Up by Five (26 page)

“But—” Dammit. He had a point. It was a private game, invitation only, at Ricky’s house. He could make the rules and call the shots.

She did not want to deal with being the object of a spoiled, cocky rich kid’s crush. She wanted to play—and win—at poker.

“Can you beat him?” Mac wanted to know.

“I can give him a run for his money,” she said confidently.

“Well, then he’s going to be ticked enough to find out that you can actually play and win. Not a good idea to ruin his Casanova dreams too.”

“So I need to show up with a boyfriend.”

“And you’ll have to
act
like he’s actually a boyfriend. One of your cousins or brothers can’t fill in,” Nate pointed out.

She sighed. This was getting complicated. She was really, really trying to keep that from happening.

“I’m not taking Conner. I’m not telling Conner about any of this. And you,” she said, pointing to Ryan, “need to help keep him distracted so he doesn’t wonder what I’m doing, so you can’t come with me either.”

“Conner would wonder what you’re doing?” Mac asked.

She felt her cheeks heat. “Um, yeah.”

“She’s living with him,” Dooley said, nudging Mac. “Didn’t you know that?”

“I’ve been a little distracted, what with having a new baby at home and all,” Mac said, regarding Gabby with renewed interest.

“Well, my wife’s pregnant and sending me to the store for Pop-Tarts every other day, telling me I have to quit swearing around the house because the baby will hear and…” Dooley’s grin got huge, “…wanting sex
constantly
. And I still knew Gabby and Conner were shacking up.”

“Morgan is pregnant?” Gabby exclaimed. She hadn’t known that. And she’d do anything to take Mac’s attention off of her. “That’s awesome, Dooley. Congrats.”

“Thanks.” The man did have a distinct proud glow about him.

“Have you been trying for a while?” she asked.

“Got it on the first try,” he said. “We’ve been practicing for a while.”

“How long have you been living with Conner?” Mac asked.

Apparently he already knew about Morgan and Dooley. Crap.

“Just a few days,” she said. “It’s…no big deal.”

Possibly the biggest lie she’d ever told. Living with Conner was turning her life upside down.

“And he would care where you were spending Saturday night?”

“I don’t know that he would
care
exactly,” Gabby hedged. “He would
notice
. Probably.”

Another not-so-tiny lie. He’d notice. He’d care. And that was exactly why he couldn’t know.

“And why you don’t want him to know that you’re playing poker with Ricky Donovan?” Mac pressed.

“I just…” It was very hard to explain. She supposed she could tell Conner that she was playing poker without telling him why the pot was so important to her—and him. But she had a definite gut feeling that he wouldn’t like it. And if she told him she needed him there to fend off a bunch of twenty-something party boys…well, he definitely wouldn’t like that part.

This was her family’s mess,
her
problem. Not Conner’s.

Mac chuckled. “Uh-huh. I get it.”

She scowled at him. “You do?”

“Sure. And I’ll be the one taking you to the party,” Mac said.

Her eyes went wide. “Excuse me?”

“You need a fake boyfriend. A big, intimidating fake boyfriend. Someone the obnoxious rich kids won’t mess with,” Mac said. “You can’t take a relative because you’re going to have to act lovey-dovey with them. It might require some touching which would be gross with a relative. You can’t take Ryan or any of those guys because they need to be with Conner. You can’t take some random guy because he might get the wrong idea—that you want a real boyfriend. I’m the perfect choice.”

Gabby knew her mouth was open as she stared at him.

“And this would have nothing to do with you getting to flirt and act lovey-dovey over Conner’s girl?” Ryan asked.

Conner’s girl? “I’m not—”

Mac laughed. “Payback is a bitch.”

Gabby couldn’t help but smile at that. Conner had acted lovey-dovey over Sara for a long time. But…“I’m not—”

“Conner’s not even going to know about it,” Nate pointed out. “That’s not quite as satisfying, is it?”

Mac gave Gabby a once-over. “I think Saturday is going to be very interesting.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Sara won’t mind?”

“Sara is going to get a huge kick out of this,” Mac told her. “She knows that I’ve just been waiting for the day when Conner finally fell.”

