Текст книги "Tell Me"

Автор книги: Olivia Cunning

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 14 страниц)

“What’s the most important part?”

“Sitting quietly and letting your mind wander.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her upper arm a squeeze. The scenery was breathtaking, but she only lasted about three minutes before she felt compelled to break the silence.

“Have you been fishing a lot?” she asked.

“Mmm hmm, now quiet. You’ll scare the fish away.”

“They can’t possibly hear me all the way underwater,” she whispered.

“You’d be surprised.”

Determined to be quiet, she stared at her orange and yellow bobber, watching it jerk underwater, rise to the surface, and disappear underwater again.

“Why is it doing that?” She whispered so she wouldn’t scare the fish.

“Probably because you have a bite,” Gabe said calmly.

She leaped for her pole, jerking it out of the holder and reeling as fast as she could. The tip of the pole bent in arc and the faster she reeled, the harder the fish pulled in the opposite direction. Her heart pounded with excitement, which didn’t make a lick of sense to her—she had a fish at the end of a string, not a shark launching itself into their boat.

When the small greenish fish rose from the surface of the water, she turned toward Gabe.

“Nice bass,” he said and nodded toward her butt.

“What do I do with it?” Melanie cringed and held one hand in front of her face to prevent the flailing fish from flicking slimy water in her eyes as it struggled for freedom.

A scraping of claws came from the rear of the boat. Before Melanie could comprehend that Lady was after her fish, a pair of paws landed on her chest, sending her staggering backward. The backs of her calves hit something solid. Unbalanced, she toppled over the side of the boat and landed in the lake with a stupendous splash.

Chapter Thirteen

Heart in his throat, Gabe rushed to the bow and was poised to leap into the water to rescue Melanie when she surfaced. She treaded water with one hand and pushed her mass of curls from her face with her other.

“Can you swim?” he yelled, still prepared to jump in after her.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She focused her attention on Lady, who was at Gabe’s side barking excitedly and wagging her tail as if trying to kick up a wind storm. “Bad dog,” she said and then she laughed.

“Very bad dog,” Gabe agreed. “Go lie down.”

He pointed to the back of the boat where Beau was still sleeping.

Lady refused to be chastised. She bounced around on the front seat and then leaped over the side to join Melanie’s fun.

“I lost your pole,” Melanie said as she paddled around to the back of the boat where there was a ledge and a ladder.

“I don’t care about the goddamned pole. I just don’t want to lose you.”

“Don’t worry, I’m a good swimmer,” she called from the water. “My parents made sure of it.”

He remembered that her little brother had drowned, so it made sense that her parents had made sure she could swim. He silently praised them for their overprotectiveness. He felt a bit of it himself. Even though she sucked at fishing, this woman was precious to him. If something happened to her… He shook off the thought, not wanting to even think about the possibility.

Lady swam beside Melanie, obviously thinking they were having some sort of race. Lady showed off her impressive water-dog breeding by swimming laps around the human. Crazy dog. Gabe was going to have to keep her on a leash if she refused to behave.

After Melanie reached the back of the boat and hefted herself onto the diving platform, Gabe grabbed her by her upper arms and hauled her on board. He probably should have teased her about being graceless and a poor fisherman, but all he could do was wrap her in both arms and hold her dripping body securely against his.

He rubbed his lips against her forehead, “You scared me,” he murmured. “Don’t ever fall off my boat again.”

“I think you need to take that up with your dog.”

He looked down at the beast in question, now sitting in the seat next to Beau and making a huge puddle. Tongue flopping in and out of her wide mouth as she panted, Lady met his eyes, her head cocked to one side as if to say, Well, that was fun, what next? It was really hard to stay mad at the damned dog.

“Do you have a towel?” Melanie asked. She pulled away from him and twisted the hem of her tank top, splattering his bare feet with cool water.

“Yeah.”

