Protect Me (27 page)

“She is isn’t she? I don’t know what I did for the big man to drop her in my life, but whatever it was I’m thankful.”

“Ahh, don’t think so poorly of yourself son. You deserve to be just as happy as the rest of us. You have done enough for your family, your friends, and your country.” His dad rested his hand onto Ryan’s shoulder giving him a reassuring squeeze.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with fun and laughter. He could see the connection growing between his mom and Abbi. The two of them laughed and joked about the small town that Abbi had grown up in. As the sky began turning brilliant hues of pink and purples, the last remaining guests filled into the great room. Jace and Gabe were giving Judy a hard time over her sunburn. His parents were snuggled up with a bottle of wine on one of the couches. Trish and Abbi were now coming into the room from the kitchen one holding a large cake covered with far too many candles, and the other holding a large gift bag.

“Happy birthday, it’s your birthday.” The room joined in, some a little more off pitch than others. “Have a great day, it’s your birthday. I hope you don’t catch the flu.”

“Blow them out old man.” Jace shouted from across the room.

With one large puff of breath he blew, trying to avoid spitting all over the cake.

“Ok, so it took me forever to come up with a gift for the man who has everything he needs, but I think I did alright.” Abbi giggled as she handed over the bag.

“Oh babe, all I need is you.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her down into his lap.

“Yeah, that’s my boy. Just so you know, I taught him all his moves.” His dad held up his glass.

He reached around Abbi opening the bag, the first item he unwrapped was a bottle of prune juice with an appropriate tag noting, “For when life gets hard.” The next was an oversized pair of reading glasses, “To help you see the light at the end of the tunnel.” There was also a multi pack of sponges, “So the nurses won’t have to fight over the same one during bath time.” The room was erupting into laugher as he pulled the pack of Depends out of the bag, “Because sometimes you just can’t get there fast enough.” Abbi squirmed in his lap as she laughed at the looks on his faces.

“You know for some reason, I am getting the hint you think I’m old.” He laughed, as he tickled her ribs.

“Ahh, no I would never think that.”

He reached up and moved the stray hairs from her face. “Thank you, it was better than anything I have ever been given before.”

“What? Better than those strippers I got you last year. Come on, that redhead was fiery.” Jace shouted across the room.

Judy proceeded to punch Jace’s arm as his mother gasped and the other two men hooted in conjunction to each other. “Yes, better than last year.” Ryan grabbed Abbi on each side of her face bringing her close to his own. “Thank you, baby. Today has been amazing.”

“You’re welcome, but you should thank Trish because she is the one who told me.” She leaned the rest of the way in and kissed him. “I do have one other present for you, but you will have to unwrap that one a little later.” She whispered into his ear.

This would definitely be a birthday to remember.

Six months later they were heading into the holiday season. So far life had been amazing, aside from the cold Abbi had gotten after they had come home from visiting Ryan’s parents a month or so ago. After countless amounts of antibiotics and over the counter flu medication she was finally beginning to feel like normal again. Work had been going smoothly and there hadn’t been any other altercations with any creepy guys. She had convinced Trent into letting her just work the weekends so she only went in on Friday and Saturday nights, with a rotating Sunday.

She and Judy had become inseparable, but as they had grown closer Ashley had grown more distant. Many nights Abbi found herself not even talking to Ashley. There had been too many times that Ashley had come off as callous towards her and to be honest Abbi had never done anything to deserve that. So to keep her hot southern temper at bay she just avoided her most nights. Life was nice. Better than nice. She was finally living her fairy tale. Her lease had run out on her apartment. She debated at first signing another lease until Ryan had surprised her with her own set of keys to his house. She didn’t even think about it before she said yes, she knew that the only place she wanted to be was with Ryan. He had hung up the pictures she had brought with her in their bedroom. He even set up a crafting room in one of the spare spaces in the house after he found out that she liked to sew and craft.

