Leo sighed loudly. “Fine. I’ll drive you home.”
“I don’t think so, Leo,” Gavin said with some hostility.
“Oh, you don’t think so?” Leo asked, stepping closer to Gavin. “And who’d be taking her home? You?”
“Hey, come on,” she interjected. “I’m going home alone.”
“You heard her,” Gavin said, matching Leo’s challenging stance. “Why don’t you be on your way and leave her alone?”
Natasha took a deep breath. Last thing she wanted was a fight between the two right in front of the hotel. Not that she believed Gavin would instigate anything physical, but she wasn’t sure about Leo.
She touched Gavin’s arm and rubbed it to calm him down. “Gav.”
Gavin softened and sent her an apologetic smile.
She smiled back, a wave of hope hitting her with great force as Carter’s words from the archives room rang in her head. Should she dare allow herself to think that Gavin might be having feelings for her again? Oh, please let that be the case.
“Huh. Why didn’t I see this before?” Leo said with sarcastic disbelief. “Natasha, you do know he’s got another woman, right? Remember, he has a girlfriend he’s been waiting to introduce to everyone?”
A furious blush rose up Natasha’s face and neck. “Leo, please just leave.”
Leo looked like he was going to argue, but turned around and stomped back to the hotel, presumably to get his car from the basement parking.
She exhaled, relieved—and embarrassed that Leo had noticed her feelings for Gavin. Had she really been so obvious? “Thanks, Gav. I’ll take a cab home,” she murmured, peering at him through her lashes.
“You okay?” Gavin asked, tilting her head up with a finger under her chin and inspecting her face.
It had just become harder to breathe and talk, so she just nodded.
“You broke up with him?”
“Yes.” Ooh, was that relief—or even joy—she saw in his face?
“May I ask why?”
She shrugged. “It wasn’t working for me.”
“I’m glad,” he murmured.
Her heart thudded harder. “You are?”
“There was something about Leo that I didn’t like, but I couldn’t tell what it was before. He just showed me what it is.”
“I hope he doesn’t stalk me,” she joked.
“If he does anything stupid, or anything at all that makes you uncomfortable, you tell me, okay? Straight away,” he ordered, his tone hard again.
She couldn’t help her grin. “Okay.”
Gavin sighed. “I’d take you home myself if I didn’t have to stay here.”
“Are you working?” she asked in a low voice.
“Yeah.”
“There’s no chance of you getting shot, is there?”
Gavin chuckled. “What makes you think that?”
“Carter was worried about you, and I think you’re working with the police again. So that makes me worried.”
“Don’t worry,” Gavin said, smiling and running a knuckle on her cheek. “I don’t think I’ll get shot. Not tonight, anyway.”
“Gavin!” She tapped at his chest with the back of her hand even as she shivered deliciously from his sweet gesture.
“I’m just kidding. But I do have to go back in. Why don’t you take that cab over there?” Gavin indicated the taxi that was pulling over at the front of the hotel to offload three people.
“Oh, good. I thought I’d have to call for one.”
“Come on, before someone else gets it.” Gavin took her hand to lead her to the taxi, only for him to drop it almost immediately. “Go ahead. I’ll talk to you later.”
She glanced at him sharply, surprised at the sudden brusqueness of his tone. But Gavin was already walking away from her and was approaching a man with spiked blond hair having a smoke. The guy—he had to be working at the hotel’s restaurant or the bar, judging from his uniform—smiled at Gavin before his interested gaze flickered back to her.
She averted her eyes and waved to get the taxi driver’s attention. If the hotel employee was involved in whatever Gavin was working on, she’d better leave them to it.
She settled herself inside the cab and gave the driver her home address, then pulled out her phone to check for messages. There was one from Marilyn asking if she’d “done it”. Grinning, she called her friend back.
“Since the night is still young and you’re already calling me,” Marilyn said without preamble, “I take it you’ve told Leo the bad news.”
