Break Me (The Summer Series) (11 page)

Gemma: No idea. Stop texting me and get
your A$$ down here.

Kate: Fiiiiine. OMW.

“She coming?” Gray asked as he took a swig of
his Coke.

“Yeah, she’s on her way.”

“Cool,” Gray said, trying to hide his smile.
Abe caught Gemma’s eye and winked at her. Of course his sixth sense would pick
up on what was going on between the siblings. Her barriers were falling faster
than she would have thought possible. Looking into Abe’s eyes, she knew who she
really had to thank for the thawing of her heart.

~~~

The four of them spent the day
together, and it was almost as if Abe filled in the gaps between the siblings.
In the past, any time they’d  run out of things to do or talk about, they’d go
their separate ways, but now Abe was there to keep the conversation going or
laugh at a joke the other two may not get. Gemma fell a little bit more in love
with him as he bonded with the siblings she had only just started to get to
know. When dinner time rolled around, Gray exited the group since he was the
only one of them who would be expected home. Abe made him promise a rematch at
the arcade before he walked away, which only solidified his newfound hero
status with Gray. As soon as he was out of sight, Gemma grabbed Abe and pulled
him into a searing kiss. Kate groaned but allowed the make-out session to
continue a little longer than Gemma expected her to.

“What was that for?” Abe was panting as he
rested his forehead against hers.

“Being amazing, what else?”

“Okay,” Kate raised her voice, “on that note,
let’s figure out what Simon is up to tonight. Abe, be a doll.” Kate looked up
at him and fluttered her eyelashes.

Laughing, Abe pulled out his phone and sent off
a quick text to Simon. “That better?” He pulled Gemma into his arms and buried
his face in her neck. Within seconds, his phone went off in his pocket, and he
reached in and pulled it out without lifting his face away from Gemma. He held
it between their bodies and read it, letting out a laugh. “Apparently he’s planning
to stay in tonight, but if I know anyone who wants to hang out with him, he is,
and I quote, ‘up for it.’”

“Oh, goody.” Kate smiled. “See you two love
birds later.” She started to walk away and then turned back. “Don’t lock the
window this time, Gemma.”

“Don’t come home at five and then act all grumpy
the next morning, Kate.”

“Abe, when are you going to start teaching your
girl to mind her own business?” Kate stuck her tongue out at Gemma.

“When you stop making me set up your booty
calls,” he answered, not taking his eyes off of Gemma.

“Oh-ho-ho.” She let out a loud fake laugh. “The
funniest couple in America, ladies and gentlemen.” Kate smiled at them and then
turned to run toward what Gemma could only assume was Simon’s place.

“You think that’s smart?” Gemma asked Abe when
she turned back to face him.

“What?” he asked, already distracted by the
shoulder he was nibbling on and completely unaware of the concern Gemma wore on
her face.

“Sending Kate off to meet Simon two nights in a
row.”

He pulled back and looked up at her. “Why
wouldn’t it be? I thought she said they had a good time last night.”

“Well, yeah.” Gemma blushed. “They had a good
time, I’m sure. I just mean . . . Don’t you worry one of them is going to get
hurt?”

“Nah.” Abe pulled Gemma closer. “They were both
pretty upfront about what they are looking for, and besides, they both seem
like the type that if one wants out they’ll talk about it and move on.”

“You really think after someone has sex they
can just ‘move on’ like that?” She snapped her fingers and this had his full
attention.

He looked at her nervously. “I feel like there
is no right answer here.”

“Yes, there is. It’s whatever you think. I’m
not trying to trap you, Abe. I’m just checking on my sister.”

“Okay.” He looked at her sideways. “Then, yes,
I do think that some people can do that. And some people can’t. And for some
people, it just depends on the chemistry and where they let the sex end up. You
never know what will happen going in. That’s why most people say to avoid it all
together. Sometimes you can walk away unscathed, and sometimes you crawl away
torn in two. But with Simon and Kate, I don’t know, I just get this feeling
that in the end, it will all be okay.”

“That sixth sense of yours?” She smiled up at
him, a little shocked with the faith she had in just a few words of
encouragement from him.

“Something like that.” He chuckled. “So”—Abe
began kissing her neck and pulled her body against his—“anything you have
planned for the night?”

“Hmmm.” She tried to keep from letting the moan
at the back of her throat escape. “I wonder what Gramps is up to?”

“You know I think he was hanging out in my
place. Let’s go see if he’s still there.”

