If he told her how he felt about her home, she’d probably feel terrible. If he didn’t tell her…he didn’t see that as a choice now, either. He couldn’t keep going out there, though, trying to act like it didn’t bother him. He hadn’t even been able to stomach going in for a cup of coffee this morning because the shadows had started closing in around him, stirring up too many bad feelings. He’d been feeling pretty damn good about last night and hadn’t wanted to end their date on a sour note, so he’d gotten himself out of there as fast as he could.
He’d been so caught up in the unfairness of his parents’ deaths that he hadn’t heard half of what Gabriella had been saying. Hell, he wasn’t even sure if he’d kissed her goodbye. He must have; he couldn’t have been that out of it. Justin shook his head and sighed. What a damn mess, one he didn’t want to think about anymore right now but would have to deal with when he could be more rational about it.
As he turned into the driveway to the Inn, his cell rang and he checked the caller ID. He answered when he saw the call was from Delaney. She wanted him to come for dinner the following night. He was going to turn down the offer because he planned to ask Gabriella out and then do his best to convince her to spend the night with him again, but Delaney said she was inviting Gabriella as well, and that she really wanted the four of them to spend some time together.
His family meant the world to him, and he wanted Gabriella to be a part of that. They could have dinner with Blake and Delaney and still spend the night at his place. He accepted Delaney’s invitation and decided Gabriella would be more likely to agree to stay with him if he didn’t give her too much time to come up with reasons why she shouldn’t.
Gabriella had enjoyed the amazing night and morning they’d just shared as much as he had. He knew it, but he also knew she overanalyzed things, and he’d already seen evidence she was cautious. He understood why she might want to take things slow, but once Chloe got back they wouldn’t have the opportunity to spend this kind of intimate time together. He’d probably be more successful getting her to agree to stay with him if he didn’t give her too much time to ponder it.
When Delaney invited her for dinner, Gab would know they’d be making it a foursome. It would be better to let her think they were all just getting together for a casual evening at his brother’s. He’d just wait until he saw her tomorrow night and then convince her to go home with him. Justin smiled to himself. There wasn’t anything he could think of that would be more pleasant than spending another heavenly night wrapped in the delight that was Gabriella Forelli.
Gab pulled the last weed from the borders in front of the porch where she had been working for the last two hours and then stood up and stretched. She wasn’t used to yard work, but she was determined to do what she could to keep the place from looking too shabby until she could landscape it properly.
As she was removing her garden gloves, Mark Carell, the lawyer handling her father’s estate, called. He needed her signature on some papers before he could close things out. He had a lunch meeting at Mosey’s Diner next Thursday, and since he’d be in Glebe Point, thought it would be nice if he could meet with her and put a face to the name. He could get the final signatures he needed at the same time. Since his other meeting was at Mosey’s, Gab suggested she meet him there as well, and they set a date to get together at eleven, Thursday morning of the following week.
After ending the call, she turned and looked at the mountain of mulch the farm supply store had delivered that morning at the crack of dawn and wondered if she had overestimated how much she would need. She hadn’t measured the borders, but each one looked about twelve feet long and maybe three or four feet deep.
The woman she’d placed the order with over the phone a few days ago told her the mulch was sold by the cubic yard. She’d done some quick math in her head. There were three feet in a yard, so she multiplied the approximate length and width of each border and then divided that by three to come up with an estimate of twenty-one yards. She placed an order for an even twenty, figuring she could always buy a couple of bags to fill in if she needed.
Gab frowned. It was an awfully big pile of mulch. Maybe it just looked so big because the thought of moving the behemoth from where it sat looming almost to her porch roof to her borders seemed a daunting task at the moment. She blew out a breath and reached for the roll of plastic barrier to spread over her freshly weeded dirt borders. The mountain wasn’t going to move itself.
Hearing a vehicle coming up the driveway, she turned and recognized Blake’s big, black truck. She waved and then bent down to brush the dirt off her jeans.
