Tanya Michaels - [4 Seasons 04] - Mistletoe Hero p.03

Gabe walked them to the door, making no move to touch her but smiling into her eyes when he said, “I’m sure I’ll be talking to you soon.”
“Count on it.” And then, since Lilah had already seen them kissing anyway and Arianne had never been good at denying her impulses, she stretched up—relieved he met her halfway—and kissed him quickly across the lips.
Lilah didn’t say anything until she’d started the car. “Tanner wanted to come pick you up, but I vetoed him. I figured you wouldn’t want to deal with the whole macho, overprotective brother vibe and his giving Gabe the stink-eye.”
“Good call.”
“But don’t be surprised when we have dinner with the family tonight. They’re going to ask questions.”
Arianne smirked, deducing that this oh-so-considerate warning was just a way of Lilah leading into her own inquiries. “Let ’em ask. I love my family, and it’s perfectly normal for them to have an interest in my life. Of course, they’ll also have to understand that I’m a grown woman who doesn’t have to answer to anyone else.”
Lilah snorted. “Yeah, try that with your brothers and dad and see how well it goes over.”
Playing with the hem of her T-shirt, Arianne asked, “Do you think they’ll like him? Dad and Dave and Tanner? It was different for you and Rachel coming into the family. Mom and I were thrilled not to be outnumbered anymore and we’re not quite as…tribal as the guys. They close ranks sometimes without even meaning to.”
Gabe had endured enough of that already. If Arianne was successful in winning him over, the Waides were going to welcome him into the clan with open arms, damn it.
“They just want what’s best for you,” Lilah said. “Same as you do for them. I can’t promise they won’t threaten to beat his ass if he ever hurts you, but if you’re happy, they’ll accept him. Does he make you happy?”
Arianne thought about the acrid tang of rejection she experienced whenever he found a reason to walk away from her. It wasn’t promising that he’d had thirty years’ practice in numbing himself to his emotions and almost no practice with healthy, loving relationships.
“Not yet.” She bit her lip, looking out the window. “But he will.”
Chapter Twelve
The next committee meeting for the festival was Tuesday night at town hall and would precede the monthly open town meeting that many of the volunteers were planning to attend anyway. When Arianne had called Gabe yesterday to check on how he was feeling, he’d told her that he probably wouldn’t make it.
“I don’t need to be there for the discussion,” he’d said. “I’m just the hired muscle.”
“Yes,” she’d agreed solemnly. “We only want you for your pirate ship. And your booty.”
He didn’t immediately respond, but she heard the laugh he tried to smother. Then he explained that, with Nick’s and Jack’s help, actual construction of the pieces was done, but Gabe thought his time was better spent sanding and painting than sitting in the town hall.
Which suited her nefarious purposes just fine, she realized now as the mayor called the town meeting to order. An idea was beginning to take shape in her mind. The agenda was posted on the whiteboard behind the mayor’s head and included some of their town’s annual traditions, like the Winter Wonderland ball. And Mistletoe’s Man of the Year, someone they voted for in early November and who was given the honor of leading the Thanksgiving parade.
With half an ear, Arianne listened to Pat Donavan talk about suggested changes to how the town’s intramural sports were run, followed by Stanley Dean outlining the budget for a town beautification project and Belle Fulton’s report from the chamber of commerce. Finally they moved to the next to last item: Mistletoe Man of the Year. Anticipation had Arianne fidgeting in her seat so much that Quinn shot her a quizzical look.
“As you all know, we took preliminary nominations for the Man of the Year at last month’s meetings. Those included our new high school coach Dylan Echols—”
This elicited a loud, admiring whistle from Chloe Malcolm, Dylan’s fiancée, and friendly laughter from everyone seated around her.
The mayor raised a brow. “May I continue? We also have local fireman Nick Zeth, two-time former Man of the Year, David Waide, and Petey Gruebner, nominated again this year by Petey Gruebner,” the mayor concluded with an aggrieved sigh.
At this, Petey nudged his wife, who’d been busily knitting and not paying much attention to the proceedings. She clapped politely before returning to what looked like a scarf big enough to keep a giraffe’s neck warm.
“At this time,” the mayor said, “I’ll open the floor for any final nominations to consider before we vote at the November meeting in a few weeks.”
Arianne shot to her feet. Next to her Quinn groaned, “She isn’t.”
Lilah laughed in the row behind them. “She is!”
“Mr. Mayor, I nominate Gabriel Sloan.”
“Is that your idea of a joke, Ms. Waide?” An outraged masculine voice boomed from the back of the room.
Dreading what she was about to see, Arianne turned. Oh, God, she hadn’t even considered this possibility when she’d devised her spontaneous plan thirty minutes earlier. Because she’d been here so early, she was seated close to the front and had been chatting with other people on the festival committee right up until the time the mayor had called order. Arianne hadn’t seen Earline and Robert Ortz, Shay Templeton’s parents, come in and take seats near the door.
Robert was on his feet, his face nearly purple beneath his snow-white hair. His wife, still seated, was squeezing his hand.
Whatever Arianne thought privately about Shay and the mistakes she’d made, she wouldn’t wish losing a child on any parent. She tried to sound respectful even as she said firmly, “No, sir, I was serious.”
“That boy was the reason my baby girl was killed!”
The “boy” had been a victim, too, albeit in a less dramatic and permanent way than Shay, and was now a man. “With all due apologies for your loss, that was fourteen years ago, and Gabe wasn’t even in the house when it happened. None of us really knows what happened. How long should he be punished for a perceived crime?”
People were squirming and whispering, shooting sympathetic glances at the Ortz family, collectively uncomfortable with the direction the meeting had taken. Cici Hunaker was openly smirking, one primly dressed woman in the front row looked ready to hyperventilate. Hell. This hadn’t been what Arianne had in mind at all. She’d wanted to talk about all the work Gabe had done for the town over the years; sure, a lot of it was his paid occupation, but that wasn’t so very different from Nick Zeth, who was a salaried fireman. In the past five years Gabe had helped repair houses after some spring tornadoes had blown through, working twelve-hour days to help people get their lives back together as quickly as possible. He’d patched and improved and converted homes, all the while never truly seeing this town as his home.
He was good to the town’s senior citizens, donated his time on behalf of the elementary children in this town, had even risked the high-stress potential of teaching a teen to drive. Arianne had wanted to refocus everyone on those qualities, not dredge up the ancient past. But she found herself tongue-tied in the glare of Robert Ortz, not wanting to say anything that sounded as if she were dismissing his loss.
The mayor banged his gavel on the podium. “Robert, why don’t you take your seat?” he asked gently. “Can we get you anything? A glass of water? Earline? Now, Ms. Waide, continue with your nomination, but keep it short. We, er, have other business to discuss.”
The only thing left on the agenda was the Winter Wonderland, annually held at the Mistletoe Inn, and Arianne knew that wasn’t the real reason the mayor wanted her to wrap up with haste.
She took a deep breath and tried again. “I don’t deny that Gabe may have made some mistakes in his past. I wager everyone in this room has made mistakes. But he’s part of Mistletoe, quietly helping us when we need him.”
“Hear, hear!” Fawne Harris said.
Arianne darted her a grateful glance. “I think the other nominees are wonderful men, but come on, my brother doesn’t need the honor a third time. Do we really want to feed his ego?”
“Hey!” David called out with mock indignation.
A few people chuckled, helping dispel the earlier tension. Next to him, Rachel patted his knee and whispered loudly, “It’s okay, honey, I still appreciate you.”
Feeling braver now, Arianne continued her appeal. “And Dylan’s a great guy—we’re lucky that he decided to move back to town last spring—but Gabe’s been here year after year to help us rebuild after storms. I heard a rumor that he wouldn’t take any money from the church after he was hired to fix the leak in the sanctuary wall.” If the townspeople were allowed to pass along the sordid Tara-generated gossip, why not the redeeming stuff, too? Reverend Billings, seated on the other side of the main aisle, nodded.
“I’m sure most of you have heard about the walk-the-plank attraction he’s been building as a special fundraiser for the festival. And ask Mindy Nelson’s son if he would have his driver’s license without Gabe’s help,” Arianne added.
“I second the nomination,” Dele Momsen said. She shot a compassionate look at the Ortzs, but her voice didn’t waver when she lent her support.
