by Jamie Begley
“You tried, Gavin. You gave her baby a fighting chance, which is more than they had before you stopped.”
Gavin shuddered as if he was freezing cold. He stared off into space as if he was in another place and time.
Wrapping her arms around him, she hugged him tightly. “I love starry nights. When Leah and I were little, we would climb out of our father’s window and stare up at the sky, waiting for shooting stars so we could make a wish. That’s how I experienced my first and only spanking. We didn’t care it was on the second floor and the overhang was just a few inches wide.
“Do you see that tree with the little limbs?” Ginny nodded toward a little sapling not far from them. “Freddy made Leah and me go pick two limbs, then told Silas to spank us with them when we brought them back. Our faces turned as red as that truck parking over there to your left. We thought we were too old to get spanked. Pa told me I would never be too old for a spanking, then handed the switch to Silas for him to spank us.”
“Why didn’t he do himself?”
Ginny lowered her head to Gavin’s shoulder in relief that his mind was coming back from the dark place he had gone. “Pa couldn’t harm a fly, much less two little girls crying their eyes out before he laid a hand on them. Unfortunately, Silas didn’t have that problem. He was the one who found us, and he had warned us a dozen times not to climb out onto that overhang. We didn’t listen. After that, our stargazing was confined to lawn chairs that Silas put out for us. Every night that was as beautiful as this, I remember stargazing with Leah.”
“How can you say it’s a beautiful night?” he croaked out. ”A woman died, her baby will need a miracle to survive, and they don’t exist.” His body started to shake again.
Ginny further tightened her arms around him, slipping her hands under his jacket to rub his back in soothing motions. “Sweet man, it’s beautiful because you were a gift to her. You kept her child alive until help could arrive, and her husband didn’t have to bear the agony of losing his wife alone. You didn’t fail tonight, Gavin. You did what you could. Whether the child lives or dies, no one could have worked harder to save them than you did.”
“You shouldn’t be touching me. We don’t know what killed her. It could have been the infection—”
“Or it could have been a complication from her pregnancy,” Ginny finished for him. “You told me it isn’t in the States.”
“I said we can’t know for sure. I need to call Viper.”
Ginny moved away from him, giving him space to talk privately. She used the opportunity to stretch her legs, and as she did, Gavin walked behind her, keeping her within eyesight as he talked, close enough to react if something happened.
When another car pulled into the rest area, Ginny turned and walked back to the car to wait inside, even though the vehicle was parked farther ahead.
As Gavin remained outside, still talking to Viper, she was pretty sure she knew what they were discussing.
Nervously buttoning her jacket, Ginny waited for Gavin to end the call. When he got back inside five minutes later, he didn’t immediately start talking.
“You can tell me. I already know.”
He gave her a startled look. “Were you listening?”
“No, I didn’t have to. If you weren’t comfortable with me being near Jesus because of his sister, it stands to reason Viper would have the same hesitation about us, especially since we came in contact with someone who died.”
Gavin shook his head. “To be on the safe side, we’re in limbo until a cause of death is determined. Viper thinks, and I agree, we can’t stay at the clubhouse until we’re symptom-free for nine days. We have to take into consideration that Lily is pregnant, as well as the health of the brothers and their wives.”
“Which means me staying with Willa is off-limits, also. She’s expecting too. She told me just before I left.”
“Yes.”
Confirming her other assumption, Ginny didn’t blame them. This was her fault because she had taken off.
“If you get sick because of me, I’ll never forgive myself,” she whispered into the dark interior. “I shouldn’t have left Nashville.”
“If we get sick, it’s on me. I should have figured out you were about to run. Shade had warned me. Especially when you gave an encore and had never done that before. I didn’t plan on you making it out of Nashville, much less half away across the country.”
“Where will you stay?” Ginny wasn’t going to listen to him blame himself.
“Viper has rented us two connecting rooms at the hotel. One of Knox’s men will stock the rooms with groceries before we arrive. He won’t even have to go the store, since Diamond has enough supplies hoarded that she won’t even miss them.”
“I’m surprised Knox is still there. I expected Diamond to make him take them to her island,” Ginny said.
“The island is for emergency use when there is a Zombie outbreak. Diamond isn’t letting anyone step a foot on her island until the dead rise again.” Gavin said with a wry twist of his lips.
Diamond was notorious in their town for being a doomsday prepper after she married Knox.
“She afraid they’ll never want to leave.” Grinning at the silliness of what they were discussing, Ginny couldn’t help herself. “I told her she was wasting her money on an island. She should have invested in an underground bunker. Some dude is selling apartments in an underground apartment complex for two million a pop.”
Gavin narrowed his eyes on her at the tiny sound she let accidentally escape. “When was that?”
“During Christmas … when she was begging Knox to check out a system alert she wanted him to buy her. I was sitting with them at the same table with Dr. Price when she was asking him if he thought the system would sound if anything moved without a heartbeat.”
“What did he say?”
“He gave her Dr. Alder’s card. He’s a psychiatrist who’s moving into town the first of March.”