He parked in front of the walkway and jumped down out of the cab. “Morning,” he said, striding toward her with a large manila envelope in his hand. He looked at her mountain. “You plan on mulching the whole yard?”
“Just these two borders in front of the porch for now.”
He lifted his eyes in amusement. “With all that?”
Gab gnawed the corner of her lip. “I ordered too much, didn’t I?”
“Not if you’re planning on eliminating the front steps and just stepping from the porch onto the mulch and then jumping down to your lawn.”
“I don’t understand.” She frowned at the mountain. “I thought I’d save money ordering bulk.” Turning, she looked at the borders and shook her head. “I did a rough estimate, total length by width and then divided it by three, since there are three feet in a yard.”
“By three,” Blake said.
“I did divide by three.” Gab drew her eyebrows together.
“Yeah, and then again by three. Sounds like you forgot to figure in the height.”
Gab widened her eyes. She had forgotten to figure in the height. She was either going to have three foot deep borders, or she’d be moving mulch around her yard for weeks.
“Oh no,” she said. “You’re right, I did forget.” She regarded her mountain, which looked even bigger now that she realized she was going to have to move the majority of it more than a couple of feet, and groaned. “I was thinking yards, not cubic yards.”
“Well,” he said, “look at it this way. If you put it all on those borders, you won’t have to worry about weeding.”
“Thanks, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.”
He raised the envelope he was holding in the air. “This is the proposal for your job. I made copies of the drawings for you; they’re in here, too. All you need to do is sign the contract, and I’ll file for the permits on Monday.”
“Sounds good.” She took off her gardening gloves and waved for him to follow her into the house. “Let me just sign that now and give it back to you.” She opened the door and glanced around at him. “Would you like a glass of iced tea?”
“No thanks.” He stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets, and she thought she detected a hardening around his eyes that hadn’t been there a few moments earlier.
Gab walked into the kitchen to get a pen and Blake followed. He pulled out the contract and gave it to her and then put the envelope on the table. She glanced up as she was signing it to see him looking around the kitchen, a definite frown on his face. Maybe he was thinking about the job, what difficulties they might encounter with an old house, or how it would all look when done.
“Here you go.” She handed the contract back to him. “Are you sure I can’t pour you a glass of tea? It’s already made.”
He shook his head, a shuttered look in his eyes. “I’ve got to go check on a couple of jobs.”
“Okay, thanks for bringing this out. I’m looking forward to all the changes.” She gave him a bright smile. “I know it’s going to be beautiful when you get done with it.” Looking around the room, she added, “This house has so much potential. It just needs a little love.”
He cleared his throat and started toward the kitchen door. “Oh yeah,” he said, swinging back around. “I almost forgot. Delaney wanted me to invite you to dinner tonight.” He gave her an emotionless smile, more an abbre
viated twitch of one side of his mouth. “She was going to call you last night but got caught up with things and then it got too late, so she asked me to tell you when I stopped over this morning.”
Gab was about to accept the offer, thinking it would be nice to see Delaney and Ben, when Blake added, “Justin will be there, too.”
She hadn’t heard back from Justin yesterday. She had decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and attribute his dismissive attitude to a lack of sleep. She thought he would call later in the day, his charming self, and ask her out for tonight or Saturday. He hadn’t called. Instead, he’d made plans to visit his brother. That was fine, but if Justin had wanted her there tonight, she figured he would have asked her. If she showed up and he hadn’t planned on seeing her, he might be annoyed. Or, she thought, feeling a little sick inside, what if he wanted to take someone else to his brother’s for dinner?
“I appreciate the offer,” she said, realizing she hadn’t given Blake an answer. “I’ve already made plans, though.”
He gave her an odd look, and she even thought she sensed a trace of disappointment. She found that strange since he hadn’t seemed overly excited when he’d invited her.
