Chapter Eleven
Gabe
Picking up the photograph, I studied the picture, scarcely recognizing the man smiling back at me, Mitch looked so happy. I guessed the woman to be his wife. Long wavy auburn hair, feline features with beautiful dark blue eyes, she was pretty. I glanced at Mitch again, his eyes sparkling, smile wide—they were the perfect couple.
I placed the frame down carefully on the shelf and turned toward Leo, his entire body ramrod straight as he stared out the window, where he’d not moved since Mitch left a half hour ago.
“He’ll come back when he calms down,” I said, trying to soothe him.
He didn’t turn around. “I shouldn’t have touched him,” he answered me. “I didn’t see him holding the picture. I shouldn’t have touched him.”
Pain wound around my body at the anguish in Leo’s voice. He seemed to be shouldering the blame when he had no reason to. He had no way of guessing Mitch would suddenly flip out. Hell, they’d both delighted in teasing me a few moments before, so we couldn’t have predicted his rapid change of mood.
“It’s not your fault.”
“I shouldn’t have touched him.”
For someone who liked to please, having Mitch lash out at him wasn’t good for Leo. I went over to him and stood a little behind and to the side, allowing the heat from my body to seep into his own. Gently taking hold of his bicep, I calmly spun him around to face me. “It’s not your fault,” I repeated. “It’s not his either.”
He frowned.
“We all react to grief differently, and I suspect that’s what he was doing—reacting. Think about it from his point of view for a second.” Leo’s sad eyes fixed steadily on my own, hardly blinking as he absorbed my words. God, he was handsome. Like classic, never-goes-out-of-style handsome. My fingers itched to reach out and stroke his face, feel the day-old stubble tickle my palm. I curled my hand into a fist to stop me from doing so and making a fool of myself, besides. “From what you told me, he’s rarely set foot off this place since his wife died. His whole life revolved around her and the cabin and the land. Now she’s gone, I’m guessing he’s desperately trying to keep her memory alive.” I raised my hand higher and rested my palm on his left shoulder. “Then we come along and blow his isolated life apart. He probably hasn’t let loose this much in a long, long time. Seeing the photograph most likely made him feel guilty at having a bit of fun, when she wasn’t around to enjoy it with him.” I placed my other hand on his right shoulder and gently shook him. “So, I repeat, you’re not at fault, okay? Mitch needs to understand he can both laugh and mourn. It doesn’t make his grief any less because he had a bit of fun. But he’s a stubborn ass.” A tiny smile turned up the corners of Leo’s mouth. “So, it’ll take him a while to realize that, is all.”
“Thank you,” he said, seeming to be a little comforted. “Who’d have guessed you were so perceptive?”
I quirked my lips. “I have my moments.”
He studied me, really studied me. “Yes,” he replied thoughtfully, as if he’d discovered something he hadn’t expected. “I think you do.”
We stood there staring at each other, and little by little, the something shifted between us. My palms grew hot as they rested on Leo’s shoulders, his warmth permeating through the sweater and T-shirt he wore.
My pulse slugged thick in my veins as my eyes dropped to Leo’s mouth. He immediately bit his lower lip, worrying the plump flesh with his teeth. Without thinking, I gently tugged his lip free with my thumb and forefinger, causing them to part and his pupils to instantly dilate, his breath to catch in his throat.
A rub of my thumb over his lower lip elicited a ragged groan. His eyes dropped to my mouth, the corners curving slightly in response.
“Gabe,” he murmured, the sound low and needy.
I leaned in closer until his breath brushed over my face, my thumb performing a final trace of his lower lip. Another moan as my lips gently touched his and the low heat in my belly burst into flames, burning me from the inside out.
Not rushing, I grazed my lips along his a couple of times, before lightly following up with my tongue. His shudder ramped up my need and I teased my way into his mouth, connecting us. He tasted so sweet, so innocent, it wouldn’t take anything at all to get me addicted. He swayed closer and I deepened the kiss, his body yielding to mine, and fuck, what a turn-on. My fingers slid along his jaw, the stubble as soft as I hoped, as they curled around his neck and into his thick dirty blond hair.