He released her, begrudgingly, and pulled a towel from a compartment under one of the bench seats.

“I lost one of my shoes,” Melanie said, peering down at one bare foot.

He wrapped her in the huge beach towel and then hugged her against him again. He heard his line take off as a fish took his bait, but he ignored it. His need to hold Melanie far outweighed his desire to catch fish. There was another splash, and Gabe sighed when he caught sight of a length of black fur swimming in the water again.

“I think you have a bite,” Melanie said.

“Mmm hmm.” He drew her closer.

“And Lady is in the water again.”

“Yep.” He rubbed her back through the towel, wishing they were alone and naked, entwined in each other’s arms.

“I’m okay, Gabe,” she said. “Honest.”

He kissed her deeply just to make sure.

A very wet dog interrupted their kiss by dropping something cold and soggy on Gabe’s foot. Startled—because there was no telling what Lady had fished out of the water—he jerked away and looked down at Melanie’s lost shoe.

“You found my shoe!” Melanie cried out, dropping to her knees to give Lady an appreciative scratch behind the ears. “Good girl.” Lady licked Melanie’s face before she could escape the dog’s wide tongue. Melanie only laughed and rubbed Lady’s head some more.

Lady was so pleased with herself that she picked up the shoe, carried it to the back of the boat, and commenced chewing. In less than half a minute, Melanie’s cute canvas shoe was in shreds.

Gabe slapped himself in the forehead. “Shit, Mel, I’m sorry. Bad dog!”

Melanie just laughed. “Finders keepers, losers weepers. I’ll just have to gnaw on one of her chew toys when we get back to your house.”

He was glad his woman was so laid back and, well, nice. Not to mention nice to look at. When she lifted the towel to dry her hair, he couldn’t stop his eyes from wandering to the wet tank top clinging distractingly to her round breasts.

“You should probably get your fish,” she said, apparently oblivious to the turn his thoughts had taken. Or maybe she thought he needed a distraction to keep him from tackling her to the deck and having his way with her.

While she worked at getting herself partially dried, Gabe reeled in his line, glad that the fish had stolen his bait and escaped. He didn’t feel much like fishing anymore. He felt like getting lost in Melanie. Maybe it was time to head home.

Something damp smacked him in the back of the head. He peeled Melanie’s wet tank top off his neck and spun to look at her. She was wrapped in the towel, but knowing that she was half naked beneath it did tent-like things to the front of his shorts.

She wriggled beneath the towel, squatted down, and then sent her wet shorts sailing in his direction. He caught them in one hand.

“Would you mind spreading those out to dry?” she asked.

He dropped her wet clothes in a small heap on the deck and took two steps in her direction.

“Gabe,” she said, one hand extended, “don’t look at me like that.”

Like what? Like he wanted to devour her whole? Like he was about to shove her down on the deck and fuck her until she screamed his name? How was he looking at her exactly? She couldn’t expect him to behave when his emotions were on high and she was in nothing but her bra and panties beneath a towel. Especially when they were in this secluded cove that happened to be void of all humans except for the two of them.

“Take your panties off,” he said.

“I was just going to let those dry on my body,” she said.

“Take them off.” He knocked his cowboy hat off his head as he mindlessly shed his shirt.

“Gabe, I’m not going to take my panties off.”

He took another step closer and reached for her, pulling her against him. “Do you want me to rip them off you?”

He reached inside her towel and caught the top of her panties in one hand and gave them a sharp tug. She stared up at him as if in a trance.

“Do you?” He lowered his hand so that his middle finger slid into her cleft.

Her mouth dropped open in shock.

“Where’s your daring, Mel?” he asked, fisting his hand in her panties and stopping just short of ripping the fabric. “You’ll come for me in the bathroom at work, but not here?”

Her fingertips slid down his belly, bumping over muscles on their way to the elastic at the waist of his shorts.

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” she whispered.

