Up by Five (8 page)

She grinned. Intrigued was probably not something he routinely felt about women who ended up in his apartment.

She liked shaking things up for him a little. Conner Dixon had always been very clearly comfortable in his life, with everyone doing what he told them to do and staying in the roles he’d assigned them. So it had been fun to be in the front row to see his sisters and friends rattle him when they started pairing up and falling in love.

Being the cause of some rattling was turning out to be even better.

Considering her apartment had burned down and all her worldly possessions had been destroyed, Gabby felt pretty good walking through the mall replacing her wardrobe. She did really hate that she’d lost the hand-me-down furniture. That was dumb. There wasn’t anything she could have done to prevent it and there was nothing she could do about it now. But she was sad to have lost the things her family had given her. She hadn’t actually thought she would always live with furniture donated from family members, but every time she’d walked into her apartment, she’d smiled and felt at home. From the bookcase in the corner to the desk by the window in her bedroom, her furniture had a story.

But with a family as big as hers, there was plenty more furniture sitting around in attics and basements. And maybe it was time for her to get some furniture of her own and make some stories to pass down to the next generation.

Gabby found herself smiling. She had new shoes, new pants, new tops and new underwear and was heading for her car, when she felt her feet slowing as she passed the makeup counter.

She didn’t do makeup much. And on the rare occasion that she did, the stuff she got at Carl-Mart was just fine.

It was the photo in their advertising that had caught her eye. A woman, her hair up and makeup perfect, her head tipped to the side, with a man—a very hot man—standing behind her, kissing her neck.

It was a sexy photo.

And it made Gabby want to buy makeup.

Which made it an effective photo as well.

“Can I help you?” the girl behind the counter asked.

Gabby looked at the girl, then back at the photo.

She’d never made herself up for a man. But she was tempted to for Conner.

Which was incredibly stupid. She liked that Conner was attracted, but she didn’t want to get
involved
with him. Did she? And besides…he hadn’t seemed to mind her lack of makeup last night. She’d been in a fire and working an emergency scene, but thinking about the look in his eyes and the feel of his thumb on her bottom lip the night before could still make her tingle.

Yeah, he’d wanted her. Even without makeup.

He also respected and liked her.

That mattered. Whether he wanted to admit it or not.

And he’d liked her—and her smile, she couldn’t forget
that
—before he’d noticed her boobs.

That also mattered. A lot.

So Gabby might just have to kiss him. Conner Dixon had probably never kissed a girl that he sincerely liked, who truly knew him. And who didn’t have lipstick on when he did it.

He’d never been flirtatious or sweet or romantic with her.

He deserved to be kissed by someone who liked him anyway.

“What do you say?” the girl behind the counter asked.

“Actually, I think I’m good,” Gabby said. “I think I’m really good.”

Chapter Four

An hour later—and four hours after leaving the apartment—Gabby climbed the stairs to Conner’s third-floor apartment.

Before she’d walked half the distance from the staircase, she heard them.

Men. A lot of them.

And she knew she was related to most—if not all—of them.

Son of a bitch.

Her brothers had found her already.

She let herself in with the key Conner had left by the door for her. The noise level was high enough that no one heard the door open or her dropping the shopping bags to the floor.

Indeed, six big men filled the apartment. Two were her brothers, one was a cousin and two were uncles. And one was Conner.

Oh god.

They’d brought food—of course they’d brought food. Her uncle Steve was here and his wife, Lori, always made sandwiches for poker night. Uncle Jeff was also there and Melissa, his longtime girlfriend, was a fantastic cook and always sent dessert along. Her brother Grant and her cousin Lance were in charge of the beer—and they didn’t bring crappy, cheap beer. Her younger brother, Josh, was worthless in the kitchen—one of the main reasons he showed up for poker night, even though he preferred to play “real” poker at the casinos and private clubs—so he’d brought the usual umpteen bags of chips. Which went perfectly with the dips that Gabby always made. Except that her apartment had
burned down
. Not that any of them were, obviously, going to let that keep them from letting her kick their ass at poker.

They were also all talking at once. Which was typical and something she’d grown used to.