The loud bark from one of the dogs shocked me, and we guiltily jumped apart, like we’d been caught doing something we shouldn’t have, which was ridiculous, as we weren’t doing anything wrong. Neither of us had anybody. Well, I didn’t for sure, and Leo didn’t seem the type of guy who’d cheat. I might be wrong and had nothing to base my feeling on except gut instinct, which had never let me down in the past, so I wasn’t going to question my intuition now.
Chuck or Norris, I hadn’t worked out how to tell them apart yet, pushed between us, head up, tail wagging, looking for affection.
“You think you’re missing out, huh?” I asked him, stroking the top of his head and chuckling at the blissed-out expression he returned. He was such a sucker for a head rub. I glanced up at Leo, his eyes glazed, his lips red and slightly puffy from our kiss. “You want me to scratch behind your ears too?” I asked him. He laughed, relaxed and easy, putting us on steadier ground.
“It does sound appealing, but I think I’ll take a rain check.”
I chuckled. “You have no idea what you’re missing.”
He grinned. “My loss.”
I returned his smile but responded deadly serious. “No, I think it’s mine.”
His hot gaze sent tingles straight to my groin, my cock twitching in my baggy jeans. What the guy did to me was something else. Not even with them , had I reacted the way I did with Leo. I’d thought it’d be hot to get him in my bed, fuck him a few times and move on to the next piece of ass, as usual. The potential for anything more hadn’t even registered, but Leo having such an effect on my body and my mind had not been part of the plan. Especially after Karl and David, who’d permanently tarnished relationships for me. Their scheming on how to cut me out of their lives, showed me exactly how manipulative people I cared about, and who supposedly cared about me, could be.
Nah, I wasn’t interested in more than a quick hookup and the sooner my fluttering heart got the message, the better off I’d be.
Straightening, I gave the dog a final pat, earning me a disgruntled snuffle, then dropping my gaze, I skirted around Leo to the coatrack.
“Okay if I borrow your coat?” I had mine, but the expensive brand felt too formal, too businesslike, for the cabin. For some reason, I didn’t want to give off an impression of wealth or corporate status while stuck here, much preferring to blend in with the men inhabiting my surroundings.
“Sure.”
I pulled his jacket on, cursing at how the size swamped me. Was I really so much fucking smaller than them? They might have been taller than me, but still, I don’t have a skinny frame. I exercised a minimum four days a week, for crying out loud. I wasn’t boasting when I professed to having a damn good body, as I’d worked extremely hard to achieve one. Yet, putting on Mitch’s clothes and Leo’s jacket made me feel like a scrawny kid, and irritated the hell out of me at exactly how much fucking bigger both these guys were.
Leo had returned to staring out the window, making me feel uneasy, how quiet he’d gotten again. Reluctantly, I decided it’s probably for the best if we keep our distance from now on, as in reality, starting anything while we were here would be fraught with complications. I’d bide my time until we got back to town, where we’d be free to drive to his place without any pressure. Then I could fuck him out of my system and be done.
“I’ll see ya later.”
“Okay,” he replied absently, lost in his head. After a couple of pats on his arm for reassurance, I left him to his worrying.
The sun had returned this morning, turning the sky a dazzling azure blue, almost blinding me after the darker interior of the cabin. Bitterly cold, as the air hadn’t had a chance to heat up at all in the last couple of hours, I zipped up Leo’s jacket, which didn’t help much to keep me snug, I turned my face to the sun and let its rays warm my bones. The snow, piled up high around the edges of the yard, meant Mitch must have been busy when he left us earlier. Perhaps he was trying to dig his own way out of here and escape. Can’t say I’d blame the guy.
