Chapter 18
18
GAbrIEL
I ’m taking inventory at the bar when the phone rings, and I reach in my back pocket, pulling it out to see it’s Patricia. “Hey.” I put the phone to my ear. “What’s up?”
“Hey,” she says, and it sounds like she’s rushing, “just letting you know I’m picking Colson up.” I look at my watch and see that it’s just after one in the afternoon.
“Why?” I stand, putting the clipboard on the bar. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” she replies right before I hear the car door slamming. “He threw up at school,” she informs me. “I think he got what Meri had last week.”
“Do you want me to get him?” I tap my finger on the counter.
“No, that’s fine. I’ll go get him. Might as well save yourself anyway.” She laughs. “I think I might be coming down with it also.”
“Well, he’s been with me for the past three days so, if anything, I might already have it.” I look down at the clipboard in front of me.
“But you’re safe for now. I’ll just keep him for the next couple of days, and if he’s feeling better, he can come back to you.”
“That sounds good,” I tell her. “I’ll call you later and see how he’s doing. Give him a kiss for me.”
“Will do,” she agrees, disconnecting. I continue to take stock of the inventory before going into my office.
I pull out my phone and call Charlie, who answers after two rings. “What’s up?” He doesn’t even bother with hello.
“Hey, are you around, or are you with Jennifer?” I ask of him and his girlfriend, who lives three towns over in Montgavin. He’s been thinking about moving out there, full-time. He even started the groundwork to open a therapy center there, and so far, the response has been really good.
“I’m back for the rest of the week,” he says. “Why?”
“Can you cover the bar for me tonight?” I ask him.
“Yeah,” he answers, “I’ll swing by now to get the keys and stuff.” He disconnects, and I toss my phone on the desk, leaning back in my chair and looking over at the bed in the back. My mind automatically goes to Zara. I haven’t been with her since that night she tried to cook me dinner, and we had to make do with eggs and bacon that I cooked after we filled up on three cans of whipped cream. We ended up taking two showers to clean the stickiness off us. So now it's been three nights that I haven’t been in bed with her, which hasn’t meant I haven’t seen her. I’ve stopped by each morning after dropping Colson off at school and before going to the barn to work. It’s usually just an hour or so, but it’s something. I have to remind myself each time that she’s leaving in less than a week, but each time I do that, I push it away and don’t think about it.
Charlie arrives within five minutes, and I toss him my keys before getting into my truck and going to her. Walking into the house, I find it empty. I finally see her sitting outside on the back porch steps, looking off into the distance. “Knock, knock, knock,” I say when I open the sliding back door, “is anyone home?”
She looks over her shoulder, and I see she’s wearing the same thing she was wearing when I got here this morning. Some cashmere light gray pants with a matching sweater. “Hey.” She smiles at me. “This is a surprise.”
“Yeah,” I reply, sitting beside her and leaning in to kiss her lips. “I would have called, but I don’t have your number.” She laughs.
“You keep forgetting to get it,” she says, picking up her phone from beside her. “What’s your number? I’ll call you now.” I smile as I give her my number, and she gets up, walking back inside the house when my phone starts ringing. It shows a 212 number.
I put the phone to my ear, glance back, and see her walking back and forth in the kitchen. “Hello.”
“Hey,” she says, and I smile at her voice, “it’s me, Zara.”
“Hey, Sweetheart.” I get up from the step to look at her through the window. “Whatcha doing?”
“I’m sitting here in lingerie, thinking about you.” The minute she says that, we both burst out laughing. She hangs up the phone on me, but I call her back. “Are you really calling me instead of coming inside?”
“Yeah,” I tell her, “I’m taking you out tonight.”
“Cowboy,” she calls me by the nickname she’s given me, “I don’t know how it goes in the country, but usually it starts with ‘can I take you out tonight?’”
“Yeah, same thing.” I smirk at her as she shakes her head. “I’ll be back at six, be ready.”
“I didn’t say yes.” She walks to the back window of the living room.
“See you then.” I ignore what she just said and hang up the phone, making her smirk and then laugh. “Six o’clock!” I shout, and I know she hears me. “See you then, Sweetheart.” I wink at her, walking around the house to the front and starting the truck while I make plans for our date.
I spend the next four and a half hours making sure everything is where I want it, rushing home to take a shower before making my way back to her. I get to the house with two minutes to spare. I grab the flowers from the passenger seat before walking up and ringing the doorbell. I look down at my boots, listening to the lock open and then so does the door. My smile falls from my face when I see her standing there wearing a long white robe. Her hand holds the top closed, and there are white socks on her feet. “What’s the matter? Are you feeling okay?” I ask her.