The holidays were coming up and she knew that it would be important that she make Ryan and her first Christmas special. His parents were flying in on Christmas Eve, which was only a few days from now. She loved being around them, they had been so open to her. It was a little nerve wracking the first time they had met, but they had already made her feel like family. She felt that since she and Ryan had been together that he actually saw them more often now than before. She felt like it was her way of slowing him down from his hectic work schedule by helping to plan family trips and schedule dinner with their friends.

Trish had left two days ago to stay with her daughter until the New Year, so Abbi was alone in cooking dinners and would also be responsible for hosting Christmas dinner. If there was ever a better creation than Pinterest, she wanted someone to show her. She had already made the centerpieces for the dining table, along with decorations that ran throughout the house and spilled out onto the front steps. She had already made plans with Jace and Judy who would be coming for dinner. And they would all be participating in a white elephant gift exchange. She felt over whelmed thinking about it already.

As she went through the pantry marking items that she knew they needed from the grocery store she heard her phone go off.

Ryan: Hello beautiful. I wanted to let you know I might be working a little later tonight, we had to reschedule an important meeting with some Russian clients. I hope you’re having a great day.

Well great. So much for cooking a nice dinner. Looks like tonight will be something easy.

Abbi: Ok babe. Everything’s going fine here. I might run out to the grocery store later.

Ryan: Ok, make sure you take Gabe. Use Trish’s car if you need to, her keys are hanging next to the garage door.

Abbi: Yes sir. 

Ryan: That’s right! I like it when you call me Big Papa.

Abbi: Oh grief.

Ryan: Have a great day babe. I will be home as soon as I can.

Abbi: Ok, hurry home dear.

Ryan: Yes ma’am.

She sat down her phone before heading out to find Gabe. He was now living in one of the additional rooms in the house, and he went everywhere with her, excluding the bathroom. He would always stand outside the bathroom door when they were in public and monitor who came in and out. She enjoyed Gabe’s company. He had become a really good friend and she trusted him. She didn’t have the heart to tell Ryan that she didn’t think she needed a body guard. After all, nothing else had come up and she figured if those people were going to do something to her they would have done it already, but she knew that Ryan felt more comfortable with her having a security detail.

She knocked on the door to her right as she came off the stairs leading up to the second floor. After a second the door opened and Gabe looked her up and down before looking past her as if making sure everything was ok.

“Hey Abbi, what’s up? You need to go somewhere?” Gabe looked like he had just been told his grandma had gotten hit by a bus.

“Yeah, well I was going to go ahead and go to the grocery store to pick up what we needed for Christmas dinner. Um, are you ok?”

“Yep, I’m good. Just got a call, caught me off guard that’s all.”

“Ok. Well are you sure everything is ok? I mean I can call Ryan and let him know to send Aaron or someone over. It’s no biggie or I can wait till tomorrow.” She could feel the concern seeping out through her face. Something was wrong, but Gabe sure as hell wasn’t going to talk about it.

“Oh, no need. Everything is fine. Let me grab my stuff and I will meet you downstairs.”

“Ok.” With that Abbi turned and headed back downstairs.

She headed back towards the kitchen getting her purse and grocery list as she headed back towards the foyer, meeting Gabe as he was walking down.

“You wanna take my truck?” He reached for the key box.

“No, your truck is a nightmare to park. Let’s just take Trish’s car.” She smiled over at Gabe, clearly seeing the tension in his eyes turn to excitement.

He had talked about this car since the day he moved in. He would always joke with Trish about letting him drive it, but she never would. He reached for the keys and hit the key fob as the head and tail lights blinked in unison unlocking the doors to the black Aston Martin Virage convertible. She laughed as he opened the door, his eyes got two times bigger as he hesitated, taking in the moment, before slipping inside. As he turned the key in the ignition the touch screen navigation came up out of the dashboard and greeted them. He turned on the seat warmers even though it was 80 degrees outside. Then rolled the windows all the way down. He pressed the small button on the visor opening the garage door.

“Listen; if you cream your pants in Trish’s car she is going to kill all of us. So you better get it together.” She laughed towards him.

“Shh, I am having a moment of silence right now.” Gabe was sitting rubbing on the steering wheel with both hands.

