Love Unclaimed (26 page)

“Ah, yeah, I should get up. I have so much to do before everyone starts showing up in.” She looked over at the clock on her nightstand. “Ugh, in like three hours.” She ran her hands over her face.

“You really are beautiful in the morning,” Gavin said in his raspy, morning voice.

“I slept like crap and I’m sure it shows all over my face." She threw her arm over her eyes.

“I know. You were very restless.”

“I’m sorry if I kept you awake.”

“There is nowhere I would have rather have been.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead.

She smiled at him and trembled when his lips moved down the side of her face, pausing when a knock sounded on the door.

“Audree,” Travis called from the other side of Audree’s bedroom door. “Can I come in?”

“Of course.” She laughed when Gavin groaned and rolled away from her.

“Ugh, am I interrupting …?” He stepped into the room and instantly covered his eyes with his hand.

“No.” She chuckled at the same time Gavin said. “Yes, Asshat.”

“Sorry, Asshat, but Brooks called. He couldn’t get a hold of Audree on her cell so he called me to say they should be here in here in a couple of hours.” He hadn’t moved any further into the room. “Also, your mom is downstairs getting breakfast together and wants to know why Canter was here yesterday afternoon.”

“Damn it,” Audree sighed. “How did she even find out?”

“Gossip in town, after Scotty was brought in, was running rampant. She called last night and Ruby told her everything was okay and that you were sleeping; now she wants to see for herself that you are okay.”

“Ugh.” Audree threw herself back down to her pillow.

“Audree!” Talia called from downstairs. “I would like to talk to you,”

“I’ll be right down,” she called back and scrambled out of her bed. “Am I facing her alone, or are you two going down with me?” She moved to the bathroom.

“Yeah, I’ll see y’all down there,” Travis piped up from the doorway and turned to leave.

“You know I’ll go with you,” Gavin said as he rolled out of the bed and headed toward her at the bathroom door.

“And where do you think you are going, now?” She held her hand to his chest.

“I was going to clean up.” He pointed to the open bathroom door behind her.

“Not going to happen, we were taking this slow, remember. I appreciate you staying with me last night, but we…”

“I gotcha.” He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll meet you in the hall in ten minutes,” he said and disappeared out of her room.

***

After talking to Audree’s mother, Gavin reassured Talia that he would be staying and not leaving Audree alone. Talia was so upset when she heard about what happened that she called Canter to make sure that Scotty was still locked up. Canter confirmed that Scotty would be spending the weekend in a cell since the Judge and public defender just happened to be spending the day at a friend’s barbeque and would be unavailable until Monday.

Everyone agreed that Audree’s father and uncle shouldn’t be told until after the party, they didn’t want to ruin Eva’s homecoming and the last shindig of the summer. Clint being home was, thankfully, still under wraps. After Gavin had spent the morning helping to put the finishing touches down in the barn, he went to hang out with Clint. Ruby was staying at the house with Audree keeping her busy with party stuff.

“So the fucker is definitely locked up for the weekend?” Clint paced back and forth clenching his fists.

“Yup, he will be in there all weekend, and Audree still hasn’t decided if she wants to press charges.”

“What do you mean
if
she wants to press charges? Of course…,” he stopped when he noticed Gavin shaking his head.

“Seriously? Shit, I have to get out of this friggin’ house already. And I have to have a serious chat with my little sister.”

“She had a really rough night last night. She tossed and turned like crazy.”

“You slept with her?” He was shocked.

“Didn’t really sleep much, with her…”

“Aw man, I don’t want to hear that shit.”

“I held her. That was it. We didn’t…”

“Stop. I don’t want to know any part of that.”

“I wasn’t sharing, man.” He laughed. “We’re takin’ it slow. We are doing this the right way this time. If that fucker hadn’t pulled that shit with her yesterday, I would have called her and asked her out like I promised her that I would.”

“At least you got to beat the shit out of him before Canter got him.”

“I told you yesterday, Audree took him down and got him good before I even got there.”

“See, and when we were young, you said we should take it easy on her.” He laughed.

“I was trying to protect her. I didn’t like seeing my girl hurt or upset.” He shook his head, realizing what he had said.

“Still gonna take me some time to get used to you referring to my sister as your girl.” He laughed and shook his head.

“You got a long time because I’m not letting her go ever again.”

“No more sneaking around and you make an honest woman out of her.”

“That is my plan.” Gavin couldn’t have hidden the grin spread across his face if he had tried.

***

The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur. Clint returned to the hiding place of his house. Audree spent much of her time reassuring her mother that she was okay and that she would think about pressing charges against Scotty. She didn’t want to think about it anymore, she wanted to stay focused on Eva coming home and surprising everyone with Clint’s return.

“Momma! Momma!” Eva’s voice called through the house. “Momma, I’m home.”

“Who is that?” Audree called from the kitchen.

“It’s me, Momma.” Eva laughed.

“Well, I don’t know anyone named ‘Me’, so you had better leave before my beautiful daughter, Eva, comes back. See, I have been saving a huge ginormous hug for her, and I have missed her like crazy. So, Me, you had better run along now.”

“Momma, you are so silly.” Eva ran into her mother’s arms and squeezed her tightly.

“I really missed you, sweet girl.”

“I really missed you, too.”

“Hey, is that Eva I hear?” Gavin appeared around the corner, greeting Brooks with a handshake and Marissa with a kiss on the cheek. “How was your trip?”

“Uncle Gavin!” Eva shouted and ran into Gavin’s open arms. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too, sweet girl.” He squeezed her as the wrapped her arms around his neck.

“I got to sit in a big seat on the plane and they gave me slippers,” Eva stated, readjusting her body but not letting go of Gavin when he tried to put her back down on the floor.

