Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Gavin thought dinner went well with his parents; they both had a lot of fun talking with Kari. Not that anyone could resist Kari’s appeal. He’d tried, and he’d failed miserably.
Of course, his dad teased her, but that was to be expected and she took it well. Austin was in heaven, getting attention from all of the adults, as usual. He sat close to Mama during dinner and told her all about their ice skating and how he trained Kari to be an “expert.”
“Two more days and I’ll have her playing hockey,” Austin bragged.
Everyone laughed at that.
As dinner finished, Gavin could see that Papa was tiring, and judging by the faint lines around Mama’s eyes, she’d noticed too.
The doctors couldn’t pin anything specific on Papa’s health besides the fact that it was deteriorating.
Probably the lack of movement and the toll it took on one’s body to suffer and then live with an injury like he had.
They always fought bed sores, UTIs, and worries with his lungs and muscles but lately it seemed worse.
“We’d better let these fine folks go home so we can go to bed,” Papa said, winking at Mama.
Mama laughed, and they all stood.
“We’ll do the dishes while you get Papa settled,” Gavin said in an undertone to Mama.
“No. You leave them tonight.”
“We have to do the dishes. It’s the least we can do for that delicious dinner,” Kari said. She gave Mama a hug and bent down and kissed Papa on his cheek.
Papa grinned up at Gavin and said, “She’s something special.”
Gavin agreed. He hadn’t even kissed her, and she was leaving soon, but he wanted Kari Love in his life.
She was special enough to break through his walls, and that was saying something.
Could he really date her? What would that look like?
He worried that he was too messed up to make a relationship work, but he wanted to try.
Austin helped with cleanup, chattering a mile a minute about school and all the girls who had crushes on him and how those crazy girls couldn’t comprehend that he didn’t have girlfriends his age. This last line was said in exasperation.
Kari was loading the dishwasher, but she straightened up and asked him, “Why don’t you have girlfriends your age?”
Austin shrugged. “That would be kind of weird. I don’t really want a smoochy girl. I just like to tease, like Papa teases everybody. It’s not like I’m going to marry any of them.”
Gavin had never heard Austin admit that his girlfriends were just a tease. “Who are you going to marry?” he asked.
Austin lifted his hands. “My wife is still in heaven.”
“What?” Kari asked.
“Yeah. She hasn’t even been borned yet.” Austin started sweeping the kitchen and dining area as if he hadn’t said anything out of line.
Gavin couldn’t help but laugh. “So you’re after all these older women, but when you get married, you want a woman … eleven or twelve years younger than you?”
“Of course. I don’t want some old lady.”
Kari laughed and shrugged her shoulders at Gavin. “Makes sense.”
Gavin ruffled Austin’s hair as he passed. “Not really, but he’s cute.”
Austin winked up at him. “Yes, I am.”
Kari had thoroughly enjoyed the ice skating, the dinner, and the movie with Austin and Gavin.
Austin had sat between them during the movie, ruining her plan of easing into Gavin’s side, but she couldn’t begrudge the little guy.
The movie was something about the Avengers, and she didn’t pay much attention to it; she was too in tune with every little cue she was getting from Gavin.
She wanted to ask him why he gave indicators that he was into her, yet he seemed reluctant, almost scared.
Would he take her back to her room tonight and kiss her?
Her anticipation ramped up as the movie ended, but then she realized he wasn’t just going to leave Austin here alone.
Gavin stood and offered Kari a hand up. She took his hand and savored the feel of his strong fingers around hers.
Austin stayed on the couch. “Can I go read with Mama tonight?” he asked.
Gavin’s eyebrows rose, and the anticipation in Kari tripled. Were they going to get the alone time she’d been hoping for? Austin was such a miracle worker.
“Let me see.” Gavin pulled out his phone and pushed a couple of buttons, walking away to talk to his mom.
Austin stood and gave her a quick hug. He fit perfectly in her arms, a little man who needed her. That was crazy thinking, though. His mama was loving, and from what Kari could tell, he was surrounded by family who loved him. Yet it seemed like there was a spot in his heart reserved for her.
