Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Cleaning up after a hurricane meant never knowing what to expect. Downed electrical lines, flooding, snakes or other critters displaced and in odd places.
Once the worst of the rain bands passed through, they performed the same routine as they had prepping. They started with the rental homes they owned on the island to check on the tenants who hadn’t evacuated as well as repair any damage.
Roof leaks were common and slowed down progress, but thankfully they were able to handle those on their own.
Growing up with so many mouths to house and feed, their father had been a self-taught handyman who’d taught the older brothers how to repair things.
And Gage’s brothers had taught him. He knew his father would be proud of that.
The onslaught of wind and rain had taken away some of the humidity, leaving a chill in the air once the sun began to go down over the Cape Fear River.
Flooding was at a minimum on this part of the island, but they worked nonstop, cleaning up debris and sawing downed trees while repairing or tarping roofs to fix come morning, before moving on to the next stop and doing another assessment there.
As he had all afternoon, Gage turned to check on Sloane. He found her mucking water, sand, and mud away from the door of their current project, one of the easiest tasks they’d reluctantly given her at her insistence.
He frowned when he thought he saw her shiver and hopped down from the lower rungs of the ladder to go to his truck, digging into the rear seat for the sweatshirt he’d tossed back there last week when the day had started off cool but turned hot.
He found what he was looking for and then hustled over, earning a look of surprise from her. “Put this on.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re shivering. Now’s not the time to get sick. Your body is already trying to heal.”
She looked around as though to see if any of the others were watching before she accepted the gift with a bite of her lower lip.
“Thanks.”
He waited while she pulled the offering over the light T-shirt she wore, barely tamping down the possessiveness that surged at the sight of her in his UNCW sweatshirt.
She might have worn a tee and shorts of his before in private, but this was very much public, and he liked seeing her in his clothes, regardless of whatever his brothers might have to say about it.
“You look worn out.” A surge of protectiveness filled him.
“Are the cuts hurting? You should take my truck and head home. I’ll have one of the others drive me. ”
“I’m fine. I’ll stay.”
She wasn’t fine. None of this was fine. But he knew arguing was pointless.
“Just don’t push yourself. We’ll head home soon and get some rest before starting again tomorrow.
” Home. He liked that she would go home with him.
That they might share a meal and talk about the day before crashing.
His only regret is that there was no longer an excuse to snuggle up like they had last night.
They kept at it for another hour before calling it quits. Without power, they couldn’t see much, and they didn’t want anyone getting hurt. Everyone was exhausted from lack of sleep and too much work, with more to do tomorrow and into the near future until things went back to normal.
Sloane got into his truck and waited, slumped into the seat while he stored some tools in the back. Gage felt Cole’s presence before he saw him.
“How’d you two do in the hurricane? Things go okay?”
“Yeah. All good.”
“And sharing a house?” Cole asked in a low voice so as to not be overheard.
Gage avoided eye contact. “It’s working out fine.”
“How fine?”
Gage hesitated before he locked the toolbox and turned to face Cole.
“I’ve watched you watch her all day. Something going on I need to know about?”
“Need to know? Or want to know,” he countered.
Cole leaned closer. “Gage.”
“We’ve kissed. And…I might have suggested she stick around.”
Cole shook his head at the news.
“Sticking around and helping her out is one thing, but you said you’d keep your hands to yourself.”
“Well, I didn’t kiss her against her will, if that’s what you’re implying. The chemistry is mutual.”
Cole took a breath that puffed out his cheeks like a chipmunk on a nut binge before he exhaled.
“So what’s her story?”
“I don’t know yet. I’m trying to find out, though.”
“You don’t know, but you’ve kissed her and asked her to stay? Look, I like Sloane. She’s obviously a hard worker, but we know nothing about her. If she doesn’t trust you enough to be honest with you and share her history, how do you expect to make things work?”
Gage leaned wearily against the side of the truck and ran a hand over his face. “I don’t know. I’m not sure we’re not there yet anyway, but there’s something between us, and…I can’t stand the thought of her going it alone out there. I want to help, regardless of whether we wind up together.”