I wandered over to the stables, stumbling around as I tried to get used to the too large boots I’d been given. Mitch was nowhere to be found. There were a couple more barns to check, but they were more run-down than the stables, so I didn’t think he’d be in either of those. I vaguely remembered there were some cabins somewhere. I racked my brains, trying to recall the details of the layout of the place. The lake. They were down by the lake.
A footpath alongside the cabin meandered into the distance, before disappearing into the forest. The recently disturbed snow showed molded footprints, so I took a chance and followed them. Sure enough, fifteen minutes later, after cresting a small hill, the lake appeared as a shimmering expanse in front of me, fringed by a ring of ice. Nestled between the trees, a couple of cabins sat at the edge of a small rocky beach. Stopping for a minute, I took in the views, marveling at the sparkles dancing on the water. Rocks and pebbles lined the edges; a wooden dock extended into deeper water, perfect to fish from or as a jumping off point into the water on a hot summer’s day.
As I walked carefully down the slope, I noted the sun catching the brilliant white, making the top glitter like a million diamonds scattered across the surface. Add in the tall pines, branches heavy with snow, their distinctive scent floating on the air, and the place was stunningly beautiful. So calm and peaceful, it would make an ideal setting for Mason to build his resort.
I understood Mitch’s reluctance to sell. If I owned this piece of paradise, I’d do everything in my power to keep it too. My step faltered and my stomach tumbled as I remembered I did own half…well, our company did, anyway, and the knowledge was both surreal and incredibly humbling at the same time. Despite what I’d said to Leo about keeping hold of the land as a long-term investment, my throwaway comment had been more of a cover for how badly I’d fucked up when trying to persuade Mitch to sell. For the first time since I arrived, I began to question my motives and reasons for buying the cabins and land and possibly spoiling such a breathtaking vista to make a few extra bucks.
On the flip side, was I being selfish not letting others experience what Mitch saw every day? What I saw? Did either of us have the right to keep all this beauty to ourselves when, if done ethically, the landscape could be enjoyed by so many more like-minded people?
A complex conundrum I had no idea how to resolve…yet.
Once at the lake, I walked over to the nearest cabin and hearing the hammering coming from inside, I knew I’d tracked down our resident grump. Bracing against the hostile reception awaiting me, I went straight in through the entrance. Mitch was in the middle of framing an internal wall, so I stood behind him and waited. His body stilled and his shoulders tensed at the exact moment he sensed my presence. The glare he shot my way when he turned had me fighting back a smile.
When did his glare become so cute?
“Need any help?”
He gave me a critical once-over, obviously deciding I’d be extremely unlikely to offer him the kind of help he needed. “Nope.”
“Too fucking bad.” When I’d heard about him building cabins by the lake and worked out they’d be unfinished, I’d been itching to work with him on them, get my hands dirty again after years of sitting on my ass in an office. So, pitching in, I happily gathered up a few of the already cut two by fours, headed over to a section he’d already marked out and set about building the frame.
“The hell you doing?” he yelled.
“Same as you.”
He stomped over to me. “I told you I don’t want your help.”
“And I told you too fucking bad.” I went chest to chest with him, well…shoulders to chest. “You want this place finished, don’t you?” He didn’t respond, only glared harder, his mouth tightening to a thin line. “I’m going fucking stir-crazy sitting around doing nothing, so stop your whining and let me help.” I grinned at him. “Believe it or not, I’m not just a pretty face.” His scowl returned tenfold. “Look, our company got started by flipping houses, so I know what I’m doing, okay?”
He huffed out some air, his hot breath caressing my skin. He warred with himself as to whether he’d let me help or not, but I figured playing into his desire to get the place finished would tip the balance in my favor.
“Fine,” he ground out. “But make sure you keep out of my way.”
“No problem.” I got started, and working side by side, by the time we were done, we’d completed all the framing of the rooms. My skill took a while to return, but once it did, I felt like I was once again working on our first construction project from over ten years ago. As we stood together, appraising our work, Mitch appeared relatively calm, so I decided now was the time to broach the main reason I’d come down here in the first place. “He didn’t mean anything by touching you,” I told him gently.