“All right then,” the mayor said. “Thank you, ladies, and thank you, Arianne, for making your case. His name has been officially entered for the vote. Any other nominations?”
When no one immediately said anything, the mayor moved rather desperately to the next topic.
Leaning so close their heads almost touched, Quinn whispered, “And what did Gabe have to say about this when you dutifully talked it over with him first?”
Arianne smiled weakly. “I’m hoping he likes surprises.”
IT WAS A GOOD THING there was no one else in the store Wednesday evening because Gabe would have terrified any onlookers when he stormed in, demanding, “What the hell were you thinking?”
Déjà vu, but not.
Exactly two weeks ago tonight, Arianne had found herself alone in her father’s store with Gabriel Sloan, just as they were now. Except two weeks ago, she’d had to dig deep just to get one-word responses from him. Now he was in here vocalizing entire sentences. Loudly.
“Good evening. Welcome to Waide Supply,” she said brightly.
“Is this a joke to you?” he asked, stalking closer.
“No, but you bit my head off, and it left me temporarily unable to think of what to say, so I went with a classic.” She stopped smiling. “I would love to talk to you, but I don’t like being yelled at.”
“And I don’t like being a town punch line! Damn it, Arianne, I try to stay out of the limelight. It’s one of the reasons I stopped going to On Tap. I got tired of deflecting verbal jabs from men and getting hit on by tipsy women dared by their friends.” He raked a hand through his hair, looking slightly calmer now that he’d vented some of his frustration. “I heard about last night.”
“I figured.” Frankly it had taken longer than she’d expected for him to find out and track her down. She really should’ve told him herself, but she’d thought he might take the news better from a neutral third-party source.
Derision sparked in his gray eyes. “Were you trying to embarrass me?”
“That’s not fair!” She recalled how her knees had knocked together when she’d made her public declaration, struggling to find appropriate words that would somehow characterize all that was good about Gabe yet wouldn’t be inexcusably offensive to the Ortzs, objective words that wouldn’t betray her own vested interest, that she was falling—“I spoke from the heart last night. Anyone who suggests that I did so lightly is an idiot! And a liar.”
Gabe stood on the other side of the register counter, his head cocked as he examined her. “Are you about to cry?”
“What? Of course not.” She widened her eyes, trying to keep from blinking, lest a tear break free. She hadn’t realized she was getting so emotional about this.
“Ari.” He reached out and swiped his index finger across her lashes. A teardrop glistened on the pad of his finger. “Don’t. I’m not worth tears.”
“You are! That was my point to the town. You don’t even know your own worth, Gabe.”
He closed his eyes, looking pained by her praise.
“It’s true,” she persisted obstinately. “I grew up with a strict but fair father who loves me and two big brothers, so I have high standards for men. I’m not just some silly girl easily swayed by great biceps. You have your own code of honor, you have this great, barely tapped reservoir of humor, you have heart.” Even if it’s been broken for a long time.
A muscle in his jaw twitched as he met her gaze, his expression enigmatic. Then he braced his hands on the counter and jumped, swinging his feet over and dropping down on her side.
Arianne’s mouth went dry at the display of physical prowess and his sudden proximity to her. “Technically,” she murmured, “nonemployees aren’t allowed to be back here.”
He cupped her shoulders and crushed his mouth against hers in a conflicted kiss. She knew he was still annoyed about the nomination, but that she’d moved him with what she’d said. Deliberately gentle, she kissed him back, sucking at his bottom lip, running her tongue over his. After a second, any anger in his gesture had been replaced with simple, slow pleasure.
Breaking their kiss, he pressed his brow to the top of her head. “You’re a difficult woman to stay angry with.”
“I’m sorry I made you angry,” she said.
He chuckled. “But not sorry you nominated me in the first place?”
“Take the apology you can get,” she advised. “I have a question for you.”
Leaning against the counter, he folded his arms over his chest. “Is it ‘Hey, Gabe, do you mind if I bring you up at tonight’s town hall meeting?’ because the time for that request would have been yesterday.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t know beforehand. It’s not like it was something I’ve been secretly plotting for a week. I was looking at the meeting agenda and it suddenly came to me.”
“You know, you’re allowed to have impulses and not act on them.”
She shot him a dubious look. “Did you just meet me?” Somehow she found the discretion not to point out that he’d been repressing his emotions and urges for years and that it had resulted in his mostly being isolated and grim. Did he even realize how much more he’d smiled and laughed in the past week?
“Go ahead and ask your question while I’m ready for it,” he said. “Otherwise, you might spring it on me later at some unsuspecting moment.”
Another layer to the déjà vu she’d experienced earlier; she was about to invite him on a date, as she had that Wednesday two weeks ago. But since he’d just been seducing her mouth with his, she thought her odds had improved substantially. “Be my date for the festival?”
“Your date?” He tried to take a step back but stumbled at the realization that he was already against the counter and had nowhere to go. “I…”
You’re kidding me! She’d struck out again?
He brushed her long hair away from her face, his smile sad. “I’ve hurt your feelings.”
“Tell me why you won’t go with me. I mean, I’ll be working part of the time, but only in shifts. The rest of the day I have to walk around, stuffing my face with really great food, letting a big strong guy try to win me teddy bears, that kind of thing.”
“Look, I don’t deny the attraction between us,” he said. “I can barely be in the same room with you and keep my hands off you. I’m weak enough that, for whatever time I have left in Mistletoe, I do want to see you. But not…publicly.”
Her jaw dropped. “So I’m all right to take to bed in the privacy of your own home as long as you don’t have to be seen with me?”
“It’s not like that! I’m not ashamed of you, I’m thinking of you. Tanner told me that you guys have known Shane McIntyre for years, but that friendship’s rocky now. Because of me. And I didn’t hear only about you nominating me yesterday. Beau Albright told me who was there, that you were teetering on the brink of scandal and harsh feelings. You’ve never been on the outside, and trust me, you don’t want to be.”
“It won’t be like that,” she said earnestly. “Just the opposite. I can help you! People like you—or they would if you gave them a chance.”
“I’m not looking to make new friends here. I’m getting up at five in the morning to drive to Kennesaw tomorrow,” he told her. “I have an interview. And I’ve faxed résumés to a small community college in South Carolina and a construction company in Florida.”
His words battered her optimism, deflated the hope that he shared her feelings and might find the courage to build on them. She was gutsy, but she couldn’t be brave enough for both of them.
“Good luck on the interview,” she said woodenly. She sidestepped him, needing some physical outlet. Behind the counter was a rag and some glass cleaner. This seemed like as good a time as any to scrub the hell out of the front windows.
He hovered behind her, not saying anything, his mere presence ratcheting up the tension inside her until she wanted to scream, Go away. Or hold me. She couldn’t decide which she yearned for more.
“I could use a friend,” he finally said. She knew the admission cost him. “I’m not used to business interviews, and I’m…”
“Nervous?” she supplied, melting a little at this show of vulnerability.
“Can I call you when I get back? If you can spare a few hours in the evening, maybe we can have a late dinner together and I can tell you about it.”
She shook her head. “You mean a dinner behind closed doors. Or, at best, an extremely platonic dinner in public that couldn’t be construed as a date.”
He glared, not pleased with the way she’d rejected his olive branch.
“I’m sorry, Gabe. You may have noticed I don’t do half measures well.” It wasn’t that she was purposely trying to give him an ultimatum, only that she had to be true to herself and protect her heart as best she could this late in the game. Relationship sacrifices were worth it when the participants were in a relationship. He was only willing to skate by on the shadowed edges. “I’m an all-or-nothing gal.”
“That you are.” He looked away, taking several deep breaths, then reached for the door. “Goodbye, Arianne.”
Chapter Thirteen
When Zachariah Waide came into the store after his dinner hour, Arianne didn’t even try to pretend that she was all right.
“Dad, can I leave early tonight? Please?”
His brow creased with worry as he looked at her. “Is this about that young man?”
Even though her father had been working last night at the store instead of attending the town meeting, she was sure he’d heard all about it.
“Yeah.” She swallowed, determined not to let tears well up again. “It is.”
With a sigh, he hugged her to him. “Go home, call some of your girlfriends, listen to some maudlin music or whatever it is you kids do to cope these days. It will be all right. Look at your brothers—if both those yahoos could find lasting true love, you will, too.”