“Boys and their toys. Come on we gotta get going or else I will be sitting here all day while you fondle the car.”

“I’m caressing it, fondling is such a nasty word in comparison. Come on, even the name is sexy.” Gabe pulled out of the garage and headed down the winding driveway towards the front gates.

“It’s a dude name. You know that right?” She laughed.

They headed off towards the busy LA traffic. There were only a few times that Abbi caught herself gripping the door panel and dashboard. She wasn’t exactly scared of Gabe’s driving, just prepared for the worst if it happened. She never hesitated to put her seatbelt on with him. She leaned over and turned the radio up a bit trying to get her mind off of his driving.

“Oh, good song.” He exclaimed pushing the button on the steering wheel turning the volume higher.

The sounds of Imagine Dragon’s “Radioactive” filled throughout the cab of the car the bass pumping through the speakers and she caught herself and Gabe both singing along to the words, before she touched the screen of the navigation system turning it down.

“I didn’t know you liked that kind of music?” Abbi inquired.

“Yeah, I listen to everything. Techno, Indie, Rap and even some country.” He looked over at her proudly.

“Oh really? What’s your favorite country song?”

“Easy, “Shameless” by Garth Brooks.”

“What?” Abbi shrieked. “I would have never taken you for a Garth man.”

“Girl, everyone is a Garth fan one way or the other.”

They parked the car and headed towards the front of the store. A musical tune coming from Gabe’s pocket made Abbi turn and look at him. She saw him look at the screen out of the corner of her eye before he put it back into his pocket. That was peculiar. It couldn’t be from Ryan or Jace because he would have answered without hesitation. She wondered briefly what was going on. She had already asked him to join them for Christmas dinner but he was going to be spending it with his parents who lived in San Francisco, so she didn’t think it had to be about the holidays.

She made her way up and down the aisles grabbing and marking items off of her list. Turning to ask Gabe if she should get the low sodium or regular chicken broth she found herself standing alone in the middle of the aisle. Panic started to settle in. She rushed back down towards one end looking for him up and down the store but couldn’t see him. She suddenly felt vulnerable. Even though nothing had happened in so long she had become so used to the security Gabe had provided her. He was like an invisible blanket, she knew if anything happened he would immediately spring into action. What if something had happened to him; What if someone had taken him, kidnapped him when she wasn’t looking. Though that seemed a bit far-fetched since he was a big guy and she doubted he would go down without a fight.  It would take more than staring at chicken broth for her to completely miss that happening. She made her way back down to the other end and then she heard his voice. He sounded angry, he was talking to someone but she didn’t know who it was. Her panic turned into worry, as she slowly crept towards the end of the row peeking around to see him on his phone.

“Listen, I don’t know what you want me to do.” He paused as if getting interrupted. “Yeah, well I tried calling you. A lot. You never answered. And now you’re going to call me and tell me you need my help but you won’t tell me what for. Please, go play with some other guy’s head.”

Oh no, woman problems. This kind of situation never turned out good. Her heart hurt for him. Gabe was such a nice guy. She didn’t know why a woman wouldn’t be attracted to him. He was attractive physically. He could have a conversation about anything from cooking to vacations. This kind of thing always sucked, and especially around the holidays. This must be why he was in such a weird mood earlier and whose phone calls he had been avoiding. Slowly she eased back as she saw him hang up the phone. She didn’t want him to know she had been listening so she grabbed the two choices of chicken broth off her purse and held them up.

“Gabe which one do you think?” She turned as if not seeing him. “Gabe, hey where’d you go?”

“Sorry, I’m right here. What was the question?” Gabe looked flustered as she turned to face him.

“Chicken broth, low sodium or full sodium?” She held the two up.

“Sodium all the way, you don’t want your food being bland.” He took the low sodium and set it back down on the shelf. “What’s next on the list?”

“Capers. What the hell is a caper and what do I do with it?” She looked at him confused.

“Come on Betty Crocker, I will show you.” He grabbed the end of the half full shopping cart and led it down to the next aisle over.