Walk On By (Passing Through Series Book 3)

by Sarah Hegger

  “No.” Belinda grimaced. “I mean, yes, she did, but I was waiting for you. I wanted to see…” She turned big, pleading eyes his way.

  Ah, hell no. A hundred reasons sharing a bed with Belinda was a horrible idea flooded through Gabe. In the weeks since he’d been in Twin Elks, this side of Belinda had slipped his mind. She was an expert at bending things to her will with her big brown eyes and slightly helpless air. He was willing to bet she’d worked her magic on Ma.

  “Your mother was fine with me staying here. She didn’t mind where I slept.”

  There you had it. “You can stay in one of my brothers’ old rooms.”

  “Thanks.” If she had any emotions about where she was sleeping, she kept them to herself. The silence in the kitchen stretched into awkward. “So, I never thought I’d see the day you were saving Fido.”

  “He’s my mother’s dog.” Her flippant remark irritated him. He was proud of the work he and Cara had done today. He didn’t always have to fly to exotic destinations and haul on scuba kit to do his job.

  And yes, the irony of that last thought was not lost on him.

  Belinda laughed “Yeah, but it’s not exactly your thing, is it? Rushing to the aid of the family pet.”

  God, he hoped he didn’t sound as pretentious and up himself as that when he spoke about his work with great whites.

  Ben’s truck pulled up outside the house, and he joined them in the kitchen. “Ma told me about her dog.” He clapped Gabe on the shoulder. “You did a good thing.”

  Gabe had never been gladder to see his brother and have a body between himself and what he suspected was going to be a very awkward conversation.

  “Ben Crowe.” Ben held his hand out to Belinda. “Gabe’s older brother.”

  Belinda shook his hand. “Nice to meet you. Gabe speaks about you a lot.”

  “I can imagine.” Ben rolled his eyes. Behind Belinda’s back, he gave Gabe a hard stare, silently demanding, What’s she doing here?

  Gabe met it and tossed back, No clue.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Belinda. It is Belinda, right?” Ben tucked his thumbs into his utility belt, playing up the aw-shucks county police chief thing. He should come with a matching set of dueling banjoes. “Ma says you’re staying here. Both of you.”

  “Yeah.” Gabe didn’t even try to look happy about it.

  After a moment, Ben nodded. “Actually, Ryan heard about the accident and is having a hard time with it. I promised him I would come over and get the news straight from you.”

  “Gabe did a great job.” Belinda beamed at Ben. “He saved that dog.”

  Belinda hadn’t even seen Bruce, so he had no idea how she’d come to that conclusion. “I had some help.”

  Ben gave Gabe one of his rare smiles. “You always were good at saving things and putting them back together again.”

  “Yeah.” And the good feeling came back. It was so stupid that Ben’s approval meant as much as it did, but it lit a warm glow in Gabe. “I also gave the poor animal a damn name at last.”

  Ben grunted. “About time.”

  “What did you name him?” Belinda swung around to look at him.

  “Bruce.”

  Her eyes lit up.

  Damn! He should have thought of another name, because Belinda was an expert at reading into things.

  Ma came through the door from the house. “Gabe.” She pulled him into a hug. “How’s the dog?”

  “Bruce.” Belinda grinned at her. “Gabe named him after Bruce. The Australian shark in Finding Nemo.” She giggled. “Two things Gabe loves; Australia and sharks.

  “Oh.” Ma looked taken aback. “Well, the poor dear did need a name. Is he doing okay?”

  “He should be.” Gabe grabbed Belinda’s stuff. “We flushed out his abdomen as well as we could before we closed him back up, and Cara has him on some strong antibiotics to prevent infection.”

  “Thank you so much for having me here.” Belinda hugged Ma.

  Ma looked over Belinda’s shoulder at him. A look that promised she would be getting answers in the near future. “That’s fine. Why don’t we get you settled?”

  “Gabe.” Poppy poked her head around the kitchen door.

  The grin Ben gave her was as large and goofy as ever. He leaned down and kissed her. “Babe. How’s Ryan?”

