His Unlikely Lover (Unwanted #3) (12 page)

“Of course I have. When my children were small I had security details on them, you know that. Now that they’re adults, my sons take care of their own security and Bobbi is well aware of the dangers. You know my daughter . . . stubborn to her core, that girl. So I compromised—I provide security at her shop but her personal life is just that. No big, bulky men trailing after her wherever she goes. Now do you mind? I’d like to enjoy my movie without this constant chatter.”

Gabe shut up but he was starting to feel restless again. How could Mike be so damned sanguine about Bobbi’s safety and security? It wasn’t anything Gabe had even considered until just now and he was suddenly petrified that Bobbi would be kidnapped at any moment. He had lost interest in the movie but kept his eyes pinned to the screen even while his mind raced. Why had he never considered the risks to Bobbi before now?

It was making him edgy.

He chewed the end of his cigar and glared at the screen without really seeing the action. As soon as he realized the credits were rolling, he glanced at his watch. Just after ten, too early for her to come home yet.

“What do you want to watch next?” he asked Mike, and the older man’s brows leapt to his hairline. “One of the sequels?”

“Since you were barely paying attention to the last movie, I doubt a second one could hold your interest. Do you want to tell me what the hell is going on in that head of yours now, Gabriel? Something at work?”

“Nothing’s going on . . . I’m fine. I just thought I’d come over and hang out for a bit.”

“Hang out?” Mike Richmond choked back a laugh. “With me? I’m sure you have friends closer to your own age to
hang out
with.”

“Well, I thought Bobbi would be around,” he lied. “If you don’t want to watch a movie, why don’t we play a game of billiards?”

“Gabriel, I’m a boring old fogie and I’m headed to bed. Stick around and watch another movie if you really feel inclined to—help yourself to anything in the kitchen. Faye’s staying with her daughter tonight, so you’ll have the place to yourself.”

“But . . .”

“But nothing. Set the alarm on your way out,” The older man pushed himself to his feet and ambled to the door. “Good night.”

“’Night.”

Gabe sighed as the door swung shut behind the man and got up to flip absently through the selection of disks beside the Blu-Ray player. Deciding to stick to another modern “classic,” he inserted
Con Air
into the machine and halfheartedly sat back to watch. Ten minutes into the movie he picked up his phone.

Bobbi glanced down at her vibrating phone and did a double take when she saw who was calling. She
ignored
the call before refocusing her attention on Bronwyn, who was sitting in the center of their circle, and then blushing furiously when she caught sight of the object in the woman’s hands.

“Oh my God, that thing’s a monster!” Alice squealed.

“It’s got
nothing
on Bryce.” Bronwyn waved the
thing
in her hand dismissively.

“Or Sandro,” Theresa added loyally.

“Please, Rick could give that thing a serious run for its money.” Lisa giggled.

“Hmmm . . . now that I look at it from this angle it’s defintely smaller than Pierre,” Alice said with a barely suppressed smile. “Why are we doing this again? None of us really
need
these things.”

“Does anybody ever really need one that big?” Bobbi asked, appalled. Bronwyn was hosting a sex-toy party, and all the goodies were samples from a well-known adult shop in the area. The other four women all swiveled their heads in Bobbi’s direction, varying degrees of pity on their faces.

“And that answers your question, Alice. God, Bobbi, we need to find you a boyfriend!” Lisa groaned.

“We-ell, I kind of met a guy today,” she informed them smugly, and they all squealed, the gargantuan vibrator instantly forgotten. Bobbi really enjoyed these girly sessions with her friends. She had never really had much feminine influence in her life before meeting Theresa a couple of years before. All of her friends growing up had been male, and while Gabe’s mother and Faye had done their utmost to steer her in a more feminine direction, Bobbi had been so determined to fit in with her all-male family that the two women had given up halfway through Bobbi’s teens. It was only after meeting Theresa and the rest of the women that Bobbi had realized how very much she had missed out on in foregoing female friends for so many years.

“And you’re only telling us this
now
?” Bronwyn groused.