But she wasn’t so sure about Conner.

He was sitting on one of his barstools, a beer open in front him—thankfully—and a sandwich in hand. His attention was bouncing between her brother Josh and her cousin. They were arguing—shocker—at a speed and volume that made it impossible to interject. Even if you wanted to.

Her uncles and other brother were taking over Conner’s couch and love seat, with his flat screen on—another shocker—ESPN.

She knew Conner was in to sports. He was the quarterback for the Hawks—the winningest team in amateur football league—and he and Ryan routinely talked everything from baseball to hockey. Gabby had participated in several spirited conversations about NCAA rules and regulations, contract negotiations in the NBA, and spring training for the MLB.

But she didn’t know that he was in to having strange men invade his house and make themselves at home. Even if they did bring food and beer.

She slammed the door, instantly quieting the room—the reason the women in the Evans family all slammed cupboards, drawers and doors on a daily basis.

“I assume you’re all here with gifts and condolences over my ordeal last night,” Gabby said sweetly when everyone’s eyes were on her.

“Finally. Where the hell have you been?” Lance groused as he stretched off the barstool he’d occupied.

“How did you find me here?” she asked rather than answering. Lance didn’t really care where she’d been, only that she was here now.

Lance frowned. “Grandma.”

“Mom,” Josh said.

“Lance,” Steve said.

Gabby rolled her eyes. She’d called her mom that morning before leaving the apartment—she’d also had to replace her cell phone today. Her mom had been concerned, but had accepted Gabby’s assurance that she was fine and asked if she needed anything. Since she’d just spent the night in a queen-size bed more comfortable than her own and had a shower with a dual-pulsating showerhead and a cup of some of the best coffee she’d had in a long time, she’d said no.

“Where’s the care package from Mom?” she asked her brother Grant.

He pointed down the hall. “Conner put it on your bed.”

Gabby grinned. She’d known there would be a package and she already knew what would be in it. Cookies—Marilyn Evans’s cookies were a staple hope-you-feel-better item. There would also be shampoo—she’d used the travel bottle that Conner had picked up that morning but hadn’t gotten any of her own, knowing what her mom would send. It would be strawberry scented. Exactly what Gabby had used all through high school. She thought it was sweet her mom always sent that whenever she thought her daughter needed a pick-me-up and she was amazed that it worked every time. There would be wet wipes (Marilyn believed no one could ever have too many wet wipes) and socks (fuzzy ones in bright colors), a book or two (always romances) and a pillow. Always a pillow. Marilyn had sent her a pillow at summer camp, one to college, one to her first apartment, somehow knowing that Gabby was incredibly homesick, and one after she’d had her tonsils out at age twenty-three. That surgery had really kicked her ass.

There was something about the pillows, though, that always made Gabby feel better. Her mom made the pillowcases and they always smelled like her childhood home. Falling asleep was a piece of cake on those pillows. She had four of those pillows on her bed.

Gabby stopped and actually felt her eyes sting for a moment. She’d
had
four of those pillows on her bed.

Damn.

The final thing in the box would be a note. Something sweet and mom-like, with a cartoon cat or a flower or a goofy smiley face at the bottom.

“I didn’t make any food,” Gabby said, hand on her hip, glaring at her relatives. Surely the lack of Gabby dip would get them the hell out of here.

“Conner ran to the store,” Josh said, moving to the table by the window that she now noticed was set up for poker.

Her eyes found Conner across the room. She’d been purposefully not looking at him, unsure how to adequately apologize for all of this.

“He did?”

“We told him you were always in charge of dip and he said ‘not today’ and went to the store.”

With Josh out of the way, she could see the containers on the bar top—salsa, French onion and spicy cheese.

She smiled.

She’d be hearing from her family for days about how they’d had to eat
store-bought
dip during poker. But she didn’t care. That was nice and they were big, spoiled babies.

“Thanks,” she said to Conner. “And I’m sorry.”

He just lifted an eyebrow.

“So, we playing or what?” Steve asked, pulling out a chair at the table as if the “yes” had already been given.