  “He’s doing okay.” Poppy glanced at Belinda and then came back to him. “Ryan’s worried about the dog.”

  “Bruce.” Belinda thrust her hand at Poppy. “Hi. I’m Belinda. Gabe’s…” she gave him a coy look.

  “Ex,” Gabe said.

  “Ex-girlfriend.” Belinda kept on smiling, but she threw him a look of reproach.

  Poppy glanced between them and then at Ben.

  Ben raised an eyebrow.

  Dot cleared her throat.

  “Nice to meet you.” Poppy gave Belinda a warm smile. “I’m Poppy, and I’m married to Ben.”

  Belinda clicked her fingers. “You have all those children, right?”

  “Four.” Gabe wanted out of the kitchen and away from that scene. “Poppy and Ben have four children.”

  “Yeah, but they’re Poppy’s children, aren’t they?” Belinda frowned. “I’m sure you told me that.”

  Ben’s face looked carved from stone. “They’re our children.”

  “But first, they were mine.” Poppy took pity on Belinda. “Ben has gotten a crash course in fatherhood.”

  “Tea,” Ma yelled. She flapped a hand at him. “Let’s clear those suitcases. Belinda can have Mark’s old room, and then we can have tea.” She turned an over-bright smile on Belinda. “Unless you prefer coffee to tea?”

  “Tea is fine.” Belinda followed Ma out of the kitchen.

  Ben grabbed his arm. “What the hell, Gabe?”

  “I have no fucking idea.” Gabe yanked his arm away, but he had a very good idea of what Belinda was doing there, and he didn’t like it.

  In the house, he followed the sound of chatter to Mark’s room.

  Belinda was looking around her. “This must be the brother who plays ice hockey.”

  “That’s my Mark.” Ma did some more hand flapping. “Put the cases near the wardrobe.”

  Gabe did as he was told. “Bathroom’s across the hall.” He pointed in the right direction. “Take your time and settle in.”

  “I’ll get on that tea.” Ma dogged his heels into the kitchen.

  Poppy and Ben had left already.

  Ma checked the hallway before turning on him. “What is she doing here, Gabe?”

  “I didn’t invite her,” he whispered. “She just showed up.”

  “What do you want—”

  Belinda reappeared, and Ma grabbed the kettle and put it on. The three of them limped through tea and then dinner. A dinner Belinda picked at, and rejected most of, because she was on Keto. Now Gabe had no issue with Keto, but before Keto, Belinda had been Paleo, and before that gluten free, and before that Vegan. It had made grocery shopping with her a living hell.

  Ma escaped to her bedroom as soon as she could, and Belinda helped him clear up the kitchen. Afterward, he got himself a beer and they sat in the lounge together.

  “You told me you came from a small town, but this is tiny.” Belinda laughed. “I’m expecting a tumbleweed to roll down the street any minute.”

  Gabe laughed along with her, but the criticism of Twin Elks bugged him. He got the hypocrisy, and that he’d said worse about Twin Elks. “It has its appeal.”

  “Does it?” Belinda stopped laughing. “And what would those appeals be?”

  “My mother.” Gabe kept his gaze on the street. He didn’t want her looking too deeply into his face. Belinda had been with him long enough to read his expressions. “Childhood memories. People.” He waved his beer at the view. “The mountains. There’s a lot of g
ood hiking around here.”

  “The mountains are pretty. Maybe we could go hiking sometime.” Belinda was still staring at him. “You know why I’m here.”

  Gabe barely kept the grimace off his face. “Can we not do this?”

  Belinda drew in a careful breath. “I traveled a long way to do this, Gabe.”

  “I’m not sure why you did.” Gabe really hated to be cruel, but she’d surprised the shit out of him. “Things haven’t changed for me.”

  Belinda got to her feet and gave him a tight smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m tired, and you’ve had an emotional day. You’re right; let’s not do this now.”