“Yeah, thanks for the upgrade, first class is awesome.” Marissa smiled at Gavin.

“Not a problem. Can’t have my family flying in coach.” He winked at Audree when her mouth dropped open. “Come on, we have a party to get ready for.” Gavin shrugged and turned back to the kitchen.

“Is anyone hungry?” Audree asked, before she and Marissa slipped their arms around each other’s waist and followed Gavin.

“I’m going to take the bags up,” Brooks said, heading for the stairs.

“Need help, man?” Travis asked, walking through the front door quietly followed by Ruby and Harry.

“Sure,” Gavin said, lifting a suitcase up off the floor and handing it to Travis as he picked up a larger one and then tucked a smaller one under is other arm.

After everyone was introduced to Harry, they sat down to have lunch and catch up. An excited Eva rushed through stories of her trip. She was happy to be home and couldn’t wait to see her grandparents and her horse. She was disappointed when Audree told her that her visit with Star would have to wait until tomorrow because they had a party to get to. Eva jumped up and asked if she could wear the new dress Grandma Layne had bought her. As soon as Audree said of course, Eva bolted out of the room and rushed up the stairs to her room, calling over her shoulder that she didn’t need anyone’s help.

When she reappeared a few minutes later dressed in a frilly pink dress, she announced that she was ready to go to
her
party. She was excited to see her grandparents and hoped there were lots of games to play. Audree told her she had to wait for everyone else to get ready and, when Eva asked if she could ride a four-wheeler down to the barn, everyone, in unison, said no. She would ride down in the truck with Audree.

Walking into the barn, Audree was impressed with the lights and decorations that the guys had finished putting up. She couldn’t help but look up at the last decoration she had put up with Scotty’s help, and was glad to see it had been taken down. Gavin must have followed the direction she was looking when he stepped up behind her, slipped his larger hand into hers, and gave it squeeze. “Thank you,” she mouthed to him as they moved further into the barn.

“Everything looks amazing; you all did a wonderful job,” Talia said as she came up behind them.

“Grammy, Grandpa!” Eva shrieked and ran into her grandparents arms.

“I think you’ve grown like a foot, kid.” Spencer laughed, looking at the little girl in his arms.

“Oh, Grandpa, I didn’t grow that much.” She giggled.

“Oh, I think you did.”

“And where is my hug, sweetie.” Talia hugged Eva. “I absolutely love your dress.”

“Grandma Layne bought it for me.” Eva wiggled out of Talia’s arms. “Look when I twirl,” she said, giddily, as she spun.

“That is some twirling you got going on,” a voice said from behind them and everyone turned toward the voice.

“Uncle Clint!” Eva pushed through the adults in front of her and ran into Clint’s open arms.

“Clint!” Talia cried and ran into her son’s arms as he stood at the open door and the room filled with claps and roaring cheers.

“Son,” Spencer threw his arms around his son and held back his own tears.

“Hey, stranger.” Ruby didn’t bother hiding her tears when she wrapped her arms around Clint’s neck.

“Clint, this is Harry; Harry, this is Clint, Audree’s older brother.” Ruby sidled up to Harry and took his hand in hers.

“Good to meet you, man.” Harry shook Clint’s hand, but they still eyed each other for a moment.

“How long have you been home? When did you get in?” Talia asked, not having let go of her son’s waist.

“I’ve been home a couple of days, but couldn’t ruin this surprise.” He laughed and looked at Audree.

“You knew,” she looked at Audree and raised her eyebrow then looked at Gavin. “You two knew, didn’t you?” She looked between Gavin and Travis, who both shrugged and pointed at Audree.

“What? And ruin the looks on your faces? Hell no.” She laughed.

“Come on, come on, let’s get this party started, already,” Eva said, tugging on Audree’s hand and pulling her toward the center of the barn.

The evening was a buzz of congratulations on Clint’s return, Eva’s homecoming, the success of the start of Ruby’s catering business, and the fact that it was the last party of the summer. There was drinking, dancing, laughter, and just tons of partying. Eva lasted until just after the fireworks then passed out in Talia’s arms. Audree’s parents said their goodnights and told everyone to stop by their house in the morning for breakfast or lunch depending on when they dragged themselves out of bed.

As Audree was saying goodnight the last few guest, she looked around, she saw Brooks and Marissa sitting over to the side talking to Ruby and Harry. Travis was over in a corner making out with a red head she had seen around before, but had never been introduced to. Clint was hanging out with Canter and his wife. Audree couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face as she looked around at her family and friends. Just as she realized that she hadn’t seen Gavin, her phone buzzed in her pocket. When she pulled it out, she smiled and looked around the room, but didn’t see him.

“Hello?”

“I didn’t get to call you last night and ask you out properly, so I was wondering if you would like to go dancing with me?” She could hear the smile in his voice.

“I would like that very much.” She glanced around the room again. “When would you like to pick me up?”

“How about you meet me, that way there is no pressure of a goodnight kiss if I drive you home,” he chuckled.

“Huh, okay?” She laughed at his silliness.

“When do you want me to meet you?” she was waving at her parents as they pulled away from the barn, with a sleeping Eva tucked in the backseat when she felt his arms wrap around her waist from behind.

“How about right now?” He turned her to face him. “May I have this dance?” He offered her his hand.

“I would love to.” She slipped her hand into his, and he led her around the side of the barn. “Are we not going back inside?”

“I haven’t had a moment alone with you since this morning, and I just want a couple of minutes of you to myself,” he slipped his arm around her waist and tugged her against his body. “You feel so good.” He brushed his lips against her ear.

“So do you.” She ran her fingers over his short hair.

“I want to kiss you so badly, right now.”

“I certainly won’t stop you.” She smiled and closed her eyes, waiting for his lips to meet hers and when they didn’t, she peeked up at him. He was smiling down at her.