Mitch tensed beside me, but his shoulders soon slumped in defeat. “I know. Bad timing, I guess.”
I shrugged in agreement.
“Is he all right?” he asked.
“He’ll be fine—once you apologize for biting his head off.”
“Yeah, okay,” he sighed and nodded, while keeping his gaze fixed out the window to the lake beyond. “I have a question.”
“Shoot.”
“Why you?”
I frowned. “I don’t understand?”
“Why did you come here to oversee the sale instead of someone else? I checked you and your company out. Surely, as a partner, you must have far bigger deals to oversee. Multi-million-dollar deals, I’m sure. So why waste your time with the buyout of my small parcel of land outside a quiet coastal town? It doesn’t make sense.”
There’s no way I’d tell him I come here to hide away from my life, to be a different Gabe Sanchez than I am in Manhattan. That all I wanted to do was bury my head in the sand and not have to deal with the wounds I still carried from being rejected by the men I’d loved.
“You’re right. I am busy, extremely busy, but I’m no stranger to Melrose Bay. In fact, I own a house here, as does Mason, one of my other partners. Land acquisition is under my remit within the corporation, so me being the one to close the deal made good business sense.”
“Oh.”
His single word response carried a whole breadth of meaning, and watching him now, as his shoulders slumped and his head bowed, he looked…defeated. As if I’d burst his bubble because he’d secretly been impressed a partner of a huge construction company had taken the time to visit him personally, making him feel important, rather than us sending a lower-level sales guy. For some reason I didn’t understand, I felt the urge to make him feel better, to let him know he was worth every second of my time and effort as, God knows, he needed the boost.
“I’m glad, though, I’m the person who came, the one who got to meet you despite the deal stalling.”
He turned from the window to peer at me. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. It gave me a chance to see what this cabin and its land truly mean to you. Most of the time I’m so far removed from any purchases, I forget how much a sale can sometimes emotionally cost the seller. You’ve given me a stark reminder there’s a lot more to the transaction than merely cash, so thank you.”
He stared at me for the longest of times, as if reconsidering his initial impression of me and wondering whether to change his opinion. He gave a ghost of a smile and gazed out the window once more. “So you’ve done some construction work in the past?” I let him off with the subject change, as even though I might have massaged his ego somewhat, I didn’t want to push my luck any further.
“Unbelievable, right?”
He readily agreed. “I guess. I mean, even though you mentioned you started by flipping houses, I thought perhaps now you’d be—”
“Far too important to indulge in physical labor these days and not want to get my hands dirty?”
“Something along those lines, yeah.”
I shrugged. “People aren’t always what they seem.”
He nodded slowly a few times. “So I’m beginning to see.”
His reply infused my whole body and gave a much-needed lift to my pride. Maybe, just maybe, he’d start looking at me as more than a suit from the Big Apple, wanting to take everything from him, and focus a bit more on seeing me .
I held out my arms showing off the baggy sweater and jeans and oversize boots. “I mean, I’m sure I must look the epitome of a rich and successful businessman right now, huh?”
His sudden cheeky grin left me gawping at him. I’d seen him smile occasionally, and also seen him laugh, mostly at me when I came out of the bedroom, but I’d been too annoyed at looking like a hobo’s kid to take much notice. Now, I was taking very close notice. Normally, if he stopped being a grump long enough to actually crack a smile, a bleakness remained in his eyes that humor never managed to reach. But now, holy fuck, his eyes twinkled with genuine mirth, completely eclipsing the spectacular scenery.
Wow, he really was something else. His expression softer, the man he used to be emerged, the same man from the picture, and the transformation was beautiful to watch.
“I think I need to stop making so many assumptions about people,” he admitted. “But to be honest, you haven’t made it particularly easy to like you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
He held up his hands. “You know what I mean.”
I did. “You’ve not been a whole bundle of fun either.”
