Take Me On

  She shook her head. “No. Keep talking to me.”

  “I can do that too. Take a deep breath.”

  Smiling, she did as he instructed, inhaling deeply and letting some of the tension ease out with her breath. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s keep going.”

  “All right.” He wheeled back into place, rolling his head on his shoulders in an attempt to ease some of his own tension. A woman near tears had that effect on him, but this one was even stronger than most. He eyed his work critically, thinking the soft blue lines on her skin just invited fingers to trail along them. But not his. Before he got started again, he shut the door as he’d promised, hoping the move wouldn’t bring Brian sniffing around again. Brian and Gabriella might give each other shit, but Ian had the distinct impression Brian might throttle anyone within reach who upset his sister. He’d mentioned how Evan, his brother, had physically hauled him away from the guy who jilted her. For that, Ian wanted to buy Brian a beer, and really it was unfortunate Evan had intervened so soon. Surely he would’ve liked to see at least a few punches get thrown. Ian certainly would have.

  They chatted on as he worked. Nothing too deep, nothing too emotional. She didn’t cry or cuss or scream, but she’d loosened up, and he liked her that way. He really liked her a fucking lot, more than he should.

  Once they were done, he explained aftercare and walked her back up front where they set up her next appointment. She gave him a hell of a tip, even though he wanted to tell her to keep it. He’d nearly caused her to have an emotional breakdown with his prying, and he felt bad about it. Maybe she’d needed it, though.

  After she’d walked out the door, he watched her through the windows as she crossed the street to her car. No barely leashed anger in her steps anymore. No, she almost seemed to float along now. She’d even had pleasant words for Brian before she’d left.

  “You’re a brave man,” Brian said from beside him. Ian turned, not having realized he’d walked up. “Thanks for taking one for the team.”

  He chuckled. “What are you talking about? She’s not that bad.”

  “No, no, it’s not that she’s bad, necessarily.”

  “Well, then, what?”

  “High strung. Perfectionist.”

  Oh yeah. That he could see. He could also see that she seemed much more relaxed now, after getting her ink, having her emotional moment. Maybe after talking with him?

  Nah. No way. He wouldn’t even let his mind go there.

  Brian shrugged. “And now, after having that guy dump her like that? She’s kind of going through this…thing. I think it’s an early midlife crisis. She used to hardly ever drink, but now she’ll hit a bar in a heartbeat. Mom said there were a couple of nights that she didn’t come home, so who knows what went on there.”

  That disturbed him. He got that she was in pain, and everyone needed to blow off steam, but she had such a bright future. He hoped she wasn’t spiraling so much that she ended up throwing that away.

  “And now the clincher,” Brian said, sighing as he turned to go. “She came here.”

  Ian wasn’t one to argue with his boss, especially when said boss knew Gabriella infinitely better than he did. But after talking with her, he had a much different viewpoint. He didn’t think her showing up here was about spiraling at all. He thought, just maybe, it was about finally healing.

  For the way Gabby’s back burned, she could’ve been dragged shirtless down a gravel-covered road. Wincing with almost every move, she steered into her parents’ winding driveway and hoped she could get past her mother and to her room without being spotted. As she neared the house and saw the silver Lexus parked in the circular drive, she groaned out loud. Not only was she not going to get past her mother, apparently, but she wasn’t going to get past Sylvia Andrews either.

  Candace’s mother wasn’t as much of a ray of sunshine as her daughter, and truth be known, Gabriella’s mother didn’t like the woman. But since it appeared their kids were getting married whether Sylvia liked it or not, they were making efforts to get along.

  “Ah, that must be her now. Gabriella!” Her mother’s voice called from the living room off the foyer as Gabby let herself in the front door. She wished she could keep going straight ahead and mount the stairs, but dammit, she was caught, so she’d try to get through this as painlessly as possible.

  When she entered the room where the two women sat, it didn’t escape her notice that Sylvia slightly lifted a meticulously shaped eyebrow at her appearance. For about the thousandth time, Gabby had just one thought: Poor Candace. She had to grow up with this woman.

