“Fuck,” he muttered.
“Right now?” Lolly joked, but out of the corner of his eye he saw her straighten her spine and lift her chin. She looked a little ridiculous, the way she was bundled up, but she also looked strong. And kind of amazing. She pulled in a deep breath.
“I am not going to get away from Niki and Darwin and survive a cat-and-mouse chase through the icy rain and in my own kitchen just to give up now,” she said. Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit down and cry, even if that’s the first impulse that comes to mind.” She looked at him, and he saw the shine of tears in her eyes. “It’s going to be a long day. Distract me.” She moved to the side of the road and started her descent. “You must have hundreds of cute and funny stories about Sam. Tell me a few. Make me laugh.”
Gabriel didn’t feel much like laughing at the moment, but thinking about Sam waiting for his dad to come home drove him forward.
Chapter Fourteen
There were moments when Lolly didn’t think she could take another step. Her feet hurt. Everything hurt. For a while Gabriel and his stories kept her moving, but now it was the sound of chain saws that kept her motivated. It was impossible to tell exactly where the sounds were coming from. Crews might be working in town, and the noise just carried. Then again, maybe the workers were on this very road. Maybe just over the next hill … or the next.
“When I buy a house in Portland, it’s going to be on completely flat land. With close neighbors. And constant five-bar cell service.”
Gabriel looked over his shoulder. “You’re planning on buying a house?”
“I’ve been thinking about it,” she said. “I have a nice apartment, but rent is just money down the drain. They keep saying it’s a good time to buy.”
He made a sound, like a soft grunt from deep in his throat. “I didn’t know you planned to put down roots in Portland.”
“I have a good job there. Friends. I’m … comfortable.”
Again he made that grunting noise.
At the moment comfortable seemed like a decidedly good thing to Lolly. She liked comfortable. She enjoyed a life where there were no surprises.
And then she got a surprise.
“Before you buy a house, you should come visit me in North Carolina. Maybe you’d like it better there.”
The comment left her dumbfounded, but she didn’t have time to read too much into the invitation, because Gabriel crested the hill they were climbing, and stopped. She was directly behind him, so close she almost crashed into his back. Instead she moved to stand beside him. There, in the distance—but blessedly not too far away—sat a massive truck with a crane built into the bed. A four-man crew was cutting limbs and tree trunks and moving them off the roadway with the crane. They’d already cut a swath from the highway.
Lolly was so relieved, her knees almost buckled out from under her. She leaned into Gabriel in sheer relief. He took her hand and squeezed. “Almost there, Lollipop.”
She wanted to ask Gabriel more about his impromptu invitation, but the time for that question had come and gone in an instant, and she’d missed it.
Knowing that help was so close spurred them both forward. Gabriel continued to hold her hand. Whether to make sure she kept up or to maintain a connection she didn’t know … and was afraid to ask. Every insecurity, the shyness she’d thought she’d defeated years ago, came rushing to the surface. Gabriel might ask her to visit him, when there was no one in the world but the two of them and the rush of survival was still warm within them. But now … what would happen now, with the real world intruding?
It seemed to take forever to reach the road crew, who spotted Gabriel and Lolly from a distance and waved enthusiastically. As they came nearer the one in the front—Justin Temple, who hadn’t changed much since Lolly had moved away from Wilson Creek—called out in a booming, deep voice. “The sheriff said we might run into you two, but I didn’t expect to see you so soon. We’ve got coffee and sandwiches,” he added, and then he unclipped a radio from his belt and spoke to someone on the other end of the line.
This road should’ve been low priority, but thanks to the sheriff it hadn’t been. Lolly knew there were other crews out there, clearing roads in town and in the neighborhoods just beyond, and she could only be grateful that she’d gotten herself stranded with the sheriff’s son—and that Harlan McQueen carried a lot of weight around here.