“It didn’t come up before now,” she shrugged, deliberately casual. She winced when her words caused even more squealing. One of the things she would never get used to was how high-pitched other women could be. She really couldn’t fathom why they screamed so much.

“Tell us everything,” Lisa demanded, and everybody else nodded encouragingly.

“There’s nothing much to tell . . . I was . . .” Her phone buzzed again and she glanced at the display. Gabe,
again
. . . what was his problem?

“Is that him now?” Theresa asked, her voice—like her personality—gentler and less demanding than the other women.

“No. It’s Gabe,” she said with grimace,
ignoring
the call again.

“Is that wise?” Theresa asked again. “What if it’s an emergency or something?”

Bobbi sighed, conceding Theresa’s point.

“Well if he calls back she’ll answer it, just in case,” Alice said reasonably. “So tell us about this guy in the meantime?”

“There’s nothing much to tell.” Bobbi smiled. “Jason introduced us and he asked me out.”

“What’s his name?” Alice wanted to know.

“Is he good looking?” Lisa interjected.

“What does he do?” That was from Bronwyn.

“Is he nice?” Trust Theresa to ask that question.

“His name’s Kyle, he’s good-looking; tall and blond . . . wonderful gray eyes.”

“Just my type,” Bron sighed. Her husband, Bryce, was tall and blond.

“Mine too,” Lisa agreed; she was married to Bryce’s equally blond brother.

“Let her finish,” Alice prompted.

“He’s a landscape architect.” They all swooned at that.

“Outdoorsy,” Alice sighed blissfully. “I love them outdoorsy.”

“He does rock climbing to relax,” Bobbi continued, ignoring the interruption.

“Well, Rick would probably
love
him,” Lisa grumbled. Her husband was an adrenaline junkie who enjoyed any and all kinds of extreme sports. He had toned it a down a bit since the birth of their son the year before though.

“He’s very nice,” Bobbi concluded.

“But . . . ?” the ever-observant Theresa prompted. She might be quiet and sweet but she rarely missed anything.

“No buts . . . he’s nice, interesting, handsome, intelligent. I like him.” Now the rest of them were eying her skeptically as well.

“I’m with Theresa,” Bronwyn said. “There’s a but in there somewhere.”

Her phone buzzed again and she shut her eyes for a brief second before lifting it to her ear.

“Gabe?” Her voice was more abrupt than she’d intended it to be.

“Hey,” his deep voice sounded uncertain. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine . . . why?”

“It’s nothing . . .” There was a long pause. What was going on with him?

“Gabe, is everything okay? Is my dad okay? Billy?”

“No. Everything’s fine. It’s rather late, Bobbi.”

“I know. Which is why I don’t understand why you’re calling me.”

“When do you think you’ll be home?”

“What?” She actually drew the phone away from her ear to peer at it incredulously for a moment. “
Why
?”

“Your dad is worried.”

“He is? How do you know that?”

“I spoke with him earlier.” His voice sounded weird.

“Well then, I’ll call him and tell him not to worry,” she said, and there was another long silence before he spoke again.

“Don’t. He’s asleep.”

“What? Gabe, you’re not making any sense. Are you drunk?”

“No . . . I mean I had a few drinks but nothing . . .” He sighed, the sound an exasperated huff, and broke off in midsentence. “Look, I just wanted to know when you’d be home.”

“That’s none of your business,” she told him.

“Where are you? I could escort you home,” he suggested.

“For God’s sake, Gabe, you’re being ridiculous. I’m hanging up now.” She disconnected the call before he had a chance to respond and switched the phone off.

“And that,” Theresa said, pointing at the phone, “would be the
but
we were discussing earlier.”

“Oh he’s a butt alright,” Bobbi seethed, and Lisa grinned.

“Do you want to talk about what happened the other night?” Theresa asked and the rest of them nodded encouragingly.

“I was drunk and I kissed Gabe,” she said, and more than one pair of eyes widened; only Theresa looked unsurprised.

