Love Unclaimed (27 page)

“You have really been making me work on getting close to you again.” He lifted her chin with his finger when she looked down at her feet.

“I don’t want us to waste any more time not being together. We have done that for so damn long.” She tried to hold back the tears, but one slipped down her cheek and he wiped it away with his thumb.

“I don’t want to waste any more time without you either.” He leaned his forehead to hers. “I …” he shook his head.

“I love you, Gavin, and want to move past all of this.”

“Say it again.” He blew out the breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding.

“Gavin, I love you,” she whispered and brushed her lips across his.

“I have wanted to say it for so long and when I did it was ...” he sighed. “I have loved you for so long, Audree. You have had my heart for most of my life. I want you to know that I have been faithful to you. I haven’t been with anyone except you in years. I tried. I tried to stay away from you so many times. I only dated other people when you did, but it never felt right. It has always been you. You have my heart.” He brushed another tear from her cheek and kissed her lips.

“And you have my heart; you always have.” She wrapped her arms around his neck.

“It is about freakin’ time,” Clint called from behind them, followed by claps, hoots, and hollers from everyone else.

“Now you can stop sneaking around for the booty calls.” Travis laughed from behind Clint, his arm around the red-headed woman.

“Seriously, man.” Clint turned to him. “Still my sister,” he sighed.

“At least you have your own place to stay, they get loud.” Travis laughed again.

“Travis!” Gavin and Audree yelled together.

“It is true, damn; I’ve had to put headphones on sometimes. One night, I even…”

“Shut up!” Audree said with cheeks burning.

“You think I like hearing my brother calling ‘Audree’ over and over?” He stepped away from the girl, knowing what was coming.

“You, my brother, are a dead man.” Gavin kissed Audree quickly on the lips and took a step toward Travis.

“Can I get some back up here, Brooks?”

“Woo… leave me out of this.” He laughed taking Marissa’s hand in his and kissing the back of it.

“Leaving me hanging.” Travis shook his head. “What are you gonna do? I’m too…”

“You mean what are we gonna do?” Clint asked sternly, now standing behind Travis, effectively blocking his escape from Gavin.

“I was joking.” He looked between them. “Sorta.” He nervously chuckled. “Audree is loud, too.” He laughed, now sounding somewhat nervous. “You can’t hurt anything vital; I was taking Georgia here back to my place tonight.”

“Hi, Georgia, we haven’t been introduced.” Audree calmly stepped up to Georgia and offered her hand. “I’m Audree.”

“Hi.” She blushed. “Are they really going to hurt him?” she asked nervously.

“Only if they catch him.” Ruby chuckled as the three started circling around the barn. “I’m Ruby, by the way.” She offered her hand as well. “And this is Harry.” She motioned to Harry, who was still standing behind her.

“Georgia, this is my daughter Eva’s father, Brooks, and his girlfriend Marissa. This could take all night.” Audree moved behind the bar and grabbed a beer. “Anyone want one?” She held up the bottle.

“I’ll have one.” Ruby moved to take the bottle Audree offered.

“I’m in.” Harry moved up behind Ruby.

“A couple of waters here, please.” Brooks called out.

“Here.” Audree handed one to Georgia. “Come on let’s pull up a seat.” Audree moved over to a table in the back, laughing at the show going on in front of her.

“Do they do this a lot?” Georgia asked taking the seat next to Audree.

“Yup,” was all Audree said before she laughed again.

“This is how they have always settled things and Travis has been in need of a good beating for a while now.” Ruby took the seat on the other side of Audree. Harry stood behind her.

“I could help if it gets out of control.” Harry lifted his beer to his lips.

“I kind of owe him a pop, too.” Brooks laughed.

“Do I get one too?” Marissa chuckled.

“Sure, I think we all owe him at least one.” Ruby sipped her beer.

“No need,” Audree said, watching the three roll around on the floor of the barn. She hadn’t seen the three of them go at it in years. “I’ll stop them as soon as I finish my beer.” She took another sip from her bottle.

“This just seems stupid.” Georgia’s concern seemed to be building.

“They’re all fine. The punching hasn’t even started, yet.” She winked at Georgia’s growing discomfort.

“Okay, okay, let’s not scare Georgia away, just yet.” Audree laughed as she stood up and dropped her empty bottle in the recycling bin by the bar. “You did a fabulously awesome job tonight. Leave all this shit and we’ll take care of it tomorrow.” She wrapped her arms around Ruby and hugged her tightly.

“We did do an awesome job.” Ruby returned Audree’s hug. “I love you.”

“Love you, too, good night.” She stepped over to Harry. “Good night, Harry.” She gave him a quick hug. “Georgia, it was very nice meeting you. Wait here and Travis will be right with you, hope to see you again real soon.”

“Huh, ah, you too,” Georgia said confused as she watched Audree walk in the opposite direction of the scramble still going on in the center of the barn.

“Goodnight, guys,” Audree called as she stepped just outside of the barn doors. “Thanks for everything, it was great. See you in the morning.” She slipped into the darkness of the yard to make her way back to the house.
Five, four, three, two...

“Audree, wait up.” Audree laughed to herself, and tried to hide her smile even though he wouldn’t have seen it in the dark, as Gavin called, out of breath, behind her.

“Oh, were you done with the brawl?” She laughed as she continued to walk ahead of him.

“Little shit needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.” Gavin blew out a breath, swung his arm around Audree’s shoulders, and pulled her closer to his body.

“Am I really that loud?” She couldn’t believe she just asked that out loud.

“Well, it has been a while.” He laughed when she smacked his chest. “But, as I recall, you were just perfect. I loved hearing every sound you made.” He moved his arm down to her waist. “I gotta tell ya, though, hearing you scream my name when you come is one of the best sounds you make.” He spun her around to face him. “I want to stay with you tonight.” He pressed a chaste kiss to her lips and pulled back to look into her eyes, now that they were slightly lit by the lights shining around the pool.

