that she was thankful that someone was. Now she wondered if there was perhaps a way to convince the Five to do more.
The Five, as they were called, was the colloquial term for the five richest families in Five Peaks. The founding families, as some called them, given that they had apparently been in town since it was founded in the early 1900s by gold prospectors. Each one had taken their name from a surrounding mountain when they had arrived, or so legend went.
Aterna. Teres. Valen. Atrox. Rixa.
Everyone who grew up in town knew the names, though few knew any members of the family. They were reclusive, leading to some nasty rumors, though Gayle had never taken part in the gossip.
Her thoughts were disrupted by the loud warning beep of a truck as it backed up.
“Do you mind getting that?” she asked Claire, trying not to let her tension show.
There was no guarantee that Rann was behind the wheel, of course, and deep down she knew it was highly unlikely, but she’d still rather not take the chance. She just wasn’t ready to see him. Maybe eventually, but not today.
“Yeah sure, no problem,” Claire said with a smile, her eyes lingering on Gayle before she went off to greet the driver and sign for the shipment.
Gayle put her head down and kept making kits, trying not to think back to Sunday. To the embarrassment of it all. It had gotten worse after he’d left, and that was just another of the long list of reasons why she didn’t want to see him.
Men were not high on her list of positive people lately. They always seemed to make her life worse, in some way or another. Rann wasn’t anything like Mikey, of course, but she just could not deal with the drama.
“Yeah, she’s over there.”
Gayle stiffened as she heard Claire’s voice. Damn. She’d hoped that Claire had gotten the hint, that Gayle did not want to see Rann. After all, who else would she be telling where Gayle was?
Slowly, she looked over her shoulder. Walking toward her was a giant of a man, his long hair falling free to his shoulders, framing a pair of bright green eyes that were fixed on her, like a predator stalking its prey. Except Gayle never felt in any danger.
Even just knowing he was around, she felt safer already. Safer from what, she didn’t know.
I don’t even want to see him, yet having him around I feel more at ease. This is ridiculous!
There was no escaping it though. They were going to have this conversation, it seemed. She steeled herself and turned to face him.
Rann stopped several feet short of her, staying well out of her personal space.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi.”
They stared at each other in silence. She looked down, then away, then back up at him. There was a hardness to his eyes that she’d not seen before. He was guarded. Wary.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” he said bluntly. “Haven’t been responding to my texts or opening the door.”
Rann stopped after that, giving Gayle the floor to respond.
“I know,” she said softly. “After Sunday…Rann, it was too much. Too much like a real relationship. Meeting my parents, them inviting you to brunch. I can’t do that right now; you’ve got to understand. I just got out of a relationship that ended in the worst way.”
He rumbled a wordless understanding, and she forged ahead, the words coming faster and easier.
“This was just supposed to be about us showing up at their wedding for shits and giggles. Making them jealous and uncomfortable by showing I don’t care, that I’m having fun without them. Now, you’re sleeping over at my house, sleeping with me. You met my parents, and they liked you,” she said, throwing up her hands in frustration at the entire situation.
“Is that a…bad…thing?” Rann asked slowly when it became clear that she was done speaking for the moment.
“No? I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head.
“Would you prefer if they’d hated me? That doesn’t seem very fun,” he added.
Gayle gave him a dull stare. The humor wasn’t welcome. “In all honesty, I think I would have just preferred they hadn’t met you at all!”
“Oh,” Rann said, swaying backward at her words, his face closing off. “Got it.”
“Wait,” she said, holding up a hand. She’d hurt him with those words. “I just meant that I wasn’t ready for the conversation I had to have with my parents. Not in that manner. I’d only given my mom the