Hitched (6 page)

“You’re drunk,” he pointed out.

She started to shake her head, but lifted her hand to her forehead and said, “Yeah, maybe a little.”

“Or a lot. Let’s find food and coffee.”

Allie slid back into the passenger seat as Gavin pulled the car back onto the street. Wow, no one could say their chemistry wasn’t still strong. He moved in his seat, trying to relieve some of the pressure in his jeans. Maybe they should get a hotel room.

But when he glanced over at her, she had her head resting against the window and she was staring out as their hometown passed by.

“I don’t want to sober up,” she said quietly.

“What?” He looked from her to the road and back.

“I don’t want coffee. I don’t want to be sober. Can’t I just go to sleep and you take me somewhere wonderful where I don’t have to make any decisions or worry about anything or anyone?”

Wow. That was…wow. “Yeah, Al, I can do that,” he said gruffly. “Is that really what you want?”

God, he’d known it. He’d known that she was collapsing under everything. If only he could have been there. But they had gone their separate directions, knowingly, willingly. She’d known what he wanted. She’d chosen Promise Harbor over him.

“It’s really what I want,” she said, closing her eyes. “Really, really, really.”

Glancing at her, he felt his heart clench. He could definitely do that.

He’d been doing it for years. When they were together, whenever she went to Promise Harbor to spend time with her family, he planned a way to help her decompress when she got back to him. Sometimes they’d go out, sometimes they’d stay in. But his focus was on making her smile, making her forget the pressures and frustrations, taking care of her.

She never asked him for any of it. She never had to. He just knew what she needed, and the drive to make her happy was impossible to ignore. He might have hated that she’d go home to her family nearly every weekend and always come home tense and tired, but he did like being her refuge.

He knew that now she was still under the influence. Her words were still slurred and he figured her thoughts were still “swimmy”, but what she wanted made sense. She wanted a break, she wanted to get away, she wanted to have someone else take charge. Maybe she wouldn’t have let those thoughts and words out if she were completely sober. Maybe this was a good thing—without her inhibitions, her rock-solid sense of responsibility, her constant worry about her family, she could be honest about what she wanted and needed.

Whatever the case, he was taking her at her word. She wanted him to take her somewhere? He knew just the place.

“Okay, Allie, I’ve got you. I’ll take care of everything.”

She sighed and turned to curl against him again. “A dream came true,” she mumbled, just before she fell asleep again.

They landed at nine p.m. local time. Not that local time mattered. Gavin’s system was so screwed up with changing three time zones out and back in the space of twenty-four hours that he knew he’d be feeling the effects for days. On top of that, it was right before the summer solstice, so it never got completely dark. Nine o’clock at night looked like two in the afternoon.

Allie was still asleep. He’d also slept, as well as could be expected on the plane, for several of the ten hours of the flight.

As he deplaned, he shook hands with Major, the pilot who had traded the spontaneous flight to the East Coast for a year of free veterinary care for his ten mushing dogs, six cats, four horses and seven goats. In addition to his regular fees. “I’ll be out to check on Eddie soon,” Gavin said.

Major chuckled and lit up a cigarette. “It was the most interesting trip I’ve had in a long time,” the older man said. His eyes flicked to where Allie lay curled in her seat. “Good luck, boy. Looks like you have your hands full.”

Gavin turned to look at Allie. He couldn’t believe she was here. Hands full? Maybe. Okay, probably. But he knew what it was like to have his hands empty of her…he wasn’t doing that again.

He carried her to his truck, loaded her bags in back and headed for home. They pulled in just before eleven thirty.

Gavin tried to rouse Allie to walk into the house, but she was having none of that. Instead, she seemed to melt into him when he picked her up off the truck seat. Not that he minded. She weighed next to nothing and he liked the feeling that he was taking care of her. He knew Allie. She was a do-er. She took care of people. She always had a plan, went nonstop and gave one hundred and ten percent to everything. For her to fall into this deep of an unconscious state with him meant she was either completely exhausted or completely trusted him. Or both. Whichever it was, she needed him and needed to be here.

He deposited her on the king-size bed in his bedroom. He had a guest room on the main level, but Allie wasn’t sleeping under his roof in any bed other than his. And he was going to be right beside her.

He was damned tired of seeing her in that wedding dress though.

With a deep breath, he realized he needed to change her clothes. For one, she’d be more comfortable, and for another, he couldn’t very well burn the dress with her still in it.

“Allie? Babe, let’s get you out of this thing,” he said, pulling her up to sitting.

She pulled back, trying to lie down.

“No, no, come on,” he said, tugging her upright.

He reached behind her and lowered the zipper on the dress. The bodice gaped and slipped forward on her arms. Gavin stoically kept his eyes from dropping lower than her face. This wasn’t sexual. That wasn’t what was happening here. He was going to undress her, put her in one of his T-shirts and tuck her in. Period.

The dress hadn’t dropped away from her breasts completely, so he also unhooked her bra and then rose to grab a T-shirt from his dresser. She’d flopped back onto the pillows, the bodice loose, but still covering her when he returned to the bed. He slipped the T-shirt over her head and then pulled it down as he pulled the dress and bra down. He didn’t see any bare body parts—but he knew they were there. And his body reacted.

Gavin stubbornly ignored the tightness behind his zipper and slipped the dress and bra out from under the shirt, pulling the dress the rest of the way off her hips and down her legs. He left her panties on and tossed the dress to one side. He was going to roast marshmallows over the fire he made with that dress tomorrow.

Then he stripped off his own clothes except his boxers and managed to get the comforter and sheets pulled down from under Allie. She sighed contentedly, burrowing down into the pillow, and he slid in next to her, flipping the covers over them both.

