Yep. Busted. “You asked me to romance Sabrina. I’m doing it. My way.”
“You’d better not hurt that girl.”
“I have no intention of hurting Sabrina.”
“If you do, you’ll never get what you want out of that land. I’ll tie it up in so many legal knots you won’t be able to untangle it.”
“You said you’d sign over the deed to me.”
Henry’s mouth flattened into a straight line. “An’ I won’t go back on my word. I may not have the money you Jarrods have, but I’ve been in this city a long time. I have connections. You’ll find it impossible to get your permits or even your trash picked up if you cross me.”
Great. Just what he needed. He’d made a potential enemy out of his only ally.
The men had been outside for over an hour. The sound of the back door closing had jarred Sabrina from her deepest sleep in years. Her face warmed as she recalled the cause of her near-comatose state. Gavin. Sledding. Multiple orgasms.But she’d yet to hear the growl of the old tractor’s engine. Knowing the pair of them, they’d probably started talking and weren’t getting any work done. They must be frozen by now.
Juggling the thermos and a couple of mugs, Sabrina stepped onto the back porch. The snow had stopped and the sun was making a weak effort to peep through the clouds, but the bite of cold still lingered in the air. A narrow path to the barn had been shoveled clear. Gavin must have done it. Her grandfather had given up shoveling more than a year ago. Like other chores, it had become her job. This year she needed to look into hiring a high school boy to do it.
She made her way to the barn, entered and pulled the side door closed behind her. Other than the horses crunching on oats in the stall, she heard nothing—no conversation, not even the radio her grandfather usually listened to while he tinkered in his small workshop. The two of them working in silence struck her as odd.
A small kerosene heater had warmed the interior to above freezing, but she sensed a chill in the air that had nothing to do with the weather. What could it be?
Your imagination, probably. Or maybe their frustration over not getting the machine running.
Her grandfather sat stiffly on the tractor’s seat. He glanced at her, then he stared straight ahead at Gavin bent over the front of the plow blade with a wrench in his hand. Gavin had stripped off his coat and his shoulder muscles flexed beneath his turtleneck as he yanked on something. Desire trickled through her like melting snow sliding down the mountainside.
She cleared her throat, breaking the silence. “I brought coffee.”
Both men looked at her, but neither made a move in her direction. Gavin and Pops had never been short of conversation and yet they weren’t talking.
“Is something wrong with the tractor?” she asked.
Gavin straightened. “One of the nuts is rusted. I’m having trouble breaking it loose from the bolt to attach the plow. If soaking it in motor oil won’t free it I’ll have to cut the bolt and wait until the store opens to get a replacement.”
She searched his face, seeking the man who’d held her and made love to her so tenderly last night. Instead she found no welcome in his expression. Confused and slightly hurt, she turned to her grandfather. “You’ve been out here a long time. Why don’t you take a break and warm up?”
Pops swung down from the seat and made his way to her, stopping between her and Gavin. His eyes seemed to probe hers. “How’re you this mornin’?”
A smile she couldn’t hold back curved her lips, but then the odd undertone in his voice registered. What did it mean? Did he know Gavin had been in her room? No. He couldn’t. They’d been quiet, and her last memory of Gavin had been of him kissing her good-night and telling her he was going upstairs to his room. She’d mumbled, “Okay,” through lips almost numb from his ravenous kisses, and then, oblivion. She didn’t remember him actually leaving.
“I’m fine. How are your bones this morning?”
“Good enough.” The succinct answer wasn’t like him.
Gavin joined them, but kept out of her personal space—unusual for him. He silently met and held her gaze. She wished she could read him well enough to know what he was thinking. But she hadn’t even known him a week. Way too soon to be getting as serious or as intimate as they had. They’d skipped a lot of get-to-know-you steps in the dating game.
Too late to worry about that now. As Pops would say, that horse had already fled the barn.
“Pour me a cup, girlie.”
Blinking at the reminder of why she’d come out here, she filled the mugs. “I can call someone to clear the driveway if you don’t think you can get our tractor working.”
Gavin accepted a mug. “If I can’t get this bolt loose I’ll have the Jarrod Ridge crew take care of it.”
“Don’t want your damn charity,” Pops grumbled.
“It’s not charity. It’s a neighbor helping a neighbor,” Gavin countered tightly.
“Neighborly, huh. Is that what you call it?”
Alarm slithered over Sabrina and a sinking feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. She looked from one man to the other. The tension and antagonism between them was palpable. That could only mean one thing.
Pops knew Gavin had been in her room last night. Her lungs emptied.
Would Pops condemn her? Would he call her a slut the way her father had? Would he shake his head in disgust and stare at her with disappointment-filled eyes? Would he order her to get out because he couldn’t stand the sight of her?