Gemma laughed and wrapped her arms around his
neck. “Yeah, we need to be sure and check your room. I hear he likes to hide.”
Abe picked her up by her hips, and she wrapped her legs around his waist,
laughing as he hurried them to his waiting car.

Thirteen

Shocking everyone a few days later,
Simon showed up with Kate as they all sat around a table at Dockside Coffee. Gemma
moved to Abe’s lap, per his aggressive pulling, so Simon could take a seat. The
group sat and laughed together while constantly returning to the fact that the
untamable Simon was actually hanging out with same girl for the fifth day in a
row. Though both of them adamantly denied anything serious was going on and
that it was just easier together than trying to find others who understood
their arrangement, Gemma saw the way Kate was beginning to look at Simon.

While Gemma silently worried over her sister, the
phone she had sitting in front of her on the table rang. Looking down, she saw
that it was her mother. She groaned as she pulled off a very loud face palm, distracting
the group from their current conversation. She couldn’t even remember the last
time she had called or texted her mother. Most summers she barely let any time
pass without reminding her mother how miserable she was. This summer she had
barely thought about her mother at all. Abe saw her misery and was instantly on
alert.

“Babe?” He rubbed his hand over her back. “What
is it?”

“My mom is calling.”

“Oh.” He looked at Kate in confusion, and when
she simply shrugged her shoulders, he looked back at Gemma for more help.

“I haven’t called her all week. She’s probably
freaking out.” She stood, her head hanging, “I’ll just take this over there.” She
pointed to the corner with the sugars and creams. “Be right back.” She leaned
over and kissed Abe before turning and calling her mother back.

It didn’t even finish the first ring before her
mother answered. “What the hell is this, Gemma Rose Andrews?”

Gemma looked around, thinking her mother was
seeing something around her. Abe must have noticed her worry because he sat up
straighter. “Mom, what are you talking about?”

“What am I talking about? Hmm, let’s see.” She
huffed and rustled something on the other end of the line. As soon as Gemma figured
out that it was paper, she knew what was coming. She knew exactly what her
mother had found. Her face grew pale as she collapsed into the green antique
couch nearby. “Dear Gemma, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted
into the University of—”

“Mom, please.” She sobbed. Suddenly Kate and
Abe were on their feet, walking over to her.

“You’re leaving me!” There were no tears, just
pure hurt and rage.

“No, Mom, it isn’t about that.” Abe sat on one
side, Kate on the other. While Kate grabbed Gemma’s free hand, Abe wrapped his
arm around her shoulder and she laid her head on his chest. “I just wanted to
see.”

“Well, it looks like you have seen. They want
you, apparently bad enough to give you a free ride. Don’t think for a minute he
didn’t have something to do with this.”

“Mom, he didn’t even know I applied. I swear.” Another
loud sob escaped Gemma and she bit her lip, trying to stop
or at least
control her oncoming emotion.

“You have some choices to make, Gemma. I never
thought I would even have to say this, but you need to choose—him or me. No
more of this. I won’t do it anymore. If you choose me, I’ll get you home as
soon as a flight leaves. You’re close enough to eighteen they won’t say a damn
thing about it. But if you choose him, then know that you stay there. He can
afford to get you what you need that the school isn’t already covering. It
isn’t as if you don’t know how to work. You’ve had to do it for years while he
had more than enough money to help us out.” Gemma gasped and then gave into her
tears, crying into Abe’s shirt. “Make a choice Gemma. I’m done trying to make
you see who he is; you can figure it out on your own if you need to.”

“Mom, wait, it isn’t about him. There are other
people.”

“Who?” Her mother’s voice rose, and she knew
Kate and Abe could hear everything she was saying now if they hadn’t been able
to before. “Karen!”

“No, Mom, not Karen.”

“Oh, let me guess. Their kids, the ones he
chose over you. The ones he spent every day with. The ones he loved and wanted
while he only saw you the time of year in which he was locked away in a room?”
The venom in her words stung Gemma through the phone.

“Mom, they aren’t him.” Gemma gasped for
breath. Just saying those words over her tears was too much.

“Choose, Gemma.” She screamed into the phone,
and all three of the people on the couch flinched.

“Mom . . .”

“Choose, damn it.”

Gemma looked up at Abe and saw nothing but love