She tugged the front of his shorts down, scraping the entire length of his cock until it sprang free between them. She slid her hand between his legs to cup his heavy balls in her palm. He gasped as she massaged them gently. The fear of pain—should she get a little too rough with those overly sensitive parts—fueled his excitement.

He tried to lower her panties, but he was immobilized by the feel of her hand fondling him, exciting him. Driving him mad with need.

“You didn’t think I’d do this here, did you?” she said in that sultry voice she used when they were being naughty on the phone. “Touch you like this? Want you to touch me in the same way?”

“Thanks for being full of surprises,” he said breathlessly.

She grinned at him, tossed the towel over her head to hide her face, and began a slow descent, sucking kisses down the center of his chest, his belly, and lower. She dropped to her knees, her head and upper body still hidden beneath the towel, and grasped his throbbing cock in one hand. When her soft wet tongue began to dance over the head of his cock, he groaned in bliss.

He reached to pull the towel back and tossed it aside, wanting to watch as she suckled and licked his head. And he did watch, watched as she worked him, watched as she stroked and sucked, making him shake and pulse with need. Seeing her kneeling at his feet, the brilliant sunshine kissing her lovely face and her lips stretched wide as she drew his cock deep inside her hot, wet mouth, was finally his undoing.

She squeaked in surprise when he pulled free of her mouth, jerked her to her feet, and shoved her down into the seat that ran around the front hull. He yanked at her panties, his mouth descending on her mound before he even had the garment to her ankles.

“Gabe! Get the towel. Someone will see,” she said.

She tried to close her legs on his head, but he held them wide open with his shoulders.

“Keep an eye out,” he said. “You’ll be able to see anyone’s approach long before they see us.”

The muscles of her thighs relaxed, and she grasped his scalp with both hands.

“God, why does this make me so hot for you?” she whispered.

He tilted his head to look up at her from between her thighs. She wasn’t keeping an eye out at all. She was gazing down at him with glassy eyes. He wished he could watch her face while he ate her out, but a man had to have priorities. He teased her opening with sweeps of his tongue, suckled and nibbled and licked her clit and her swollen lips, and then savored the sweet well between them.

When her body shuddered with release, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her ass off the seat, seeking entry. She reached between her thighs and guided his rigid cock home. He sank into her, vaguely thinking that she couldn’t be very comfortable, hanging halfway off the seat like that, but she felt so good inside that he couldn’t fight the instinct to thrust. When her heels dug into his ass to urge him deeper, he didn’t give her position another thought. The entire world vanished except for her soft, slick, warm flesh. And her little moans of pleasure. And her gaze locked with his. She was all there was and as he claimed her, grinding his hips to work himself in as deeply as possible, she was all he wanted and everything he needed.

He gasped as his climax neared, catching him by surprise. He shifted one hand to her mound so he could massage her clit with his thumb. He wanted her to join him in ecstasy. We should always come together, he thought as she cried out and her pussy squeezed his cock. And then his mind went blank as his body strained against hers and he flowed into her, not just physically—he could have done that with any woman—but spiritually and emotionally. He was all tangled up inside Melanie Anderson, in dozens of ways, and it was a puzzle he never wanted to solve.

After a moment, Melanie struggled upright and Gabe shifted so that his softening cock slipped free of her body. He sat on the deck and pulled her down to his lap, where she sat facing him, her heat nestled against his damp cock. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest.

“God, that was sexy,” she murmured.

It had been—he couldn’t deny it—but had she felt any of the emotional or spiritual attachment that he felt? If she had, she didn’t say so, and so neither did he. But he held her close and marveled at the beauty of making love to Melanie. It was so different from how he’d experienced sex with other women. Even long-term girlfriends whom he’d once loved hadn’t been like this. No one compared to Melanie; he had to find a way to make her his. And not just for a weekend or a month or a year. He wanted her always. There was no way he’d ever be satisfied with anyone else after knowing this feeling of completeness. After having her.

