Love Unclaimed (23 page)

“We’ll see how it goes and move from there,” Gavin stated.

“Again, I don’t see why this has anything to do with me.” She lifted her shoulder. “I mean, you guys can have the parcel.”

“We don’t
want
the parcel, per say. We want to set up a small clinic and veterinary office.” Gavin smiled when he saw her face light up.

“You guys have been planning this for a while.” Dumbfounded, she looked between the brothers.

“We’ve had about two weeks to talk about stuff.” Gavin looked knowingly at her. “Since I will be working remotely from a home office from now on, I’ll have more time to help get everything through the development stages.”

“What? Working from home, you have your company…”

“I turned it over to my CFO. I will be moving back here and living…”

“Close by,” Clint interrupted.

“Close by, meaning here?” She indicated Clint’s house.

“For now.” Gavin dropped his head to his hands.

“Oh,” Audree sighed and was saved from saying anything else when her phone rang from the purse that she had left in the living room.  “Excuse me, that is Eva calling to say goodnight,” she stood up and grabbed her and Clint’s plates, before making her way through the kitchen to the living room.

***

“She still hates me.” Gavin leaned his elbows on the table and dropped his head into his hands. “She can barely look at me.”

“Are you kidding? Were you not in the truck? I wasn’t kidding about the tension.” Travis emptied his beer bottle.

“Sexual tension is not love, Trav,” Gavin said, without lifting his head. “We never had a problem with…”

“Still in the room and still my little sister,” Clint growled, shaking his head.

“Sorry, but she hates me,” he groaned.

“I don’t think she does, but I think she is going to make you suffer for a bit longer.” Clint chuckled. “You are going to have to sweep her off her feet. Maybe try dating her.” He shrugged his shoulder.

“Maybe put on your big boy pants and ask her out on a real date.” Travis stood up and carried his plate to the kitchen.

“That is already in the works,” Gavin said as a smile spread across his face.

***

“Well, I think I’m going to call it a night, Dad had me sweating my ass off today on the farm, and I’m done for. Eva said goodnight and she loves you guys; she is super excited to be coming home in a couple of days.” She moved over to Clint.

“I cannot wait to see her.” Clint stood up and wrapped his arms around his sister. “Be nice to him, he feels like shit,” he whispered into her ear. “Make him work for it though.” He laughed when she giggled.

She laughed and kissed his cheek, “Trav, do you think you could drive me home?” She didn’t look over at Gavin.

“Actually I have a date tonight,”

“I’ll take you, Audree.” Gavin stood up and walked to the door without waiting for her to respond.

“Thanks a lot.” She smacked Travis on the chest. “And I call bullshit on your date excuse.” She smacked him again and tried to wiggle out of his arms when he pulled her in for a hug.

“Be nice, he’s trying.” He placed a loud kiss on her cheek.

“You guys are worse than a couple of old washer women.” She laughed and started toward the door. “Goodnight.” She waved and slipped out the door.

“They are so doing it tonight.” Travis laughed.

“You are now on dish duty and don’t put shit like that in my head.” Clint shoved a dirty plate into Travis’ stomach.

“Okay, I won’t make you think about how loud your sister is when….”

“Travis! Get out!” Clint shouted. “After you do the dishes.” He laughed and stormed out of the room, cursing under his breath. “By the way,” he started just as he left the room. “I hear Ruby is kind of loud, too.” He laughed when he heard Travis groan.

“Gross! She is like my sister,” Travis called after him.

Audree stepped out on the front porch and didn’t see Gavin; she decided he must have gone to get the truck from the side of the house. She took the opportunity to slip off the porch and start walking toward her house. Of course, it was completely dark out and the only light was from the moon. Thank goodness she had a small flashlight on her keychain, but she didn’t dare turn it on and alert Gavin to where she was. She knew he would be pissed and that he would look for her, so she made sure to stay far enough off the worn path from Clint’s house.

“Audree, get in the truck,” Gavin called from the truck that had pulled up beside her, keeping her just outside the beams of the headlights. She didn’t answer him, hoping that he was only calling out to her, but couldn’t actually see her. “Damn it, Audree. We need to talk.” She heard the truck door slam, but didn’t hear him moving and she didn’t respond as she continued to tiptoe in the direction of her house. “Did you really think I couldn’t catch you?” His voice whispered into her ear as his arm wrapped around her waist.

“Let me go.” She struggled against his hold.

“Not until we talk.”

“Gavin, please.”

“Please, what?” He brushed his lips to her neck. “I’ve missed you so much.” He inhaled her scent as he brushed his nose against the length of her neck to her ear. “I have so much to apologize to you for and tell you…”

“Don’t.” She tried, without much effort, to move away from him again.

“I know I shouldn’t have told you how I feel, the way I did; I have done so many things wrong. I have so much I want to tell you.”

“No, you shouldn’t have, but please don’t think that you have to give up your life to make up for it.” She let her body go limp, and she felt him loosen his hold around her waist. “You have a life back home.”

“You are my home; you and Eva are my home.”

“Gavin,” she whispered.

“Let me finish; please, let me tell you.” He let her go and took a step back. “I know everyone thinks that, because of the pictures on the internet, that I have been whoring around for years, but you are the only woman I have been with in years.” He heard her gasp. “You must have trusted me; you never asked or commented about other women.”

“You never asked me about other men.”

“You aren’t that type of woman, Audree. You immediately cut me off when you started dating that guy when Eva was two. It killed me, but I backed off and let it happen.”

“Why?”