The big windows were covered with blackout shades, making it feel like it was nighttime in the bedroom at least. But there was enough light from the light in the hallway that he could lie and watch Allie’s profile. She was here. He finally let his body and mind relax enough to absorb that fact. He and Allie were in his bed together in Alaska.

This was where she belonged. With him. And finally it was going to happen.

His actions and reactions had been fueled by emotion—panic, fear, love, determination—for the past twenty-six hours. Now everything just drained out of him. It was over. He’d gone to her. He’d done the right thing. He’d rescued her.

Everything was good now.

Gavin felt his body start to sink into the mattress, and he reached to pull Allie against him. She wiggled close, her butt right in his groin, her legs against his, her back to his chest.

His body hardened as his heart softened.

Everything was very good now.

“Walking pneumonia.”

There was a beat of silence then, “What the
fuck?
She’s actually
sick
?”

“It’s a mild pneumonia. Treated with antibiotics. She’ll be fine.”

“It’s not just stress and liquor?”

Allie heard Gavin mutter something else and the other male voice say, “Extreme stress, fatigue, lack of sleep, not eating well—all of that can contribute to physical and mental exhaustion and, yes, getting sick.”

Extreme stress—check.

Lack of sleep—check.

Not eating well—check.

That all sounded about right to her.

Allie buried further under the covers of the most comfortable bed she’d ever been in and closed her eyes again. The guys were just outside the bedroom, the door open, and she didn’t want them to know she was awake.

“What the
fuck
were they all doing? Just sitting around, picking out his and hers towels and thinking that it didn’t matter that she was obviously not doing well?”

Allie felt her chest get warm at Gavin’s words. Obviously he was frustrated. He’d never been very good at hiding his feelings. She’d always loved that about him. If he was happy, you knew it. If he was angry, you knew it. If he wanted you, you knew it.

But this frustration was over her. He was concerned, protective, willing to fight battles for her.

A shiver of desire went through her but, as always when it concerned Gavin, it was twisted up with a bunch of other emotions—love, of course, and the ever-present sense that she needed to hold on tight and absorb every minute because it might not last. She squeezed her eyes shut and breathed. She was not going to think about how it hadn’t lasted before, how she had to keep saying good-bye to him, how no matter what she did or how it felt, it wasn’t enough to keep him.

She wasn’t going to think at all, in fact. This just curling up and sleeping for hours and hours seemed to be working just fine.

“Gavin, what she needs is rest. Sleep. Her body knows that. We’ll get her some antibiotics. When you wake her up to feed her, have her take them. In a few days she’ll be fine. No one can sleep forever.”

Well, she was going to give it her best shot.

“And look at it this way. Obviously she totally trusts you and feels safe with you. That’s what she needed. A safe haven. Looks like you’re it, buddy.”

That was exactly what she needed and exactly what Gavin was. What he’d always been.

Even after they’d broken up and decided they shouldn’t see each other anymore—all three times—all she had to do was call and he’d stay up all night talking, or she’d tell him she needed to see him and he’d immediately book a flight to a city halfway between them so they could be together. Even if was just for a weekend.

The only time he hadn’t been there was at her mom’s funeral…

Allie stubbornly closed her eyes, shut down her mind and drifted off to sleep again. She was here now, with Gavin. He’d take care of her. That’s all she needed.

“Detective Stone.”

Damn. He’d been hoping for voice mail.

“Hayley, it’s me.”

“Have you lost your
mind
?” she hissed in a sudden whisper.

“No. And don’t tell me you’re surprised by this.”

“That you showed up? No. That you kidnapped her? A little.”

Hayley was probably the only person in Promise Harbor who knew all about him and Allie. And that he’d never really gotten over her.

“I didn’t kidnap her,” he said, knowing it was unnecessary. Hayley wouldn’t have believed that of him. If she had, she’d have been all over his ass. She knew his address and she carried a gun. He wouldn’t mess with that. “She wanted to come with me. She asked me to take her away.”

“This is crazy, Gav,” Hayley said, her voice still hushed. He’d called her at the station on purpose. She wouldn’t be able to yell at him in the middle of the Promise Harbor Police Department.

“Maybe. Or maybe it makes complete sense.” He hoped the latter was true. He was still having trouble believing it had all happened too. “Maybe I’m a frickin’ hero. Because if I’d ever set foot in Promise Harbor again, she would have been cheating on Josh with me.”

“Oh, you’re such a big talker,” Hayley said, finally laughing lightly. “You would have never done that.”

She was right. Cheating was one thing Gavin absolutely didn’t tolerate. Even before he’d learned his dad’s dirty not-so-little secret, Gavin had thought cheaters were assholes. After finding out that his dad didn’t just cheat, but that he actually thought he had good reasons for it that should make it forgivable, Gavin couldn’t even be in a room alone with him.

“Gav,” Hayley said, suddenly hesitant. “Um, speaking of scumbags, your dad was at the wedding.”

Hayley knew that when he was sixteen Gavin had walked in on his dad in his office, screwing his best friend’s wife on the desk. Hayley didn’t know about the argument they’d had when Gavin confronted him or his father’s reasons for doing what he’d done, but she still hated him. The whole truth would have probably caused her to find a reason to Taser him.

Gavin closed his eyes. His dad at the wedding meant his mom and probably his brothers had been there too. Well, of course they were. It was Promise Harbor and his family was a part of the community. Nothing big happened without their attendance, and nothing was bigger than the Brewster-Ralston wedding.

He didn’t give a shit what his dad thought. In fact, embarrassing and frustrating his father had been a hobby of his from age sixteen to eighteen, when he left home, and he’d gotten damn good at it. But he hated that it also affected his mother. He hated hurting her.