“But Conner hasn’t—” She stopped. Conner
thought
he had. That might be good enough for Mac.

And now that she thought about it, having someone with her at the overgrown frat party wasn’t a bad idea. Mac would definitely work to squelch any romantic notions Ricky Donovan might have toward her and that would help her concentrate on the game. And kick his ass.

“Fine. You can come with me,” she told the big guy.

“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Mac said, as if there had never been any question, or need for discussion.

“Thanks for all your help, guys,” Gabby said, turning to Ryan, Nate and Dooley.

Nate and Dooley were both typing into their phones. They looked up.

“Thank
you
.
This is gonna to be fun to watch,” Dooley said.

“Fun to watch?” Gabby said. “What do you mean?”

“I’m having Morgan work on getting us into the party. I want to see this game.”

“Michael says that Ricky always invites extra guests,” Nate said. “He loves showing off.”

Gabby sighed. “You’re all going to be there?”

“Well…”

Nate and Dooley looked at one another, then back to her.

“Yeah,” they said in unison.

Great.

“How the hell do we go through that amount of gauze in a week’s time?” Conner asked, coming in through the door with Sierra right behind him.

She gave Gabby a look and Gabby gave her a nod to tell her it was okay.

Conner crossed to the coffeepot, and Gabby shot keep-your-mouths-shut looks around the room.

“What are you doing down here?” Conner asked Nate. “Heard you were in surgery.”

“What? Oh yeah, right. I am.” Nate started for the door. “See you all later.”

“And what are you guys still doing here?” Conner asked Mac and Dooley, turning with a full cup in hand. “Ben was looking for you.”

Dooley and Mac grabbed their bags. “Good, I’m starving,” Dooley said. “It’s been fun. See you soon.”

“What’s been fun?” Conner asked.

They ignored him.

Unfortunately, Mac didn’t ignore Gabby. “Bye, Gabby,” Mac said with a grin. He rarely singled her out.

She sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to pass up
any
opportunity to annoy Conner. “Bye, Mac.”

“You should wear that body spray more often, by the way. You smell delicious.”

Great. Really subtle. “Thanks.” She didn’t smile.

She did, however, notice that Conner straightened away from the counter and frowned at Mac.

“You smell delicious?” Conner asked her.

She shrugged.

Mac shouldered his bag. “You haven’t noticed?” he asked Conner.

“I have actually,” Conner said. “But why have
you
noticed? Don’t you have your own girl to smell?”

“I do,” Mac said with a nod. “But any woman who smells as good as Gabby deserves to be sniffed as much as possible.”

She had to press her lips together to keep from smiling. No one could rile Mac like Conner could, and it looked like the same was true the other way around. It was, indeed, time for some payback.

She also couldn’t ignore that being the reason for Conner getting riled up kind of made her heart beat faster.

“Gabby doesn’t need anyone else sniffing her,” Conner said firmly.

Mac started for the door. “I don’t know, Dixon, Gabby is very sniffable. And I’m guessing there are some other
a
-
b
-
l
-
e
words that apply to her too.”

Gabby felt like she was choking as she tried not to gasp or laugh at the same time.

“Huggable, unforgettable,” Mac went on.

“Kissable, lickable,” Dooley called from the outer hallway as the door shut on him.

“Just keep walkin’.” Conner raised his voice over both of them. “Keep walkin’ back to those sweet wives of yours. Wives that might be very interested in you using ‘able’ words with other women.”

Mac chuckled and pulled the door open, clearly unconcerned about anyone telling Sara on him.

“Sniff you later, Gabs,” Mac said as the door shut behind him.

“I don’t like him calling you Gabs,” Conner said, dumping his coffee out.

“Yeah,
that’s
what you don’t like him doing,” Ryan said with a grin.

Gabby decided that she should probably check Conner and Sierra’s stocking job and headed for the rig. And away from the man who was making things more complicated than even her brother was making them.

She was stalling coming home.

Conner knew that was why Gabby still wasn’t back at the apartment with him three hours after their shift ended. But he’d spooked her. That was the only reason he wasn’t calling her mother. Or her grandmother. Her grandmother would definitely know how to find her. Or would at least have access to people who could. He was not, however, confident she, or anyone, would know exactly what Gabby was thinking. And that was what he was most interested in.