Cole wanted to help her as well. He wouldn’t have hired her otherwise. His brother had good instincts, and he followed his gut. But he was obviously worried, a fact that proved how much he cared and looked out for Gage.
“Fine. Keep digging. Hopefully we can figure this out, and she’s telling us the truth.”
The doubt and question in Cole’s tone left Gage feeling angry, and they exchanged a long stare.
“I like her. I want to help her, but I don’t want you getting hurt,” Cole said softly. “If she’s trouble, I don’t want you involved.”
He already was, and they both knew it. Alec called out a goodbye, and Gage lifted his hand, waving to him and the others as they climbed into vehicles and started engines.
Gage nodded his understanding, and he and Cole parted ways. Gage got into the truck to find Sloane watching him with a wary expression.
“What was that about? Or do I even need to guess?”
Gage started the truck and threw it into Reverse. “Cole had some questions.”
“About me. Or…us?”
“Is there an us?” He braked long enough to search her gaze in the light of the dash. “You’d have to agree to stick around for that to be the case.”
Her shoulders slumped even more, and she turned her head toward the window. “I told you, it’s best if I don’t.”
“Best for who? Because the way I see it, you’re certainly not doing what’s best for you. People need people, Sloane. You need people. Community. It’s a fact of life.”
“You want more than friendship.”
“Is that so wrong? I find you attractive. You’re smart and sassy and I know you feel the same way I do. Maybe you’re not ready to admit it yet, but you feel it. Is it that easy for you to give up before we even have a chance to see what might happen?”
She wrapped her arms around her front and didn’t turn to look at him. Gage fought his frustration and got them moving again, and they didn’t speak the entire drive back to his townhouse.
Once he’d parked inside the garage, he turned off the engine and sat there, unmoving. “I am well aware of how little I know about you. But I know enough. And I know I want to know more. I don’t know what you’re so afraid of, but I want to help you.”
“I told you, you can’t.”
“You’d have to let me try before saying that. You’d have to let me in. Give me a chance by telling me what is going on. Why are you running from your family?”
“I told you.”
“You haven’t told me anything. Vague statements tell me nothing.”
“Because the less you know, the better!” she said, practically growling the words. “That way, you stay out of it, and you stay safe. You can’t help me.”
“Fine. Then I’ll dig into your past on my own.”
She paled at his words.
“You can’t do that. Please, Gage, stay out of it.”
He saw the fear on her face. Heard it in her tone. “Not unless you give me an honest answer as to why.”
“Because it’s my life, and if you keep pushing me—I can’t stay. You know what? This is pointless. I’ll leave tomorrow. The hurricane is over. Alec said most of the roads are passable. I’ll be gone, and you can go back to working nonstop and focusing on your businesses.”
She stretched out a hand to grasp the door handle, and he reached for her, stopping her with a gentle hand on her arm. “Wait. Will you just wait a second here? Sloane…. Are you really going to run away because I’m asking a few questions?”
She shook her head, curls bouncing around her face from where they’d escaped the messy bun atop her head. “What do you want from me, Gage? I can’t answer your questions. I can’t risk—”
Her voice broke, and he was done for. Unable to bear her pain, he used his hold to tug her toward him and fold her against his chest. The console was an uncomfortable barrier between them, but once he had his arms around her and she didn’t protest, he carefully lifted her up and over it, somehow managing to shift his seat back enough to squeeze her onto his lap between the steering wheel and his chest.
He cradled her in his arms, running his hand over the tight muscles in her back but avoiding the scrapes he’d memorized when he’d tended to them.
He felt her shudder against him as though fighting with every ounce of strength to hold back her emotions.
Tears glistened in her eyes, but they didn’t fall, and he admired her strength of will even as he cursed it.
The woman was a force of nature, and he respected it to no end, but she didn’t have to go it alone.
“Listen to me. Please,” he added, holding her close and murmuring the words near her ear.