“What did he do?” Alice asked.

“He kissed me back at first and then he stopped. And later that night, he was in his room with his shirt off and I . . . touched him,” she confessed, trying to keep her embarrassment at bay but failing.

“Touched him? How? Where?” Bronwyn questioned.

“His chest, he has a gorgeous chest.” There was a chorus of agreeing hums from the other women. “I touched him and he let me, before stopping me.”

“And what was this phone call about?” Lisa asked, nodding toward the phone in Bobbi’s hand.

Bobbi sighed and told them everything else that had happened over the weekend since The Kiss and leading up to the bizarre phone call. By the time she had finished they were all staring at her in disbelief.

“Firstly, Kyle Foster sounds adorable and if it weren’t for the fact that you’re head over heels in love with your idiotic friend, I would totally encourage you to tap that,” Lisa said. “And secondly, Gabe really
is
a butt but he sounds like a totally confused butt.” The other women laughed but Lisa ignored them, keeping her focus on Bobbi’s flushed face.

“Personally, I think he wants you and he has no idea how to deal with that,” Theresa stated.

“I agree,” Bronwyn said.

“Me too,” Alice concurred and Lisa indicated her agreement with a thumbs up.

“I’m not his type,” Bobbi said, shaking her head.

“I wasn’t Sandro’s type,” Theresa pointed out.

“Pierre preferred tall, skinny, flawless models,” the short, slightly plump, and scarred Alice said.

“Rick liked to date adrenaline junkies. A nerdy, bookshop owner was a far cry from his usual girlfriends,” Lisa added.

“Tastes change and what men—or women—think they want, isn’t necessarily the type of person they end up with,” Bronwyn said.

Sage words that made perfect sense of course, but none of them had had a years-long friendship to lose with the men in question. Bobbi shook her head and pointed to the abandoned vibrator that lay off to the side.

“What else can that thing do?”

“It can’t cuddle you afterward, that’s for sure,” Alice said with a frown.

“Or whisper Italian endearments in your ear.” This from Theresa who had a dreamy gleam in her eyes.

“Oh my God, you guys are the worst! I give up.” Bronwyn tossed the thing to the side just as her husband, Bryce, walked into the room. It landed at his feet and he looked down at it blankly. A flush crept up his face to the tips of his ears. His sharp ice-blue eyes flew up to meet his wife’s, and she had both hands over her mouth either to stifle a laugh or a scream, Bobbi couldn’t be sure which.

He said something in sign language that made Bronwyn go bright red, and the other women who could all understand sign language as well, laughed. Bobbi, who wasn’t as adept as they were, felt lost.

Bryce’s stern face melted into a grin, which made him go from scary to gorgeous in a split second.

“After Massive Marvin, nothing you ladies do can surprise me anymore,” he said in his carefully modulated voice, referring to a stripper they had all fawned over the previous year on another girls’ night. Bronwyn groaned and covered her eyes, causing Bryce’s grin to widen. “Anyway, I just came to check when you were wrapping it up? I’ve been getting frantic texts.”

“Sandro?” Theresa asked with an eye roll, once Bryce’s eyes were on her and the man shook his head.

“Surprisingly not. Gabe.” Every eye in the room focused on Bobbi, who felt her blood pressure rising.

“That . . .” Words failed her and she shook her head.

“Well it
is
getting late and we all have work in the morning,” Theresa pointed out. “And you have a long drive ahead of you, Bobbi.”

“And since none of you are going to buy any of this stuff, we may as well end now,” Bronwyn said.

“Hold on, I didn’t say I wouldn’t buy a pair of the . . .” Lisa glared up at Bryce, who was reading her lips avidly. “Do you
mind
?”

He laughed and left the room with a wave. The group disbanded soon afterward and Bobbi was left to seethe on the drive home. The roads were fairly empty, which cut ten minutes off her drive. She nearly bypassed her own driveway to head over to Gabe’s but common sense prevailed; she would confront him in the morning. She’d had just about enough of him this weekend.