He made himself go through his usual routine. He trusted that Gabby would come home. If she wasn’t going to, she would tell him. She was honest and up-front.

She wasn’t Ashley.

That’s what he kept repeating as he went for a run, showered, made dinner.

But he was holding himself back from calling her grandmother and seeing if the woman had a GPS tracking device on each of her grandkids.

“Gabby is not Ashley,” he said out loud as he washed his dishes. “She didn’t say she loved you too because she wants to be sure. That’s better than having her say it and not mean it.”

Ashley had said plenty that she hadn’t meant—that she needed him, that he was saving her.

Getting Gabby to say something like that would be like pulling teeth.

That was a
good
thing. That meant the things she did say, he could trust.

But while Gabby was definitely not Ashley, Conner was acting very Ashleyish.

Not like Ashley had acted, but how he had acted with Ashley.

He’d jumped ahead there too, rushed things, pushed.

He’d told Gabby he was in love with her after three days. He’d told Ashley he was in love with her after their third date. They’d talked on the phone until well past midnight almost every night and e-mailed constantly, but they had been on separate campuses and they’d only seen each other on weekends, so it had taken him almost a month to say it to her.

And he hadn’t said it once since. Until Gabby.

“Don’t push. Don’t pressure her,” he told himself.

He knew that there had been a lot going on with Ashley and that telling her he was in love too soon wasn’t the biggest problem they’d had—and maybe hadn’t made a damned bit of difference in how things turned out anyway—but he’d never been able to shake the idea that if he’d taken it slower, given her more time, it would have had a different outcome.

He wanted a different outcome with Gabby.

“Be cool. Just be cool. Be patient. Don’t scare her off.”

“Talking to yourself? Are you still smelling cinnamon too?”

He swung around to find Gabby had finally come home.

“Uh…”

If she’d heard him, she knew what—who—he was talking about.

“No cinnamon. Spaghetti sauce. You hungry?”

She had her hands tucked in the front pockets of her jeans and was standing a good ten feet away. She shook her head. “I ate at my mom’s.”

So that’s where she’d been. And apparently not ready to introduce him to her mom and dad…

Conner shut that thought down. Damn. Of course she wasn’t ready for that. Four days ago she was single and thinking that the start of medical school had to be the end of everything else. Actually, she was still thinking that last part.

And maybe the first part.

He
was the one in love here.

Well, he had two months to convince her she wanted this too. Somehow. Maybe.

Ashley had been hurt and lost and unsure of herself. He’d been able to sweep in like a hero. Getting her attention and time had been no problem.

Gabby wasn’t lost or hurt or unsure. She knew exactly who she was and what she wanted. She didn’t need a hero.

He waited for her to say something more because he sure as hell didn’t know what to say.

“I’m going to head over to Sierra’s tonight.”

Conner was proud that he didn’t react with his first instinct of
hell no
.

“Why? Everything okay?”

She gave him a smile—that he didn’t believe for a second. “Yeah. I just need some girl time.”

Girl time. Right. Gabby Evans needed girl time.

“You’re going to do each other’s hair and talk about boys?”

Her smile at that was more genuine. “I’m guessing you will come up in the conversation, if you must know.”

He relaxed a little. “Be sure you tell her
every
detail.”

Gabby rolled her eyes but her smile grew. “Promise.”

“How about we go out to a nice dinner tomorrow night then?”

Her eyebrows went up. “A nice dinner?”

“You’ve heard of them? With silverware, napkins, wine?”

She swallowed. “Like a date?”

“Not
like
a date,” he said with a slight frown. “An actual date.”

“I…can’t.”

His frown was more than slight now. “You can’t? What does that mean?”

“I’m going to be staying with Sierra for a few days.”

She was running, pulling away. He’d spooked her with the I-love-you stuff. She was putting distance between them figuratively and literally.

And
he
was panicking.

Calm the fuck down, Dixon
.
She’s not moving to England. She’s not marrying some other guy. You can figure this out. Doting. You need more doting.