  “Hi!” Gabby said brightly. Maybe she should perch on the couch across from them in her shorts and—gasp—not cross her legs or something. That would probably give the woman a coronary, though.

  “We were just speaking about you,” her mother said. If one were merely judging by appearances, Gianna Ross was the more imposing figure of the two. Intimidatingly beautiful with a rich Italian accent almost forty years in the States had done little to diminish, she commanded attention in any room she occupied. Next to her, Sylvia was almost nondescript, but between the two of them, Sylvia was definitely the shark.

  Not that Gianna couldn’t bring down the thunder when she needed to. Brian, more than any of them, could attest to that; she’d actually shipped him off to her relatives in Florence once. Of course, after only a few months, they’d kicked him right back.

  “All good, I hope,” Gabby said, emitting a light laugh as fake as any desire to be here that she tried to put forth. She didn’t need to be privy to any “poor, pitiful Gabriella” conversations. She might start screaming.

  “Well, of course,” her mother said. Then she and Sylvia looked at each other and seemed to share a moment of silent amusement.

  Gabby felt a prickling at the back of her neck. What the hell were they up to? She should have known, though, before her mother even bothered to open her mouth.

  “We were just talking,” Gianna began a bit hesitantly, “and…oh, there’s no way to ease into this, I don’t suppose. Sylvia is organizing a retirement party for Phillip, and while we were discussing that, she mentioned that her nephew is coming in from Dallas to attend and—”

  Ah-ha. That was where Gabby tuned her out. Jesus, really? She’d just been horrifically dumped three months ago. Like, in the worst way possible. The last thing she needed was to jump back on the relationship train—not that her mother was suggesting that, but even a date would be too much right now.

  “—with the two of you living in the same city and everything,” Sylvia finished, having picked up Gianna’s pitch at some point.

  “That’s thoughtful, really, but I am not in the market right now,” Gabby said as lightly as she could manage. Before they could launch in on her again, she turned to go…and totally forgot about the partially finished tattoo on her back, where the gauze Ian had placed over it was surely visible around the edges of her tank top.

  The twin gasps from the women halted her in her tracks, and she sighed and turned to face them again.

  “Gabby, what is that?” her mother all but wailed as Sylvia quickly looked down at her hands, her mouth set in a thin slash. Her tone told her she knew exactly what it was.

  “I went to see Brian,” she said with a shrug, trying to suppress the cringe as her skin pulled tight. “Don’t get mad at him, though, because he wouldn’t do it himself.”

  Gianna sighed and shook her head sadly. “Your skin is so beautiful, and Brian’s too. Why you want to mar it in such a way—”

  “It isn’t marred,” she all but snapped, offended on Ian’s behalf. He’d been so damn nice to her, and his work was breathtaking. She couldn’t wait to have the finished product. It was going to be the most beautiful thing about her skin, in no way a flaw. “Don’t worry, Mom, you won’t have to see it if you don’t want to. I’ll be like Brian. I’ll keep it covered.” For probably the first time, she felt a bit offended on her little brother’s behalf too. He always cove
red his ink and took out his piercings when he had to be around either of the families—his or Candace’s—just to make them happy. And he never complained.

  “You’re an adult, Gabby. Do what you want to do,” her mother said, though she could plainly hear the subtle tone of disapproval that Brian no doubt had been putting up with since his teenage years.

  Thanks for that, she thought. Don’t mind if I do. Thirty-six years old, on her way to being a doctor, and still being lectured. But Sylvia would never conceive of fixing up her nephew with a tattooed freak if she could help it, so Gabriella had managed to escape that debacle at least. One small success.

  “It was nice seeing you,” she said to Sylvia, who returned a weak smile. She had almost reached the door when her mother spoke again.

  “Will you be home for dinner?”

  “No, sorry.”

  And finally the stairs were under her feet, and she could escape into the privacy of her room.

