Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (99 page)

"Okay," he said slowly.  "Why?"

"Because Gabe admitted that he fucked up my car and stole the money and broke your damned window.  He wrote me a check for $5,000."

"Okay."

“I’ll cash it in the morning and give you the money for your window.  I hope Gabe keeps his word.”

Nick chuckled.  "You could do almost anything and that guy would still think he's in love with you."

"Did you really have to remind me Nick?"

"I'm sorry hon.  Go upstairs and go to sleep.  You look tired."

"I am tired.  But I'm not going upstairs until you tell me that you're going home."

"I am.  But you call me if he comes back."

"He won't come back."

"Sure he won't.  Ami?"

"What?"

"You look even more upset with Gabe than usual.  Did he say or do something?"

"I don't want to talk about it Nick.  Goodnight."

"Okay." He had a look on his face like he knew she would tell Ali and Ali would tell Carson, who would tell him.  "Goodnight Ami."

"I'll get you the money as soon as I get to the bank in the morning.”

“I’ll take you when I take you to get your tires.  I'll see you later.  Call me if you need anything."

"Uh huh."

"Seriously Ami.  I'd like to think that we could be friends."

She wanted to laugh, but she nodded.  "Sure."

Then she walked away.

Once upstairs, she put her pajamas on and climbed into bed.  She sighed.  A baby she thought.  She wasn't ready to take care of the child she already had, let alone another one.

She rolled over and tried to shut off her thoughts.  It didn't work, though.  She woke up at two a.m.  She'd had a dream that she'd had a baby and Nick and Gabe had fought over it in the hospital and ripped the baby apart.  She woke up sweating and sick to her stomach.  She hoped she wasn't pregnant even more now.

She climbed out of bed and went to the living room.  She lit a cigarette, leaning her head against the back of the couch and closing her eyes.  By the time she’d finished her cigarette and put it out, she was too tired to go back to the bedroom, so she curled up and went to sleep on the couch.

Chapter 18

The next morning, she awoke to the sound of her phone chiming.  It was 8:30.  She reached for her phone, and saw that she had a voicemail.  She lit a cigarette and pushed the button to dial her voicemail.  It was Nick.  He’d be there to pick her up in half an hour.

She dressed quickly, and had lit her second cigarette of the day when he knocked on the door.

She wasn’t looking forward to the discussion she had to have with him.

“Hi,” he said.  “You ready to go?”

“Yeah.” She nodded, grabbing her purse and following him out the door.

Once they were in the car he said “What’s wrong Ami?”

She sighed.  “Do I really have to get into this now?”

“You’ve got about five minutes before we get to the tire place.  Spit it out.”

“I don’t want to.  It’s terrible.”

Nick groaned.  “Ami.  Gabe is stalking you.  He buys you a car one week and then busts yours up the next.  What kind of terrible are we talking about here?”

“It’s worse.”

“Great.  So tell me so I can help you Ami.”

“I can’t tell you.”

Nick sighed, and then pulled over into the parking lot of a pet store that wasn’t open yet.  “You are going to talk to me if it takes all day Ami.  If something is bugging you worse than the fact that Gabe is stalking you, you really need to tell someone.  I’d let you tell Ali, but you know that it would eventually get back to me anyway so you might as well just tell me now and get it over with.”

“It involves you.”

“All the more reason to tell me then.  Ami please tell me.  No matter what mixed up feelings we have for each other, I do care about you.”

“I know.” She took a deep breath.  “If I were to be pregnant, there would be a chance not only that it could be yours but that it could be Gabe’s.”

Nick was silent for a minute.  Ami watched a lot of emotions cross his face.  He lit a cigarette, absently passing the pack to her.  She took one and lit it.  Finally he said “I thought you used protection with Gabe.”

“I did.  He told me last night that he poked a hole in the condom.”

“That’s not funny Ami.”

“No shit?  How do you think I feel?”

“There’s no way in hell that if you’re pregnant you’re going to let Gabe anywhere near the kid.  I will raise it, even if it’s not mine.  Gabe never has to know.”

“Are you kidding me?  Gabe would demand a DNA test.”

“So we’ll move away.  We’ll get married and we’ll get custody of your son back.  No one here has to know that you were ever pregnant.”

“That’s not right.  Gabe would have a right to know.”

“Seriously Ami?  When he willfully deceived you?  When he won’t leave you alone when you’ve told him over and over again that you don’t want him?”

“That’s different.  Never mind.  I shouldn’t have told you.  I’m sure I’m not pregnant anyway.”

“I’m glad you told me.  Then I can be prepared.”

“You wouldn’t marry me Nick.  You’re too honorable.”