“What’s that sound?” Melanie said and lifted her head. She cocked it to one side, listening.

Now that Gabe had been jerked out of his own headspace, he heard it too. It wasn’t just one sound, but a mix of rattling, munching, slobbery lapping, and swallowing.

“Lady,” he called, “are you in the cooler eating our lunch?”

All the sounds stopped abruptly, replaced by the thumping of a tail against the deck. Gabe twisted and glanced over his shoulder.

Yep, Lady had been in the cooler. There was nothing left of their lunch but crumbs, wrappers, and empty containers. The dog looked proud of her accomplishment, the telltale sign of mayonnaise from the potato salad glistening white on her muzzle.

“Was it good?” Gabe asked.

Lady barked and licked her lips.

Melanie laughed and buried her face in his chest again. “She’s a really smart dog.”

“Yeah, she waits until I’m completely distracted and then steals my fried chicken.”

“I wasn’t hungry anyway,” Melanie said.

“Let’s head back home and I’ll take you out for a nice dinner. Without the dogs.”

“Okay,” she said. “I probably should get out of the sun. I’m not used to it and feel a bit overheated.”

“Me too,” he said, but the inferno blazing inside him had nothing to do with sun and everything to do with the woman on his lap.

Chapter Fourteen

While waiting for Melanie to dress for their evening out, Gabe sat on the porch and tossed a ball across the yard. Lady chased it, ears flying back, muscles bunching, tail wagging as she darted across the wide span of grass toward the gravel road. She tackled the bouncing ball with her front paws, picked it up in her slobbery mouth and trotted back, her sleek black head held high with pride. She dropped the ball at Gabe’s feet and gently mauled the back of Beau’s neck, trying unsuccessfully to rouse him from his sleepy daze next to Gabe’s hip on the top step. When all the excitement Lady got out of her mate was a halfhearted swipe of his paw at the back of one floppy ear, she barked.

“I don’t think he wants to play,” Gabe told Lady, retrieving the damp, grass-speckled tennis ball from between his feet and tossing it across the yard for her again. She bounded off to fetch it while Gabe gave the more sedate of his two dogs a hearty scratch behind the ears.

The door behind him opened, and he twisted to look back at Melanie. She wore a green sundress the exact same shade as the specks in her hazel eyes. Her hair was piled on her head, the way she wore it to work, with soft tendrils curling against her neck. Wow. His heart skipped a beat.

“You look gorgeous,” he said, climbing to his feet.

“Thank you,” she said, running her hands over her skirt. “It’s a bit wrinkly from being shoved in a suitcase.”

He honestly hadn’t noticed.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked, unable to resist the urge to tuck a stray curl behind her ear.

“Yeah,” she said and blew out a breath. “Whew, it’s hot out here. Everything I’ve heard about Texas heat in July is apparently true. Or maybe it’s these stockings.”

She lifted the hem of her dress to show him the lacy top of her white stocking. He fingered the strap of a garter that ran up the front of her thigh.

“Mercy,” he said breathlessly. “Are you sure you want to go out?”

“Oh yes,” she said, grinning up at him. “I’m very much looking forward to watching you squirm as you wonder what the matching bra and panties look like.”

If the three-inch strappy shoes were a clue, he’d imagine they were completely boner-inducing.

“Just let me get the dogs inside.” Unable to take his eyes of Melanie, he yelled, “Lady, get in the house.”

When the dog didn’t listen—big surprise there—he looked out across the yard and spotted her with her paws on a tree, panting up at a squirrel or a bird or some other wild creature nestled in the branches above. “Get your ball, Lady,” he called. “Time to go inside.”

The black lab looked at him, wide pink tongue lolling out the side of her wide open mouth, pushed off the tree, and put her nose to the ground, hunting for ball trail, Gabe assumed.