  Damn Mark Easton for doing this to her.

  She’d had it all, her entire life mapped out with her usual meticulous precision. Successful husband. House in Highland Park. Successful career. Kids as soon as it was feasible. It was her life, and she was supposed to be living it right now. But fate, the fickle bitch, had dropped her into some fucking alternate universe.

  A universe where she lived with her parents because she was essentially homeless. Where she’d suffered the worst humiliation imaginable for any bride. Where she’d lost the man of her dreams. Where having a child before the age of forty was now a remote possibility, since she wasn’t inclined to ever put herself back into that situation again. If ever.

  She’d waited too long. Focused on career for too long. Now all the things she’d put off, all those things she wanted someday, were well out of her reach, and it might be too late to ever have them. Someday had come and gone.

  Her room was more of a sanctuary now than it had been in her youth. It wasn’t much different than it had been back then. Her parents had kept many of her things when she’d moved out. One of those items, a delicate ballerina music box, still sat on her dresser because she’d been afraid of damaging it more than it already was.

  Her gaze landed on it now. She wandered over and picked it up, inspecting the hairline cracks that created a web through the porcelain. It had been a gift from her great-grandmother in Italy before she’d passed away…and Brian had broken it when he was eleven. He’d been in her room, bugging her, being his usual little-shit self, and he’d accidentally knocked it off her dresser. She could still hear the sound of the porcelain shattering, could still feel the way her heart had dropped as heavily as the box had. Ignoring his apologies, she’d grabbed him and shoved him out of her room through a haze of tears, screaming how much she hated him as she slammed the door.

  The next morning, she’d found it right here, just like this, all glued back together. Evan had told her that Brian snuck back into her room to get the pieces and stayed up all night trying to fix it, not even letting Evan help him. It wasn’t perfect, but he’d done a good job. Somehow, now it was almost more precious to her with the cracks he’d put in it. She could look at it and remember that he loved her…no matter how many times he’d said otherwise in the years that followed, in the midst of his wild streak.

  She’d been joking when she’d told Ian he was no different now than when he was a teenager. He was worlds different.

  And what was she? She wasn’t sure anymore. She was supposed to be a wife; she knew that. She’d been ready to be a wife. Now she was just…in limbo.

  After the debacle that was supposed to be her wedding, she stayed with Tina until the school year was over. It had been horrible feeling so useless and helpless, crashing on her friend’s couch and depriving Tina of her cherished privacy. Gabby’s parents had been more than willing to help her out financially—they always had—and get her a place of her own, but she’d been so busy, there was little time to look. Once the year ended, she’d driven home with everything she owned piled in the back of her car. And here she’d been ever since. Still feeling useless and helpless.

  The only thing that had gotten her through was Kelsey. Their nightly phone calls had been a lifesaver. Kelsey had been through it, even down to living on her best friend’s couch after she caught her first husband in the act of cheating with Evan’s former fiancée. Kelsey’s daily promises that hitting bottom could only mean something better was right around the corner—they were a little bright spot of hope she kept firmly embedded in the front of her mind.

  Because more than once since The Wedding That Wasn’t, she’d considered giving it all up. Staying here, abandoning her dreams, going back to nursing, if only to stop being such a freaking burden on everyone. Hell, Gianna had probably invited Candace’s mother over only to discuss any prospects she knew of, some nice guy upon whom the Rosses could unload their spinster daughter before she got in trouble and brought shame on all their heads.

  But quitting it all? What a waste of time and money. She couldn’t do that…but the thought of heading back to Dallas alone this fall was… Well, she didn’t know if she could do that either. She didn’t want to think about it.

  She didn’t want to think about much, come to that. Living in the moment had become her thing. Fuck the future.