“Yup,” she answered with a chuckle.
“You don’t sound stressed, so I guess Leo took it well?”
“Actually, he didn’t. First, he couldn’t believe I was breaking up with him during our third-month anniversary dinner. Mind you, I did tell him we needed to talk as soon as we walked out of my office, and he did know from my serious tone what was coming. But he asked that we discuss it at the restaurant, even after I’d insisted it wouldn’t be good news. Unfortunately, he decided to get drunk during dinner. When I said that our relationship wasn’t working for me and that he deserved to be with someone who would return his feelings, he started to get creepy.”
“Creepy?”
“Yeah. He simply wouldn’t take no for an answer. He kept insisting we could work it out and pleaded with me to give him another month to prove how much I mean to him. Even when I’d had it and left the restaurant, he kept on trying to hold my hand or arm. He even tried to hug me a few times.”
“Gosh. That was creepy. So how did you finally get rid of him?”
“Gavin rescued me,” she said, almost swooning at the memory.
“Gavin rescued you?”
“Yes.” She told Marilyn about Gavin’s unexpected but timely appearance.
There was silence at the other end.
“Hey, are you still there?”
“Yes. I just had to pick up my jaw from the floor.”
She laughed.
“Honestly, Tash, from the way you told that story, you’re obviously thrilled that Gavin was your knight in shining armour.”
“I know, right?” she said with a loud sigh.
“Natasha! Are you having a thing for Gavin again?”
“What? What do you mean again? Who told you?”
“Uh, Cassie happened to mention in passing during Brad and Erin’s party that you and Gavin were an item five years ago.”
She gasped, hope and glee mixing with disbelief. “I can’t believe she went through with it.”
“Went through with what?”
“You’re joining us at Lexie’s on Sunday morning for a girls-only brunch, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ll tell you all about it then.”
“Oh my gosh. I’m going to have to wait again,” Marilyn complained.
“Patience, my dear Marilyn,” she said with a laugh.
“Hope you’re not mad at Cassie.”
“Not at all,” she said, aware of the big grin on her face. “Because it means she thinks Gavin has feelings for me.”
*****
Natasha rang Lexie and Rick’s doorbell, holding the box of carrot cake she’d made for their girls-only brunch. Cassie opened the door, greeting her with a hug and a kiss.
“Is everyone here already?” she asked, squeezing Cassie tight.
“Yup.”
“Oh, good. We can start talking about Gavin.”
Cassie laughed as they walked towards the back of the house. “I bet you hardly had any sleep last night.”
“How could I, when you couldn’t tell me all about it because Carter might overhear? Speaking of my brother, I take it you’ve told him?”
“I didn’t have to tell him because he already knew.”
“Oh. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. He and Gavin are as thick as thieves. But I wonder why Carter’s never asked me about my relationship with Gavin before? He’s usually so nosy about my affairs.”
“He gave me
the impression that Gavin had asked him not to since you both agreed never to talk about it.”
“Hey, no fair starting the conversation without us!” they heard Marilyn say.
Natasha grinned as they joined Lexie, Jade, Erin and Marilyn in Lexie’s large but cosy informal dining room. She placed her cake in the middle of the glass dining table with the other yummy dishes, then kissed the other girls hello before settling herself on one of the chairs.
“Okay,” Lexie said as she poured Natasha a green smoothie. “So we already know that you and Gavin were in a relationship five years ago. But that’s all the rest of us know, apart from the fact that you still have the hots for Gavin.”
“And I think Gavin still has the hots for her,” Cassie piped in. “By the way, girls, Carter didn’t want me sharing anything with you at all today. But I said that if he has a problem trusting the six of us, then he should come here with me today and tell that to our faces.”
“Way to go, Cass,” Jade said, grinning. “Seeing that he’s not here, I take it he’s chosen to trust us?”
“He had to go away and think about it for a while. When he came back, he asked me to make each of you promise not to breathe a word about this to anyone else.”