The coffee was fairly fresh, fairly hot, and tasted better than any coffee she’d ever had. She was so exhausted she could only manage a few bites of the sandwich, but she ate what she could, then she and Gabriel sat on the back of the truck and waited for the sheriff, who Justin said was already on his way. Now that she wasn’t moving the cold felt sharper, but at the same time it felt good to just sit. Gabriel put his arm around her, hugged her to him.
The crew continued to work, though she suspected that since she and Gabriel had shown up, they might soon be sent to another, more heavily populated area. She still couldn’t count on getting to her car anytime soon.
“I guess I could catch a bus back to Portland,” she said. She wasn’t sure when they’d be running again, but maybe it would be no more than a couple of days.
“What’s the rush?” Gabriel asked casually.
“I can’t do a thing with the house until the roads are cleared, I can’t even get to my car. If it’s like this all over town that could take days … even weeks. I can’t stay here for weeks.”
“Why not?”
Lolly opened her mouth to answer, but said nothing. She’d been invited to a friend’s house for Christmas Eve, but on Christmas Day she’d be alone. The office wouldn’t open until after New Year’s, so she’d have that week to take care of a few chores around the house. She’d planned to clean her closets and go through the pantry getting rid of all the expired food she’d never used. Maybe watch some movies, organize her DVDs and CDs, try some new recipes. In other words, nothing of any importance.
Gabriel touched her cheek and gently forced her to look him in the eye. Without a word, he kissed her, the touch light and easy, familiar, as if they’d kissed a thousand times. When he pulled his mouth away he said, “Stay with us. I’d like you to get to know Sam. Mom would love to have you, and so would I.”
“You’ve already had me.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.
Gabriel smiled. “So I have, and I’ve been thinking about a repeat. What about you?”
There was no ignoring what had happened in the shower, but at the same time she felt kind of clueless. Yes, she’d been icy cold, frightened, desperate … but she wouldn’t have wanted just anyone the way she’d wanted Gabriel. She wasn’t made that way.
“So, what is this, exactly?” she asked.
Her timing continued to be terrible. At that moment they heard the roar of an engine and the loud jangle of chains on tires making their way down the icy road. Gabriel grinned when he saw the sheriff’s four-wheel drive, with his dad behind the wheel. He jumped off the truck and turned to slide his hands under Lolly’s coat and grip her waist, then he lifted her down. Lolly smiled, too, but that smile was forced.
Because she knew from here on out she and Gabriel wouldn’t be alone again. The adventure was over; she’d been rescued too soon.
Gabriel barely waited for the SUV to come to a stop at his parents’ house before he opened the door and stepped carefully onto the salted driveway, new energy in his step in spite of his exhaustion. He and Lolly had to give official statements, but not even that was going to keep him from seeing Sam first. His dad had told him how worried Sam had been when Gabriel hadn’t come home as promised last night. The storm had done nothing to ease the kid’s fears.
When he reached the door, he met his mother—who was physically restraining Sam. She had him by the collar, the same way she’d corralled Gabriel a time or two. Valerie said, “See, I told you he was all right,” and let Sam go.
“Dad!” Once he was free, Sam burst
forward and up, into Gabriel’s arms. Gabriel held on tight, and so did Sam.
“I thought you weren’t coming back,” Sam said, his head buried in Gabriel’s shoulder. He began sobbing. “I thought you had a wreck, or got frozen, or a tree fell on your truck. Gran said you were fine, she said you knew how to take care of yourself, but I dreamed you weren’t ever coming back.”
Gabriel’s heart constricted. A child shouldn’t have such fears, but loss wasn’t new to Sam. He patted Sam’s narrow back, instinctively rocking his child from side to side in the universal comforting motion. “It wasn’t that bad. I just got stuck at Lolly’s house because the roads froze sooner than I expected.”
Sam lifted his head and looked directly at Gabriel. His tear-wet eyes narrowed. “Lolly. That’s the stupidest name I ever heard.”
“It’s short for Lorelei.”