Nick snorted.  “How would it not be honorable to marry a woman that is pregnant with your child?”

“Because you have this whole picture painted of how everything will go.”

“Yes, I have an idea of how I want things to go in my life.  They may go that way, they may not.  Things happen.  I knew what I was doing when I had unprotected sex with you the other night and I was okay with it.  What Gabe did was different.  He lied to you.  He made you believe one thing while he was planning another.  It’s no different than a woman not taking her birth control or telling her man that it will be safe to have unprotected sex because it’s a certain day of the month.  His goal is to trap you because he knows that you would do the right thing.  The only thing he’s got wrong is that when your baby daddy is a complete and total psycho, you don’t have to let him be a part of your child’s life.”

“He wouldn’t harm the baby.  I still don’t think he’ll ever do anything to hurt me.”

“Maybe, maybe not.  It doesn’t matter.  You told him in no uncertain terms that you didn’t want to be with him.”

“Then I told him he could text me.”

Nick sighed.  “Please just tell me that if you are pregnant, you will consider what I said.”

“I’ll consider it.”

“Thank you Ami.  We’ll go to the tire shop and then the bank okay?”

“Yeah.”

The rest of the morning was filled with uncomfortable silences.  While she wanted Nick to give up on his idea of a perfectly planned relationship, she didn’t want him to want to marry her for all the wrong reasons.  She also didn’t know if she could walk away from everything if she was pregnant.

When they got to the bank, she cashed the check and Nick decided again that he didn’t want to take the money.  She tried to hand it to him, and when he wouldn’t take it, she shoved it into his back pocket and they had another uncomfortable moment.  She wanted to kiss him very badly but didn’t because their relationship was getting even more complicated.

Chapter 19

Her first day at the bowling alley went smoothly, though every time she turned around she felt like Nick was looking over her shoulder.  Her second day, Gabe bought the house across the street, where he’d been parked the day of Carson and Ali’s wedding.  But after a brief appearance, he seemed to stay away.

After her first few weeks at the bowling alley, Nick seemed to stay away as well.  He no longer scheduled her so that she was always working with him once it seemed clear that Gabe was going to leave her alone.  Gabe still texted her almost every day, telling her how much he loved her and never failing to mention that he would divorce Leslie whenever she was ready.  He was forever reminding her that her SUV was still waiting for her.

On Halloween, she went trick-or-treating with Ali and Elijah since a disappointed Carson had to work late.  It was a fun night.  Elijah made an adorable super hero and he obviously adored his stepmother.  The feeling was very mutual, though since Ali was even more pregnant; Ami got to carry Eli when he got tired after they’d made their stops at what felt like half the houses in town.

Even though she’d gotten her period right on time, and was happy that she wasn’t pregnant with Gabe’s child, when she was carrying her best friend’s stepson in her arms, she wondered when she would carry her own child again.

She spent Thanksgiving with Ali, Carson, Elijah and Nick.  It only served to remind her of how much she wanted a real relationship with Nick.  He wasn’t seeing anyone that she knew of, but he still didn’t seem ready to start a relationship with her.  She was frustrated even more because he’d seemed almost disappointed when she told him she wasn’t pregnant.  She had decided that she was going to go out of town for Christmas because she not only didn’t want to intrude on Ali and Carson; she didn’t think she could stand to spend another holiday with Nick.

Chapter 20

Life was busy after that.  The bowling alley was busy and she was spending a lot of time with Ali, shopping for baby items and Christmas presents, but things were still not entirely comfortable between her and Nick.

She spent Christmas Eve watching movies and sleeping. She was depressed.  She was also afraid that Ali was going to keep trying to talk her into spending Christmas with them, so she decided to go for a drive, feeling that getting out of town for a while might be a good idea. 

She dressed and went down to her, driving aimlessly, hoping that something would take her mind of off all of the things in her life that she didn’t want to deal with, Gabe and Nick included.  Two hours later she arrived in a town called Welton and decided to pull over.  She wouldn’t think that she’d be tired since she’d been sleeping half the day, but she was. 

She pulled over into a motel that had ‘vacany’ lit on the sign.  A tired, bored looking girl who had a mouth full of bubble gum and an annoying habit of snapping it, took her money and gave her a key.  Ami went to her room, and unlocked the door, wondering what Charlie was doing right now.  She felt bad that she had sent Lisa money to get him a present instead of being able to pick something out for him herself, but she figured that that couldn’t be helped at the moment.

She fell into a dreamless sleep, and was awoken early the next morning to a knock at the door.  She rolled over in bed and groaned, figuring it was the maid and cursing herself for not putting a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door.

