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“I’d like to go too,” Mia says, as Dexter paws at me and I obediently pat his head. “I’m also starving.”
Grayson pulls her around the dog and under his arm. “I’ll feed her and we’ll meet you out there in forty-five minutes. I’ll text you the address.”
“Works for me,” I say. “I’m sure it will for Abbie. She’s talking to her mother now and I don’t need the address. I picked up the location while we were at the shelter. I know the Ellisons.”
When we would part ways, Grayson stands his ground. “You hear we’re working on anNFL deal?”
“Holy shit, man,” I say. “Of course, I heard. How can I not hear about something that big? I mean, who buys into an NFL team?”
“It’s not done yet. I never count my chickens until they’re hatched. My pops taught me that. Eric’s looking for a new player to help it close. You and Reid interested?”
Eric being his right arm and best friend who masterminds many of his money-making deals. “Hell yeah, we’re interested.”
“Shoot Eric a text. He’s got a lot going on, but he needs to know you could be a player.”
I pull my phone from my pocket and text Eric. “Done.”
Grayson gives me an approving smile. “Need a ride home?”
“I’ll call a car,” I say. “You two take off.”
Mia hugs me because that’s Mia. “I love that you’re helping her. I love you with her.”
She doesn’t know me all that well, but since I’ve started coming to the Hamptons, I see them often. The truth is, she knows me more than most. I don’t let people know me and she’s a female who I haven’t had sex with who has become a friend. Those women read me a little too well, like my damn sister.
The two of them take off and I take care of a car. Still waiting on Abbie, I bend down to check on Dexter’s state of mind and find myself subject to a tongue bath that ends when we both watch Abbie hurry in our direction. I swear I can feel Dexter’s heart thrum harder with excitement beneath my palm at the sight of her or maybe it’s mine beating faster. Just watchingthis woman walk, the sexy sway of her hips, has my cock hard but that’s not where it stops. There’s more with Abbie, so damn much more. Every woman who was ever my type could walk by in this moment, they would no longer be my type.
She hugs herself and shivers. “I packed my coat because why wouldn’t I pack my coat?”
“You’ve been on an adrenaline high,” I say. “You weren’t cold. I can grab it for you before we go outside.”
“Thank you. I’d love that.” She bends down to greet Dexter. “How’d he do?”
“Good enough to have him playing nice guy. Grayson and Mia think he’s an angel. I saved them from certain death.”
She laughs. “Where are they now?”
“They went to eat. We need to drop off Dexter at my place and we can do the same if you want before we meet them at the ranch.” I don’t wait for a reply, because I haven’t asked what’s important. “Everything okay with your mother?”
“Yes,” she says, straightening. “She has no idea that we’re being attacked right now.”
“Don’t underestimate your mother. I’m good at snap decisions about people. Your mother is no fool and she’s not filled with the kind of naiveté that dummies out brains.”
“Dummies out brains?” She smiles. “The things you say, Gabe.” Her eyes meet mine and this time she doesn’t cut her stare. This time there isn’t the desperate need to push me away. There’s warmth. The kind I could turn to heat in thirty seconds flat. The kind she’s already turning to heat for me and it didn’t take thirty seconds.
“Yes,” I say. “The things I say.” And I’m thinking about the part where I told her that fucking wasn’t enough.
She steps into me and presses her hand to my chest, and there’s no hiding the way my heart thunders under her palm. “You’re scared?”
It was one of those vulnerable admissions that I don’t make and haven’t allowed myself to think about since I made it. I mold her to me. “You scare the hell out of me, woman, but I can’t seem to care. And don’t ask why. Not here. Not now.”
“You’re scared but I’m the one who feels like I’m going to end up hurt.”
“That’s just another way of saying you’re scared.”
“Okay then. Yes. You scare the hell out of me, Gabe.”
We stand there in the vacant sitting area of the airport, the dog by our feet, emotion pulsing between us, seconds ticking by, the next words we say perhaps the most important of our relationship. I cup her face and tilt her chin up. “Want to go get naked?” I say because what I want to define us, is her laughter, her happiness.