Gabriel half turned to see that Lolly and his dad had entered the kitchen behind him. He’d been so caught up in his reunion with Sam, he hadn’t heard them come in. Lolly, who had offered the explanation for her name, smiled gently, showing no outward sign of the trauma she’d experienced. For Sam’s sake, he knew, and for that he was grateful.
Sam was not appeased. He’d been terrified, and obviously Lolly was to blame. “If my name was Lorelei I’d make people call me something else, too. That’s even stupider than Lolly.”
“Sam,” Gabriel chided gently. “That’s rude. Apologize.”
He ducked his head, his small jaw set. “Sorry,” he mumbled, spitting out the word without an ounce of real regret. He wouldn’t overtly disobey, but that was about as far as he was willing to go.
Lolly took no offense—or at least, she didn’t appear to. She took a step forward, moving closer. “I imagine you’re pretty mad at me for dragging your dad out of the house in a storm.”
A sullen Sam nodded. “You shoulda left before the storm got here.”
“I understand that,” Lolly said. “Ah … something happened, and I couldn’t leave.” She reached out to tuck a wayward strand of hair away from Sam’s face. “And I’m sure you understand that your daddy is a real, live, honest-to-goodness hero, in a world that needs all the heroes it can get.”
“Well, yeah,” Sam agreed. “Duh.”
Gabriel watched Lolly bite back a laugh. She was doing this right, not coming on too strong, not trying to act like Sam’s best friend when they’d just met. “You look very much like him. Are you a hero, too?”
At that, Sam’s spine straightened. With Gabriel holding him, he was able to look Lolly in the eye for a moment, before he nodded.
“I’m so glad to hear that,” Lolly said with a friendly smile. “The world needs heroes like you and your dad.”
Sam looked closely at Lolly’s bruised face. “What happened to you?” He pointed to her cheek, and Gabriel held his breath. He couldn’t protect Sam from all the ugliness in the world, but the kid didn’t need to know that it had all but landed on his doorstep.
Lolly gently placed a hand over her cheek. “I fell,” she said simply. “That was before your dad arrived, and I have to tell you, he saved me from falling several times.”
“The ice is slippery,” Sam said in an almost grownup voice. “Gran wouldn’t let me go outside, even to meet Dad.”
“Your Gran is a very smart woman,” Lolly said sincerely.
Gabriel could see the wheels in his son’s head turning, as he sized up the situation and the woman before him. “Sorry I made fun of your name,” he said, more sincerely this time.
“You’re not the first,” she said in a confidential tone, as if there weren’t three other adults listening in. “Your father used to call me …” She glanced around, then leaned in and whispered in Sam’s ear. “Lollipop.”
Sam started to giggle, and Gabriel put the kid on his feet. He didn’t go far, though. Sam stayed close, leaning into Gabriel, occasionally grabbing on to his clothing, or his hand, to make sure he didn’t go away again.
Valerie McQueen, always prepared, had a spread ready for them. Soup, sandwiches, coffee, cookies. Gabriel and Lolly sat at the kitchen table, Sam perched on Gabriel’s knee, and ate until they couldn’t get another bite down. It didn’t take Sam long to relax with Lolly, or to release the remnants of his fear that his dad wasn’t coming home. “Relaxed” didn’t mean exactly friendly, but even as an infant Sam had always taken a while to warm up to strange adults.
For someone who didn’t have kids, Lolly was good with Sam. Before he’d moved Sam to Maine, the friends—his and Mariane’s—who’d spent time with Sam tended to smother him with sympathy. That sympathy was deserved, but after a while it didn’t do the kid any good. Lolly talked to Sam almost like he was an adult, and the kid responded.
When she started telling Sam stories about his dad as a child, though, Gabriel had to interfere. He didn’t want his kid—or his parents—hearing how he’d tormented Lolly. He called time-out and Lolly laughed—a real, honest laugh that warmed him to his bones.
Sam only called her Lollipop once, and they both immediately fell into a fit of laughter while Gabriel and his folks looked on, bemused and surprised. And Gabriel realized that at some point in the last twenty-four hours, his world had shifted.