“The situation you’re in is obviously out of your control.
And the fact that you’re scared? I can’t ignore that.
I can’t pretend that doesn’t scare me. You need help, Merida. Let me help.”
A rough laugh emerged from her, the ache in his chest growing at the heartbreaking sound.
She drew back far enough to look at him.
“I have no control over my life, and I desperately want it,” she whispered, her words choked as she struggled to voice them. “And you are so obsessed with controlling everything…you’re drowning. You want to take on more and more and more—including me.”
He smiled ruefully at the words and brushed her hair back from her face.
“Only because it’s you. So let’s compromise.
You stick around and help me loosen the reins a bit by proving what a powerhouse you are, and I’ll prove to you I’ll do whatever I can to keep you safe.
Even,” he said, interrupting her when she opened her mouth as if to protest, “if it’s just listening and talking over a plan to handle whatever it is you’re so afraid of. Deal?”
He waited, barely breathing, searching her face as she stared up at him, battling internally, because he could practically see the wheels churning in her beautiful head.
But then, finally, she nodded.
“You’ll stay?”
She didn’t want to say it. He could tell. But she nodded again.
“For now. But you should know, I’m not going to sleep with you. I don’t do casual.”
He laughed softly, caught off guard by her bluntness, then bussed a kiss over her perfect lips. “Maybe I’m fighting so hard because I don’t want casual, Merida.”
The storm wasn’t over after all.
Because after agreeing to stay for now, a storm raged inside Sloane and buffeted her like a hurricane-tossed sea.
By mutual agreement, she and Gage had headed into the dark house.
Once inside, they stood awkwardly at the base of the stairs, but when she turned to go to her room, he snagged her elbow in a gentle grip once more and tilted his head toward the space above.
“It’s been a long day, and I know you need some sleep, but I’d feel better if you stayed upstairs. ”
She smirked. “Afraid I’ll change my mind and leave?”
“Yeah,” he said, “I am. So, humor me and come up?”
She obviously wasn’t going to get out of the conversation he was so determined to have, and she knew it. And until she acquiesced, he was apparently going to keep close tabs. “I’ll grab some clothes and meet you up there.”
She used a small flashlight to head into her room and get what she needed, but when she emerged, Gage waited in the same spot as before, no doubt making sure she followed through and kept to the plan.
He really was a control freak, she mused, the thought bringing a small smile to her lips.
But now knowing his story and how he and his brothers and sister had grown up so very different from her, she understood why he felt like he had to be financially stable, no matter how hard he had to work.
Trauma was trauma. It emerged in numerous ways, and for Gage, it was knowing if one income source failed, he had others.
Could create more to an obsessive extent.
That need, that drive and determination, was both sad and inspiring.
Silent, they made their way upstairs. She went into the spare bathroom to shower like she had after being injured, but once inside, she found herself staring into the mirror above the sink.
She did look tired, but it wasn’t from last night or the work today. She was the kind of tired that came from stress and worry and fear. The kind that anchored deep and created the shadows in her eyes and beneath them and gave her an appearance she didn’t like seeing, much less feeling.
She’d told Gage she would stay. For now. But was it too risky? Maybe it would be fine?
After the last few times Noah had been sent to force her back to Chicago, maybe they’d all finally understand that she just wanted to live her life. Be free of them. Free them of her. Live and let live.
Could it be that easy? That simple? Was she running from shadows?
She hated being so uncertain. Hated the desire she felt for peace and security and—Gage.
Her feelings for him had grown from reluctant friendship to more. Not love. Not yet. But…the hopeful possibility of a home and a life and…a man. A friend. A steady someone who might become more in time.
“Maybe I’m fighting so hard because I don’t want casual, Merida.”
She closed her eyes and took a shuddering breath, leaning her head back on her neck as she called out to God to fix the mess she was in. To make it so that she no longer had to run.
Because otherwise?
How temporary could she really keep this without losing her heart completely?
Or was it already too late?