She knew that her father adored her brothers and was only trying to make her laugh. He did get a watery little giggle out of her that made her feel one percent better. Now she just had to figure out what to do about the other ninety-nine.
Deciding that her dad had been on the right track, she climbed into her car, locked the doors and picked up her cell phone. She wanted to get in touch with Quinn before she started home since her friend lived in the opposite direction.
Quinn answered immediately. “Hello?”
“Thank goodness you’re there! It’s Ari.” She sniffled. “I could use a sympathetic ear. You free tonight?”
“Umm. For you, I can be,” Quinn said loyally. “I mean, Patrick and I were going to a movie, but—”
“Don’t you dare cancel! I’ll think of something.”
“Hang on. Brenna’s on the other line. She agreed to wait while I clicked over in case it was a telemarketer or something.” Quinn left without getting a response but was back just as fast. “She’s about to call you, okay?”
“Thanks, Quinn.”
Brenna must have dialed the second she disconnected her phone call with Quinn. “Hey, Arianne, everything all right?”
“No. Are you sure you don’t have plans tonight? I’m not trying to sabotage my friends’ love lives.”
“Adam’s surgeries got behind today, and he’ll be working late. I’m all yours. You want to meet at the diner?”
“Too public,” Arianne heard herself say. It was an ironic answer since it sounded a lot like what Gabe had said to her. But after facing down people last night at town hall, she wanted to minimize the chance of who she might run into this evening.
“Okay. You want to come over and talk at my house? I have ice cream.”
Her mind flashed to Gabe’s fully stocked freezer, and she bit her lip. “I’m on my way. But I think I’m off ice cream for a while.”
“IS IT WEIRD TO THINK I might be falling in love?” Arianne was tucked up onto a love seat, Brenna’s cat purring comfortingly in her lap. “I mean, I’ve known him my entire life—sort of—and then within two weeks, bam! Does that even make sense?”
Brenna set her bowl down on the coffee table with a shrug. “I’m not sure there’s a one-size-fits-all timetable, but it didn’t take me a full month to know I was in love with Adam.”
For Arianne’s brother David, it had been love at first sight. He claimed that he’d known the day he met Rachel that he wanted to marry her, but he’d waited to share that information with her so she wouldn’t think he was crazy. Tanner had been a different story altogether. It had taken him years—not to mention losing Lilah and later having to win her back—to figure out they should be together for the rest of their lives.
“I can’t actually be in love.” Arianne glowered. “I’m not really that self-destructive, am I? I’ve dated some nice guys, some cute guys, but there wasn’t that…connection. And now I fall for the worst possible man?” There’d never been anyone truly special she’d wanted to go to the Winter Wonderland dance with. Now there was, but he was hoping to be gone from town by then.
Brenna tilted her head, regarding her curiously. “After everything you said in town hall about his good qualities, why would you call him the worst possible man?”
“Because he wants nothing to do with Mistletoe or the people of Mistletoe,” Arianne said glumly.
“Oh. That might make his being Mistletoe’s Man of the Year a bit awkward.”
“You think?” Arianne sighed. “I know, I know, I should have thought the nomination through better.” She’d been trying to help, to show the town a different side of him, to show Gabe he could belong here.
“Look at this as a hiccup,” Brenna consoled her. “There was a time when I thought Adam and I didn’t stand a chance.”
“But that was because of geography and working out the complications with his children. There was no question that he wanted to be with you.”
“You don’t think Gabe wants to be with you?”
“Only under the cover of darkest night,” she said sarcastically. “He doesn’t want people to think we’re dating because he’s afraid it might hurt my reputation or something. And I don’t think he wants me to get too attached because he’s leaving.” The latter might actually be a valid point, except she was pretty sure the damage had already been done.
“He’s trying to protect you. That’s sweet.” At Arianne’s scowl, Brenna quickly added, “Misguided and outdated, but sweet. Maybe he just doesn’t know how tough you are.”
Arianne absently scratched the cat under her chin. “I don’t feel very tough.”
Brenna laughed. “You must not remember the advice you gave me when I was lovelorn. Quinn made some comment about loving and letting go and you were offended that women might be expected to just graciously let go. I believe you suggested that I should ‘track his butt down.’”
“That’s ridiculous,” Arianne scoffed, “and proof that people probably shouldn’t take advice from me. I mean, sure it sounds bold and proactive, but I can’t just club Gabe over the head and…Wait, can I club him over the head?”
Brenna smiled. “You might revisit talking to him first.”
Why not? Considering the depth of her feelings for him, wasn’t it worth another stab at conversation? It wasn’t as if she had anything to lose. She could give them both a few days to think, then call him after the festival. Maybe she’d be pleasantly surprised by the results.
And as for knocking him upside the head? Well, it never hurt to have a Plan B.
“LOOKS GOOD, MAN.” Nick Zeth smiled in approval. The festival was due to open its figurative doors in forty minutes, and the pirate plank was ready to go. Dele Momsen had even purchased some spongy foam swords for the youngsters to brandish…and an eye patch for Gabe that he’d put in his back pocket and was trying to forget about.
“I appreciate your help with it this week,” Gabe told the other man.
Nick and Shane McIntyre had played high school baseball together and been friends in all the years since. So considering Shane’s animosity toward Gabe, Nick’s easygoing assistance and jovial attitude had come as a pleasant surprise. Maybe Gabe had been too quick to make assumptions about people.
“Don’t mention it. I had fun,” Nick said. Then he adopted a mock glare. “Even if I was helping ‘the competition.’ I hear you’re the one to beat for Mistletoe Man of the Year.”
“More like the long shot, but if by some chance I did win, you’re welcome to take my spot on the parade float.”
Nick laughed. “Hey, I don’t need your pity. If you win, I’ll start mounting my campaign for next year early. If you don’t need any more help, I’m off to stake a place in line.”
Gabe looked around. None of the attractions were open yet. “Which line is that?”
Nick jerked his thumb toward the library. The streets had been closed to vehicular traffic for the day, and around the corner from where they stood, in front of the building, were myriad stalls and games. “Kissing booth, dude. Somehow they talked Candy Beemis into donating half an hour of her precious time, but later in the day it will be Holly Devereaux, oo la la, and Arianne.”
“Arianne Waide?” How had he not known about this? The woman he wanted to kiss every time he saw her had neglected to mention that she’d be selling her kisses to anyone who walked by. Jealousy flared inside him, and he was glad Nick left before glimpsing his dark expression.
It’s for a good cause, he told himself. When that failed to lower his blood pressure, he reminded himself that it was none of his business whom Arianne bestowed her kisses on. Hadn’t he walked out of her life three nights ago? She certainly hadn’t made any attempt to contact him since, which was telling.
I miss her. He squelched the thought. Breaking off contact was for the best. If he felt her absence after only three days, what would it be like if he kept seeing her and then moved away? The Kennesaw job, which he knew he wouldn’t be getting, had actually been his strongest lead in Georgia.
“I like you, Mr. Sloan,” the interviewer had told him. “But the truth is, I’ve seen three other applicants who already have experience on all the machines we use. We also function as a pretty tight crew. You work alone on most of your jobs?”
Alone. Yep, that about sums me up. In the end Gabe had thanked the man for his time and got back in his truck, not sure if he was relieved, disappointed or both. He’d never thought he would be glad to see the Welcome to Mistletoe sign.
Then again, he’d never been driving back toward Arianne.
“Mr. Sloan?”
Gabe turned to find the mayor offering a handshake.
The other man nodded toward the partial ship deck. “Have we given this thing a test run into the pit yet?”
“Yes, sir. Nick Zeth and a couple of his firefighter buddies were knocking each other in, and everything held up just fine. But I plan to stay close today and keep an eye on it. Safety first, right?”
“That’s the spirit! And thanks again for putting this together. It’s never easy to ask constituents for money, especially in these economic times, so if we’re going to take donations from them, I’m glad we found a way to make it fun. Speaking for the citizens of Mistletoe, we appreciate your help.”
Gabe almost strangled on a disbelieving laugh. Fourteen years ago, he’d expected to be run out of town on a rail—with his father leading the charge—and now the mayor was thanking him for his efforts on behalf of the town?
“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you later,” the mayor said. “I suspect I’ll be taking the plunge multiple times today. Probably with my wife holding the other end of the sword.”
