the driver, who was flipping through a newspaper propped up on his wheel. “My friend here just got mugged.” She was careful not to use his real name. She didn’t want Gabriel to know she knew who he was. “Did you see a tall man in a black hoodie running off with a leather bag?”

  “No, I didn’t. I’m really sorry, but there’s nothing much I can do,” the bus driver responded. “I’ll radio it in, but this was one of our main stopping points and a lot of the people who got off are not getting back on again. You can call the police if you like, but you have to wait here to talk to them. You didn’t get mugged on the bus itself, and we have a schedule to keep.”

  “No, that’s okay,” Gabe broke in hastily. “It’s not that important. I’ll just get some new clothes and stuff when we stop off at a town.”

  Karlee sighed. “You’ll radio it in?” she asked the bus driver.

  “Yes, I will,” he assured her. “And I’ll let you know if I hear of anything. Sir, can you describe the bag for me?”

  Gabriel’s described the bag, and the bus driver said, “Okay, I’ll see what I can do. But we have to get going now.”

  They made their way to their seats. On their way to the back, Gabe looked carefully at the people sitting in their rows.

  Once they sat down, Karlee turned to face him. “I’m sorry. I know how it feels—I’ve gotten mugged before. It’s such a sickening feeling. You don’t feel safe. I was kinda paranoid for a long time after that.”

  “Funny you should say that. I’m feeling paranoid too. There were these two guys who got on the bus with me, but I don’t see them now.”

  “Well, not everyone’s going all the way to New York. Maybe this was their stop.”

  “Maybe it was.”

  Karlee wished she could do something to cheer Gabe up. He was handsome as ever. In fact, with the mussed hair and split lip, he had a rugged appeal she hadn’t noticed before—but he seemed cold and distant. Karlee thought he might be in shock, at least a little bit. Even a relatively small act of violence, such as the mugging, was unexpected and upsetting, especially to someone as sheltered as Gabriel probably was.

  Let’s see, what do you do for shock, she mused. Aha! Sugar. She dug through her purse, searching for the candy bar she had been saving for dinner.

  “Here. Eat this.” She handed him the candy bar.

  “Yes, mother,” he replied with an ironical twist to his lips.

  She impulsively reached out, put an arm around his shoulders, and gave him a quick hug. “You should eat it, you’ll feel better.”

  “I’m fine! I was just thinking about those guys. There was something familiar about them. I thought it was because one of them looks like this actor, but now I’m wondering if I’ve seen them somewhere before.”

  “What actor?”

  “You know that guy—he’s in a lot of Westerns?”

  “Dude with the amazing moustache?”

  “No, not him! Grumpy-looking guy.”

  “I can’t really think of anybody…”

  “Never mind. I just wonder if they were following me.”

  “Why would they be following you?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just imagining things.”

  “So are you going to eat that or not?” she bumped her eyebrows at the candy bar. “Give it here, we can split it.”

  Gabe did feel better, more grounded, after eating his half of the candy bar. He shrugged. He probably was just imagining things.

  Just then, a group of three people walked over and looked at them. For a second, Karlee thought someone was going to hand over Gabriel’s bag. Gabriel probably thought the same thing. He was sitting up straight, leaning towards them with hopeful eyes.

  “Hi, can we help you?” Karlee asked.

  “Uh… yes,” the young man answered. He looked incredibly sweet-natured, with wide brown eyes. Next to him was a pretty young woman who must have been his wife. Clutching the woman’s hand was a small girl. They looked poor, but happy.

  She wondered if Gabriel noticed that too. She wasn’t sure if people of his social standing even considered that it was possible to be happy without money.

  “I’m terribly sorry to ask this of you, but do you mind maybe moving across so we can have the three seats together? If it’s not too much of a bother that is.”

  Karlee immediately got up. “Yes, of course you can,” she replied warmly. “It’s no problem at all.”

  “Thank you so much,” the man gave them a brilliant smile, and the woman and child nodded their heads at her gratefully.