“Okay. Delaney will be sorry to hear it.” He hadn’t said Justin would be disappointed, but his brother hadn’t been the one doing the inviting.
“Tell her thanks for me and that I’ll call her to see about getting together one day next week.”
Blake gave a head nod and then turned back to leave. She went outside with him and stood on the porch.
“Thanks again.” She reached out and touched his shoulder in a gesture of friendship.
“You got it.” His glance shifted from her to the house again, and a shadow fell over his face. He grimaced, turned with a quick step, and jogged to his truck.
As he drove away Gabriella could only wonder at his odd behavior. What was it with these Morrison men and their mood swings?
“LAST PITCH guys,” Delaney called out the back door. “Dinner will be ready in ten minutes.”
“Okay, Ben,” Justin said to his nephew, “now keep your eye on the ball.”
He threw Ben a slow pitch and watched as the ball came back toward him and over his head.
“Way to go, son,” Blake cheered, picking the boy up and tossing him over his shoulder.
“You’ve got a good swing, Ben.” Justin fell into step beside his brother.
“You think so? When can you teach me how to pitch?”
“How about if we work on that the next time we play?”
“Yes!” Ben pumped his fist, and Blake grinned over at Justin, his eyes gleaming with pride.
As they neared the back door, Justin picked up the scent of whatever Delaney was making for dinner. His mouth started to water. They’d been practicing with Ben for the last half hour, and he had worked up an appetite. He was glad he’d decided to take Delaney up on her offer to come to dinner. It had been fun tossing the ball around with Ben, and he was looking forward to an enjoyable evening visiting with his brother and Delaney. He was looking forward to seeing Gabriella even more.
She must have gotten here while they were out in the backyard. He was surprised she hadn’t come out to say hello, but maybe she was helping Delaney get things ready for dinner. His very pregnant sister-in-law didn’t move quite as quickly these days as she usually did.
When they walked into the kitchen, Justin looked around for Gabriella, but she was nowhere in sight. He guessed she was probably in the washroom.
“Would one of you set the table?” Delaney asked. “The dishes are on the sideboard. Ben, you need to go upstairs and wash your face and hands.”
“I’ll take care of setting the table,” Justin offered, spying the stack of plates and the silverware she had put out. “I’m going to need one more plate,” he said, and walked to the cupboard to get it.
“Oh, I thought I put out four. I’ll blame it on Kate. My brain’s always scattered lately.” She gave him one of her big dimpled smiles, and he winked at her.
“Baby Kate must be affecting your ability to count, or did Benjamin already eat?”
She furrowed her brows, looking confused. “No, Ben’s eating with us.”
“Then we need five plates, not four.” He reached over her head to get another one, chuckling.
“There are only four of us, Justin.”
“No,” he said, holding his hand in front of her face and counting their names off on his fingers. “You, Blake, me, Ben, and Gabriella.” He gave her a raised brow. “That’s five, sugar.”
Delaney shot a look at Blake. “Didn’t you tell him Gabriella wasn’t coming?”
“It didn’t come up,” Blake said, shrugging at his wife.
“I’m sorry, Justin,” Delaney said. “I thought you knew.”
“Why isn’t she coming?”
Delaney looked at Blake again. Blake brushed a finger over his mouth. “She said she couldn’t make it.”
“Why not?” Justin asked his brother.
“She said she already had plans.”
Justin frowned. She hadn’t mentioned having any plans. Realization dawned and the corner of his mouth lifted in a grin. She’d probably assumed they’d be spending the night together and had wanted to keep it open. He pulled his cell out of his back pocket. He’d just call and tell her he was here, and she could join them. It wouldn’t take her more than fifteen minutes to drive over.
“I’ll give her a call.” He glanced at Delaney. “Can dinner keep until she gets here?”
Blake cleared his throat. “Justin.”
Justin glanced at his brother and raised a brow. “Yeah?”
Blake stuck his tongue in the side of his cheek, looking uncomfortable. “She said she couldn’t make it.”