She gulped. Her parents had been more concerned with the embarrassment her unplanned pregnancy would cause them and the potential backlash on their careers than they had on the effect of the situation on her life.
Bracing herself, she searched her grandfather’s face and waited. For condemnation, for understanding or…or anything. Instead, like Gavin, he offered no clues to his thoughts or feelings.
The one thing she’d wanted just days ago—to break up the camaraderie between Gavin and Pops—had fallen into her lap. Right after she’d decided she didn’t want it anymore. Not when she might be falling for Gavin.
And that enmity could very well spread to her.
Now what was she going to do?
How could she make it right?
She didn’t have a clue.
Ten
“Sorry it took me so long to get here. I was in the middle of something,” Gavin told Blake as he joined his brother in the Jarrod Ridge offices. Coming here still made him uncomfortable even without their father behind that desk dispensing orders and disapproval.
He’d received Blake’s text message requesting a meeting hours ago, but he’d refused to leave the Snowberry Inn until he’d plowed the parking lot. Doing so would have meant Henry plowing it and possibly breaking a hip, and/or killing himself with that old tractor before the deed was settled. Besides, Gavin realized, he liked the old geezer and didn’t want him to get hurt.And then old habits had kicked in. He’d returned to the lodge to shower off the tractor grease and change clothes before putting in an appearance. Being dirty in the public rooms of Jarrod Ridge had always brought down their father’s wrath. On second thought, he should have come here filthy, just to make dear old Dad roll over in his grave.
Blake gestured to a chair. “What’s the status on the land?”
“I have the situation under control,” he replied with a confidence he wasn’t sure he believed. But damn it, he would not fail.
Blake grinned. “I remember saying that last month about me and Samantha.”
“Yeah, and your assistant turned the tables on you. That won’t happen with me. I’m close to getting the property back from Henry Caldwell.”
“How close? Should I let the construction crew move on to another project?”
Frustration made his molars slam together. “If we do, then we’ll lose them for months.”
“That’s right. We’ll have to wait until they finish their next job. But they’re about to wrap the current project and can’t afford to stand idle.”
Damn. He had to pick up the pace. Move the marriage forward. He weighed the idea, and surprisingly, it didn’t repulse him as much as it once had. He also needed to get back on Henry’s good side and marrying Sabrina would do it. The sooner, the better all around. “How’d you go about your wedding?”
“Excuse me?”
He eyed his brother. “Arranging a marriage, Vegas-style.”
Blake’s eyebrows lowered. “Why?”
“I’ve been seeing Sabrina, Henry’s granddaughter, and I’m thinking of proposing.”
“You?”
“Sure. Why not? She’s beautiful. I enjoy her company, and the sex is good.” Damned good. Phenomenal even. But his brother didn’t need to know that.
Blake started shaking his head even before Gavin finished speaking. “That’s not a reason to get married.”
“No. It’s three reasons. Three good ones.”
Blake gave him a pitying look that chafed. “You might want to hold out for love.”
“Who says I don’t love her?”
“You haven’t said you do, which means you don’t.”
Because he didn’t lie. “I’m not the kind of guy who shares personal stuff like that. But I care about her. A lot.”
And strangely, that wasn’t a lie.
“Then take it slow and see what develops.”
“I don’t want to wait.”
Blake frowned. “I’m not liking the smell of your urgency. This isn’t tied to getting the land, is it?”
Gavin considered prevaricating, but Blake was too smart to be fooled. “Henry will be…encouraged to sign the deed sooner if I’m part of the family.”
“Don’t do it, Gavin. Don’t tie yourself to someone you don’t love. It’s not fair to you and it’s disrespectful to her.”
“Says the man who seduced his assistant to keep her from quitting. I know what I’m doing.”
“Those sound like famous last words—words you’ll regret, I might add.”
He brushed off his brother’s concern. He didn’t have a choice. “Like I said, I have the situation under control. Don’t let the crew go. We’ll be ready to break ground as soon as they finish their current job.”
He rose, ending the meeting before his brother could ask more probing questions, and made his way to the door. The idea of whisking Sabrina off to Vegas was growing on him. No fanfare. No money down the drain. No witnesses. But he wasn’t doing that until he had a prenup. For that he needed Christian, the family attorney and soon-to-be brother-in-law.
But first, he needed a ring and a pitch she couldn’t refuse. Until he proposed and Sabrina accepted, the rest was a moot point.
“You win,” Sabrina said after the waiter discreetly backed away from the table, leaving her and Gavin to their after-dinner coffee. In normal circumstances, a highfalutin place like the riverside restaurant wasn’t her style. But with Gavin seated across from her at the candlelit table the evening seemed magical.“How do I win? Aside from the great company,” Gavin asked in that deep, rumbling voice of his that sent a shiver down her spine.