  Karlee gathered her bags and looked over at the bus to see where she could sit, but it had filled up quite a lot at their most recent stop.

  “Uh, you can sit here, you know,” Gabriel said.

  Karlee found herself blushing. She thanked him and quickly sat down in the seat right next to him. She felt annoyed at herself. She wasn’t much of a blusher, which was a good thing considering her pale skin, but when she did blush, it was noticeable, and she knew Gabriel had seen it.

  “I’m Gabe, by the way.” He held out his hand.

  She smiled. Gabe—she liked the shortened version of his name. It made him seem like a different person. Not the money-crazy man she thought he was. She shook his hand and once again tried to not seem surprised at the feeling of his skin against hers. His dark tan looked even darker against her pale skin. The contrast was pleasant.

  “Nice to meet you, Gabe. I’m Karlee.”

  “Nice name.”

  “Thank you. It’s spelled K-A-R-L-E-E—you can imagine how many people have spelled it wrong over the years.”

  He laughed. “Oh well. It’s good to be different sometimes.”

  She looked at him then. What did he mean by that? Did he want to be different? Is that why he was on the bus? She had so many questions she wanted to ask him, but she knew it wasn’t the right time. Instead she got out her book and started to read, but she noticed him looking at her. She looked at him and raised her eyebrows.

  “Hard to read with someone watching,” she said.

  He laughed. “Sorry. I was just trying to see what you were reading.”

  “Oh yeah? Didn’t peg you for much of a reader.”

  “Wow. Talk about judging a book by its cover.”

  She blushed again. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that.” She was judging him, of course, but he didn’t know she knew who he was.

  “So, what are you reading?”

  She showed him the book. “Harry Potter. Don’t judge me.”

  “Well, seeing as you judged me, I’ll be honest and say you don’t strike me as a J.K. Rowling fan.”

  She laughed. “Oh yeah? And why’s that?”

  “Well. Uh… You seem pretty intelligent. I guess I thought you’d read something with a bit more literary merit.”

  Literary merit? Karlee was impressed. She didn’t think his vocabulary would be that large. Nor did she think he would know anything about what warranted literary merit or not.

  “I’ll have you know the Harry Potter books are full of literary merit. She’s a brilliant story-teller. Yeah, I like a lot of other books too. But these books are my little escape from the world.”

  “Okay, fair enough. Maybe I’ll read them one day and see what the fuss is about.”

  “I like Harry Potter too,” the little girl across from them said—she had clearly been listening in on their conversation. Her parents looked at Karlee apologetically, but she laughed.

  “You see,” she said to Gabe. “This girl has good taste.”

  Karlee read for a while, but she was tired. Reading the book, along with the movement of the bus, made her sleepy. Soon she found herself drifting off. When she woke up, much later, she discovered her head had fallen onto Gabe’s shoulder. She sat up in surprise and embarrassment. Please don’t tell me I drooled, she thought.
/>   “Hey, sleepyhead,” Gabe said.

  Wow, he was good-looking this close up. “Uh… Hi. Sorry about that. Must’ve drifted off.”

  “No problem at all. I have big shoulders.”

  You sure do, Karlee thought, and tried not to think about his shoulders. Get a grip on yourself!

  Chapter 6

  Gabe couldn’t help but smile when Karlee fell asleep on his shoulder. Eventually his shoulder went numb, but he couldn’t bring himself to move her. She looked so peaceful, and incredibly cute. He didn’t mind the discomfort if it meant having a pretty girl asleep on his shoulder.

  He grinned at the book on her lap, which was threatening to fall off any minute. A Harry Potter fan—he never would’ve guessed it. When she woke up and realized what she’d done, she was even cuter. When Karlee blushed, her face matched the red of her hair. She was fiery in both looks and personality.

  “Uh… Hi. Sorry about that. I must’ve drifted off.”