  Gabby flopped back on her bed and squelched a yelp and a stream of curses as pain seared through the flesh of her back. Immediate memories of her artist flashed in front of her eyes, and she rolled over on her stomach and sighed. Now there was a cool drink of water she’d desperately needed. Ian. When he’d moved his chair around in front of her and she’d looked up at him, something had clicked inside her. Some piece that had been horribly out of whack had snapped back into place. His hazel eyes had been kind, but she’d no doubt they could smolder like molten amber just as easily. His short but somehow still messy brown hair had begged for her fingers to tame the strands. He’d told her to scream and cry if she needed to, but damn, all she’d thought about was screaming for an entirely different reason.

  But that was crazy, wasn’t it? She didn’t have to ask how old he was. “Younger than You” was stamped all over him. Even so, the raw confidence and quiet strength he exuded promised a ride she would never forget.

  She’d never had a younger man, had never been inclined to do so, but she’d decided at that moment it might be something to add to her bucket list. And what better time to also check it off than now, when she was free and unfettered?

  Yeah, a moment ago, she’d evaded her mom’s matchmaking, but she wasn’t against making a temporary match of her own devising.

  Key word: temporary.

  Chapter Four

  Ian swigged his beer, eyes on the Texas Rangers game playing on a majority of the screens in the sports bar. He didn’t notice he had company until a hand slid over his shoulder, and he turned to see a familiar pair of direct, amused green eyes.

  Gabriella Ross smiled at him, and he almost fell off his fucking stool. “Long time no see,” she teased, lifting the longneck in her hand to her full cherry-red lips.

  For a split second, he was mesmerized watching those lips encircle the mouth of her bottle, imagining them encircling something on him…and then he snapped out of it. “Hey, there. Yeah, it’s been all of, what, five hours?” He checked his watch out of some mindless reflex, not because he gave two shits what time it was.

  “Come here often?” she asked, lifting a wing-shaped brow in what he took as sardonic acknowledgment of the ages-old pickup line.

  “Not really. Got off a little early, thought I’d unwind for a bit. What about you?”

  She indicated the beer in her hand. “I thought I would try to dull the flames raging on my back.”

  “Oh.” He winced on her behalf. “Yeah, that’s all part of it. Sorry.”

  “It’s all right. It’ll be worth it.”

  “It will be, but in the meantime… You might need something a little stronger than that.”

  “Is t
hat your way of saying you want to buy me a drink?” She tossed her hair behind her shoulder, that magnificently shiny hair, and her come-hither look damn near drowned him where he sat.

  Gone was the woman of five hours ago. In her place was…Satan. He stared at her a moment, uncomprehending, fighting his way back from whatever haze of blind lust she was dragging him to. What the fuck was this?

  Brian’s earlier words rang through his head. He took another long pull on his beer and set it down hard, getting off his stool. “No, it’s not.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Really.” He avoided her eyes as he pulled his wallet from his back pocket and threw some bills on the bar.

  “What did I say wrong?” Still with that damn amusement. Like he and everything around her was here for her enjoyment, for her to toy with. As if she didn’t give a shit if he shot her down, because there was any number of other poor bastards in here for her to prey on.

  “Come on, now,” he said tightly, though he strove for a light tone. “Let’s not mix business with pleasure.”

  “Wow. Getting ahead of ourselves, aren’t we? Okay, I can buy my own drinks. I just thought it was nice to see a friendly face.” She turned away from him to face the bar then, and he caught of glimpse of the long length of her slender legs, shown to their best advantage on the barstool.

  Yeah, and if he left her here, any one of these other poor bastards was going to take his seat. For reasons he didn’t care to evaluate, that made his blood simmer.

  Sighing and cursing himself for a damn fool, he reclaimed his spot next to her. “Look, I’m sorry. It’s just… Forget it. I don’t mean to be rude. I’ll buy you whatever you want.” He waved for the bartender.

  “Oh, hell no. Not if I have to practically beg for it.” She intercepted the girl behind the bar before he could open his mouth. “Double Stoli and tonic.” Then she did a fair job of ignoring him while the bartender made it for her.

  “Are you just fucking with me, or are you really pissed?” he asked, watching the TV screen in front of them as Kinsler grounded out to a chorus of groans from the other patrons.