Mine - HelenKay Dimon Page 0,107

so much had changed that she wondered if she even knew her own thoughts anymore. “It was so hard to watch him . . . the Rick thing . . .”

Andy nodded. “I know.”

“Now at least he can have some peace.” God, she wanted that to be enough, but it wasn’t. She ached for more. She wanted to be in one of those family photos on his fireplace. She could see her life beside him.

“That’s very martyr-like of you.” When she glared, Andy laughed. “What, you know I’m right. You’re giving up and limping away.”

She dropped the duffel by her feet and prepared to push the pain and disappointment away so she could settle on a strategy. “You can leave now.”

“You’re stuck with me.”

“What do you want me to do? I mean, you clearly have an agenda here.”

“You could try fighting for him.” Andy glanced at his watch then at the main road. “You gave him ten seconds to process what you did, which you know was not great. You did the testing for him, but you knew taking that on over his objection would be a problem or you wouldn’t have snuck the test out.” Andy smiled. “Through Eli, I’m guessing.”

She thought about Wade’s warnings and the way Eli counseled her to take another course of action. Maybe they’d all been right.

“Gabe was so angry back at the house.” She could still hear the rage vibrating in his voice as he yelled.

“Some of that was leftover from dealing with Rick. Some of it should have been expected because you were talking about Brandon and Gabe is damn protective of his son.”

It all sounded so logical when Andy spelled it out. But her way made sense to her, too. “It’s just easier to—”

“Run and hide.”

She talked over him. “Not get involved in the first place.”

“Too late.” Andy nodded at the incoming car. “Your boyfriend is here, and right on time.”

• • •

Gabe slammed the car door. Almost ripped the thing off its hinges. Not out of anger. Relief poured through him at seeing her there and it fueled him.

He walked around the front of the car and joined Andy and Natalie. Tried to ignore how good it felt to see her again even though they’d only been apart a few minutes. This whole lovesick fool thing he had going on would take some time to get used to.

He stopped right in front of her with his hands on his hips. “You forget something?”

“You missing a toothbrush and looking to blame me?”

She just didn’t stop. Never backed down. That character trait he loved so much kicked him in the ass now. “I guess that’s what you used for the test.”

“Your electric toothbrush was a problem. I had to improvise.”

“I’ll figure out what’s missing from my stuff later.” He could not think about the specifics now. He’d get wrapped up and slip into anger and he needed to handle this a better way, preferably without pushing her further away.

She shrugged. “Send me a bill.”

He went back and forth between wanting to shake her and needing to kiss her. He had a feeling life with Natalie would always be like that. “A man protects you and you walk out without saying thank you.”

“That’s what this is about?” She threw her hands up in the air in an exaggerated gesture. “Fine, thanks for keeping me alive even though I could have done it on my own. Are we good now?”

She reached for her bag, and he skipped over the nice parts and the easy parts and went right for the part that would grab her attention. “What about the sex?”

Andy whistled while Natalie stood back up, nice and slow. “Excuse me?”

“I’ll wait over here.” Andy pointed to a random spot five feet away. “I’ll be listening to everything but pretending not to. Carry on.”

Gabe didn’t wait for Andy to get lost. Not with Natalie right there, looking ready to kill. “The sex.”

“What about it?” A strip of red stained each of her cheeks. “Was that part of the services or extra duty?”

Anger. Good, he could handle that. “It was pretty damn great.”

“This is the way you want to play this scene?”

He didn’t actually want a scene. He wanted to say what was in his head and heart and shut down any talk of her leaving him. They could work their way through the rest. Andy was right. Being with her guaranteed life would never be easy, but Gabe loved that about her. She didn’t