“I think Beau has the right idea,” Melanie said, and she sat on the top step on the other side of him. The spoiled dog groaned when she patted his side. He pawed at her knee, seeking more attention, and she laughed, petting him vigorously between the ears, which Gabe knew he enjoyed. Gabe certainly enjoyed when Melanie had her hands on him. And that dress? As if the woman wasn’t distracting enough in shorts and a tank top, she had to go and put that on. Mercy.

Gabe returned to his seat on the other side of Beau, trying to remember he was a gentleman and that he could get through an evening without jumping Melanie’s bones in a fit of uncontrollable lust. Yeah, right.

Lady returned, dripping drool on the steps at his feet as she dropped the retrieved ball again. “One more,” Gabe said, “and then you need to go inside.”

He doubted she’d follow that instruction, but he was very much looking forward to taking Melanie out on the town and showing her off, so Lady’s fun would have to come to an end.

Gabe picked up the sopping-wet ball and heaved it across the yard. Lady sped after it joyfully, hitting it with her paws an inch off center. The ball popped forward and bounced out toward the road.

A billow of dust rose up in a long trail as a vehicle sped down the gravel road toward the house.

“Expecting someone?” Melanie asked.

“Nope.” He didn’t see many vehicles out this way, but it wasn’t entirely unusual for the locals to use this road.

Lady chased the ball closer and closer to the road.

The old rattling pickup sped closer and closer to the house.

The ball bounced out into the gravel. Lady bounded after it, oblivious to the approaching truck.

Gabe’s heart froze, and he jumped up, scarcely aware that he was racing down the steps and across the yard “Lady! Stop!”

She stopped just short of the road and glanced back at him, tongue lolling, as she gave him one of her speaking glances. This one seemed to say, What? Do you think I’m an idiot?

He released a breath of relief and drew to a halt, turning his attention to the truck. It was going far too fast on the gravel road. Fucking idiot. As the rusty vehicle flew past his mailbox at the end of the driveway, Gabe yelled, “Slow down!” even though there was no way the driver would hear him over the rumble of tires on gravel.

The passenger side wheels grazed the grass of Gabe’s front yard, sending the truck lurching in the opposite direction as the truck slid in the loose gravel. The driver overcorrected the skid and drifted back into the yard. Gabe didn’t have time to process what was happening. There was a thud, a pained yelp, and the crunch and spray of gravel as the vehicle came to a skidding halt.

“Oh my God,” he heard Melanie say behind him. “Lady!”

That’s when he saw the unmoving mass of black fur lying in the grass several feet from the truck. Gabe knew he was running toward Lady, but he couldn’t feel himself move. He couldn’t feel anything but an undeniable rage welling up inside him.

He dropped to his knees next to Lady. Blood covered her side and the grass beneath her. Her left foreleg was bent at an unnatural angle. She blurred out of focus as he laid a hand on her head. She wasn’t whining, wasn’t drawing air, wasn’t moving at all.

“Is she okay?” A voice came from the open window of the truck.

Beyond shock and the grief came anger. As it was the only emotion Gabe could handle at the moment, he went with it. He sprang from the ground and stalked toward the truck. He wrenched the passenger door open, reached across the ragged bench seat, grabbed the driver in both hands, and yanked him bodily from the vehicle. Fists clenched in his shirt, Gabe slammed the driver’s back into the side of the truck.

“Why in the fuck were you driving so fast?” Gabe yelled.

The kid cowered, and some rational shred of Gabe’s senses realized he was just a child. He couldn’t beat the ever-loving shit out of a minor, no matter how much he wanted to. “How old are you?” he asked, because if this kid was over eighteen, he was about to get the ass-whooping of his life.

“F-f-fifteen,” the kid said, the unmistakable smell of alcohol wafting from his mouth into Gabe’s face.

“You’ve been drinking,” Gabe said.

“No, I—”

Gabe cuffed him on the side of the head. “Don’t fucking lie to me. You hit my dog, you little shit.”