  “No problem at all. I have big shoulders.” He liked that he made her blush even more. In some ways she seemed so sure of herself, and in other ways she was childlike. The contradiction was what made her so interesting.

  The bus came to another stop and Gabe got off. He was starting to get hungry again, but with only a few dollars in cash he wondered if he shouldn’t wait until he could get his hands on some more money. Maybe the store accepted credit cards. Most stores did.

  He wondered if Karlee had any more food he could share, but from the sound of things she had no money either. The difference, of course, was that Gabe had a lot of money waiting for him in his bank account. He just didn’t have any money on him at the moment. He couldn’t imagine what it must feel like not to have the safety net of a fat bank account. He didn’t like how vulnerable he felt without it and quickly brushed the thought aside.

  The bus driver had said it was only going to be a five-minute stop this time and they were going to take a longer break soon, so Gabe he rushed off to find the bathroom. When he was finished, he decided to pop into the shop, just to see what was there.

  “Excuse me, you take credit cards, right?”

  “I’m sorry, but our credit card machine is out of service. They’re supposed to come and fix it tomorrow, but for now it’s cash only.” The shop owner smiled apologetically.

  He smiled back. She had a kind face and he tried to think of ways he could get a free meal out of her. He looked around at the food they had on offer, picking up a small sandwich and frowning. It looked days old, and was made up of a single slice of cheese between two pieces of white bread.

  “Gross,” he said quietly and put it back down. He continued searching, and finding nothing that looked remotely edible, he looked out window.

  There was Karlee. It was three o’clock in the afternoon, and even though the sun hadn’t come out that day, her red hair glowed in the dimness like a beacon.

  Gabe put on a nonchalant look and drifted out into the parking lot.

  “Hi Karlee.” Gabe was trying out his most charming smile when the he felt a light pattering on his face. Then the sky, which had been dark and heavy all day, let loose—it was like suddenly standing under a waterfall.

  They ran back into the store as fast as they could, arms over their heads in an effort to keep at least some parts of their bodies dry. It didn’t work. That kind of rain seemed to come at you from all directions. You just had to accept that you were going to get soaked.

  Gabe held the door open for Karlee and they bolted inside, laughing at themselves.

  “Oh my god, look at you!” Karlee laughed. She was flushed a pretty pink, and while her hair wasn’t quite approaching drowned-rat status, it was still plastered to her head with rainwater.

  Gabe had fared worse. His head and shoulders were soaked and water was dripping down his face and off the back of his collar. He lifted up the tail of his shirt and tried to dry off Karlee’s face.

  “Stop it, stop it!” Karlee pushed him away, still laughing. Her shirt was definitely wet, wet enough that the hard buds of her nipples were clearly visible.

  Gabe’s pants suddenly felt too tight. He looked down into Karlee’s sparkling blue eyes, forgetting all about his hunger, the mugging, and the rest of his messed-up day.

  They both looked up at the sound of the bus horn—two long hoots. Oh no! They ran up to the front of the store to see the bus pulling away in the rain, clearly not at all bothered by leaving two passengers behind.

  “Damn!” he muttered. What was he going to do now? They were in the middle of nowhere. “Karlee! What’s going on? Why didn’t the bus wait for us?”

  She looked incredibly flustered, with water dripping down her face. She looked up at him with her hands on her hips. “Because those buses run on a tight schedule and the driver told us a million times not to be late.”

  “Uh… yeah, but I figured I still had time. I honestly thought he was going to wait for me.”

  “Typical,” she huffed.

  “Typical? What do you mean? Why are you acting like you know me?”

  Karlee shuffled her feet from right to left. She couldn’t meet his gaze.

  “Karlee, what’s going on? Do we know each other or something?” He squinted at her. No, she didn’t look at all familiar to him. He was certain the first time he met her was on this bus just a few hours ago.

  She sighed. “No, we don’t, but I do know who you are. You’re Gabriel Braxton.”

  “What?” He was dumbfounded. “How did you know? And why didn’t you say anything?”