She called out “Just a minute,” and got out of bed, pulling her jeans on.

When she opened the door, it wasn’t a maid standing there, but Gabe.  She almost shut the door in his face, but he held up his hand.  “Please Ami, I need to talk to you and it was better if it wasn’t done over the phone.”

Ami sighed.  “I don’t even want to know how the hell you knew I was here.  What is so damned important that you felt the need to bother me when all I wanted to do was spend a peaceful day by myself and try not to think about anything?”

Snow had started to come down outside.  Gabe gave her an expectant look.  “Would it be too much to ask for me to come in?”

“Yes.”  But she let out another sigh and moved back from the door so that he could enter the room.  As Gabe closed the door, she sat down on the bed and looked pointedly at the chair sitting in front of the tired looking desk.

Gabe sat down.  She didn’t wait for him to start on whatever news he had that he thought was so important to tell her in person.  “What are you doing here Gabe? Shouldn’t you be at home with your family? Don’t you have a newborn baby?”

“She’s a month and a half old.”

“Yeah, still newborn. Go home Gabe. Help your kids put whatever crap you bought them for Christmas together.”

“My family’s not at home. They went to see my in laws.”

“Why the hell didn’t you go with them?”

“My in laws don’t like me.”

“Gee, I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t like a son in law that constantly cheats on their daughter.”

Gabe laughed. “I’ve missed you Ami.”

“Like you don’t text me every other day.”

“But I have been true to my word. I have left you alone.”

“Yeah, except when you buy the house across the street from where I work.”

“Have I been there?”

She sighed. “No.”

“Ami.”

There was a note of something in his voice that she couldn’t put her finger on.  “What?”

“Nick moved your things into his apartment this morning. His girlfriend helped. She wasn’t happy about it, but she helped.”

She didn’t know which bothered her more; the fact that Nick had moved her out of her apartment when she’d expressly told him not to or the fact that Gabe had said he had a girlfriend.

“What are you talking about? He doesn’t have a girlfriend.”

Gabe smiled a slow calculating smile. “But he does love. She’s no match for you, rather ordinary, but they seem to be quite the happy couple.”

“Shut the hell up Gabe.”

She was in no mood for his theatrics. She wanted to go home and sleep for the rest of the time that she had off. She didn’t care if she had to pay Jenkins three months’ rent to get her apartment back. There was no way in hell she was going to stay with Nick.

“I tried to get your apartment back but it was already rented by the time I got there. Carson and Alicia’s too. Of course, you’re always more than welcome to stay with me.  .And I do have that empty house.  It’s big enough for you and Charlie.”

Ami gave him a look that could kill.  “Fuck off.”

“Nick has moved on. And I’m right here. Come to your senses. I’ll make you forget all of it.”

“I don’t want you. For the hundred millionth time I don’t want you.”

He frowned. “Honey, I know it hurts. Nick hiding his girlfriend under your nose. But you can let it go. I’ll take you away from all of it right now. Just say the word.”

She lit a cigarette, looking away from Gabe. 

“What are you talking about Nick hiding his girlfriend under my nose? He hasn’t had a girlfriend since I moved to town.”

Gabe smiled, his blue eyes twinkling. “He made sure that Carson and Alicia didn’t tell you. He didn’t want to hurt you. I hear there are plans for marriage in their future.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“People talk in small towns my love. I hear she’s not using birth control and he doesn’t care. They’ve been together since the middle of October.”

“No way. That’s over two months.”

“I know darling. I’ve wanted to tell you, but it didn’t feel like the right time.”

“Go fuck yourself Gabe. Just go away and leave me alone. Maybe I won’t go back home. I’ll move away and leave everyone behind, you included.” She gave him a tight smile.

“Candy is in the hospital.”

“What? How come no one told me?”

“She was admitted this morning. I’m sure Alicia will get around to telling you eventually.”

“Is she okay?”

“She is fine. In danger of losing her child, but she herself is fine.”

“No. She’s still got about two months until she’s due, doesn’t she?”

“Yes darling.  Rick has been so saddened by the whole thing. He does love that woman.”

“The one you tried to rape?”

Gabe raised an eyebrow. “I tried to rape her? Hmm, that’s not quite how I remember it, but if that’s the story that Candy told you to save face, then I’ll go with it. If it came down to it, I could always show Rick the tapes.”

“You bastard.”

“No, my parents were married when I was conceived.” He smiled.

“You’re a sick fuck. You have tapes of us too don’t you?”

He gave her his most innocent look. “No. I wouldn’t sully you like that.”

“Yeah right. You probably play them over and over again and sit alone in your room like some pervert jerking off to them.”

