Rocky Mountain Angel

Chapter Fourteen

The changes were subtle, but there. Over the next week as Allison went through her day it was disconcerting how often she was distracted from the task at hand. More and more she found herself thinking about Gabe. Longing for the time when she could get back to the cabin and they could curl up together.

Curl up. What a bunch of crock. She meant so they could strip naked for another round of sweaty, satisfying sex.

After that first frantic night, the next time wasn’t as desperate but just as needed. Something about tangling with him let her forget her worries and fears for a moment.

She was still going to lose her mom. They still had to tell her siblings and deal with the fallout of that. But the body-shaking pleasure helped numb the hovering pain. Somehow made her able to get up in the morning and head into her day.

She stirred the sausage in the pan as she planned what she needed to accomplish that day. Friday. Time off from the restaurant opened up her agenda. Her mom had suggested coming over in the afternoon—Maisey was doing the morning shift at the Timberline and had promised she’d be home early after that.

There had also been talk of letting Paul and Elle know the truth soon. Maybe even this coming week. Allison wasn’t holding her breath, but while keeping the secret was hard, having it still secret meant she didn’t have to worry about dealing with their reactions either.

A meow brought her attention to the floor just as Puss in Boots wrapped himself around her ankles, looking for attention. Allison stooped and picked the kitten up, nestling him against her chest and cuddling him. Scratching his tiny chin the way she’d learned he liked.

Puss had made himself at home in the cabin, claiming an old T-shirt of Gabe’s and turning it into a nest. With Gabe in and out during the day, and Rafe offering to stop in to take care of him, it seemed the little creature had both made a full recovery and found a home.

Taking him with her when she eventually left seemed cruel, but the idea of leaving without him didn’t sit right either.

She was so deep in thought she never heard Gabe step behind her.

His greeting wrapped around her the same moment his hands slipped over her belly. “Good morning.”

He pressed his lips to the back of her neck, and goose bumps rose. A delicious shiver somewhere between anticipation and the ready knowledge of the pleasure he could put her body through.

“You’re lazy today,” she teased.

Gabe lifted his hand a little higher to pet the kitten, smoothing his fingers over its head gently. “Someone wore me out last night.”

Allison snickered, pulling the pan off the heat and turning off the burner. “I slept without moving for ten hours. I’m not sure who wore out who.”

He turned her, the kitten supported between them as Gabe lifted her chin. His toothpaste-fresh mouth woke desires inside she really didn’t feel comfortable with. Sex in the evening when it was about giving each other comfort? Sex in the morning when it was sheer physical pleasure? She could handle those situations.

This seemed far more intimate, and damn if she didn’t like it. Liking it was a bad thing.

Reluctantly, she pulled away, patting his chest for a second. “Breakfast is ready. If you grab the coffee, I’ll serve up.”

Gabe didn’t let her go. Instead, he stared down with a touch of something in his expression that looked strangely like fear before it vanished, and she wondered if she’d seen it at all.

He followed her orders, taking food to the table. Sitting easily.

Allison lowered Puss to the floor by his bowl, leaving the kitten with a final pet. She had to resist running her hands along Gabe’s shoulders as she made her way past him back to the sink to wash her hands. Addicted, that’s what she was fast becoming. Addicted to his touch. Since this wasn’t about anything permanent, she needed to nip those impulses right now before they got her in trouble. Bad enough she’d messed up his life with her crazy demands—last thing he needed was for her to fall in love with him.

Gabe pushed the sugar pot toward her. “I went over the reports you got back from the lab. Doesn’t look like I’ll be to be able to use the south fields for organic grain this time around.”

Another blow. She hated to be the bearer of bad news, but he’d told her to be upfront about the truth. “No. They’ll have to be in transition the three years. I guess the positive is that gives you time to talk to your neighbour. To convince him to stop spraying so close to the line. I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “That section was the least likely to work. I’m okay with it.”

Only she could tell he was still disappointed. She hurried to the good news, hoping to put the smile back on his face.

“The vegetables from your mom’s plot are working out wonderfully with the new menu we put together. Is Dana okay with the orders we put in?”

“She’s happier than I’ve seen her in a while. Swear that woman never sleeps. Every time I go over there she’s found something new she wants me to ask you about. Latest is she wants to know if you’d like her to plant a second crop of spinach—seems she found a shady spot she thinks will work to stop the plants from going to seed too soon.”

Allison smiled, thinking the last time she’d stopped in at the house and got to listen to Gabe’s mom enthuse about the new crops. “Yes, we can use the spinach. If there’s a bit of excess, I’ll ask the chef to create some specials to use it up. People love that we’re using more local produce. The whole 100 Mile Diet craze is making them more aware.”