  Gabe let her go, because his answer would stay the same. He stayed where he was as she closed Mark’s bedroom door. But there was somewhere he wanted to be and Ma’s wasn’t it. After putting his beer in the kitchen, he grabbed his coat.

  It was late, but Gabe still had the key from when he’d been looking after her. He let himself into Kelly’s condo and called softly so as not to startle her if she was still awake, “Kelly.”

  All the lights in the condo were off. He toed off his shoes and hung up his coat before sneaking through to the bedroom.

  Tucked up in bed, her hands under her pillow, Kelly was fast asleep. She got up early for the store and went to bed early most nights.

  Calm crept over him. That was exactly where he wanted to be.

  He shucked his clothes and slid into bed beside her. Her warmth beckoned him, and he pulled her close.

  She stirred and turned her head. “Gabe?”

  “Yeah.” He kissed her cheek. “Go back to sleep.”

  “Did you creep into my place in the middle of the night?”

  He pushed his nose into her neck and inhaled her scent. “Yeah, I’m a creepy asshole.”

  Kelly sighed and closed her eyes. “Okay then.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Kelly carried on her day with her smile frozen on her face. What were the chances some random Australian woman had walked into the veterinarian’s and knew Gabe?

  “I don’t know what she’s doing here,” Peg said for about the hundredth time. “And neither does Dot.” She discarded coffee grounds with aggressive banging.

  Amazingly enough, she and Peg worked well together. Peg didn’t chatter too much—other than right then when she wanted to dissect the arrival of the Australian. She didn’t break stuff, and she stayed cool when the rushes hit them. She also seemed to be loving the hell out of being in the coffee shop.

  “Here you go.” Peg handed off two coffees to customers. “Dot said they broke up months ago.”

  Kelly took a careful breath in. It dragged a grappling hook down her windpipe. Nope, denial wasn’t really helping her. Gabe’s ex had arrived in Twin Elks.

  And what made a woman travel halfway around the world to see a man?

  Ding! Ding! Ding! If you guessed because she wanted that man back and was there to get him, then Kelly had a prize to give away.

  “Kelly?” Vince still popped in for his regular coffee, and she was glad of it. “You okay?”

  She slapped a smile on her face. “I’m fine. Indigestion.” That started in the heart region.

  This wasn’t like her. She didn’t get jealous or anxious over men.

  “The usual?” She kept her smile in place.

  Vince nodded. “You know me.”

  But the tightness in her chest was a reality, which meant Gabe had come to mean way, way more than she had ever planned. Could she have been more damn stupid? She’d gotten attached to a man who was only passing through.

  Kelly got on with making Vince’s regular coffee.

  That couldn’t be right. She knew better than to get attached. All those years when she had been waiting for another chance with Vince, she had managed to keep her relationships light and noncommittal.

  Perhaps it was because the sex was so great.

  “There you go.” She put Vince’s coffee in front of him.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  That was it. Relief almost made her dizzy. The raging attraction between them, followed by the off-the-charts sex had confused the issue. After all, she’d been celibate for months before Gabe’s arrival. It was so easy to get lust mixed up with love. Having made sense of her emotions, she felt much better, as if a weight had been lifted.

  The ache in her heart would disappear soon. She turned her attention to Vince. “So, how’ve you been?”

  “Good. I went over to see India last night,” Vince said. “She’s incredibly courageous.”

  Kelly welcomed the distraction. It beat the hell out of thinking she might have fallen in love with Gabe Crowe. Which was so ridiculous she wouldn’t even give it another second of mental energy. “She really is. I hate what she suffered through with that asshole.”

  “Ben still hasn’t seen any sign of him?”

  She shook her head. “None.”

  Surely, she was being overdramatic. She couldn’t have fallen in love with Gabe. They’d gone to school together for years and years, and she’d barely noticed he was there. Except, he’d always been hot, and girls had always looked at him. Kelly had looked along with the rest of them, but then she’d had Vince.

  “I don’t like it.” Vince looked grim. “I don’t think he’s going to give up and go away.”

  “Me neither.” Some of her frustration about Gabe crept into her tone. “I wish I felt more certain she was done with him.”