“I’m fine.” She raises her eyebrows at me. “I’m just settling in for the night.”
“I told you I was taking you out.”
“There.” She points at me. “You told me, you never asked me.” I roll my eyes.
“Fine, Zara.” I hold up the flowers. “Go get dressed so I can take you out.”
“You’ve really never done this before, have you?” She bites her lower lip to stop her from smiling. “It goes like this, ‘Zara, will you go out with me, please?’” She sings the last part. “You can do it, Cowboy, try. Repeat after me, Zara.” She looks at me, waiting.
“Zara,” I start, “will you please go get dressed so I can take you out?”
“Gabriel,” she snaps, “you have to ask me.” She throws her hands up. “It’s not that hard.”
“What are you doing right now?”
“Getting annoyed by a cowboy,” she answers me without thinking twice.
“Good, so nothing.” I lean in and kiss her neck. “So can you go throw some clothes on so I can take you out?” She looks at me. “Fine,” I give in, “go get changed and I’ll take you out on a date.” She folds her arms over her chest. “Zara, you have nothing planned tonight, do you?” She holds her hands up over her head and claps. “Want to go out with me?”
“There.” She grabs the flowers from my hands. “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?” She smells the flowers. “But the answer is no.” I open my mouth in shock. “Kidding.” She takes the flowers to the table, untying the knot of the robe and taking it off for me to see she’s already dressed under it.
“You gave me a hard time for nothing.” I take in her tight black pants that look like they are jeans, but I don’t know since her black sweater hangs over her perfect ass. She has white socks that go over the bottom of her pants to her mid-calf.
“I didn’t give you a hard time.” She puts the flowers in a vase. “I was helping you for the next time you have to ask someone out.” She smiles tightly, and I don’t even know what to think about that comment.
“Noted.” I put my hands in my back pockets. “Now, are you ready?”
“I have to put on my boots.” She walks over to her camel-colored boots, putting them on and grabbing the black vest she always wears. “Now I’m ready.”
“Good.” I pull her to me. “Give me a kiss,” I demand but lean down to kiss her lips. “You have the key?” I ask her, and she reaches in her pocket, pulling it out before grabbing her phone and placing them both back inside the pocket.
“Lead the way.” She follows me to my truck as I open her door. “Such a gentleman.” She gets on her tippy-toes and kisses under my chin. “But he doesn’t know how to ask me out on a date.”
“Agree to disagree, Sweetheart.” I swat her ass, pushing her into the truck. The sound of her laughter hits me right in the balls.
“You are lucky I like you, Cowboy ”—she reaches for her seat belt—“and I like what you bring to the bedroom or else?—”
“You’re lucky I like you too, Sweetheart.” I lean in. “I also like waking up to you riding me or else?—”
“One time.” She holds up her finger. “That happened one time.” I kiss her lips quickly and shut the door before walking over to my side of the truck. “Now, where are you taking me?”
“It’s a surprise.” I look over at her. “You like surprises, right?”
“Nope,” she answers right away, “hate them.”
“What?” I ask, shocked. “You’re kidding.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “I like to know things so I can plan. I’m a planner.”
“I see that,” I admit, “but also, it’s fun to see your face light up when you get surprised.” She turns in her seat. “Your eyes get lighter when you do, and the smile on your face is from ear to ear.” I wink at her. “All good things.”
She clears her throat. “Fine, I’ll let you surprise me.” She looks out the window, and I see her blinking her eyes quickly.
I turn back to focus on the road, trying not to read too much into it. When we pull up at the barn, she quickly gasps, “Are you taking me to see Fireball?” I turn to her and smile.
“Better.” I get out of the truck, and she quickly meets me in the front.
“How does it get better than this?” She jumps up and down.
“We are going on a ride,” I tell her, walking into the barn, and she stops walking.
“But it’s nighttime.” I don’t know if she’s asking a question or telling me.
“It’s fine.” I walk back to her, sliding my hand into hers. “It’ll be fine, I promise.” She walks with me, but I walk to the open arena where I left my horse and Fireball instead of going inside. “Brought you a friend.” I look at Fireball, who side-eyes me.
“Hi, beautiful girl,” Zara says softly, “I’ve been thinking about you.” She holds up her hand. “I missed you.” She walks right up to her and hugs her and Fireball’s tail whips back and forth.
“Shall we go?” I hold out my hand for her to grasp as she sticks her foot in the stirrup and mounts Fireball with ease this time.
“Just like riding a bike.” She laughs nervously. “Except this girl can buck me off, and I can break my face.”