Lolly leaned her head back and closed her eyes, letting the hot water do its work on her tired, overworked, once-frozen muscles. Usually she jumped in the shower, got clean, and got out. It had been a long while since she’d indulged in a real, soaking bath.
The McQueen bathroom was larger than the one at the old house, built years later when so much space was no longer a luxury but a necessity. The bathtub was wide and deep; the counter on the other side of the square room was long and crowded with soaps, towels, shampoos, and two flickering candles. This house still had electricity, though much of Wilson Creek did not. Lolly wasn’t taking any chances, though, hence the candles. If there was a disruption in the power, she wasn’t going to be plunged into darkness—not tonight.
After Sam had gone to bed, she and Gabriel had given their statements to Sheriff McQueen. Gabriel’s dad was glad that they were both safe, and at the same time incensed that meth addicts had invaded his county. As soon as it was practicable, road and power crews would make their way up the mountain to the house. And still it would be days, maybe weeks, before they reached what was left of Darwin and Niki.
Which meant Lolly was going to be without her car for a while. That was the least of her worries …
She was roused out of a near sleep by a soft knock, following by the rattling of the doorknob, which she’d locked behind her.
“I’ll be right out,” she called, gathering the strength to rise from the still-warm water.
“Don’t move,” a familiar deep voice called. The doorknob rattled again, the lock set in the knob popped, and the door swung open. Lolly grabbed a wet washcloth and positioned it across her chest in a poor, last second attempt at modesty.
Gabriel slid into the room and closed—and locked—the door behind him.
“You’ve just proven to me that the lock on that door is useless,” she said. Maybe she should be more shocked, more shy. But she wasn’t.
He held aloft a bent paper clip. “I grew up in this house. All the interior locks do is warn someone who tries to get in that the room is occupied.”
“And yet you didn’t take the hint.”
He smiled down at her, and she wished she had a couple more washcloths handy. “Want me to leave?”
She knew if she said yes, he’d go. “No.”
Gabriel turned off the harsh overhead light, plunging the room into near darkness. The candles provided flickering light. He unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off, then unfastened and unzipped his jeans and stepped out of them. Socks and underwear followed. Heaven above, he was gorgeous and tempting.
“Your folks …”
“Are asleep,” he said as he stepped into the water. “Dead to the world, just like Sam. I don’t think any of them got much sleep last night.”
/> “Neither did you,” Lolly said as she scooted back, making a place for Gabriel to sit, facing her. He sat down slowly, and the level of water in the tub rose almost to the edge. The slightest movement would send water sloshing onto the floor. “Why aren’t you asleep?”
“Same reason you’re here instead of tucked into a warm bed, I imagine.”
Her mind wouldn’t stop spinning. She didn’t know what tomorrow would bring. Her world had been turned upside down. Of course she couldn’t sleep!
Gabriel looked her in the eye. They were naked, wet, face-to-face. She wanted nothing more than to reach out and hold him, but she didn’t make that move. “Why are you here?” Maybe it should have been obvious, but she was asking more than about just the sex.
He reached out and touched her bruised cheek with strong and surprisingly gentle hands. “I have a favor to ask.”
“You did save my life,” she said, wondering what kind of favor it might be. Since they were both naked, she had a clue …
“Don’t go back to Portland just yet.”
Even though he’d mentioned that this afternoon, as they’d made their way down the mountain, it wasn’t exactly what she’d been expecting. Reality had descended with a bang, and even though she loved this house, this home, this family … she didn’t belong here. “Why not?”
“Stay here, spend Christmas with us.” Gabriel stopped and took a deep breath. “Let’s see where this goes.”
Her insides leapt and danced. “Let’s see where we go,” he clarified, though no clarification was necessary.
“I can do that,” she whispered.
He leaned toward her, peeled the washcloth from her breasts and tossed it aside, kissed her, and sent a bit of water over the lip of the tub. She barely noticed.