“I was stupid.” He smiled when he heard her laugh. “I didn’t think I was good enough to be with you; and that bullshit with my father, I couldn’t drag you into that.”

“I was always a part of it. I wish you had told me sooner, maybe we could have done something less extreme. Hell, we could have gotten married and had a pre-nup giving the land to Eva or Clint, even Ruby or my parents.” Her voice quivered and she tried to hold back her tears.

“I know I should have done so many things differently. I should have just gone to Clint years ago and told him how I felt about you. I shouldn’t have let him or anyone else stand in our way.” He shook his head and ran his hand over his short hair. “And Trudy, Christ, I couldn’t have been more stupid. She totally played me. I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone, showing Travis that she was cheating with who knows how many guys and to get us out of that fucking deal.”

“I know you didn’t do what it looked like you did. I should have waited for you to tell me what happened.”

“You had every right to believe the worst of me. I have always known how you felt about me and I wasn’t honest with you or myself.” He took a deep breath. “The real reason I never let you stay in my bed and I never stayed in yours was because I was scared to death that if I did I would never want to leave and I needed this shit with my father settled. I never expected him to actually try to go through with his stupid plan.” He took a step away from her.

“Gavin, I…”

“Please, let me finish. It killed me when you told me you were pregnant with Eva.” He blew out a breath. “I mean, you know I love that little girl like she was my own and Brooks and Marissa are like family, but…”

“I wanted her to be yours,” she sounded sad. “If I hadn’t turned to Brooks that night…”

“You wouldn’t have the most beautiful little girl, ever.”

“But, I wish…”

“What is done is done. We need to figure out where to go from here. I love you, Audree, and I want us to stop wasting time apart. I told Clint I would go at whatever pace you set and I would spend every day making this right, but I don’t want to lose any more time with you.”

“I don’t want to waste any more time either, but I can’t just jump into bed with you. We do need to take this slower. I don’t want to be your fuck buddy anymore, Gavin. I want to be yours. I want you to be mine. But it has to be more than just in bed.”

“Yes, absolutely. One of the biggest mistakes I made was agreeing that this was all we needed from each other. That first time, that night in your truck, I wanted to tell you then that I loved you. I wanted to stay with you. I wanted to take you with me. When I saw that “G” scrolled in your tattoo, my heart almost jumped out of my chest.”

“And in all these years, you have never mentioned it.” She laughed. “I have loved you since I was a little girl and I wanted to tell you, but I knew you had to leave. I said that I was okay that night with having what you could give me, but I had hoped that, when you saw the tattoo, you would know I wanted you forever.”

“It killed me to leave you. I turned around like four times. I couldn’t bring myself to take away your chances of finding a life and a world outside of the ranch. I had nothing to offer you then. I had to make something of myself. I had to make sure that, no matter what; my father couldn’t hurt you and your family. I had to make sure that if he ever tried, I could take him down.”

“Well, now that you have done that, are you really ready to stay here?”

“If you are here, I’m here. I will follow you anywhere. You are my only home.” He pulled her into his arms. “If you will still have me.”

“Call me and ask me out sometime, and we’ll take it from there.” She smiled up at him.

“Seriously?” He laughed.

“Yes, seriously, I want to be courted.”

“Then that is what you shall have.” He held her body close to his. “Can I ask for one thing?”

“You can ask.” She laughed, throwing her arms around his neck.

“Can I kiss you goodnight?”

“Take me home and find out.” She placed a chaste kiss on his check and ran to the passenger side of the truck. She laughed when she heard him growl.

“Can I hold your hand while I drive you home?” asked, unsure, as he slipped into the driver’s seat.

“Yes, you may.” She giggled and then melted when his warm hand wrapped around hers, and he brought her hand to his lips.

“I’m never going to be able to sleep tonight.”

“Well, you will have Clint to keep you company.” She tried to hold back her giggle.

“Ugh.”

“Yeah, you aren’t staying with me or…”

“Or I’d be keeping you up all night. And when I do, we will have to be completely alone because when you start screaming my name, we will probably be waking your parents over at their house.” He placed her hand on his thigh and laughed when he felt her tremble. “Ah, a tremble, I can’t wait until you are doing that underneath me.” He laughed again when he heard her gasp.

The days flew by, between getting the barn ready for Clint’s welcome home party and preparing for Eva to come home, Audree barely had time to take a breath, but couldn’t keep her mind off Gavin. When Gavin had driven her home the other night, he walked her to the door, placed a kiss on her cheek, and gone back to the truck. He waited until she was in the house then pulled away. When she stepped into the kitchen, she found flowers everywhere. Any and all flat surfaces held beautiful bouquets. She walked into her room and found rose petals spread out on her bed spelling out ‘I’m sorry’.

She hesitated to call him and thank him for the flowers so she let her inner chicken help her out and texted him.

Audree:
 
The flowers are beautiful. Thank you.

Gavin:
 
You’re welcome. I wanted to make up for all the flowers that I should have given you over the years. The petals were for so many things.

Audree:
 
I’m sorry, too.

Gavin:
 
You never have to apologize. You have done nothing but love me. I know you are tired and I will see you tomorrow. I am already missing you.

Audree:
 
I am exhausted…lol and I have missed you, too.

Gavin:
 
Goodnight, Audree

Audree:
 
Goodnight, Gavin

Gavin spent the day next day with Travis, Scotty, and Harry completing the addition to the barn and helping with decorations. Audree and Ruby continued to clean out the barn and help with the addition, shocking Scotty and Harry by their ability to keep up with them. Gavin and Audree had talked during their lunch break and had talked last night before they both passed out.