Gabe laughed. “Remind me to thank my cousin Blake’s wife for that one.”

Allison paused. “Jaxi? What’d she do?”

“The usual. Interfered in all the right ways. I found out she’s involved with the reading club at the library and added that book to the reading list. She organized a challenge for the summer, daring people to try to meet the 100-mile goal.”

The Coleman clan—through thick or thin. “You think she did that to help you out?”

He raised a brow. “Helps them out as well—she’s selling farm-fresh eggs like crazy. I’ve set up with my Uncle Mike for us to butcher some of the sheep privately come the fall. The profit per animal is way higher than taking them to market, especially the ones that I’ve been keeping aside and following the organic rules on. I’ve got the turkeys as well.”

“I can get you in touch with a few more sellers out in Red Deer—people who work the farmer’s markets and that kind of thing. That organic meat is going to be like gold, you know.”

His grin lit the room.

It was comfortable and peaceful, sitting and talking through the plans for the Coleman land. By necessity things were slow to change, but Gabe seemed content not to rush, and some of her burdens fell aside.

The sexual frustrations and longings? They stayed right up at high.

There was also the part of her that wondered why she wasn’t more focused on getting back to her life in Red Deer. This was supposed to be a temporary gig, living in Rocky, being there for her mom. Thoughts of wanting to see what Gabe could make of the land in the next five years had no place in her long-term plans, and the thought itched her the wrong way.

She really didn’t want to think about why.

Gabe was stacking their plates when loud knocking hit the door.

He sighed. “Bet it’s Rafe pretending to need something, but really here to visit the cat.”

Allison smiled. His kid brother had been coming over often, but he wasn’t bad company. “I don’t mind, and neither does Puss. And hey, at least Rafe’s knocking now.”

“Afraid to catch us fooling around on the kitchen table, or something.”

Her gaze darted to the solid wood planks still covered with the dirty dishes from breakfast, and the thought of having Gabe bend her over the surface made the most delicious shiver go through her.

She turned to the door instead of being brave enough to meet his eyes, just in case he could read the insta-lust that notion created.

It wasn’t Rafe on the other side. It was Travis, face bloody, clothing torn up. He was supporting another young man who hung limply at his side.

Allison gasped, “Oh, shit. Gabe, help.”

She swung the door open wide, and Gabe rushed out, catching hold on the opposite side and assisting Travis in bringing the staggering blond into the cabin. Puss in Boots vanished into the back bedroom, tail down.

“I couldn’t think of where else to go.” Travis’s voice rattled out, faint and rough like he’d been shouting for hours and had barely anything left. “Too many people around my place with the twins moved home.”

“Just get him inside.”

While they manhandled the stranger into the living area, Allison raced for some water and a washcloth. She didn’t recognize the stranger, which didn’t mean much since she’d been gone for years.

Gabe and Travis were speaking in low voices when she returned.

“I didn’t break my promise. I wasn’t fighting. That’s why I didn’t call.” Travis accepted the washcloth and applied it to the man’s forehead where a large cut had bled profusely, dripping across his face and into his hair.

Gabe glanced at Allison. “You want to make Travis something to drink?”

He was trying to get rid of her, which made sense. She didn’t need to know the details. “You want anything, Travis?” she asked.

Travis closed his eyes for a moment, frustration screaming out in his every move. “I’m not thirsty, dammit. Gabe’s trying to keep a secret for me, but since you two are getting hitched, I guess I’m just going to have to trust you as well, aren’t I?”

Oh God. Allison wasn’t sure how to stop this. “I don’t need to know anything you don’t want to tell.”

The man on the couch groaned loudly, and Gabe swore. “Travis, if he needs more than a place to sleep it off, this isn’t it.”

“Cassidy is fine.”

Gabe grabbed Travis’s hand and stopped it in midair. “He’s covered in blood and barely conscious. Not to call bullshit on you, but I don’t want a man dying on my couch just because you’ve got some screwy idea of keeping secrets and not going to the hospital.”

“Fuck it. I’m not dying.” Cassidy opened one eye a crack. “My head is killing me, but don’t start digging a hole to hide my carcass or some crap.”

“See? He’s alive. He’s also an asshole and an idiot, but chances are he’ll continue to be an asshole and an idiot for a long time.” Travis pressed the cloth against the man’s head, the blood slowly cleaning up.

“Takes one to know one.”

She should leave, but that was impossible. Allison waited, hovering on the perimeter like a forgotten puppy.

Gabe leaned in to examine Cassidy’s face. “Great. Not dying, but you still look like shit.”

“Nice place you got,” Cassidy forced out, blinking hard as he looked around. “Not that I can see much though the blurred vision.”

“Be quiet,” Travis ordered. “Gabe, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to be traipsing around town looking like we’d done murder. We’ll clean him up and get out of your hair.”