Festival-goers were beginning to descend on town square; the noise level was increasing exponentially. People calling greetings to each other, volunteers testing out the sound systems in the bingo tent and at the gazebo, kids crying and laughing. And somewhere close by, a man letting out a wolf whistle.
He thought he recognized Nick’s voice hollering appreciatively, “Helloooo, saucy wench.”
A woman’s laugh. Arianne.
“That’s Captain Saucy, Pirate Queen, you scurvy knave.” She sounded lighthearted and sexy.
It was frankly a bit depressing to learn that while he’d been standing here thinking about how much he missed her after such a short time, second-guessing how he’d left things the other night, her mood hadn’t been dampened one bit. Then again, Arianne had always been irrepressible. It was one of the things he loved about her. In a manner of speaking.
He rested one hand at the pocket of his jeans and strolled casually forward. Did he look convincingly like someone just scoping out the lay of the land, or was it obvious he was a poor sap pining for the sight of a beautiful woman and onetime lover?
As he rounded the corner of the library, he nearly collided with Arianne, which meant she’d been coming to see him. He smiled, feeling happier than he had all week.
“Hey, sorry about that,” he said. “I just—What are you wearing?”
“My swashbuckling pirate garb.” She cocked her hip, beaming at him. “You like?”
Chapter Fourteen
Too bad Gabe had only a false veneer of a ship and not the real thing. He wanted nothing more than to toss Arianne over his shoulder and take her to his bunk to have his wicked way with her.
Gold hoop earrings peeked out through her long blond hair, which was loose and flowing beneath a jaunty brown tricorn. Although the dark corset-style leather vest she wore stopped short of being inappropriately risqué, it did enhance her cleavage enough that he couldn’t stop remembering how she looked beneath her clothes. She had on a ruffled, off-the-shoulder long-sleeved cranberry shirt that hung down just low enough to cover her butt. Her dark brown leggings fit like a second skin, and he found himself fascinated by the thigh-high boots that somehow made her petite legs look a mile long.
At her hip hung a plastic cutlass, but he could have told her she didn’t need a weapon. One look at her and men would line up to surrender.
“Holly said she’d dress up for the booth, too,” Arianne told him, “but apparently our definitions of costume aren’t quite the same. She’s wearing a sundress with a bandanna around her neck, a black-and-white hat with the skull and crossbones on it and a parrot broach on her shoulder. Think I went overboard?”
“Isn’t that the theme of the day?” He managed a tight smile, still trying to get his desire under control enough to speak intelligently.
“Usually I pull out all the stops for Halloween, but I may not be dressing up this year, so today’s my one big hurrah.”
“You look…wow.”
“Thank you.” She ducked her head, and he realized that she seemed more timid today than he’d first realized. Was that why she’d been speaking so quickly—not babbling exactly, but not calm, either? She swallowed. “I was on my way to find you.”
“Yeah?” He must be the luckiest man in a hundred-block radius to have a woman like this seek him out.
“I wanted to know about your interview.” She shifted her weight, meeting his gaze, composed again. Had he imagined her flash of nerves? “How’d it go?”
“I didn’t get the job.”
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.”
Was she? Would he want her to be?
“Gabe.” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. “Are you busy after this? I was hoping maybe we could talk.”
“No—I mean, yes. No to the first question,” he backpedaled. Would they be able to reach some kind of compromise, instead of ending on Wednesday’s disastrous note? “After this, I’m all yours.”
GABE HADN’T PARTICIPATED in one of the town’s festivals since he was a boy, but even as distracted as he was today by thoughts of Arianne, he was enjoying himself. As predicted, the mayor and his wife put on quite a spectacle for the crowd when she forced him to “walk the plank.” A few of the Whiteberry faculty members chipped in to have Patrick thrown into “Davy Jones’s locker,” as a kind of initiation.
Patrick grumbled teasingly from within the ball pit, “Whatever happened to the days when folks said howdy by baking the new guy a cake?”
Lilah Waide also got tagged three different times by her students to go off the plank into the pit; by the third time, though, she’d caught a grinning Tanner actually giving the kids dollar bills.
“There will be payback,” she cheerfully threatened her husband as Gabe helped her out of the pit.
Quinn passed by midmorning to check in on the festivities and to rather thoughtfully bring Gabe a freshly made funnel cake—also known as an elephant ear because of its size and shape. Warm and gooey with powdered sugar, the fried dough dessert was almost too big for one person to eat alone, and he caught himself scanning the crowd for Arianne. Even though he knew that she was busy elsewhere, he automatically wanted to share this with her, see her smile at the first sweet bite. He wanted to kiss away the dots of sugar she’d no doubt have clinging to the corner of her lips.
The thought reminded him that she was working in the kissing booth. Now that he’d seen her attire for the day, the jealousy he’d battled earlier returned to gnaw at him.
“How are things going over at Arianne’s booth?” he asked Quinn, hoping he sounded nonchalant rather than covetous.
The look she gave him was far too knowing. “Have you seen the poster over there? It’s a big set of lips that represents how much money they’re trying to raise. Each girl colors part of it red during her shift to show whether or not she’s on target to make their goal. Poor Ari’s probably gonna end up kissing a lot of frogs today for the sake of the school. If it helps to know…”
“Yes?” Gabe prompted, surprised to see Quinn blushing.
“Lilah and I asked her to work some of the shifts at the booth, but that was before…you.”
Her words humbled him. He recalled too vividly how he’d hurt Arianne by making her think he wouldn’t want anyone to know that they were a newly formed couple. Who had he been kidding? It was Mistletoe; people would figure it out. By not openly acknowledging his budding feelings for Arianne, he wasn’t protecting her but merely fueling the potential for speculative gossip. He should be thrilled that people might link him and Arianne; she was certainly the best thing to happen to him in a long time.
“Quinn, you don’t owe me any explanations. But thanks for thinking of me.”
She shot him a mischievous smile. “Well, I just know how I’d feel if Patrick was over there working that particular booth. So I empathize.”
He dropped an arm around her shoulder and squeezed in a quick, casual hug and thanked her again for the funnel cake.
“I promise to be back later with something to drink,” she said. “But the cakes were too big for me to carry beverages, too!”
The festival committee had agreed ahead of time that the pirate plank fundraiser would only be open for certain posted hours since a lot of the officials who were being “dunked” also had other duties they had to perform while they were here. Gabe hung a sign that invited interested parties to come back in an hour, and used the break to check the platform stability and replace the dozen or so balls that had fallen out while victims were exiting the enclosure.
He was checking underneath the platform to see if any balls had rolled under there when there was a slight, raspy sound. A woman clearing her throat. He hopped up.
“We’ll be open again in an—Mrs. Ortz?”
Looking distinctly uncomfortable, Earline Ortz stood, clutching her handbag and peering at him through horn-rimmed glasses. Even though they’d never spoken, seeing her gave him a macabre sense of déjà vu. In the weeks before he’d slept with Shay, he’d dreamed of her often; after her death, it became her parents’ grief-stricken faces that haunted his nightmares.
He wanted to ask Mrs. Ortz what he could do for her, but the answer was painfully obvious: nothing. She’d lost her only child, and he could never take back his part in that.
She cleared her throat a second time. “I’m working the crafts booth for the church,” she said suddenly, as if to explain her appearance here.
The booth that was down on Poplar Street? It was three blocks away. He remained silent, knowing she’d sought him out for a reason, uncertain he wanted to know what that reason was.
She squared her slim shoulders. “Mr. Sloan, not a day goes by that I don’t miss my daughter. I loved her very much.”
He winced, wondering if there would ever come a time when the guilt left him completely. Rationally he knew that he was no more to blame than the Templetons, but it was hard to be rational about it when they were dead.
“I’m sure she loved you, too,” he replied stiffly. He’d endured the looks on the Ortzs’ faces when he passed them in town, endured being the occasional subject of gossip, had even endured being questioned by the police, but there had never been any direct confrontation. Was that why Earline was here now, to finally blame him face-to-face?
“But even though I loved Shay,” Earline said, her voice cracking when she said her daughter’s name, “I wasn’t blind to her faults. Her father never wanted to see her as anything other than his little girl, but…Mr. Sloan, are you a churchgoing man?”
“Not regularly,” he admitted.