“I want you to stay with me tonight, but only if you’ll still be in
my
bed and wake up with me in the morning.”

“There is nowhere I would rather wake up.” He lifted her up and slipped his hands under her thighs as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

“We might not make it to the bedroom if you keep kissing me like this,” she said and pressed her lips to his.

“I love you,” he said against her lips.

“I love you, too.” She smiled when he pressed her against the wall to the side of the kitchen door. “You know this is the exact spot where you kissed me the first time,” she said breathlessly as he ran his lips down her neck to her collarbone.

“That kiss, that night, was one of the best of my life.”

“Mine, too.”

“I can’t believe I was so stupid to just leave you here like that.”

“My mother came in right after you left.”

“Then maybe it was good I left; it might not have stopped at a kiss.”

“Yes, it would have, because you knew we weren’t ready that night and we both would have regretted it.”

“And we wouldn’t have had that night in your truck.”

“Ah, that night was one of the best of my life.”

“Mine, too.”

“I can’t believe you waited for me.”

“I would have waited a lifetime for you.”

“It feels like we have.”

“Then let’s not waste any more of it.” He took her mouth before she could respond.

A Week Later…

“That was so much fun,” Georgia said, stepping off the back of Travis’ four-wheeler. “Why haven’t we done that before?” She threw her arms around Travis’ when he stood next to her.

“This is the first time we’ve actually had the four wheelers out this summer. We were so busy helping out at the farm, we haven’t been out here.” He handed a bag from the back to her.

“You are the last one here, man. You know what that means?” Gavin slapped him on the shoulder just as he had slipped his shirt over his head.

“Ouch, shit,” Travis seethed. “When will that shit stop?”

“Never. Last one here cleans the rides. That is the way it has always been, that is how it will always be,” Clint said, holding a towel around his neck. “You know what else still stands.” He looked over his shoulder at Audree and Ruby making their way to the edge of the water. “Last one in makes lunch.” He threw his towel in Travis’ face and turned in the direction of the water only to be blocked by a bent over Georgia.

“Sorry, man, but that would be you.” Travis grabbed Georgia’s hand and pulled her up as they dashed to the water, followed by a laughing Gavin chasing after Audree.

“Shit, man, he got you,” Gavin said as he broke the surface of the water after diving in to beat Clint.

“I don’t cook,” Clint stood with his hands on his hip.

“Then it is good we brought dogs and burgers for grilling.” Audree laughed, wrapping her arms around Gavin’s neck as she pressed herself against his back.

“Damn it!” Clint grumbled as he stamped into the water and disappeared under it.

“So, are you serious about Georgia?” Audree asked, floating on the water in a tube next to Travis.

“Pretty serious, I guess.” Travis shrugged and looked over toward the beach where Georgia was sitting with Ruby and Harry.

“She was the secretary at your dad’s office?”

“Yeah, she was hot and I didn’t see a ring so, after Trudy left town, I went back and asked her out. We went out a couple of times before I brought her to the party.”

“And she’s still around a week later.” She winked at him. “That must be some kind of record for you.”

“Hardy har har.” He splashed water at Audree.

“I guess things are going well with you and Gavin?” He laughed when she splashed water back at him.

“Yup, things are great. We both wish we hadn’t waited so long, but we are together now.”

“And Eva seems to have adjusted to Gavin moving in and I assume moving into your bedroom.”

“She came into my room the other night after she had a nightmare, climbed into my bed, said ‘hello Uncle Gavin. I’m so glad you’re here, I had a nightmare,’ then curled up in his arms and went to sleep.” She beamed at the memory. “Remind me to show you later. I took a picture of them.”

“I’m happy for you both. You two finally getting together is all I could have hoped for.”

“Thank you, Travis,” she pushed off her tube and threw her arms around his neck.

“For what?”

“For being such a great friend to me and always being there to pick me up.”

“Anytime, anytime.” He patted her back and squeezed her tight.

“You want to get your hands of my girl, little brother?” Gavin’s voice was filled with humor.

“Took you long enough to claim her, but I guess I can give her back to you.” He released his hold on her.

“Love you,” Audree whispered into his ear.

“Love you, too.” He kissed her cheek and started to move away. “By the way, when are you going to make an honest woman out of Audree? Don’t want the gossip whores thinking you are still just after her body.”

“Don’t you worry about that. It is in the works.” Gavin smiled mischievously at Audree.

“What?”

“Shhhh… let’s go have lunch before your brother burns the burgers.” He scooped Audree up and carried her out of the water.

“What is going on?” Audree laughed, holding onto Eva’s hand, as Ruby tied a blindfold around her friend’s head. “I thought this was a surprise for Eva?” She had just tied a blindfold around her daughter’s eyes. Gavin told her after they had come back from a day at the lake, cleaned up, and taken a nap that he had a surprise for Eva down at the barn.

“Gavin wouldn’t tell me. He just asked me to cover your eyes, too.” She laughed. “He said it was a surprise and that I was to bring you down when you were ready.”

“Do you think he got me a new horse? I love Star, but wouldn’t mind another one,” Eva asked excitedly as they made their way through the living room.

“Here, let me help, Audree.” Harry offered his arm from her left side.

“I’ve got her, Audree. Come here, Eva.” Audree could hear the smile in his voice.

“You know what is going on?”

“Maybe.” Travis laughed.

“Is it going to make me cry?”

“Maybe.”

“Just full of answers tonight, aren’t you, Travis.” Audree shook her head.

“Your chariot awaits.” Travis offered his hand to Audree. “Ruby, can you buckle Eva in while I get Audree?”

“Done,” Ruby said from the backseat.