  “Uh, well. I thought you looked familiar from the start. And then… Don’t get mad, but when you left the bus at that first stop I checked your bag. I just looked at the tags.”

  “So you snooped. That’s okay, I guess.” Gabe could relate. He’d done his best to listen in on her private telephone conversation. “Well, we’re both stuck here until the rain stops, so we have to make the best of it. This place doesn’t take credit cards, and I’m so hungry. Come on, let me get you something to eat.”

  “I thought you only had a few dollars cash?”

  “Well, we’ll see.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s worth a shot. Come with me. There’s a small table at the front of the shop. Wait there.”

  Karlee waited for Gabe at the table, glad her plan had worked. She knew she was in deep trouble and had to get back into Mr. Grossman’s good graces.

  The best thing she could do to recoup her losses was stick close to Gabe and see what kind of story she could get out of him. She was sure there was one. What was the Braxton heir doing on a bus to New York? She knew for a fact they had a private plane. Gabe didn't even seem to know how buses worked, for god's sake.

  Karlee had heard rumors that Braxton Industries was in negotiation for the rights to the Johnson process. Her job at The Financial Times meant that she kept abreast of the latest developments in the business world.

  This was something that could revolutionize the energy sector—with the Braxton name behind it, they might even succeed in dethroning fossil fuels as America’s primary energy source. A story this huge was worth a little subterfuge. She’d tell Gabe she was a reporter eventually, just… Not right now.

  Gabe looked at the lady behind the counter. She was middle-aged and tired-looking, but she had a twinkle in her eye that Gabe was hoping to use to his advantage.

  “Oh no, what happened? Did the bus leave?” she asked.

  He tried to look as forlorn as possible. “Yeah. We missed it in the rain, I guess. The driver didn’t even check to see if anyone was missing. Can you believe it?”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Wait for another bus, I guess. Who knows how long that will take? We’ll phone around and see if anyone can help us. Our bags were in the bus too. All our things. Gone.”

  “That’s horrible, my dear. I’m so sorry.”

  “Do you mind if we wait at your table? It’s raining cats and dogs out there and we
really can’t go anywhere until it eases up.”

  “Of course. And how about something to eat?”

  “Oh. I wish. But our bags…”

  “It’s on the house. I can’t have you starving on me. How about two freshly-made sandwiches and a cup of coffee each?”

  “Really? Oh wow, that would be wonderful. Thank you so much.” Gabe smiled his best puppydog smile at her. He hadn’t even had to ask her. She’d come right out and offered him the food.

  “No problem at all. You go and take a seat, and I’ll bring it to you.”

  “Thank you.”

  Gabe went to the table and smiled at Karlee.

  “Your great plan didn’t work out?” she teased. He just smiled, and said nothing.

  A few minutes later the shop lady walked up to them, carrying a tray. She placed two sandwiches, a plate of chips and two coffees down in front of them, and then she smiled at Karlee.

  “I’m so sorry to hear about the bus just leaving you in the lurch like that. The driver couldn’t have been a very nice man. And losing all your belongings too! Terrible. Here’s some food to keep you going. Just shout if you need anything. You have a lovely brother.” With that she walked away.

  Karlee kept a straight face until the lady was out of earshot and then laughed. “Brother?”

  Gabe grinned at her. “Eat up, sister.”

  Chapter 7

  Karlee bit into her sandwich and smiled. “This is so good. I cannot even begin to explain to you how hungry I am right now. Beyond hungry. I’m so hungry this simple sandwich tastes like I’m dining at a five-star restaurant. I don’t even care why I’m suddenly your sister or what you did to get it.”

  Gabe laughed. “Yeah, it actually tastes pretty damn good. And the coffee is amazing. And… I’m glad you’re here with me. It makes being stranded in the middle of nowhere a lot easier to handle.”

  Karlee smiled. That was a nice thing for him to say. “It’s a pleasure. Oh damn!”