“We talk about the power of forgiveness, even as we cling to grudges and old hurts. Miss Waide was right in what she said this week. It’s been fourteen years, and you shouldn’t be punished forever. I…Between you and me, Mr. Sloan, I want you to know, I think it was a terrible accident involving people who’d made bad judgments in their personal life. I don’t think—It wasn’t your fault.”
Gabe was appalled to find that his eyes stung. Unchecked emotion welled up in him. Not even his own father had ever absolved him of responsibility for Shay’s death. If anything, Jeremy had implied that his adulterous son had reaped what he’d sown, the “wages of sin” being death. Gabe was overcome with the urge to hug Mrs. Ortz, but recognized that, in spite of her benevolence today, she probably wouldn’t return his warm and fuzzy sentiments.
“Mrs. Ortz.” There was a lump in his throat, and his choked voice sounded alien in his own ears. “Thank you.”
She paused as if she might answer, then merely nodded and bustled away.
As the woman retreated down the path between buildings, Gabe looked around him. The sky seemed bluer, the birdsong seemed more harmonious. It was a new world.
No, the world’s the same. It’s a new you. And he knew exactly who had been responsible for most of the recent changes in his life. If not for what Arianne had said at the town hall, would Earline have been moved to make today’s overture? For the first time in fourteen years, he felt like a free man, unshackled from shame and other people’s censure.
I have to tell Ari.
He covered the distance that led to the kissing booth, then drew up short at the line. There were at least half a dozen paying customers in front of him. Gabe wanted to knock them all aside, take her into his arms and share with her his unbelievably good news.
Since the fair’s patrons were good sports here for a bit of fun—he noticed many of the guys flirting with Arianne in bad piratespeak—they paid their dollar, dropped a quick kiss and went away. The line moved at a brisk clip. Ari, who was busy making change in the cash box and filling in tiny premarked sections of the lip poster, had yet to notice him. As he waited his turn with the woman he’d foolishly tried to walk away from, Gabe realized what he wanted to do.
He saw the exact moment she spotted him. She froze in the middle of teasing Beau Albright—the guy had made a joke about the size of his cannon, and Arianne had pretended disgust, calling him a bilge rat. Her eyes locked with Gabe’s and even from this distance, the electric current between them was unmistakable.
Hell with this. I’m claiming what’s mine. He reached into his pocket, slapped the patch over his eye and cut in line.
“Away wi’ ye,” he growled to the two guys who’d been ahead of him.
Arianne put a hand on her hip, projecting a fierce demeanor, but her lips twitched in amusement. And desire for him danced in her eyes. “And what d’ ye think yer doing?”
Gabe slapped his dollar down on the cash box, then stepped behind the table.
“You know,” she whispered, a sweet quaver in her voice as she melted against him, “you’re not really supposed to be back here.”
He grinned. “Pirates don’t have to follow rules.” Then he bent her backward over his arm and kissed her with fourteen years’ worth of pent-up emotion, never wanting to come up for air, never wanting to return to the bleak world as it had been before Arianne. Distantly he was aware of applause and whistles.
Pulling away, he studied her face, hoping his stunt hadn’t angered her.
She winked at him. “So does this mean you’re okay with people knowing we’re dating?”
“The more, the better.”
Starting with all the guys behind him who’d been planning to kiss Gabe’s girl. He reached into his wallet and extracted all the cash he had—two twenty-dollar bills.
Ari’s eyes went wide. “Forty bucks?”
“Does that meet your shift quota?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“Then I claim the pirate queen for my own,” he informed the crowd.
Onlookers who hadn’t expected to get nearly this much entertainment value hooted and stamped their feet in approval. Arianne squeaked in surprise when he hefted her into his arms and carried her away.
“I should apologize for my rash behavior,” he told her, with absolutely no intention of doing so. “But you know how it is when you get an impulse. You have to act on it.”
“I CAN’T BELIEVE I LET YOU talk me into this,” Gabe groused good-naturedly from the nursery doorway.
“As if you had better plans!” Arianne wasn’t fooled by his bluster. He looked perfectly content to be here with her. And since she’d never spent this much time alone with a baby, she greatly appreciated the extra pair of hands. She’d canceled going to an annual Halloween bash one of her college friends threw, but she didn’t mind.
“Do you even get trick-or-treaters out where you live?” she asked, trying to picture Gabe handing out mini candy bars to three-foot-tall princesses and goblins.
“No, which is my point. We could have had a completely uninterrupted Halloween evening.” He waggled his eyebrows. “You could have busted out that lady pirate costume….”
She shot him a look as she finished dressing her niece. “As I recall, you ripped that pirate costume trying to get it off me last weekend.”
“Ah, yes.” He smiled in fond recollection. “Good times.”
“Here, come take Bailey for me.” The high-tech diaper pail was getting full, and Arianne needed a few minutes and two free hands to figure out how to empty it.
Gabe obliged, but held Bailey slightly away from his body, eyeing her as nervously as if she were a ticking bomb. Which in some ways, Arianne supposed, babies were.
Arianne laughed. “You’re not scared, are you?”
“Scared of this beautiful girl?” He grinned at the infant, who cooed adoringly in return. “Of course not. What I’m scared of is dinner with your family next weekend.”
The Waides often had Sunday dinner as a family, but this weekend was Rachel and David’s first away from the baby. They’d gone to nearby Helen, Georgia, leaving Bailey in the care of her doting aunt. Arianne tried not to take it personally that they’d called eight times to check on the baby and had only been gone since that morning. When the family reconvened for their usual group meal next week, Gabe would be joining them.
“They’ll love you,” she promised, passing by him toward the garage. “But if you want any more pointers—”
“Enough with the pointers. I didn’t study as hard for the SATs as you’ve been drilling me for this meal.”
Was she really that bad? she wondered as she washed her hands. All she wanted was for everyone to see Gabe the way she did—warm and wonderful. He was coming out of his shell more, but it wasn’t easy to overcome a decade of antisocial habits.
She joined them in the living room, where Gabe had set the baby on an activity blanket on the floor. “You know what I think would be fun?”
Gabe looked imploringly heavenward. “Please let there be costumes involved in this suggestion.”
“Fetishist!” she scolded. “I was thinking about a book club.”
“A book club?” he echoed, looking at her as if she’d suddenly started speaking Swahili.
“Yeah. You like to read, right? Why not get a group of our friends together, maybe every two weeks. We could decide what we wanted to read, then talk about the story—the themes, the symbols, what we liked, what we would have changed. My mom and dad belong to one and really enjoy it.”
He’d gone from looking confused to looking the same way he had earlier when he’d smelled a dirty diaper. “I don’t know, Ari. I like reading whatever I’m in the mood for when I have the time, not trying to meet someone else’s deadline. Themes? Symbols? Half your friends are teachers.”
“So?” She plopped down on the floor next to Bailey. “I thought you liked Quinn and Patrick and Lilah.”
“I do. I just have…a different background.”
She winced. Did he feel somehow inferior because he hadn’t gone to college? She’d been trying to brainstorm ways to make him feel more included.
After the festival last weekend, they’d gone to her place and made love for hours. And then they’d talked for hours. Gabe hadn’t abandoned his job search outside of Mistletoe. He’d told her candidly that he did want to be with her and that they could discuss their options as individual opportunities arose, but he wanted at least to investigate those possibilities instead of continuing to stagnate the way he’d allowed himself to for so long.
“You understand, don’t you?” he’d asked.
Yes.
But understanding didn’t quell that horrible sensation she got in the pit of her stomach whenever she thought about him leaving. He had such potential here! People were just getting to know him. Arianne kept hoping that maybe if he strengthened his relationships in Mistletoe—maybe played softball with Nick or invited Patrick over for a video game showdown or doubledated with Lilah and Tanner at On Tap Friday nights…
She was a lousy girlfriend, she admitted to herself as she watched him play with the baby. What kind of loyal supporter helped you proofread résumés while at the same time secretly crossing her fingers that nobody would call you about a job?
Chapter Fifteen
Arianne had just parked her car Friday afternoon when her cell phone rang. “Hello?”
“Where are you?” Gabe asked, his tone jubilant.
“Outside the post office. I promised Mom I’d run in before they closed today and pick her up some stamps. Why?”
“Because I thought we might have dinner together and celebrate some minor news.”