“A psychiatrist?”
“Personally, I think she should ask him if he has any opening day specials, but if you tell anyone else I said that, I’ll deny it. She gets a little testy when you tell her the zombie apocalypse only happens in movies. Willa told me that after Dr. Price gave her the psychiatrist’s card, she now drives to Jamestown when she needs a doctor. I might need a lawyer someday, and I don’t want to burn that bridge with her.”
Gavin didn’t give a full-fledged smile, but it was close. He was slowly relaxing his guard. However, the least little thing, and he would withdraw back in a shell, like a tortoise scenting danger. He wanted his hard exterior to blunt the pain, to prevent anyone from becoming too close. Sweet man didn’t know she loved tortoises. They took a lot patience to get them to show their real personality, and she had plenty to give Gavin; when he was ready to accept what she ready to give.
“We’re three hours away from Treepoint. The women’s restroom is empty if you need to go.”
“Are you going to leave me stranded while I’m in the restroom?” she teased.
“Depends on how long you talk me to death before you go.”
Ginny immediately got out of the car. With unfaltering steps, she walked toward the women’s restroom.
Sweet man was so obtuse that he was unaware she would never let him leave her behind. Hell, would have to freeze over first.
Ginny had never peed so fast in her life. Washing her hands, she dunked the paper towel in the trash at a run, determined not to give Gavin any excuse to leave her behind. Coming out of the restroom she nearly tripped over her feet at seeing Gavin patiently waiting outside the door.
“Why didn’t you wait in the car?” she asked in surprise.
“I wanted to make sure you didn’t leave the car keys in the restroom.” Lifting an ironic brow at her, Gavin held out his hand for the keys.
Reaching into her pocket she gave the keys to him. “I wanted to make sure you didn’t leave me.”
“Ginny, if I didn’t want you to get out the
car at the gas station to keep you from getting near Jesus, why would I have let you ride on a motorcycle when you’d be even closer?”
“You were joking?”
“Wouldn’t say it was a joke, more to get you mad so you’d give me the silent treatment.”
Ginny stared at him balefully. “So, why are you admitting the truth when we still have three hours to go?”
The big jerk was actually proudly swaggering toward the passenger door. “All good things must come to an end.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“I need to make a phone call.” Ginny turned the radio down once Gavin was back on the road.
“If you didn’t want me listening in, you should’ve made the call while we were at the rest area. I don’t want to pull over.”
“I don’t mind you listening.” Finding her cell phone, Ginny pressed Silas’s phone number.
“Hey.”
Ginny smiled when her brother answered. “Hey. What are you doing up so late?”
“Watching television.”
“Don’t watch; it’s depressing.”
“Makes me glad I quit work at the lumberyard after Christmas.”
“Why? Did something happen?”
“Nothing worth mentioning.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Wasn’t important.”
Ginny let the subject drop. Silas had always maintained his silence about his treatment at work.
His mother and stepfather both worked at the same store, and she had used her influence to get Silas a job there when he was just sixteen. From the few things he had told her, Ginny believed he had been treated unfairly by his stepfather, compared to the other employees.
“Anything I can do?”
“No. I’m good. I’m not the only one up. What has you calling?”
“I can’t call just to talk to you?”
“Yes, if that’s why you’re calling.”
“There might be another itty-bitty reason why I’m calling.”
“Which is …?”
“I’m about two and half hours away from Treepoint.”
Gavin shot her a glance for giving the information when he didn’t knowing whom she was speaking with.
Ginny gave him an okay signal with her fingers, then went back to listening to Silas.
There was a pause from the other side of the phone.
“We thought you would be in Nashville for another week.”
“I had a change of plans.”
“I’ll get your room ready, then.”
Ginny had to blink back the tears that came to her eyes at the offer. The years spent away from them couldn’t be made up in the few hours she spent with them before having to leave to catch the plane back to Nashville, but it had been a start.
“I wish I could, but I can’t stay there.”
“You wanting to stay with Willa?”
The disappointment in his voice echoed her own. She wanted to stay close to Gavin, afraid she would lose the headway she was making with him, but Ginny would have enjoyed spending the time renewing her family ties just as much.
“No, I can’t stay there, either. On our way into Treepoint, we may have become exposed to CP. We’re going to stay at the hotel there until we find out we’re not contagious.”
“Come home.”
Ginny was familiar with tone of voice he used on her.
“I want to be on the safe side. I’ll call you when I get settled in my room.”
If she kept talking to Silas, she would give in to his demand. It would be easier to explain about her not wanting to leave Gavin without him listening. Her wild man would barricade himself in his room and not come out.
“I’ll talk to you, then.”
“Don’t be mad at me. I’m doing it for everyone’s safety.”
“I’m not mad. I understand.”
“You sound mad.”
“I’m not … Just get here safely, okay?”
“Will do. I love you.”
“I love you back.”
Disconnecting the call, Ginny put her phone back in her pocket.
“You make a habit of telling men you love them?”
Ginny rolled her eyes as the hint of jealousy coming from Gavin. She wondered if that was another emotion he wouldn’t admit having for her.