Natasha nodded. “I won’t be surprised if Carter’s worry is connected to Amber’s case. That’s a police matter that they’d want to keep confidential.”
“Well,” Erin said, “whatever you choose to tell us, I promise not to tell anyone, not even Brad. I’ll just get Brad to ask Carter or Gavin about it if he happens to want to cajole some details out of me.”
The other women made similar promises.
“Thanks, girls,” Natasha said. “Okay, Cass, can you tell us why you decided to call on our agreement?”
“Agreement?” Jade asked.
“Well, a month ago, I confided in Cassie that Leo wasn’t doing it for me emotionally and physically even though I really wanted to like him. She pried out of me the reason why.”
“Gavin,” the other four said in unison.
“Yes,” she said with a chuckle. “Cassie said that my feelings for Gavin were getting in the way of me falling for someone else. I denied it, but Cassie thought I was only lying to myself.”
“And you were,” Cassie said. “As evidenced by your reactions in the last few days.”
“I wasn’t ready to admit it then but, yes, I still do have feelings for Gavin. I’ve never stopped loving him.”
The other girls murmured their support.
She smiled. “So Cassie took it upon herself to find out how Gavin currently feels about me even though I said then I didn’t want to know.”
“Because she was scared of what the answer might be,” Cassie said. “I was already getting frustrated with her because I knew she was just lying to herself. So I warned her that if I found out that Gavin still has feelings for her, I’d tell everyone else about their past relationship to force the two of them to face the truth. To my surprise, she agreed.”
“Because I just wanted that particular conversation to be over,” Natasha said with a laugh. “And I thought it was an empty threat.”
“I didn’t think I’d do it either. But after secretly watching Gavin during the party and noticing how he looked at you when he thought no one was looking, I decided to give you a bit of a nudge. I couldn’t stand not doing anything when it could just be a misunderstanding on both your parts—you thinking Gavin only sees you as a friend nowadays and Gavin thinking you’re with Leo.”
“Oh, Cass,” Natasha said, reaching over to give her friend a hug. How lucky was she that this woman would be her sister-in-law?
“So you’ve broken up with Leo...” Lexie said.
Natasha nodded and told the girls the full story, including the part about Gavin coming to her rescue. “I didn’t want to hope because I didn’t want to get disappointed. But the way Gavin acted that night, and the look he gave me, kinda makes me think that he has started to feel something for me again beyond friendship.”
“What I don’t understand is why you were hiding your past relationship,” Marilyn said.
Natasha looked down at her plate. “I made Gavin promise that we’d keep it to ourselves so we could focus on getting our friendship back on track. Truth was, I was so devastated that I hadn’t wanted to talk about those ten months ever again. It hurt too much.” She relayed everything, including Amber’s disappearance and her belief that Amber was the love of Gavin’s life.
Her friends were shocked.
“That’s horrible. And she’s still missing?” Jade asked.
“I believe so.”
“I did ask Carter about it and he confirmed that Amber hasn’t been found,” Cassie said. “He said that for at least a year now, certain sections of the police believe that she’s been killed already. There haven’t been any new clues or leads at all for years.”
Natasha placed her fingers on her lips, her eyes watering. Poor Amber. And it couldn’t have been easy for her loved ones... including Gavin.
A thought hit her. “Do you think that Amber being presumed dead for a year now is the reason why Gavin’s ready to move on? Because it’s given him some form of closure?”
“I think that makes sense,” Cassie said. “So now maybe he realises the two of you had a good thing going back then.”
“But if it’s me he wants, why is he going out with someone else?”
“I think the reason for that is purely the fact that you were going out with Leo,” Cassie answered.
“Really? What makes you think that?”
“Well, the night before Brad and Erin’s party, I wanted to surprise Carter in his study.”
“Ooh, in sexy lingerie, I bet,” Jade teased.