He pulled back and said, “I know I’m just a kid, but I notice stuff. If you want to be smoochy with my best bro, you don’t want me hanging around watching.” He gave an exaggerated wink, one eye closing fully, the other squinting.
Kari laughed. This little boy was her favorite person in the world right now. She lowered her voice and said, “Do you think he wants to get smoochy with me?”
Austin pumped his eyebrows. “If you’re lucky.”
Kari nodded. She would have to be more than lucky to have Gavin Strong be interested in her.
Gavin turned back to them, and the warm look in his brown eyes said she might be very, very lucky. “Mama said sure,” he said.
“Yes!” Austin pumped a fist and waved. “Well, see ya.” He ran for the laundry room. Kari could hear him grabbing some things, and then he slammed the door leading into the garage and was gone.
Gavin looked a little apprehensive, the last thing she wanted to see. “I guess he’s gone, then.”
“Guess so.”
Gavin looked around, as if not sure what they were supposed to do now that they were alone.
“Thanks for such a fun day,” she said, feeling stupid and lame.
Maybe he didn’t want to be alone with her after all.
Maybe Austin’s scheming was for naught. Gavin had almost kissed her earlier in the pool, and they’d had all kinds of tension arcing between them.
If she were writing this scene, she’d say something like …
“Well, maybe I should go.” She gasped internally.
No, not that. What was she doing? If one of her characters had said something so blatantly stupid, she’d write them out of their own story. I should go? What a fail on her part.
Gavin’s dark eyes looked conflicted. She waited, praying he’d rescue this scene and give a heroic line like, In what world would I let someone like you go? Then he could storm across the room, gather her in his arms, and kiss her senseless. She moistened her bottom lip, waiting, praying.
His eyes dipped to her lips and then slowly traveled over her face. Hope rose in her, but when he spoke, his line was almost as bad as hers. “Yeah, you probably should,” he agreed. “I’ll take you back to your room.”
Dumb, dumb. He wasn’t acting correctly at all. Yet she was the stupid one who’d suggested she should go. This failed scene was all on her. Why weren’t there editors and revisions in real life?
They walked stiffly through his gorgeous home and toward the garage where he’d parked his sport utility.
He got her door and gave her a very forced smile.
All the hopes she’d had for how this night would end had evaporated.
She only had two more nights here. Would she break through Gavin’s appealing hard shell, or would she go back to Arizona with some memories and some great writing fodder, but a failed, tragic romance?
He got in the car, pulled out of the garage, and said nothing.
“What kind of car is this?” she asked.
“A Lexus LS 460.”
“Oh. It’s nice. I think I’ve used this model in some of my books, but details like that don’t lodge in my memory.
I just research them quick, write notes in that book’s file so I don’t forget, and then, poof!
They’re gone from my mind.” Her smile was probably as forced as the one he’d given her earlier.
Gavin stared at her as they stopped and waited for the gate to swing open. “That makes no sense.”
“What?”
He pulled through the gate, and thankfully, he was no longer staring perceptively at her. “You guessed my cologne and told me the details and ‘notes in the scent’ like a paid advertisement. Yet you can’t remember what car you use in a certain book?”
She laughed. “My brother says it’s freaky how my mind works.”
“I wouldn’t say freaky. I think you’re pretty brilliant.”
“Well, thank you.” This was going marginally better. At least they were talking and weren’t so stiff. “So is this your dream car?” she asked.
“Yeah. I’ve always wanted one. What about you? What’s your dream car?”
She started laughing. “Couldn’t tell you.”
“No? You have no car that you’d love to have?”
“Never thought about it. A car’s a car.”
“Seriously?” They pulled into a parking stall at the lodge, and he turned to look at her. “What do you drive?”
“A Honda Civic.”
“Hmm. Practical, gas efficient. Doesn’t fit you at all.”
“Really?” She angled toward him, liking this conversation and hoping they were warming back up to the level of comfort and interest they’d had earlier in the day. “What would fit me?”
He studied her, really studied her, and it warmed her clear through, better than any heater. “I think …” He drawled out the words and moistened his lips.
Kari quivered with anticipation. Would he tell her exactly what car fit her and then finally, finally kiss her?