“When they’re my brothers, I do. You’re the only man I’ve told I love you.”
“It’s none of my business who you talk to.”
“Okay,” she mocked.
“I thought you had no contact with your brothers.”
“You mean, there’s something Shade doesn’t know?”
“Cut it out.”
So much for the sweet man she had been appreciating before the phone call. It had lasted a whole whopping forty-five minutes.
“I went to see them before I left for Nashville. We were able to heal our breach.”
“Was that right before the brother you were talking to quit his job?”
“You have a suspicious mind. My brothers won’t take any money from me. Well, except Fynn, but he’s only fourteen,” Ginny corrected herself.
“You’ve tried to give them money?”
“Ever since I was old enough to start working. They never cashed one check. My brothers don’t have much, but what they do have, they achieved on their own. Our father didn’t have a dime to his name when he died. All he owned was our home and property. We barely had enough money to pay for his and Leah’s caskets. Silas had to borrow money from his mother to pay for them. When I found my first job, I went to her to give some money to pay on the loan, but Silas had already paid her back. He had worked sixteen hours shifts for two years to pay her off. Silas works for his stepfather, who treated him like dirt. He wasn’t the only one. My family has been treated like trash going back as far as I can remember. My father had an eye for women, and he made a lot of enemies in town. They took it out on his children.”
“Did they take it out on you?”
“Oh yes. That’s the reason Silas let me go. He didn’t want me to be raised with the stigma of being a Coleman. His attempt was a miserable failure for me. You can take the girl out of the mountain, but you can’t take the mountain out of the girl. I missed my mountain. I still do. When I find out who my stalker is, I’m going to build my home on the spot that me and Leah used to watch stars from.”
“If you’re going to build a house there, why did you buy the house in town from Willa?”
“No one in town would give me a loan, but Willa. When I had enough equity built in that house, I could have sold it and built the one I dreamed of having. My children will be raised on the same mountain I was,” she warned Gavin.
“Are your brothers okay with you building a house there?”
“Of course. It isn’t a secret. Leah and I both were going to build our homes close to each other before she died. Her property was right next to mine. Freddy left each of his children a piece of property.”
When Gavin took the eyes off the road long enough to glance at her, Ginny saw he was frowning at her.
“You don’t have any property registered in your name.”
Ginny shrugged. “The property Pa left me doesn’t go into my name until I turn twenty-eight or get married. Until then, it’s in Silas’s name. Freddy didn’t exactly believe in lawyers. He wasn’t paying one hundred dollars an hour to be told how to handle legal matters when the library in town is free.”
“He did his own will?”
“Yes.”
“Was it notarized with witnesses?” he asked.
“Of course. We’re not hicks.” Giving him an exasperated sigh, Ginny turned the radio back on. “Each of my older brothers witnessed it after Pa wrote it out.”
“Did he use an ink pen?”
Ginny stared down her nose at him. “You don’t have to be so sarcastic about it; it’s perfectly legal.”
“Who says? Because I’m pretty sure it isn’t. If Silas filed your father’s will in the c
ourthouse, Shade would have found it during a record search on you.”
“Shade did a record search on me?” Fear bloomed in her chest with the force of a paint gun being aimed at her, splattering her with all the lies she had told since she was three years old. She had every intention of telling Gavin all the details of her life; she had just been waiting until he liked her a little better. She couldn’t jeopardize Trudy’s safety. Her sister hadn’t placed her in jeopardy when she fell in love with Dalton. She had to confess to Gavin soon. Ginny understood his issues with trust, and each day that passed, she would only make it worse when she confessed to having another identity.
“Ginny?”
“Hmm …? I’m sorry I didn’t hear what you said.”
“I was saying, you had to know Shade had done legal search on you when he started trying to find out who your stalker is. Shade wouldn’t have missed it. He might not have found out who your stalker is, but it’s not from lack of trying.”
“I didn’t think he would.” Ginny reached for her lukewarm water in the cupholder to take to take a sip, hoping to ease her dry throat. “Gavin, it doesn’t matter if Silas filed the paperwork or not. When I’m ready to build, he’ll sign the property over to me. You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.”
She could see Gavin wasn’t convinced, but there was no way she could prove it until she had the paperwork in her hand, and if it was legally filed and notarized. He was looking for deception in the wrong place. She was the one who was deceiving everyone she cared about.
“Give me one.”
Her hand stilled in her pocket. “Huh?”
“You can turn the radio back down. I can hear you eating that candy.”
“I’m doing you a favor. It’ll rot your teeth.”
“My teeth are fine. You’re the one who’ll need a root canal before we get to Treepoint.”
“Maybe so, but I have a dental plan with no co-pay.” She unashamedly popped another candy drop in her mouth, refusing to share. She loved his pearly whites. “I’m being cruel to be kind,” she said in a sing-song voice, bopping her head to an imaginary beat.
“When we get to Treepoint, I’m getting first dibs on the bags. You won’t be getting any more Mr. Nice from me.”