“Is she… is she dead?”

The kid tried to peer around Gabe to see the damage he’d done, but Gabe slammed him against the truck again.

“If you’ve been drinking, why the fuck are you driving?” Gabe yelled, memories of one horrible, drunken night in high school rising up to haunt him. “Bad enough that you killed a dog. What if it had been a little kid? Would you be able to live with yourself? What if you’d hit a fuckin’ tree? Is a little drunken fun worth your life?”

“I didn’t mean to hit her. I have to get home before my grandpa finds out I took his truck.”

“And his whiskey?”

The kid lowered his eyes.

“Gabe,” Melanie said, her voice gentle and easy behind him. “We need to get Lady to a vet.”

“A vet?”

“She’s breathing, but she’s losing a lot of blood. I think she’s going into shock.”

Gabe released the kid’s shirt and whirled around. Beau licked Lady’s face, trying to get a response out of her. Melanie was holding the gash on Lady’s side closed with her hands. With bloody hands. God dammit to hell, here he was hell bent on teaching a fifteen-year-old a lesson, and his dog was bleeding out. Still, he couldn’t very well let the kid get behind the wheel again, and he knew that’s just what the little shit would do the second they were out of sight.

Gabe leaned into the truck and removed the keys from the ignition.

“What are you doing?” the boy asked as Gabe hurled the keys into the weed-thick field across the road.

“Think about what you did while you’re looking for those,” he said. “And think about how much worse it could have been. And if after you find those keys, you still think it’s a good idea to get behind the wheel drunk, wait for me to return so I can beat some sense into you.”

God, he wished he’d taken Joey’s keys when he’d had the chance. But he didn’t have time to think about Joey at the moment. He needed to get Lady to the vet and try to save her or, if she wasn’t going to make it, at least keep her from suffering any more than she had to.

He rushed back to the house and called the emergency number for the vet. Dr. Nelson wasn’t in the office on Saturday evenings but after Gabe’s breathless explanation, she promised to meet them at the office and do what she could for Lady. Gabe tried to coax Beau into the house, but he refused to budge from Lady’s side, so he decided to allow the stubborn dog to ride with them. He wrapped Lady in his shirt, lifted her carefully from the ground, and carried her to his truck. Her eyes blinked open and she whined, her brown-eyed gaze pleading with Gabe as she looked up at him.

“It’s all right, girl,” he said to her.

“She’s scared, Gabe,” Melanie said. “You hold her and I’ll drive. She’ll be calmer that way.”

He nodded, glad Melanie was here with him and holding it together. He wasn’t sure what he would have done if she hadn’t been there.

He maneuvered himself into the truck with Lady cradled on his lap. Beau sat at his feet, his massive blond head on Gabe’s knee as he whined at Lady and offered her an encouraging lick every so often. The drive seemed uncommonly long. He gave Melanie directions to the clinic, but was too choked up to talk. While sitting at a stoplight several blocks from their destination, she squeezed his shoulder, and he looked at her.

“She’ll be all right,” Melanie said. “Have faith.”

He offered a half nod, but the quivering of Lady’s flesh, her struggle to draw breath, and the chill in her skin didn’t instill much confidence in him. He crooned encouragement to her, probably more for his sake than hers, and ignored the burn at the back of his eyes.

Stupid stubborn dog, she shouldn’t have been playing by the road. He squeezed his eyes shut. Stupid fucking dog owner; he shouldn’t have let her get that close.

A vet’s assistant met them at the door and hurriedly led them to an examination room. The vet arrived moments later and began checking Lady. The dog was calm as Dr. Nelson’s skilled hands moved over her blood-matted fur.

At Dr. Nelson’s calm, succinct instructions, the assistant placed an oxygen mask over Lady’s snout and soon had an IV inserted into her foreleg—the one that wasn’t damaged. The doctor looked up at Gabe, who watched them work with a sick ache ripping at his stomach.