She leaned back in her seat, loving how happy he sounded. “I’m always up for a celebration. What’s the news?”
“That college in South Carolina? They want to have a phone interview with me next week, and if that goes well, meet me in person. They also offer an internship program for employees who are interested in pursuing degrees.”
“That’s great.” But the words of congratulations were like gravel in her mouth. Did he have to sound so overjoyed about getting away from here?
He tuned into her dismay immediately. “We’ll figure something out. You know I don’t want to stop seeing you.”
“Neither do I.” But seeing him would be more difficult if they were in two separate states.
It’s not as if they were talking about a short-term assignment, where he went for a few quarters of college work and came back. Even as happy as he’d seemed during the week since the festival, he’d never talked about settling permanently in Mistletoe.
Arianne tried to imagine herself anywhere else and failed. This town was as much her family as David or Tanner. “You know,” she said, “Mistletoe does have a really good community college.”
“So you’ve mentioned. About a dozen times this week.” He sighed, and she felt terrible, as if she’d sucked the wind from his sails. “It’s almost five. If you’re going to run into the post office, I should let you go.”
“What about dinner?” Nice going, Ari. He’d been so upbeat when he called.
“You can call me back,” he said tersely. Then he disconnected.
Arianne got out of the car, determined to get her reservations under control so that by the time she spoke to him again, she could sound genuinely congratulatory instead of resentful.
A man leaving the building with his mail held the door open for her, and she stopped in her tracks.
There was a reproachful look in his familiar silvery eyes. “You going in or not?” he asked.
“You!” It seemed like a sign from the heavens. “You’re Gabe’s father.”
The man shifted uncomfortably as if uneasy with that designation. “I’m Jeremy Sloan.”
Jeremy Sloan, the man who’d loved his dead wife more than the son who had lived. “I’m Arianne Waide, your son’s girlfriend.” Which made them like in-laws once removed, and Ari had never been shy about giving her relatives, even the distant ones, advice.
“I don’t suppose you’ve ever considered making amends for being a bad father?” she snapped, angry that she might be losing Gabe just as she found him and frustrated with Jeremy’s role in that. Perhaps if he and his son had mended their fences, Gabe could be more content here.
Jeremy’s mouth dropped open, his face coloring. “Is that what he says, that I was a bad father?”
“He doesn’t say much one way or the other,” she admitted. “I was putting words in his mouth. But come on! When was the last time you spent any time with him? Do you know that even Earline Ortz spoke to him last weekend? She forgave him for Shay’s death, so why can’t you?”
“Ms. Waide, my relationship with my son is none of your business.” He let go of the door and marched past her on the sidewalk.
Arianne took a breath, realizing she’d botched this conversation unforgivably, but she hadn’t been prepared. “Mr. Sloan? I don’t think you have a relationship with your son, and maybe you’re okay with that. But if you aren’t, act fast. He’s leaving.”
The man turned to face her. “Leaving? To go where? He’s spent his whole life here.”
“Be that as it may, he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life here,” she said gently, pleased to see that Jeremy looked upset about this. Perhaps the threat of losing Gabe permanently would goad the man into action.
If Gabe really was moving soon, she’d like that to be her parting gift to him. He might think that all he needed for a fresh start was a new address, but you couldn’t start anew if you were still emotionally chained to the old.
She just hoped that a new beginning for him didn’t mean the end for them.
GABE WAS IN HELL. Oh, it might look like a charming Sunday dinner complete with smiling Waides and delicious homemade food—Ari hadn’t exaggerated her mother’s culinary prowess—but it was nonetheless Hades. Since Gabe had never had a serious romantic relationship before, he’d never had to Meet the Family before. It shouldn’t be that hard, given that he already knew everyone seated around the table, but it was agonizing.
He was unused to anyone fussing over him, and Susan Waide’s warm, maternal nature was making him vaguely uncomfortable. But at least she was better than Zachariah, who’d always considered Gabe one of his best clients and treated him well. Today the man was watching him intently beneath bushy eyebrows as if he knew exactly what Gabe and Arianne had been doing last night and emphatically did not approve. But the person at the table who was really driving him crazy was Arianne.
She’d been manic for the last couple of days, talking him up to people as if he were campaigning for an actual political position instead of the throwaway title of Mistletoe’s Man of the Year. He was sure she meant for her enthusiastic praise to be flattering, yet she seemed almost condescending when he was sitting right there. As if she didn’t trust him to speak for himself. She’d told her parents about the book he was reading and the jobs he’d done this week.
“Barb Echols told me at the grocery store that she just doesn’t know what she would have done without Gabe,” Arianne said. Then she turned and beamed at him as if she were a proud teacher and he was her most accomplished student.
The baby, who’d been sleeping in her bassinet in the next room, woke with a cry, and Rachel turned to ask her husband, “Will you go check on her? Please?”
“Or you could let Gabe do it.” Arianne volunteered him. “You should have seen him last weekend. He was a natural. You’d think he was around babies every day!”
He glared. “Actually, if it’s all the same to David, I was planning to finish my pork roast.”
The truth was, while he’d had some fun moments playing with Bailey, he hadn’t spent much time with babies and had found himself to be awkward and uncertain. Arianne knew that full well—she’d even called him on it. The way she was gushing now, embellishing the truth, made him feel as if she was overcompensating for some lack in his personality.
She’d told him repeatedly that if he made an effort with the people in this town, they’d like him. Apparently, if she didn’t think his effort was enough, she’d start networking on his behalf. I want a girlfriend, not a public relations agent! It had been one thing for her to nominate him—against his will—for the Man of the Year title and extol his virtues then, but he wished she wouldn’t lay it on so thick with her own family. Did she think he couldn’t win them over on his own merits?
When Susan stood at the end of dinner and announced brightly that she was getting everyone’s dessert—and that Arianne should come with her to help—Gabe wanted to cheer. The break would be nice. In fact, he was beginning to have a new appreciation for the merits of a long-distance relationship.
ARIANNE DUTIFULLY CROSSED to the cabinet and got out the dessert plates, but deep down she knew this wasn’t why her mother had summoned her into the privacy of the kitchen.
“All right.” Susan leaned against the kitchen island, making no move to slice the vanilla-glazed Bundt cake she’d made. “What is going on with you in there?”
Arianne pressed a hand to her forehead. “I know. I can’t seem to shut up. I’m just…nervous.”
“Get over it. I raised you to be a gracious hostess, and your guest looks like he’s ready to throw himself into a ravine. Sweetheart, if you like him, we like him, so stop the hard sell. Petey Gruebner isn’t this pushy when he’s hocking used cars! Any moment now I expect you to tell us we have one year with zero interest, and that if we act now, we can get a second Gabe free.”
Arianne didn’t know whether to laugh at her mother or groan. “I’m really that bad?”
“Worse,” her mother chirped. “And you’re making everyone uncomfortable.”
“I’ll try to do better,” she pledged. The truth was, her involuntary song and dance wasn’t for her family’s benefit. She knew they’d love Gabe—how could they not? No, it was him she was trying to impress.
She kept thinking that maybe if he felt important enough to the community here, loved enough, that he’d decide he wanted to stay. She just had to show him he belonged. An old song ran through her head: “Hold On Loosely.” That’s what she needed to do. She couldn’t keep Gabe by clinging to him and thwarting his options for the future. But even knowing that, she had trouble adopting a que sera attitude. Every day she was with him, she fell a little further even though she would have sworn that wasn’t possible. Apparently her love for Gabe was a bottomless pit.
“I’m taking this cake to the table,” her mother informed her. “You, take a couple of deep breaths and get it together.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
When Ari returned to the dining room, she resolved to keep her mouth full of moist, rich dessert and shut the hell up before she did anything to alienate the guest of honor further. Luckily the mellowing properties of comfort food went a long way toward decreasing the stress level at the table.
Gabe seemed contentedly sated as he pushed his plate away. “That was fantastic, Susan.” She’d pshawed his earlier attempts at calling her Mrs. Waide.
Lilah nodded enthusiastically. “I remember the first Thanksgiving I ever had here. The food was so amazing, I couldn’t stop eating until I literally thought I was going to pop. And then she brought out the desserts. Lord knows how I managed to zip my Winter Wonderland formal dress that year.”
Susan smiled and turned to Gabe. “Do you have plans for Thanksgiving?”
