do everything,” she’d snapped back.
“Let me at least fucking do what I can,” he’d said, with a scowl at the girl in the drive-through.
“What’s that mean?” Allie had demanded.
“It means that I don’t know what the hell’s gonna happen in Promise Harbor so I’m gonna at least pay for the damned burgers.”
Okay, clearly she wasn’t the only one feeling anxious about what was coming.
They pulled into Promise Harbor an hour later.
“You need to find a place to stay,” she said to Gavin as they passed the sign that said Welcome to Promise Harbor.
He didn’t answer and was frowning again—or still—when she looked over at him.
“You can’t stay at my house.” Surely he understood that.
“Fine.” The word was flat and delivered with a deeper frown.
“Well, really, what did you think?” she asked, exasperated and knowing that it wasn’t all about Gavin.
“I didn’t think about it period.” Same flat tone.
“I can’t bring you to my dad’s,” she pointed out. “For one, he barely knows you.” In fact, she wasn’t sure her dad knew him at all beyond his name. “For another…” Shit, she couldn’t say that. She bit her lip.
“For another?” he asked, glancing over at her.
“Nothing.”
“Allie,” he said warningly.
“Never mind. It’s my dad’s house and I can’t just bring some guy to stay.”
“What,” he bit off, “were you going to say?”
She sighed. Fine. “Josh will be around.”
Gavin growled. Her eyes widened.
But it was true. She couldn’t really bring the guy who’d broken up their wedding home to stay right in front of everyone, could she?
“Well, he will.”
“You sure? Thought he was out of town,” Gavin sneered.
“He was,” she acknowledged. “But he’s back.”
“Great.” Gavin’s tone was even more clipped, if that was possible.
“So you’ll stay—”
“Jesus, Allie, I’ll stay out of precious Josh’s fuckin’ way, okay?”
She glared at him. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Wasn’t it?”
She opened her mouth, shut it, then said, “I just don’t want to rub his nose in it.”
“I do,” Gavin muttered.
She huffed out a breath. This was a ridiculous fight. “You don’t have to be jealous of Josh.”
Josh wasn’t going to be the man she needed to concentrate on.
But neither was Gavin.
“I’m not jealous of Josh,” Gavin said firmly. “You’re in love with me and in my bed. I’m not worried about Josh.”
His words made her heart trip even as her frustration bubbled higher. “I’m not in your bed right now.” That was the least of the things she needed to worry about. Even if staying cocooned in bed with Gavin, shutting the real world out, sounded absolutely perfect. And so familiar.
They’d done that as a substitute for a real relationship for so long that now they were jumping in without any practice.
Now it was sink or swim.
He looked over at her, his expression full of challenge and possession. “You are in my bed right now, Allison. In every way that it matters, you are.”
Okay, so figuratively that was true.
She swallowed, liking that more than she should. It was all a moot point right now anyway.
Except that it wasn’t.
There was something about knowing that no matter how bitchy or unreasonable or unfocused she was, he still wanted her, still knew she was his. That made her breathe easier.
He reached across the seat and took her hand. “Listen, this is new for us. But here’s the deal. In the past, I let you leave, let you deal with all of this alone. That’s over. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, but I’m going to be there.”
She liked that a lot too. “Be where?”
“There,” he said again. “I don’t know. Wherever I need to be.”
That sounded really nice. She didn’t know where she needed him to be either, but knowing he was willing was…nice.
Josh had always been there. He’d taken a lot of weight off her shoulders, but this felt different. Bigger. For Josh it was natural and he barely gave it a second thought. In fact, she wasn’t sure he gave it any real thought. He just did it. He’d take her dad for coffee, or give Danny twenty bucks, or ride Charlie about his latest resignation. But it wasn’t a big deal.
For Gavin it was. This wasn’t natural for him. This wasn’t easy. In fact, he looked pretty damned uncomfortable thinking about it. But he was here, doing it anyway.
She squeezed his hand. “Okay.”
He glanced over quickly. “Okay? As in, you’ll call me if you need something?”
She thought about that, then slowly nodded. “Okay.”
That wasn’t natural for her either. She just took care of things. Except for