Gabe’s response was a low growl. “You’ve already involved me. Stupid to stop now. Just tell me—either of you got the RCMP or anyone like that looking for you?”

The laughter that escaped Cassidy’s lips died off in a groan of pain. “Nice cousin you got there, T. Thinks the best of you and your friends, doesn’t he?”

“Shut up. He’s got every right to wonder, with you looking like you escaped from the pen or something.” Travis lifted his gaze to Gabe’s. “Nothing illegal. No one died.”

“That we know of—”

“Goddammit, can you shut the fuck up for five minutes so I can explain this?” Travis dragged a hand through his hair, gaze snapping between Allison and Gabe.

The black circles under his eyes made her suspect whatever had happened had been going on all night long. She met Gabe’s gaze, looking to him for a sign of what to do.

Cassidy passing out and nearly sliding off the couch gave them all something else to think about for a few minutes.

“Allison, go take the quilt off your—the guest bed,” Gabe ordered. “Travis, pull off his boots. We can at least lay him flat while we argue about if we need to call an ambulance.”

She hurried away to do as he asked. While she might have been sleeping in Gabe’s bed for the past week, her stuff was still all over the place in the extra room. She barely had time to strip away the covers before the guys were there, gently depositing an unconscious Cassidy on the bare sheets.

“He got hit a few times that I saw, but I thought he was more dazed than anything.”

Gabe unbuttoned Cassidy’s shirt. “Not the fight club?”

Travis shook his head, gaze darting to Allison’s then away. “We were kind of ambushed—they took us by surprise.”

There was a world of things Travis wasn’t saying, and she didn’t want to know more than he was willing to give. “You guys need me to do anything?”

Gabe nodded, the bloody shirt tossed to the floor. “Call Tamara. Ask her to come out.”

“Dammit, Gabe,” Travis complained.

“No—” Gabe held up a hand. “It’s the hospital or Tamara, you choose. Passing out isn’t fine in my books, but you can decide. At least until Tamara gets here. If she says he needs medical attention, then he goes. If you have a problem with that, you picked the wrong place to come for help.”

The tension rushed out of Travis so fast he folded, collapsing to the ground. Allison instinctively moved forward to help him, but he waved her off. “Do what he said and call Tamara. You’re right, Gabe. You’re right.”

He leaned back on the wall, one leg pulled up, totally drained. Staring intently at the still body on the bed.

Getting hold of Tamara and asking her to quietly join them at the cabin only took a few minutes. Allison hurried and grabbed a cup of coffee for Travis—from the looks of it the man was barely staying vertical himself, and he probably wouldn’t give in to reason and go take a rest without a huge protest. By the time she returned to the bedroom, though, Travis had vanished.

“Where…?”

Gabe nodded toward his bedroom. “Showering. Help me with Cassidy for a minute.”

She put down the cup and joined Gabe. He’d been carefully washing the cut on the man’s forehead, the edges already turning blue, bruises rising on his torso as well. Cassidy was powerfully built, his muscles visible even while totally relaxed.

“Must have been quite the crew to put that kind of hurt on someone this strong.” Allison picked up a second washcloth and carefully wiped Cassidy’s knuckles and hands.

Gabe didn’t say anything for a minute. He peeked out the doorway, but the shower was still running. “Travis goes to a fight club every now and then. I go with him to make sure he comes home in one piece. Tamara is aware of Travis’s little adventures because she’s volunteered a few times now—just so you know.”

Fight club. She’d never heard of it. “Maybe I’m too sheltered, but what is that. A boxing ring?”

He shook his head, pulling a light sheet over Cassidy and gesturing her out of the room. “More hardcore, less rules—bare-knuckle a lot of the time.”

The mental image she’d had of boxers in the Olympics vanished to be replaced by street fighters. “Sounds dangerous. But Travis said they weren’t fighting.”

“I don’t need to know the details, Allison. I just want Cassidy to walk out of here in one piece.”

They were at the edge of the living room when he tugged her against him and held on tight. It was out of the blue, and slightly confusing, but being back in his arms? Whatever reason put her there, she was willing to take it. Pathetic as that made her if she thought about it.

So she didn’t think. Just tucked her head under his chin and held on. Soaked in his warmth. Waited, taking every second she could until he decided to let her go.

Somewhere in the past seven days Gabe had lost track of exactly what he was trying to accomplish. Oh, he still knew his deadline was coming at the end of the summer, but even the burning need to provide for his family was less on his mind than Allison.

Sex had changed things. That was the best reason he could come up with, and yet it didn’t seem to be the complete answer.

This morning when he’d woken and found her already out of his bed, the nudge of something missing had been more than just a physical need to take her all over.