“Yeah, but she didn’t know I was coming.” He lifted the phone to give her a call.
Blake shot Delaney a glance and then blew out a breath. “She knew you were going to be here.”
Justin’s finger hovered over the send button. “You told her I was coming? When did you talk to her?”
“This morning, around eleven, I stopped by her place to drop off the proposal. I invited her to dinner and told her you’d be coming as well.”
Justin stared at him, mulling over Blake’s statement. It sounded pretty clear, but if she’d known he would be here... Even if she had tentative plans, they couldn’t have been anything too definite since she hadn’t mentioned them to him.
“What did she say was so important she couldn’t make it?” Justin asked, disappointment dampening his good mood. Blake looked uncomfortable, and Justin wondered if his brother knew something he didn’t want to let on. An unsavory possibility presented itself that Justin immediately rejected. It presented itself again. If Blake didn’t look so damned uneasy, he might disregard it as ridiculous, but his brother’s expression worried him.
“Did she say she had a date or something?” Justin hated to even think it, let alone ask.
“She just said she had other plans,” Blake said. “I didn’t ask what. Maybe…” His voice trailed off, as if he’d been trying to think of something other than the obvious but couldn’t.
Justin flexed his jaw. He didn’t like doubting her, but what other reason could she have had for turning down Blake and Delaney’s invitation? He walked to the table and pulled out a chair, sitting down. Unwanted scenarios started playing in his head. He tried to ignore them.
Gabriella wouldn’t have made love to him unless she cared about him. Something was up, but she wasn’t out on a date with anyone else. He refused to believe it. Whatever reason she had for not being here tonight, it wasn’t because she didn’t want to be with him, and he shouldn’t jump to conclusions. It wasn’t fair to her—it wasn’t fair to them.
“Can I sit next to Uncle Justin,” Ben said when he bounded back into the kitchen after getting washed up.
“Right here,” Justin said, pulling out the chair beside his own. “Climb on up, sport.”
>
Ben hopped onto the seat and beamed up at him. “I love you, Uncle Justin.”
Justin smiled. “I love you too, buckaroo,” he said, reaching out and ruffling the boy’s silky black curls.
JUSTIN AND Blake carried the new couch up the narrow stairs to the apartment and centered it in front of the window that faced Main Street. After putting the cushions they had carried up earlier into place, both brothers dropped down onto it at the same time, looking like matching bookends, only dressed differently.
“That’s one damn heavy couch,” Blake said, blowing out a breath.
“Yeah,” Justin agreed, winded as well. He reached up and wiped the sweat off his forehead with the bottom of his tee shirt.
“Comfortable, though.” Blake tested the cushions.
“Hell yeah, exactly what I wanted.”
Each leaned their head back, crashing for several minutes, neither speaking. Justin had rented a truck to pick up the majority of the furniture, and they had already emptied that out. All that was left to move in was the bedroom furniture, which they’d been able to fit into the back of Blake’s truck.
“Thanks for the help,” Justin said, not bothering to open his eyes.
“No problem,” Blake returned. “You have any food in this place?” He sat up and planted his elbows on his knees. “I could use something to eat before we bring up the rest of the stuff.”
“All I have is some beer. I haven’t gone grocery shopping yet.” Justin raked a hand through his sweat-dampened hair. “We could walk up to Mosey’s and grab some lunch, or we can go to Speckles and pick up a few things. What’s your choice?”
“Let’s go to the store. I can pick up a couple of almond croissants from their bakery to take home to Delaney. She loves those things.”
They left the apartment and walked down the block to the grocery store. Justin was looking forward to the day he found the right home, but he had to admit, being able to walk out your front door and have everything so close was convenient. He picked up several food items, enough to get him through a few days until he had time to do a larger grocery run, and then headed over to the deli to get some lunchmeat for sandwiches.
Letters to Gabriella Page 14