He shrugged. “When you’re being pressured to sell your life away, come back to me.”
We were heading into dangerous waters, but I decided I needed to navigate their murky depths to try to push my point. “You do understand how much you’d benefit from the sale, don’t you?”
He frowned, his shutters immediately slamming down.
“It’s not about the money,” he snapped.
“Exactly.”
He scrunched up his face at the same time he lifted off his cap and scratched his head, mussing his wavy chestnut hair. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Meaning, I agree, it’s not all about the money. Yes, money plays a huge part if you sell, but the real prize is what else my offer can give you.”
“Oh?”
“Freedom.”
He scowled. “Freedom? To do what exactly?”
“Anything you want,” I replied.
He stared at me for the longest time before he turned away. “What if I don’t want freedom?” he asked, his voice muted. “What if I don’t deserve it?”
I was stunned. Never did I think he’d give away anything about how he actually felt. Moving over to him, I tentatively rested my hand between his shoulder blades, wary of a repeat of his reaction to Leo earlier on. “Why wouldn’t you?” I asked him gently.
He wouldn’t look at me, so I stepped around him until we were face-to-face and I almost wished I hadn’t. The agony etched into his expression was excruciating to see.
“Mitch, why wouldn’t you deserve freedom?”
He stepped away from me, but I wouldn’t let him go, not while he still hurt so much. “Mitch?”
“I just don’t,” he spat and pulled himself free of my grip.
I doubted he’d ever talked about what was keeping him shackled here, or ever spoken to anyone about the pain he carried around, weighing him down.
“I didn’t want mine either,” I told him, not sure why I decided to spill my guts. “But I didn’t get a choice.”
He eyed me curiously.
“I was told I was surplus to requirements. No longer wanted by the men I loved.” I stared at a point over his shoulder, trying to suppress the emotions thinking about them conjured up. The sharp pain knifing through my belly at what I’d lost. I’d no idea. No clue at all. Why didn’t I know? I’d asked myself the same question over and over. They’d told me our relationship no longer worked for them but never furnished me with the specific reasons as to how they’d arrived at their decision and why they no longer wanted me.
I had been away a lot during the previous few years. With Ethan off in Europe setting up the international arm of the business, the remaining three of us had taken up the slack, piling more work on our plates, which meant longer hours and more business trips. In hindsight, I wondered if working so much had been the right thing to do, as it allowed Karl and David to get used to life without me. When things finally started to calm down, our relationship was pretty much over. They’d formed an extremely close bond, while mine had frayed more and more each day, until they made the decision for me and wanted out.
The kicker, the annoying damn kicker was they still planned on getting married on Christmas Eve. The date I’d originally suggested for our own blessing ceremony. Their blatant disregard for how I may feel is what hurt me the most and had the knife twisting deeper in my gut, and I couldn’t figure out why. A date on the calendar shouldn’t affect me all that much, so why the hell did it bug the fuck out of me they’d decided to pick that one specific day, when they had another 364 to choose from?
“So I understand why you think you don’t deserve your freedom, but there are some upsides too. It led me here to Melrose Bay and the beach house I adore. Freedom has led two of my closest friends to find their forever partners. So, no matter how hard you may think your life may be, or how painful, having your freedom will eventually reap more benefits than you ever imagined.”
He remained silent, and I had no clue what else to say.
“It’s not the same thing,” he finally replied.
“Oh?”
“Even with freedom, my life won’t change as I’ll be taking all this”—he tapped the side of his head for emphasis—“with me wherever I go.”
“So why stay? Why hole up here where there’s zero chance of you moving past whatever’s holding you back? You may not think things will improve if you leave, but they sure as hell won’t if you stay.”
I hoped I’d finally managed to put a chink in his armor and he was going to say more, possibly agree with me, but he didn’t and instead headed for the door. “I need to go exercise the horses.” He didn’t wait for me to respond, leaving me on my own as I heard his boots crunching in the snow until the sound faded completely.