  Vince reared back as if she’d struck him. “Why wouldn’t she be done with him?”

  “What?”

  “India has been through so much. She needs time to process what’s happened.” He stood and put money on the counter. “Plus, Jacob has really not being feeling well, and he’s been really tiring to look after.”

  “I wasn’t criticizing.” She’d never seen Vince buckle into his armor so fast. “I’m frustrated he’s still out there and could influence her.”

  Vince gave her a tight nod, his expression still annoyed. “I understand that, Kelly. But maybe it’s a good thing that you and India can’t spend too much time together right now. She needs to be surrounded by total support.”

  “Right.” And ouch! Vince was really letting her have it. In the world according to Vince, India was always the victim, and Kelly was always the girl who took care of herself.

  Gabe didn’t see her like that.

  And the grappling hook scraped down her chest again.

  Vince passed Poppy at the door. They stopped a moment and said their hellos before Poppy walked into the store and climbed on the stool. “Hey, you.”

  “Hey yourself,” Kelly said.

  Poppy stood on the footrest and peered over the counter. “What are you making me?”

  “Whatever it is, you’ll like it.” Kelly got busy making Poppy a drink. She wanted to bring up the subject of Gabe, but she didn’t want to be obvious. “What are you doing here anyway?”

  “Nice!” Poppy pretended to be upset. “Actually, I’m hiding.”

  “From the house?”

  “There are a lot of us crammed into that house,” Poppy said. “And sometimes we tread on each other’s toes.”

  “Only natural,” Kelly said.

  Poppy wrinkled her nose. “Especially since Claire is in full bitch mode today.”

  “What’s up with her?”

  “I have my suspicions.” After checking behind her, Poppy leaned forward with her face alight. “If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone.”

  Kelly mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key.

  “We-e-ell,” Poppy said. “Based on the evidence of her not drinking wine with dinner, and I heard her tossing her cookies the other day…”

  “Oh my God!” That was the best distraction. Kelly lowered her voice to a whi
sper. A thing like that could go viral in minutes in Twin Elks. “You think she’s pregnant.”

  Poppy nodded, glowing like a little girl. “Only you know what a control freak that girl is.” She giggled. “She’s taking some time to get her head around the idea.”

  Kelly put a drink in front of Poppy. She hoped Poppy didn’t ask what it was because she honestly couldn’t remember what ingredients she’d tossed together.

  “What do you think Finn will say?”

  Rolling her eyes, Poppy waved a hand. “Oh, he’ll be thrilled. That man has been waiting to be a father for years.”

  “That’s so lovely.” Kelly was horrified when tears prickled behind her eyelids. She was delighted for her friend.

  Poppy looked at her. “Kelly?”

  “I’m thrilled for Claire. That’s all.” She ducked her head.

  “Really?” Poppy’s gaze called bullshit. “And this has nothing to do with a certain Australian who arrived in town?”

  “No.” But the lie was less than convincing.

  Poppy looked around the quiet coffee shop. “Can you close up early?”

  “I suppose I could.” It would also mean she didn’t have to risk Gabe coming to fetch her with the Australian in tow. He still hovered around at closing time. “I definitely could.”

  “Good,” Poppy said. “Because I want to go up to the cabin and take some measurements, and I want company while I do.”

  Kelly was good with that, so they packed up the coffee shop. She also sent a text to Gabe explaining to him that she was with Poppy.

  The text was delivered but not read. She forced herself to stop staring at her texts and allowed Poppy to drag her out of the shop.

  Down the street, piles of building debris littered the sidewalk outside the old bakery.

  “What’s that about?” Poppy jerked her chin.

  It was funny how quickly Poppy had become part of the Twin Elks community. “Somebody bought the old bakery and is busy turning it into a health store and yoga center.”

  “Oooh!” Poppy looked excited. “That will be nice.”

  Kelly grimaced. “As long as you don’t picture Peg doing down dog.”

  A tall man passed them and smiled. “Ladies.”