and support in his eyes. She looked over at Kate and saw the tears streaking
her face. She knew it was for Gemma’s struggle but also because she was hearing
what Gemma had been hearing all her life. The hurt their father had inflicted
all those years ago. “I choose my future, Mom.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I’ve always wanted to go UNC, Mom. I’m going
to go to UNC. You can love me through that or—” The phone went dead and her
mother was gone. Gemma dropped her phone on the floor and buried her face in
her hands. Abe pulled her into a tighter hug, and Kate wrapped her arms around
her from behind.

“It’s okay, baby.” He smoothed his hand up and
down the arm that was now wrapped around his middle.

Kate let out a small sob, and Gemma turned to
her, suddenly remembering what she must have heard. “Kate, I’m so sorry.”

“He hurt her so bad.” Kate pulled Gemma into a
hug and cried into her shoulder.

“Kate, you and I, we had nothing to do with
this, remember?” She pulled back and looked Kate in the eye. “You are the
smarty pants who told me that.”

Nodding, Kate shrugged. “I’m sorry. You’re the
one hurting and I’m the one being a baby.”

“It’s okay. I’ve dealt with this stuff all my
life. You’re a bit newer to it.”

“I love you,” Kate said, laughing.

Taken by surprise, Gemma looked back at Abe and
then to Kate again. “Okay, well, I love you too,” she said, joining in with
Kate’s sad laughter.

“So, you’re, like, going to live in the same
place as me next year?”

“Looks that way.”

“Yay,” Kate yelled, still with tears in her
throat as she hugged Gemma, rubbing her hand up and down her back. “I’m going
to go back to the table. Between the group and Sarah, I think everyone is going
to pass out if I don’t go tell them we’re all okay. We are okay, aren’t we?”

“Yes, Kate, we’re okay. And I’ll be fine. Hopefully
once she has a minute to breathe, she’ll come around.” Nodding, Kate stood and
squeezed her shoulder before walking away.

Abe pulled Gemma back around to face him and
put his hands on both sides of her face. Wiping her tears with his fingers, he
studied her. “How are
you
?”

“Eh, pretty awful.” She let out a weak laugh.

“You want to bail?” She simply nodded and then
looked down at her hands. “Baby, it’s okay to want to leave. That was pretty
intense.”

“Please, I just want . . . I need to go to your
place and have a minute.”

“Let’s go, then,” he stood, pulling her up with
him, and started toward the door. He simply nodded his head at the table as she
smiled weakly to the girls. Without anyone speaking, they all understood and
Gemma and Abe were gone.

~*~

Abe

When they got to the apartment, Abe
parked in the closest spot he could find to his door. Thankfully, they weren’t
making a Gramps stop today. When they got inside, he leaned forward and kissed
her cheek, whispering for her to go to the room and get comfortable. He went in
the kitchen and got her a glass of water, taking a minute to get his bearings
so he could go back and be who she needed him to be.

He had just seen the
woman he loved destroyed. When she’d sought him out, lost in her new reality,
he’d been at a loss. What do you tell a girl who feels like she has no home
where she is and the one she was supposed to return to had just vanished? He
knew the sound of her sobs would echo in his ears for days. There was no
forgetting the palpable ache when they’d been at the coffee shop and then in
the car. He leaned his head back, finishing the rest of his water in one gulp
and then turned. Ready to get back to Gemma. Ready to protect and comfort his
girl.

~*~

Gemma

When she made it to his room, she
couldn’t think through her next action, let alone what had happened at the
coffee shop. She saw a new picture on his desk, this one of her sleeping in his
bed. She smiled as she considered how much he must have studied her to get so
many of the details so accurate. Seeing the peace on her own face brought about
a wave of fresh tears that she forced back. She would not cry. Not anymore.

Giving up on waiting for Abe, she kicked her
sandals off and then kicked out of her shorts, doing a random ninja move to
emphasize how she felt about this day and the restrictions those shorts were
adding. She threw her V-neck across the room, and it landed somewhere around
his closet. Searching through the drawer that held the comfortable T-shirts,
she found a large gray one with a picture of a random soccer ball. She knew for
a fact that Abe had never played soccer, so she figured she wouldn’t be ruining
some keepsake if she sobbed all over it later. She crawled up on his bed and
couldn’t even fight her exhaustion long enough to pull the covers up and over
herself. Instead, she lay curled in a ball on the side of the sheets she had
officially claimed.