I walk over to my horse, getting on him before going back to Zara. “So we are going to just go for a nice slow walk,” I tell her, and she nods at me, her hands gripping the reins and horn tightly.
“We are going to follow Cowboy,” she tells Fireball, “and just take it easy.”
We make our way out of the fence, going to the path that leads to the woods. The sounds of the cracking of branches echo into the darkness. “Are you sure this is safe?”
“As safe as you’ll ever be,” I assure her. “If you think it’s peaceful during the day,” I tell her, “you haven’t seen anything yet. Just relax, Sweetheart.”
“Okay.” She smiles at me. “Just take it in, I guess.”
“Just take it in.” I nod. “Listen to the sound of?—”
“Nothingness.” She chuckles. “Literally nothing.”
“Peaceful, right?”
“I don’t think I have heard one siren since I’ve been here,” she tells me as we walk through the forest. “You hear it so much in the city, it’s just background noise at some point, but now that I think about it, I haven’t missed it.”
“Glad to hear it.” I watch her look down at the horse as we walk side by side in the darkness. Neither of us says anything, and we just enjoy the moment. The lights start to come into focus as we make our way over to what I spent the afternoon setting up.
“What is that light?” She points at the fairy lights I strung up in the trees.
“That is surprise number two.” I look over at her, seeing her eyes go big. “What is better than a quiet nighttime ride than a nighttime picnic?”
“You—” Her head whips around. “You set up a picnic in a forest?”
“Well, I would ask you to cook, but—” I chuckle.
“No one needs that in their life,” she continues for me, “not one person. It’s so bad.” She laughs at herself. “But dessert?” She shrugs one shoulder. “I rocked dessert.”
“That you did,” I agree, coming to a stop near the picnic area and getting off my horse before walking to her and helping her down.
“Are they going to be okay?” she asks me, and I nod as I lead her over to the blanket I placed out here. “This is so pretty.” She looks around at all the hanging lights.
“Sofia got engaged here,” I tell her, and she looks at me with big eyes. “We set all this up for Matty.”
“It must have been so pretty.” She turns in a circle, taking it all in.
“So good surprise?” I ask, and she nods.
“It’s like the best surprise I’ve ever had”—she walks to the blanket and sits down—“and I didn’t have to plan any of it.”
“You really plan everything?” I ask, and she nods.
“Pretty much,” she admits. “I even planned how I wanted my proposal to be.” She leans in. “No one knows that one.”
I just stare at her. “Wait, he proposed to you, but you planned it?”
She shrugs. “I guess that was the first red flag.” Her voice sounds of hurt. “It is what it is, I guess.”
“He’s a fucking dick,” I tell her honestly.
“Why did you and Patricia get divorced?” she asks me as I open the basket and pull out the sandwiches I picked up.
“We just grew apart,” I share, “or better yet, we grew up and changed.” I take out a bottle of water, handing it to her. “And when we changed, we didn’t mesh as well as we thought we did.”
“Did it bother you?” She unwraps her sandwich.
“I spent a good nine months coming to terms with it before saying it out loud. We both did.” I unwrap my own sandwich. “Then I sat down and spoke to my dad, and he said ‘you’re too young to be miserable for the rest of your life.’” I smile, thinking back at the talk. “So I went home and told her how I felt, and she cried because she felt the same.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever met a couple who broke up on good terms before.” She takes a bite of her sandwich. “So mature. I wanted to light the whole house on fire.”
“But you didn’t,” I point out.
“I didn’t because I wanted to get the fuck out of there. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that will ever happen to make me forget what I saw.” She closes her eyes. “On my favorite Christmas duvet on top of that.”
“Bastards,” I say, making her laugh.
“Right,” she agrees, “the audacity.”
“Hey, but look at what happened since,” I tell her. “You’ve learned that you like to drink your coffee looking out the window and enjoying the scenery. You should never put the temperature to the oven higher than the recipe calls for. You learned how to ride a horse.”
“And a cowboy.” I throw my head back, and I can’t help but burst out laughing.
“I mean, I think you knew how to ride one before”—I lean in to kiss her—“you just got a real cowboy.”
“So tell me, Cowboy.” She puts her hand on my face, rubbing her fingertips up and down into my beard. “Did you plan on making out with me on this blanket?”
I toss my sandwich to the side. “Oh, you have no idea how many plans I had for this blanket.” She tosses her sandwich with mine.
“I’m all ears.” She gets on her knees in front of me, leaning in to bite my jaw.
I move her vest to the side, my hands cupping her tits. “It’s better if I show you,” I growl. “Much better if I show you.”