His expression was skittish, and Arianne cursed silently. Had she turned him off the idea of spending time with her family? Or worse, spending time with her?
“No, ma’am,” Gabe was forced to admit. “No definite plans yet. Things are kind of up in the air for me right now.”
“Well, if you find yourself at loose ends, you’re always welcome here,” Susan said.
“And don’t feel bad if you show up at the last minute,” David said. “She makes enough food for roughly forty people, so there will be plenty to go around.”
Tanner checked his watch. “Lilah, if we want to make that movie, we should clear off a couple of these plates and get going.”
She stood, gathering dishes and utensils. “Anyone want to go with us?”
“Sounds like fun,” Arianne said. “What are you seeing? Maybe Gabe and I can join you.”
He shook his head. “I have a very early start tomorrow, so you’ll have to count me out.”
Disappointed, Arianne wondered how much of his answer stemmed from needing sleep and how much of it came from her being so frenetic tonight.
Everyone helped pitch in to clear the table, then began their goodbyes. Lilah and Tanner took off for their movie, and Arianne and Gabe left soon after so that he could take her home and get some sleep. Rachel complained laughingly that she and David might still be there come morning because that’s how long it seemed to take to gather up all of Bailey’s paraphernalia.
David agreed. “I live in terror that one of these days we’re going to be so busy checking to make sure we have the car seat, the stroller frame, the diaper bag, the pump, the binky, the toys and the bassinet that we’re going to back out of the driveway and realize we left her.”
Inside Gabe’s truck, neither of them said much.
Halfway to her house, Arianne admitted to herself that probably the best thing to do was apologize. “I’m sorry if you had a horrible time,” she said.
“It wasn’t horrible. Your family’s great,” he said neutrally. “In spite of the ‘I own a shotgun’ vibe I occasionally got from your dad.”
She laughed. “Fathers are required to look that way at their daughters’ dates. Don’t take it personally.”
Gabe stopped at a red light, resting his arms on the steering wheel. “I think that’s the first real laugh I’ve heard from you all evening. Everything else seemed a bit…forced.”
“I really am sorry,” she reiterated. “I know I was a spaz—I just couldn’t stop myself. I guess I’ve had guys over for meals and movie nights and board games with the family before, but I’ve never taken home anyone as special to me as you are.”
He gifted her with a bone-melting smile as he turned onto her street. “Put that way, it’s difficult to stay mad at you.”
“Good! Because I’d hate for you to turn down my mom’s Thanksgiving invitation just because I screwed up tonight.” She stared out the window, troubled. “You really don’t have plans?”
“No, why would I?”
Because he had a parent living in the same zip code! She knew they were estranged, but family—even family who didn’t like each other—got together for the holidays. It was ritual. Similar to people who didn’t actually belong to a church but still showed up somewhere for Easter service. She’d assumed from the way Gabe talked that he and his dad didn’t spent the holidays together, but hearing it confirmed was different.
She glanced back at him. “David was serious when he said my mom makes enough food for forty. So you could invite your dad to come, too. If you wanted.”
He slammed the truck into Park, the gears grinding discordantly. “If I wanted? What have I said or done that makes you think I want anything to do with that man?”
“But he’s the only father you’re ever going to have,” she said philosophically.
“Look, I know this is difficult for you to understand since you come from such a close-knit family, but I’m fine not having a relationship with him.”
“What if you aren’t?” she pressed, thinking about the pain she’d seen in his face the night he told her about his mom’s death. “What if he’s subconsciously the reason you stayed in Mistletoe, because you hoped that somewhere down the road the two of you could—”
“I’m not staying in Mistletoe, remember? So it’s a moot point. Look, Ari, if I’m here, I’ll have Thanksgiving with you and your family, but I’m not spoiling the day by asking that man to join us, so just drop it. Even if I did invite him, he wouldn’t come. He wants just as little to do with me as I do with him.”
“I don’t know.” Sure, Jeremy Sloan had given her the cold shoulder the other day, but there’d been a sense of shocked loss in his expression after she told him Gabe was going away. Not that the intractable man had done anything about it! “When I talked to him—”
“You talked to my father? About me?” Gabe gripped the steering wheel tightly. Since they’d already arrived at their location, she couldn’t help wondering if he was pretending it was her neck.
“I didn’t call him at home or anything. I just happened to run into him out of the blue. It seemed like a good idea to—”
“You and I have very different opinions of what constitutes a good idea. You can’t keep doing this!”
“Doing what?” she demanded, exasperated that he’d cut her off again. “Bumping into people at the post office?”
“No, trying to micromanage my life! I’m not some pet project.”
That stung. She had Gabe’s best interests at heart. She wanted him to be whole and happy and she believed he was deluding himself when he said making peace with his father wasn’t part of that. “You know that’s not how I see you,” she said, opening her door.
“Do I? You appeared on the scene suddenly telling me what to do, trying to manipulate me into making changes.”
“Damn good changes!” Even if he was being too stubborn to admit the truth. “I’ve made more improvements on your so-called life in four weeks than you have in fourteen years! And this is the thanks I get?”
He clenched his jaw. “I didn’t ask for your interference, Arianne, and I don’t want it.”
She climbed out of the truck, so furious at the way he characterized her that she almost couldn’t speak. A manipulative control freak? Is that how he saw her? Her initial impression of Gabe had been that he wasn’t in the right emotional place for a relationship, and now she suspected she’d been correct. He wasn’t used to sharing his life with anyone else. Would he ever value her input, her attempts to demonstrate how much she cared about him, or was she simply making them both crazy?
She needed to stop clinging to the idea of what they could have together and simply let him be. “The good news is, you won’t have to worry about my ‘interference’ anymore. And don’t trouble yourself over the logistics of a long-distance relationship. A clean break is probably best for everyone.”
This time, she wasn’t going to wait for him to walk away.
Chapter Sixteen
Gabe’s week passed with agonizing slowness, each day dragging into the next. Even the would-be bright spot of his great phone interview dimmed when he realized he wanted to share the news with Arianne. Unfortunately she wasn’t speaking to him.
He toyed with the notion of apologizing to her, convinced enough of her feelings for him that he suspected he could get her to give him another chance. But why? It was an ugly pattern in their relationship, his capitulating. She’d tried to bully him, albeit charmingly, into volunteering for the fall festival and it certainly hadn’t been his idea to participate in this Man of the Year nonsense. If you gave Arianne an inch, she didn’t just take a mile, she built a freaking highway. Right through my life.
Sure, he missed her now, but once the initial pangs had passed, he’d realize that it was better this way. He didn’t want the stress of arguing with her, of fighting to maintain the right to make his own adult decisions. In a few weeks, he’d get over her and his life could calm down again.
But now, with the possibility of running into her around every corner, he was more eager than ever to get out of Mistletoe. Even seeing her brothers was a painful reminder.
When Tanner saw Gabe seated alone at the Dixieland Diner, the man took it upon himself to drop into the booth. “You look like hell, Sloan.”
What was it with the uninvited Waides and their unsolicited opinions?
“Coincidentally enough, my sister’s had that same expression for the past four days,” Tanner added.
I don’t want to hear about Arianne. “We’re not seeing each other anymore.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
“If you sat down to read me the riot act over the breakup, you should know that she was the one who—”
“No riot act,” Tanner assured him. “I love Arianne, but God help the man she ends up with. She’s a lot to take.”
Gabe had to bite his tongue to keep from defending her.
“I can understand why you decided it wasn’t working out,” Tanner added, “but it’s a onetime decision. Now that you’ve realized you’re not a good fit for each other, stay away from her. Because if you come back and break her heart, David and I are obligated as her brothers to break your legs.”
AS GABE MADE THE DRIVE to South Carolina for his face-to-face interview, he realized that tonight was the town vote where the Mistletoe Man of the Year would be selected. He found himself irrationally grateful that he’d be in another state at the time. Not that he cared about the title—he’d abdicate to someone else in the unlikely event that he won—but he didn’t like the embarrassment of a glaring loss, either.
Arianne was clearly insane if she thought people would choose him over Nick Zeth, a fireman considered good-looking and lovable; or Dylan Echols, who had played for the Atlanta Braves and was considered a celebrity in Mistletoe! And she called me deluded? Why couldn’t she accept that just because she believed in him, she couldn’t force her opinion on other people?
