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Abbie and I drink coffee in the kitchen, our kitchen, and talk through the plans to move her out of her place. Dexter is exceptionally excited, feeding off our energy and laughter as we talk about what furniture she wants to keep. “We can redecorate,” I offer. “Anything you want.”
“Really?” she challenges, sipping from my coffee cup when hers is out of reach, comfortable. We’re remarkably comfortable with each other. “Because I was thinking a pink theme. Pink blinds. Pink rugs. I have a thing for pink.”
“Then we’ll decorate in fucking pink rugs and blinds, baby.”
“Good,” she says. “I can’t wait to go shopping.”
We laugh together, give Dexter goodbye affection and a bone before we decide to make the short walk to the office. “Talk to your mother about the shelter,” I say. “If she can’t get a place secured, find some options. Let’s start looking.”
“You’re sure about this, Gabe?”
“Tax write-off, baby. Is there another shelter we could buyout and merge with? A shelter we could improve? Turn it into a doggy spa shelter?”
“A doggy spa,” she laughs. “I like that idea. And maybe. I’ll talk to my mother.”
We chat that out a bit more, including the merits of doggy manicures, and we’ve just walked into the office to be greeted by Lulu who is apparently back from Italy today. I should know this of course, she is my assistant, but hell if I did. I introduce her to Abbie and since she’s also a redhead, the comparison is awkward. The looks Lulu casts between me and Abbie are as well. She knows me. She senses something between us, but I’ll have to have the “zip your lips” conversation with her.
When I’m finally in Abbie’s office with her alone, she arches a brow. “You don’t like redheads?”
“I don’t care what color her hair is when she kicks everyone’s ass for me, and she does, you’ll like her.”
“I do, but I think she knows about us.”
“She knows me,” I say, repeating my earlier thoughts out loud. “She reads me. She, no doubt, knows about us because of those things but she’ll zip her lips. She’s good like that.”
“I didn’t even think about how living together might make us more obviously a couple here at work. We live right around the corner. We could be seen in the area walking around arm in arm.”
We live.
I fucking love how easily she merges our worlds. “I don’t think we should hide our relationship,” I say sitting on the corner of her desk as she claims her chair. “As we discussed, you’re it, baby. You’re the one launching our much-needed charity division for the company. If someone tries to throw stones at you, they’re going to look like shit. Besides, Reid and his wife work together. But we’ll handle us how you want to handle us with the staff.”
My cellphone rings and I snag it from my pocket and glance at the Caller ID. “Reese,” I say, answering on speaker. “You have me and Abbie on the line.”
“Just what I hoped for,” he says. “Listen, I’m going into court, but I got some news. Blake got off-the-record word on an arrest being made today. A man named Neal, who was doing some work for Kenneth. Apparently, Kenneth was cutting him out of the new complex which meant cutting him out of big money. Neal killed him before he could make the cut.”
“I knew Neal,” Abbie says, sitting up straighter. “He did dirty work for Kenneth. I know he did. I overhead conversations.”
“And Neal knows you,” Reese replies. “Law enforcement believes that he used a wig to make the murder look like you did it but the crime scene was too professional for that to fly. I have to go, but hang tight for more news. Once the arrest is made, Blake or myself will update you both.”
“Will we still be interviewed?” Abbie asks quickly.
“I’ll know more soon,” Reese says. “I suspect we’ll know a lot of things today.”
He says a hasty goodbye and then disconnects. My phone immediately buzzes with a text and I glance down to find a message from Reid:Two plus two does not equal four. I’m headed to the coffee shop now.
My jaw tenses at an old saying my father used to use when telling us to look beyond the obvious. In other words, my father’s involved.
“Gabe? Something wrong?”
I shove my phone back in my pocket. “Reid is waiting on me to talk about the agreement with Jean Claude. And as for what’s wrong? It sounds like a lot of right, baby.”
“Could this really be over?” Abbie asks hopefully.
I stand and pull her to her feet. “It will be soon,” I say, stroking her cheek. “And then you’ll be free to fall in love with me.”
“I told you. I will not fall in love with you, Gabe.”
“And I will not fall in love with you, Abbie.”