“I’ll try to save her,” Dr. Nelson said. “Her leg is broken and ribs are cracked. I’m not sure how much blood she’s lost. She also has internal swelling. I won’t know what I’m up against until I take a closer look.”

Gabe nodded, feeling numb.

“You should go sit in the waiting room. We’ll let you know how she is when we know more about her injuries.”

Gabe nodded again, but his feet were rooted to the floor.

A gentle, but firm hand grasped his forearm. He looked down to find Melanie looking up at him, her eyes swimming with tears. She had Beau’s collar gripped firmly in her other hand.

“Come on, sweetheart,” she said. “Let’s go sit down.”

Before I fall down, he thought dully.

He allowed Melanie to lead him out of the exam room and into a gloomy waiting room. Apparently no one had thought to turn on the lights. At Melanie’s insistence, he sank into a vinyl chair. Beau immediately jumped onto his lap and made himself as comfortable as an eighty-pound dog could get when crammed into a narrow chair already crowded by a pair of human thighs. Gabe stroked Beau’s ears.

“You’re worried about her too, aren’t you, boy?” he said to the dog.

Beau groaned and snorted, his big brown eyes fixed on the door.

“You okay?” Melanie asked. “Do you want something to drink?”

He nodded. Shook his head. Took Melanie’s hand and tugged her into the chair beside him. She sat and held his hand. Both his hands and hers were sticky with blood and her pretty dress was ruined, but she wasn’t being a girl about it at all. She was definitely a strong woman, the kind he needed at his side.

“I hate waiting,” she said.

“Thanks for driving,” he said. “And for realizing she was still alive. I thought… I thought she was dead.”

“I thought you were going to beat the shit out of that boy.”

“He needs someone to beat the shit out of him. Fifteen years old and already driving drunk. What’s he going to be like in his twenties? I should probably call the sheriff and send him after the kid to make sure he doesn’t get behind the wheel again. Hopefully, he’s still looking for those keys.”

Melanie chuckled softly. “I think that will keep him occupied for a couple hours. Do you want to use my phone?” She pulled it from her purse and handed it to Gabe, who struggled to hold the massive dog on his lap and dial for an emergency operator. Within minutes he was assured that someone would head toward his place and check things out. Yet he still didn’t feel he’d done enough. He’d done more than he had when he hadn’t stopped his friend Joey from driving drunk. One moment of adolescent courage just might have saved Joey’s life.

“Is something else bothering you?” Melanie asked. “You know it wasn’t your fault that Lady got hit.”

He did feel responsible for Lady, but that wasn’t all that was bothering him. Gabe’s sole regret in life was that he hadn’t taken Joey’s keys from him when he’d had the chance. He’d had let his friend get behind the wheel, drunk. Gabe glanced at Melanie, who offered him an encouraging smile. He didn’t like to talk about Joey. But Gabe wanted to share things, meaningful things, with Melanie. He trusted her. He liked her as his friend as well as his lover. And after the way she’d supported him this afternoon and continued to support him, he might even be in love with her. Maybe he’d feel better if he talked about the thing with Joey. People he’d grown up with knew the story, but he hadn’t shared it with anyone in recent years. It hurt too much.

“I’m torn up about Lady getting hurt,” he said. That was no lie. Just saying it made his chest constrict and his eyes burn with unshed tears. It was easier for him to choke down his feelings when he didn’t talk. “That kid, though,” he said, his voice breathless with emotion. “That stupid fucking kid reminded me of something that happened when I was in high school. Something that ended tragically. Something I might have prevented.”

She didn’t speak, but looked at him expectantly and squeezed his hand in reassurance.

“We were down by the lake, me and a bunch of the band-kids, having a good time—laughing and talking, listening to music. A few of the guys were drinking. I was… uh… trying to get this girl’s attention, but my braces and knobby knees had some strange repelling force on her. Like anti-gravity.”