“A Honda Civic. Practical, efficient.” He kept a straight face, but he had a teasing glint in his eyes.
Kari pushed at his shoulder. “Ah! Rude!”
He chuckled. “Okay, okay, let me try again.”
“I love your laugh,” she said.
He shifted, maybe a little uncomfortable by her praise, but he didn’t lose his glorious smile.
“Okay, so what vehicle fits me?” she challenged him. “And if you say a minivan, I’m going to dunk you in the cold plunge pool.”
“You don’t have the keys to the spa.”
“I’m sure Austin would sneak them for me.”
“You’re probably right.” He pursed his lips. “Okay. I think a Maserati GranTurismo.”
She thought she should be flattered. She knew Maseratis were expensive at least. “What exactly does a Maserati GranTurismo look like?” She arched an eyebrow, hoping he’d rise to the bait.
“Sleek and beautiful,” he said in a voice that had her trembling. “You’d probably have to upgrade to the MC edition to find one in the same deep blue that matches your eyes.”
Kari swallowed hard. Gavin’s lines were as beautiful as they were uncharacteristic for him to say or for her to hear in real life. He gave her a meaningful look, and then he opened his door and walked around to get hers.
They walked through the parking lot and the lobby without saying anything. Gavin greeted the front desk girl by name. That was just another thing that impressed her about him: he made his employees feel important by knowing all of their names.
They got in the elevator and she asked, “Is it tough to keep everything straight?”
“Everything?”
“All your employees, all the different things you do for the resort?”
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “I have to know how to run a ski resort, a hotel, a restaurant, a spa, and a small store with the ski and bike shop. I love it, though.”
“I’m glad.”
“Thanks.”
The elevator arrived at her floor, and her nerves started ramping up again.
So he hadn’t wanted to kiss her at his beautiful house, but what did that really mean?
Maybe he was just being careful, keeping boundaries.
His family were religious; they prayed at meals and had pictures of the Savior in their homes. She thought that was pretty great.
Yet what if he didn’t want to kiss her at all? She couldn’t force him … or could she?
They reached her door, and Gavin shifted from foot to foot.
He looked a little bit uncomfortable again, like he wasn’t inclined to kiss her.
She could literally feel her time running out and knew if he truly was the closed-off, broody hero, the heroine had to take some initiative, be extra adorable or persuasive to make him fall.
“Thanks for a fun day,” he said, and started to pivot.
What did she do? What did she say? She had nothing, nothing to keep him here. “Thank you,” she murmured.
He gave her an almost sad quarter-smile and started back down the hall.
He was almost to the elevator when she felt the words rip from her throat, “Will I see you tomorrow?”
Gavin turned back and stared at her. He was the perfect broody hero with those dark, almost hooded eyes, that handsome, manly face, and the tough body that screamed, I will protect any heroine and have her longing for my touch.
Yet she wasn’t sure that she was the heroine to break through his tough veneer.
He must have some tragic past that she needed to get to the bottom of.
That would only happen if she had more time.
Gavin obviously needed to trust, needed to know that his heroine wouldn’t leave him, and she was leaving Monday.
“Were you planning on skiing?” he asked.
“Yes,” she nodded vigorously, but then a worried thought occurred to her.
“I mean, if you and Austin were planning on skiing, then I’d be planning on skiing.
” Now she sounded like a desperate, needy woman.
That would never do for someone like Gavin.
He might want to protect, but he also needed a strong woman.
Yet his almost-full smile came out, slow but incredible. She leaned against the doorframe for support. “Austin and I would love to ski with you,” he said.
Anticipation of more time with him rose in her. She wanted to run down the hallway and hug him tight. Instead, she asked, “Nine in the lobby?”
“Sure.” He tilted up his chin to her. His smile was confident but still a little guarded. “See you tomorrow.” Then he pushed through the door to the stairs and disappeared.
“See you,” she whispered, putting a hand to her heart.
She’d always known she wanted a more serious hero to balance out her impulsive nature, but she’d never planned on the likes of that man.
Rushing back into her room, she grabbed her computer.
Ideas for an incredible scene flowed through her mind.
Yet in her fictional world, the heroine actually got her kiss.