Wild Forces: A Friends to Lovers Romance (O-Town Book 2) by Karen Renee (inspirational novels .txt) 📗

As I closed the door, I caught a whiff of his cologne and told myself to ignore it.

I turned to him. “Why didn’t you want to do this at the front door?”

His chin dipped. “I know you got sick after the Waffle House, but surely you remember my brother telling me to check for a Ring camera across the hall?”

I nodded.

“Yeah. There’s not one, but two of ’em over there.”

“Two?”

He nodded. “One’s on the top of the jamb. Probably gives him a great view of either you or Kaylee coming out of the unit.”

My stomach sank as a creepy feeling stole over me. “Okay,” I whispered.

“Okay?” Gabe asked incredulously.

“Well, it’s obviously not okay, but I see now why you didn’t want to talk to me with my door wide open.”

He exhaled, but irritation shone from his eyes.

“Good you understand that. You gonna tell me why you’re bein’... I don’t know, standoffish with me?”

My eyes widened. “You think I’m standoffish?”

He grimaced. “I wanted to say bitchy, but you’re never bitchy with me, even when you’re PMS-ing, so what gives?”

I crossed my arms. “Nothing gives, Gabe. I’m still a little tired. What brings you by?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “Wanted to make sure we’re cool. You hurried off earlier, and it seemed weird. Besides, now that I know where you live, I figure I can hang here instead of you always hanging with me.”

My eyebrow arched skeptically. “Sure you haven’t scorned the wrong woman again?”

He raised his chin at me with defiance. “I’ll have you know I’m turning over a new leaf.”

My other eyebrow arched and Gabe’s eyes widened.

“No, Daughtry. I don’t mean a new woman. I’m done. I’ve had it with the meaningless one-nighters and shit.”

My brows dropped and I nodded.

“So. Can I hang with you for a while?”

His tone sounded so hopeful, and I didn’t have it in me to say no. So much for my efforts to put distance between us. Besides, I could hang with him one last time... like a gift to myself.

“Sure. Um, I assume you’ve eaten dinner already?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want something to drink?”

He looked at me from the corner of his eye. “Any chance you got beer? Otherwise, I’m thinking, no.”

I grinned. “I suppose you might say the only upside to Kaylee coming to my rescue after Asher barged in here, is that her father wound up here later – which resulted in an obscene number of Miller Lite pints. Will that do?”

“Yes, you nerd. A pint of Miller Lite is fine.”

I poured myself a glass of Shiraz before I pulled out a beer and unscrewed the cap for him. Gabe made himself at home on one side of the suede couch, so I set my wine glass down on an end table before I handed him his beer. Then I curled up in the opposite end.

After he swallowed a long swig of beer, he looked to me. “How did you run into DeShawn today? I thought you only saw him when he and I play basketball here.”

I sipped my wine. I didn’t think it was Gabe’s business who I was tutoring. After a moment, I said, “He was at the library, and I saw him there. I’m not going to ignore him, you know.”

He nodded. Then he leaned his head back on the couch. “Have I told you how much I frickin’ love your couch?”

“It’s the first time you’ve sat in it, isn’t it?”

His head turned without coming off the back of the couch. “Second time, but it’s soft as a baby’s bottom. I like it.”

“You know about a baby’s bottom, do you? Secret baby, I didn’t know about?”

He squinted at me, but smiled. “No, I don’t know about a baby’s bottom.”

His head turned back, and he stared off into space. The stubble around his jaw and lips had grown in some more, and it looked like his beard would be soft.

“Had dinner with my mother last night,” he finally said.

“Oh, I forgot about that. Did it go well?”

His torso jolted with his sharp laugh. “Not... exactly. It was awkward as fuck, even after Brock and Cecilia walked in late. Then we didn’t eat our entrées there because of some drama, and it’s funny you mentioned pre-med students and shit earlier today, because it ended with me helping the manager of the restaurant by applying pressure to his gunshot wound.”

My eyes bulged. “A gunshot wound? You have to be kidding me!”

His head rolled on the back of the couch and he looked at me. “Not kidding, Cassie.”

“How are you not exhausted after a night like that?”

He leaned forward. “That all happened before the sun even set. But, the criminals were arrested.”

Fighting the urge to hug him, I shook my head. “Well, I’m glad the criminals were taken in, but why was it so awkward early on with your mother?”

After he sipped his beer, he replied. “I should want to get to know her, but for the most part, I just don’t. The timing seems weird to me, and I don’t know... twenty-seven years later she wants to get to know me? What the hell?”

“I thought your Dad said—”

“Yeah, he mentioned it again last night. She’s been around since I was ten, but even still. It took her until I was ten years old to get her shit together? Really?”

I wanted to nod, but didn’t. “I wish I could say I understand, but the fact is, I don’t. My mother and I don’t always see eye to eye, but she never outright abandoned me.”

“Outright?”

“I was a surprise baby, and she wasn’t pleased about being saddled with a child again. So, even though she was around, I always sensed she didn’t want to be, or that I was keeping her from something else.”

As luck had it, Gabe didn’t push that subject. The room filled with the sound of applause because the live recording of the Marsalis family playing “At the House, In da Pocket,” had ended.

I leaned forward to put my glass on the