~~~

Gemma woke to the sound of Abe
whispering on the phone. “. . . just need the night. You could use the money
anyway, so I thought you may want the shift.” He paused for a minute and then
nodded. “Thanks, man. Bye.” After putting the phone down on the bedside table,
he turned and was startled to see her awake and looking up at him. “Hey, baby,
you okay?”

As he lowered himself back to the bed and ran
his fingers through her hair, she nodded and tried to hold the tears at bay. Seeing
her, he shook his head and pulled her into his chest. “I’m sorry,” she
whispered. “I’ve never heard her like that, at least not toward me. She hates
me.”

“No, Gem, she doesn’t hate you.” He kissed the
top of her head and pulled her tighter. “She’s hurting and confused. You left
with one attitude, and suddenly, she is finding out that not only do you want
to go to school here but you’re actually choosing to stay with your dad’s
family. Give her time.”

“That stuff she said . . . I feel so bad for
Kate too.”

“Kate knew, even if she didn’t want to admit
it, that her father had hurt your family. She’ll be okay. Now that you two are
getting close, she’s seeing that you don’t hold it against her.”

“I hate him so much sometimes.” Gemma cried
into Abe’s chest.

“I know. But you’re doing so well. Don’t let
what you knew would be a terrible conversation ruin all that you’ve been
accomplishing this summer.”

“And what’s that?” She pulled her head back and
looked up into his eyes.

“You let Kate and Gray in and gave them a
chance. You realized you’ll have to let this stuff go with Karen and your dad
at some point. You fell in love when you never thought you would.” He leaned
down and took her lips in a soft, lingering kiss.

“I did do that.” She smiled up at him through
her wet eyes before kissing him back. “Did you just take the night off work?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “I couldn’t bring myself
to crawl out of this bed and leave you.”

“Good.” She sat up on her knees and wiped her
face. “I need you tonight.”

“I’m here for you, always,” he said, looking
deep into her eyes, hoping that his sincerity diminished some of the pain she
felt from her mother’s earlier reaction.

“Promise?” A little of the insecurity that she
had been hiding so well for days, appeared.

“Always. Gemma, I . . . I’m so in love with
you. You’ve become this woman who’s so confident, so strong.” He shook his head
and looked at her in awe.

Gemma buried her face in her nearby arm and
shook her head. “No. I’m not. But being with you, something about it makes me .
. . different. Better.”

“You amaze me.”

She laughed at the look of delight on his face
and ached with love for him as he continued to help her forget about her
problems. Had he not been there for her today, she didn’t know that she would
have had the strength to finally take what she wanted—to acknowledge that she
could love her mother but accept the life she desired instead of allowing the
life her mother gave her. Kate had helped, but Abe was her strength. Knowing
that next year she would be so close to him, that this didn’t have to end, she
was sure she could handle the next few weeks and whatever her mother said in
the end.