He stared out the window and held her close, her warmth wrapping him up tighter than binder twine. The sweet scent of her body lotion drifted to his nostrils, combining with the images he had of licking her skin, and suddenly he wasn’t thinking about the man who lay passed out in his guest room. He was plotting how soon he could get Allison alone and naked.

A bolt of remorse hit hard enough to shake his limbs.

Allison’s head swung up, her gaze searching his face. “What’s wrong? You okay?”

The demons of the past poked his gut with blazing-hot pitchforks. If he could have shouted out his frustration without scaring her half to death, he would have.

Instead, he caught her face in his hand. Stroked his thumb over her cheekbone. “I’m fine.”

She raised a brow. “Interesting. You called bullshit on Travis for using that word a few minutes ago.”

“Smarty-pants.”

He couldn’t stop himself. Leaned over and pressed their lips together for a brief, intense kiss.

When he stepped away, one corner of her mouth was turned up. She’d found her smile again, even though it was far more tense than usual. “You sure you’re okay? Need me to do anything while we wait for Tamara?”

A number of suggestions sprang to mind. None of them he could voice, all of which increased his guilt. How he could have sex on the brain at a time like this was stupid. “I’m kind of lost right now as to what to do.”

“If Travis is capable of staying on his feet, maybe we should head out for a bit.”

“Leave?” That idea hadn’t crossed his mind. “What if they need me?”

Allison’s nose twitched, as if she were fighting to find the right way to say something. Finally she shrugged. “If you really think you should stay, you should. Only, you can’t fix whatever is wrong, Gabe. It’s great Travis felt comfortable coming to you for help, but either Cassidy needs a hospital or he needs to sleep. Neither of which you have to be here to supervise.”

She was right, but actually walking away—he wasn’t sure he could do that.

Allison reached up and brushed his arm. “Gabe, you decide for you, but maybe they’d like less people in their business. I think I’ll go before Tamara gets here. I’ve already heard more secrets than I should have.”

“Travis had no problems with it,” Gabe pointed out.

She lowered her voice. “He thinks we’re getting married.”

Shit.

Gabe twisted to face the guest room. The shower had stopped, and Travis would probably be out in a few minutes. He’d left some clothes for his cousin to borrow to replace his torn and stained things.

Allison was right. He’d done what he could, and it wasn’t his job to stick around longer. Even though everything in him screamed for him to stay, their deception was forgivable up until the point it started impacting other people.

Neither he nor Allison needed to know more secrets.

He turned back and caught her fingers in his, squeezing them tight. “You really are a smart one. How fast can you grab what you need to head out for the morning?”

“Five minutes.”

He nodded, glancing back to see Travis emerge from the bedroom. “Go on—if you need the bathroom, it’s free. I’ll talk to Travis for a minute then meet you at the stable.”

“Riding?”

He’d blow off his morning work and put in time later. A head’s up to Rafe would be enough to let the kid know to start alone. “If that works for you.”

“I’d like to ride. It’s been a few days since I got out.”

They separated, Allison stopping as she passed Travis to give him a quick hug.

His cousin stared after her for a minute before slipping into the guest room. “She’s alright.”

Gabe snorted slowly, trying not to disturb the man on the bed. “Thanks for your vote of approval. Tamara is on her way over, and Allison and I are going to head out.”

Travis pulled the chair from under the desk and propped it beside the bed, straddling the seat and resting his arms on the rail back. “I’m a shit for bringing him here.”

Gabe shook his head. “I don’t mind. I mean that, and if he needs a place to crash for a few days, he’s welcome. But only if he’s healthy.”

“Just got the crap beat out of him is all.”

Gabe wasn’t ready to try to figure out why Travis wasn’t looking him in the eye. “Great. Because that’s so much better than needing to sleep off a drunken bender or something.”

Travis sprawled over the chair back and swore lightly. “Shit, that’s not what I meant. Just trying to tell you he’s not on drugs, or somehow dangerous. I never would have brought him here if he were, okay? I do have some sense.”

“I didn’t think you would. And you have tons of sense, when you use it. Fuckhead.”

Travis grinned at the insult. “Yeah, this time, you’re right.”

“I’m always right.” Gabe stood from where he’d been leaning on the doorpost. “I’ll have my phone. Call me if you need to take him in, and we’ll come back so I can give you a hand. If not, make yourself at home. We’ll be out until around lunch. Oh, and don’t let the cat out.”

His cousin didn’t answer, just checked to see that Cassidy was still breathing, then lowered his head to his forearms and let out a huge sigh.

Gabe snuck from the room, exiting the house to meet Allison by the horses.

Walking away was tough. Really tough. Only the thought of what he was walking toward kept his feet moving.