Probably because she was so accustomed to getting her way.
But he felt ashamed of the barbed thought as soon as he’d entertained it. Whatever her character flaws, she had believed in him. How many people could he say that about in his life?
“Crap!” Belatedly realizing that he’d missed his exit, Gabe prepared to turn the truck around and turned up his radio to drown out thoughts about Arianne Waide.
But she crept back into his mind anyway. When he parked his truck in front of the administrative building he was supposed to report to, he could almost hear her wishing him luck. You can do it! Go away, he told the phantom cheerleader, irrationally annoyed with her perky attitude. You didn’t even want me to get the job.
True, but she’d gone through his closet anyway and told him which ties made him look sharp and what outfits just made him look as if he was trying too hard. And she’d helped him refine his résumé. She was a lot like her mother, a nurturer. He suspected that Susan Waide wasn’t shy about giving advice to her children and husband, just as he suspected that advice was often right.
Had Gabe found Arianne’s meddling more overbearing than it really was simply because he wasn’t used to anyone caring enough about him to interfere?
Disturbed by the possibility that he’d judged her too harshly, he entered the building and told himself to focus. This interview could mean a fresh start and a new life for him. Maybe even work put toward a college degree. Get your head on straight.
But Arianne was too deeply entrenched in his thoughts for him to ignore. When the interviewer discussed a traditional campus festival they held in the spring, all Gabe could think about was Arianne in her pirate costume. And out of it. When Gabe saw the desktop picture of the man’s wife and child, he couldn’t help recalling the way Arianne looked holding Bailey. She’ll make a great mom.
She’d be fiercely protective, and he imagined that any child of hers would sometimes chafe under Arianne’s insistence that she knew best, but that child would also grow up secure in the knowledge that he or she was unconditionally loved.
Gabe had spent the better part of the interview so distracted that he was almost startled when it ended.
“I think that’s all the questions we have for you,” the man behind the desk said genially. “Unless you have any more for us, I’ll let Bruce show you around the grounds some. While the hiring committee writes up their applicant recommendation, you be thinking about whether or not, if offered the job, you could see making a home here at Whisthaven.”
Home. The word was a revelation. He’d felt torn recently, trying to decide if the right home for him was Mistletoe or somewhere else. But home wasn’t a place. It was a state of being—a sense of belonging, of knowing you were loved even if the people who loved you aggravated the hell out of you, a sense of security and the knowledge that someone else had your back, even while you argued that you could take care of yourself.
Home was Arianne.
WAIDE SUPPLY WAS JUST opening for the day when Gabe strode through the doors. After a long drive back to Mistletoe, which had given him too much time to think about what he’d lost, he’d spent a sleepless night staring at his clock and waiting for this moment. Out of sheer impulse, he’d even reached once for his phone, but sanity had prevailed. If you woke a woman up at three in the morning, she was probably even less inclined to take you back. Gabe was already at enough of a disadvantage.
Arianne was setting up an end-cap display, while her father and David stood looking at some kind of paperwork at the counter. Gabe made a beeline for her, fully aware that the two Waide men had both stilled and were watching him.
David stepped forward, inserting himself between Gabe and Ari. He flashed a shark’s toothy smile. “Anything I can help you with this morning?”
Arianne got to her feet, looking tiny in comparison to her brother. It was funny, Gabe had noticed her height early on, but after a while, her larger-than-life personality made her seem a lot taller than she was.
He looked over David’s shoulder, appealing to her directly. “Can I talk to you?”
She jerked her thumb toward an open box that contained many smaller boxes of nails. “As you can see, I’m busy laying out the sales inventory.”
“I can help,” he said, probably sounding desperate and not really caring.
Her eyes flashed at him. “Teamwork isn’t really your thing, is it, Gabe? I pegged you more as someone who worked alone.”
“Maybe that’s just because it’s what I was used to. Maybe it took me longer than most to recognize a good thing when I had it.”
She bit her lip, looking beautiful and vulnerable, and Gabe considered removing David bodily from his path so that he could go hug her.
David raised an eyebrow, shooting pointed glances at Gabe’s kneecaps. “Didn’t you and Tanner have a discussion a few days ago?” he asked meaningfully. “Maybe your being here isn’t such a good idea.”
“It’s probably the best idea I’ve ever had,” Gabe countered.
Arianne had narrowed her eyes at her brother. “What do you mean, he and Tanner had a discussion? Do you two not understand that I’m a big girl now? I can take care of myself.”
Gabe couldn’t help it, he threw his head back and laughed. Both Waide siblings looked at him. He ignored David altogether and locked eyes with Arianne. “You can’t have it both ways, sweetheart. Is it the right of a loved one to interfere, or should they stay out of your private life and let you make your own choices?”
She fought a smile, sighing in resignation. “Damn. I hate it when other people are right. Dad, David, could we have a minute?”
Zachariah looked unconvinced, but David led their father away.
“Thank you,” Gabe said. “I would have said it in front of them if I had to, but this is better. Arianne, I love you.”
She pressed a hand to her abdomen, looking stunned by the bald admission. “But I’m bossy and interfering and too stubborn for my own good. I’ll drive you crazy.”
“I’ll learn to live with it,” he vowed. “Just like you have to learn to live with me withdrawing and being moody and needing time to adjust to an idea before I can embrace it as fully as you can.”
“I don’t know.” She plopped right down on the floor as if she were too drained to stand, and leaned against a shelving unit. “I feel like someone used my heart as a Ping-Pong ball, and I’m not sure I’m cut out for any more of that. A long-distance relationship—”
“Won’t be an issue. You were right when you said I like to work alone. I set my own hours, I don’t have to put up with an obnoxious boss, and I’ve already established a solid client base. I don’t think I have the patience to start over somewhere new at the bottom. I can be happy in Mistletoe…as long as I’m with you.”
“You’re sure I’m what you want?” she asked in a small voice.
He slid down next to her, taking her hands in his. “I know I said some hurtful things to you. I was angry, and you were pushing all the wrong buttons. I doubt it will be the last fight we have. But give me a chance to get better at this. I want to redeem myself.”
Actually, it was Arianne and her stubborn caring that had already redeemed him. He wasn’t the same man he was a month ago, and he was glad for that.
The happiness spread inside, until he felt lit up with it. He grinned at her. “You have to take me back. I won’t take no for an answer. I’ll follow you to your favorite restaurants, I’ll call you on the phone, I’ll nominate you for bizarre local honors…”
She beamed at him unabashedly. “Now what kind of psycho with no sense of personal boundaries would do all that?”
“The kind I love,” he said against her lips.
“I love you, too.” And then she kissed him.
He’d been right—it was exactly like coming home.
Epilogue
I cannot believe I’m up here. Gabe felt a bit foolish sitting on the back of the convertible and waving to all and sundry. It truly was a testament to how much Arianne could talk him into—not that he minded completely. He especially liked her inventive ways of trying to cajole him into a good mood first.
At the end of the parade, people shook his hand and clapped him on the back, all wishing him a Happy Thanksgiving. Gabe acknowledged them politely, but was trying to find the short love of his life in the crowd. He was so focused on that that it took him a moment to realize that the person in his path was his father.
“Dad.” Gabe froze. “You come to the parade?”
Jeremy Sloan looked away. “Not every year. So you’re Man of the Year, huh?”
“Seems that way,” Gabe said, feeling painfully embarrassed. His father probably thought the whole thing was stupid.
Jeremy grunted. “Your mother would have loved that.”
Gabe was stunned, but not sure how to respond. Thank you?
“Well, have a nice Thanksgiving.”
“You, too.” Watching his dad go, Gabe almost called him back to ask whether he had plans for dinner. But he couldn’t quite voice the question. Not yet, maybe someday soon.
“Just for the record, I want you to take note of my standing here and not offering you any advice whatsoever,” came a voice from behind him. “Even though it’s killing me.”
“Ari.” He spun around with a smile. “I was looking for you.”
“I was stuck in line at the concessions booth. You seemed sort of good-naturedly miserable during the parade and I thought this might cheer you up.” She held up a waffle cone loaded with two scoops of chocolate.
“Ice cream!” He bent to kiss the woman who understood him so well—and loved him anyway. “My hero.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4146-0
MISTLETOE HERO
Copyright © 2009 by Tanya Michna.
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