Gabby sighed. “No, we’re not playing. For god’s sake. You don’t even know Conner, yet you show up here on his doorstep and take over his apartment? Seriously? You guys need to get out now.”

“We do too know Conner,” Josh said. “He’s one of the paramedics on your crew. He fell through the floor in that big apartment building downtown about a month ago.”

“Two months,” Grant said. “He’s the one that’s always driving Mac Gordon nuts.”

“He threw that forty-two-yard pass in the division championship this year,” Steve added. “The Hawks have been number one for three years because of him.”

“And he’s got those four hot sisters,” Lance added with a grin.

Gabby was staring at her relatives, her mouth hanging open. Yeah, so her brothers and Lance hung out at Trudy’s once in a while and many of her uncles and cousins followed the Hawks, but seriously?

She glanced at Conner. He was grinning with a full-of-himself grin that made her roll her eyes. Okay, so it wasn’t just women who put Conner Dixon up on a pedestal.

“How did you know about me falling through the floor?” Conner asked, pulling out one of the chairs and taking a seat at the table.

Josh pointed at Gabby. “Gabs tells us all about you.”

Oh no he didn’t.

Gabby froze, staring at her brother. What the hell had he said that for? As if Conner’s head wasn’t big enough?

She was going to kill Josh.

“Is that right?” Conner looked up at her with a big smile.

“All the time,” Steve, her father’s youngest brother, agreed.

Well, crap.

There was no way she was getting rid of them. It was poker night. And she was shacking up with some guy they didn’t really know.

Yeah, they were staying.

“I do not talk about him all the time. Not any more than I talk about Ryan and Sierra.” She bravely met Conner’s eyes. “I tell them about our calls and stuff.”

Grant nodded. “She loves to tell gory, bloody stories during dinner.”

She did, actually.

“That’s why she became a paramedic in the first place,” Lance said.

“To tell gory stories?” Conner asked.

She narrowed her eyes. He seemed interested.

“Our Aunt Linda asked her what she wanted to be after she graduated,” Lance said.

Gabby chewed on her bottom lip. She wasn’t sure how she felt about her family spilling her secrets—even if they weren’t embarrassing secrets.

“Gabs said she wanted to go into medicine,” Lance went on. “So Linda said, ‘Oh, you mean like a nurse or something’. Gabby got this look her face and said, ‘I want to be an ER doctor’.”

Gabby felt Conner’s eyes on her but she refused to meet his gaze.

“Linda laughed and said, ‘Oh, you should do something nicer. Be a baby doctor or something’.” Lance looked at Conner. “You have to know Linda. Everything is supposed to be ‘nice’ or ‘sweet’, especially for Gabby, since she’s the only girl.”

“The only girl?” Conner interrupted. “In her family?”

“In the
whole
family,” Lance said. “There are sixteen of us grandkids on this side. Gabs is the only girl.”

Again, she felt Conner’s gaze on her, but she slugged Lance in the arm. “That’s not the only reason I did the paramedic thing.”

“She’s been saving up to go to med school,” Grant said. “And getting experience.”

In her peripheral vision she saw Conner nod. “She’s definitely getting a lot of that. She’ll be great in the ER.”

Her gaze flickered to him at that unexpected compliment.

He raised his eyebrows. “What? It’s surely not a surprise that I think you’re great at what you do.”

For some stupid reason, her body flushed with heat at that and all she could think for a moment was
I’ll show you just how great I am at what I do
.

And
that
couldn’t happen with her family here. For god’s sake. She was thinking dirty thoughts about Conner with her uncles right here?

But yeah. She sure was.

“Thanks,” she finally managed. “That’s nice to hear.”

“If you want to go into emergency medicine, you’ll be awesome,” he said. “You planning to come back to St. A’s?”

She would
love
to do her residency and then work at St. Anthony’s. She smiled. “From what I hear, their paramedics make the doctors’ work a lot easier around there.”

Conner grinned. “Damned right.”

And there was that feeling of camaraderie she loved so much.

“Yeah, yeah, Gabby’s awesome, Conner’s great. Can we play poker now?” Lance asked, picking up a deck of cards and shuffling.