“Of course!” Cassie said to everyone’s laughter. “Anyway, he was sitting in his chair, but it was swivelled so his back was to the door. He was talking on the phone to Gavin and I could hear they were discussing the possibility of Brad proposing to Erin.”
Erin snickered. “They love to speculate about other people’s love lives as much as we do, don’t they?”
“I know! So I walked in, confident I wasn’t interrupting a work conversation, when he suddenly asked Gavin how he felt about Tash bringing a date to the party. I don’t know what answer Gavin gave him, but Carter’s response was that Gavin shouldn’t be disheartened because he didn’t think Tash and Leo were serious.”
Natasha gasped. “That’s similar to the conversation they had in the archives room!” She told them about what she’d overheard.
“There you go,” Cassie said with a smug grin. “And since we had an agreement...”
“What does Carter think?” she pressed. “Surely, he’d know how Gavin feels for me.”
Cassie exhaled loudly. “It’s funny, really, because even though he said to Gavin not to lose hope when it comes to you, he doesn’t want me encouraging you to get back together with Gavin. He wouldn’t tell me why, but I think he’s trying to shield you from possible heartache in case Gavin might be getting serious with this new girl he’s going out with. But I think Carter’s just being an overprotective brother, whereas I’d rather you take whatever opportunity you have with Gavin now. I don’t want you to regret it later, when it’s too late.”
“Aw, thanks, Cass. Has Carter met this woman Gavin’s dating?” she asked in a small voice.
“No. But Carter said to me that Gavin’s not at all serious with that woman.”
“But why did Gavin mention her to us at the party? Isn’t that an indication that he was getting serious with her?”
Marilyn made a noise of disagreement. “Remember that Gavin only mentioned her after Leo bet on himself for the Captured by Love game? He didn’t even tell us her name! So maybe he was trying to make you jealous. Besides, why would Carter even attempt to cheer Gavin up—twice that we know of—if Gavin wasn’t feeling down about you and Leo being together? If I were you, I’d let Gavin know how I feel. Like Cassie said, he just might be unde
r the impression you’re not available anymore.”
She inhaled deeply, allowing hope to blossom. “I guess you’re right. At the very least, I’ll never have closure if I don’t find out the truth. So I guess I better dust up on my flirtatious moves. If I want to do this right, I’ll have to go the seduction route. A non-sexual show of love might get misinterpreted as a friend-only thing and will not be as effective.”
Her friends cheered her on.
And for the first time in a long time, her heart danced with excitement about the future.
CHAPTER FIVE
Gavin clutched the bunch of roses with one hand, aware of the smiling glances thrown at him by the hotel guests enjoying drinks at the bar area. He’d probably come across as a mushy boyfriend tonight, but he had to crank up the romance if he was to satisfy Austin that Molly was the one he cared about, and not Natasha.
How unfortunate that Austin had witnessed parts of his altercation with Leo a week ago. Worse, the man would have surely noticed him caressing Natasha’s cheek. If only he’d had the opportunity to put a spin on his affectionate gesture then and there. But Austin had finished his cigarette and had gone back to work, and justifying his actions to the man he’d just met would have been too suspicious.
He was still beating himself up for having done something so stupid. Not that stroking any part of Tash was ever stupid, but how the hell could he have forgotten they were out in public?
Because she was looking at you like she used to when you were still together.
His heart expanded at the memory as warmth and desire travelled throughout his body. Ah, the Natasha Effect. It was still as potent as ever.
But why had she looked at him like that? He’d been mulling over that question for days and couldn’t decide on an answer. Was she just grateful that he’d been around to help her get rid of Leo? It seemed to be more than that, but maybe that was just his heart being foolish.
He shook his head surreptitiously, ordering himself to focus on the task at hand. If he wanted Natasha to remain outside of Biggs’ radar, right now he had to concentrate on Molly, who was grinning happily at him behind the bar. Austin wasn’t far away, and had also noticed his arrival.
The Unforgettable Ex (Captured by Love Book 5) (Volume 5) Page 4