“You are forever locked in my mind Ami. I don’t need a tape to remember the time that we had together.”

“I hate you.”

“And I love you. You need time to get over Nick. Let me give you two days that you’ll never forget.”

“That’s not going to happen Gabe. Go away.”

He sighed. “Ami please.  Rick is supposed to be calling me when there’s an update on Candy. I’ll let you talk to him if you’d like.”

“As if I’d want to admit to him that I was with you.”

“Rick understands love. Candy is his whole world. I promise I won’t touch you, unless of course you want me to.” He smiled.

She wanted to punch him.  Ah what the fuck, what did she have to lose anymore she thought?  Maybe Gabe was right, maybe she should just give up and give in to him.

Then she thought no, she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t encourage Gabe again. But what did it matter now? Nick was in love with someone else. Gabe professed to love her. He could give her a good life. He would probably have divorce papers drawn up as soon as she said the word. She could be a stepmother. She could be a mother to Charlie again; she could have another baby if she wanted.

Ah who the hell was she kidding she thought? Gabe would end up cheating on her. Even if it wasn’t right away, he’d do it eventually. She wasn’t going to let herself be the next one that he traded in for a younger woman. But she was going to let him give her two days of blissful sex.

She met his eyes.  “We’re going to lay down some ground rules right now.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll have sex with you. But.”

“Yes?”

“Once we get back to town, you will leave me alone. No texting me, no calling me, no sitting outside Nick’s apartment or the bowling alley. No errands to fix up that house you bought. I mean it Gabe. If I do this, you will leave me alone until I decide what the hell I really want. And if you don’t, I will leave and never look back. And I will do everything in my power to make sure that you never find me or my son.”

“Fine.”

“You promise?”

“I swear on the lives of my children.”

She made a face at his choice of words, but stuck out her hand. “Shake on it.”

He crossed the room, took her hand and shook it, then pulled her to him for a kiss that left her weak in the knees.  He looked like he wanted to do more, but his phone suddenly rang.  He looked at the screen and said “Would you excuse me a moment please?”

She shrugged and turned away from him, lighting a cigarette.  She was beginning to think she would never get her life together with the way things were going.  She couldn’t believe that Nick had been going out with someone else behind her back.  She was worried about Candy.  Most of all, it was Christmas and she knew she should be spending it with Charlie and not in a cheap motel room with a man she wanted nothing to do with, but was probably going to be dumb enough to have sex with again. 

She needed a way to release some of the tension and she really didn’t want to think at all for the time being.  Her body seemed to want Gabe, so she figured that she was going to listen to her body for the time being, though she knew she was probably going to regret it later, for more reasons than one.

Gabe had a quiet conversation for several minutes, and then turned back to her after ending the call.  “I’m sorry darling.”

“Was that your wife?”

“No.  It was Rick.  Candy is fine. The baby is fine. They’re putting her on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy. She’s now officially on paid leave from the bar.”

“That’s mighty generous of you.” She was teasing him, but he shrugged.

“I wouldn’t want to lose Rick’s respect. She deserves a little rest. She works her butt off for me.”

“That she does. When’s Rick leaving?”

“He starts at the hospital full time after he’s finished with his paid leave, so it’s about three months from now.”

“You’re giving Rick paid leave?”

“It’s not unheard of for a man to take time off when he’s had a child. Rick and Candy are both valued employees. I want them to go out on a good note.”

She bit back a comment about what had happened between him and Candy and said instead “I’m glad she’s okay.”

“Pregnancy can be extremely hard for some women. You I think would be more like your friend Alicia. If only Charlie was my son, none of this would be an issue.”

“You said my son’s name again.  Say it one more time and I’m outta here.”

“A guy can dream can’t he?”

She made a face at him.  “Take your clothes off.”

“You have no idea what I’m going to do to you. I’m going to take you places you’ve never dreamed of going Ami.”

“Uh huh. Shut up and do it then.”

The next two days went by in a blur.  Gabe talked her into letting him buy her clothes since she hadn’t planned on staying overnight anywhere let alone a few days.  She made sure she bought clothes that were sexier than she usually wore, both to bug Gabe and to make sure that Nick would know what he was missing.  The package of condoms Ami had insisted on buying herself to make sure he didn’t tamper with them was over half gone, and Gabe had stood up to his promise. He’d done things to her that she hadn’t known existed.

But she walked away from the motel completely satisfied sexually, even if she did have to be at work in three hours.

Gabe promised her again that he wouldn’t contact her until she said it was okay, and he’d stopped teasing her about her taking the SUV back home with her. She drove away when he getting into his SUV, not bothering to look at him.  Now she had to figure out what the hell she was going to do with Nick she thought.