She started to turn back down the pathway, but stopped when she saw him pull a shirt over his head, grab a metal mixing bowl and the beers, and push open the door onto his screened porch. He set the beers down on a table between the Adirondack chairs, then stood up and looked like he was staring directly at her.
She instinctively backed up, even though there was no way he could see her, right? Then his hand came up, and suddenly she couldn’t see at all, because a painfully bright light was shining directly in her eyes.
Well. Apparently he could see her just fine.
“Out for a stroll, Gabi?” He moved the light down her body and away from her, and she could hear the amusement in his tone. Great.
She walked toward him, stopping when she was just inside the light cast by the porch lanterns. “Sorry. The girls are zonked, but I couldn’t sleep. Just thought I’d take a walk.”
“After the hike I took you on the other day? You’re willing to chance it out here at night?”
“Really, really couldn’t sleep. And I figured most of your warnings were for effect.” She motioned to the drinks on the porch. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you when you have company.”
“I don’t have company.”
“But—two drinks.” She shook her head. It wasn’t her business. “Never mind.”
“Gabi, I saw you come over the hill. Figured you were either sleepwalking, or you needed some company.” He narrowed his eyes like he was trying to zoom in on her face. “And if you’re sleepwalking, you’re awfully lucid.”
She looked up at him, wishing she didn’t feel so damn vulnerable right now. It made it hard to sort out whether she’d have found him just as gorgeous, just as warm, just as sweet if she was in a normal state of mind … on her own turf.
He motioned to the porch. “I have your favorite kind of chair here. Want to sit and have a beer with me? I’d offer wine, but I don’t drink the stuff.”
When she didn’t move, he continued, “I could use the company. All I’ve got here is the four-legged variety.” As she started up the steps, he opened the screen door, and two little white balls of fluff tumbled out and zoomed her way.
She laughed when she got to the top step and found herself unable to walk as the two tiny dogs threaded themselves around her feet.
“Down, killers.” Luke scooped one dog with each hand, letting Gabi pass through the door. “Sorry about that. We don’t get a lot of company.”
“They’re adorable.” Gabi reached out to pet one of them, and was promptly rewarded with a lick to her chin. “Aww. Hi, little one.” She looked at Luke. “How come we see so little of them?”
“My friends Josie and Ethan run a special home in town for kids who are dealing with cancer. Josie comes and kidnaps the dogs all the time to go hang out with the kids.”
“That is so cool. So they’re like therapy dogs?”
“Not officially. They’re just small and sweet and love kids.” He shrugged. “It works.”
“Can I hold one?”
“Be my guest.” He handed her a dog, who squirmed in her arms, desperate to deliver more kisses. She sat down, giggling, as the tiny thing burrowed its head into her neck and licked her ear.
“I’m sorry. You can put her down.” Luke reached for the dog, but Gabi laughed.
“Oh, she’s fine.” She settled the dog in her lap, where it promptly turned three circles and lay down, looking up at her with big brown eyes. “I have to say, I totally would have pictured you with a Saint Bernard or something.”
“Thank you. I think. I did used to own a respectable-sized dog. Just putting that out there.” Luke handed her a beer, motioning to the popcorn. “I don’t know what you drink. Hope this works.”
“I live in a dorm with fifty girls. I usually don’t drink, though they give me ample reasons to take up the sport.”
He clinked the top of his bottle with hers. “Then this oughtta taste really good.”
She put the bottle to her mouth, trying not to notice his eyes on her lips as she took a long draw.
“Good?” He smiled.
“Almost as good as your coffee, yes.” She popped a piece of popcorn into her mouth. “And I haven’t had popcorn in forever. Thank you.”
“So … what really brings you out into the wilds at this hour, braving life and limb?” He set down his beer, full attention on her. “I suspect there’s more to it than sleeplessness.”
She took another sip, trying to choose her words carefully. After trying and discarding multiple possibilities, she took a deep breath and looked him directly in the eyes.
“I think … I want to give you the girls.”
Chapter 18
The words that came out of Gabriela’s mouth couldn’t have surprised Luke more. Or Gabriela, he guessed. When he’d seen the beam of her flashlight come over the rise, his stomach had jumped hopefully. Was she lonely? Had she been replaying their almost-kiss on the beach in her head all day, too? Had she spent last night restlessly wishing she could sleep … like he had?
Or had she spent it wishing she had a reason not to spend the night sleeping?
He cleared his throat. “I’m not sure I follow. And also, that’s a really frightening proposition. Just saying.”
She took another sip of her beer, and he struggled to tear his eyes away from her lush lips as they cradled the bottle. Oh, to taste those lips.
He shook his head. Jesus.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said that first day we came—when you asked if I wanted to bring the same girls back to Briarwood, or different ones.”
He nodded. He’d said something of the sort, yeah. Funny that she’d been noodling on it since then, though.
“I need to bring back different ones, Luke. I need to bring back girls who aren’t going to fall back into the same patterns they had before they left. I need to bring back girls who will have the confidence to pave their own way and stop spending so much energy fighting everything, just for the sake of the fight. I need these four girls to get along, set an example for others, and maybe even like each other.”
He felt his eyebrows hike upward. “That’s kind of a tall order. You’ve only got three weeks left.”
“I know. That’s why I’m here, abjectly begging for help.”
“Which I’m guessing is not something you do often? Or easily?”
A shadow of a smile passed over her face as she took another swallow. “Bingo.”
Luke nodded thoughtfully. The situation with Sam had scared Gabi silly, obviously … so much so that one day later, she was here on his porch, drinking his beer, asking for his help—real help this time, not babysitting. It had to be killing her.
Despite the fact that not so long ago, he’d half hoped to see the taillights of the BMW van heading to the highway, he found himself nodding. Hell, as much as her four charges were certifiable pains in his ass, he couldn’t help but want to make their time here at Echo worth the trouble they’d put everyone through.
He could definitely help. But he needed to do it in a way that didn’t make Gabi feel like she’d failed first. He could practically feel the vulnerability radiating from her as she made quick work of the Sam Adams he’d handed her, and the last thing he wanted to do was make it worse.
“I might have some ideas,” he finally said. “But you’d really have to trust me.”
She paused, her bottle halfway to her mouth. “I know, and that scares me.”
“And I’d need your help. There’s no way I’d take these four on without it.”
“So I can’t bribe Oliver into unlocking my battery in the morning and taking off for a hotel for the next three weeks while you work your magic?”
“No.”
“Dammit.”
“I’ll do it under one condition.”
She smiled. “You know how I feel about conditions.”
“But you’re more desperate now than ever. It’s my opportunity.”
“Fine.” She rolled her ey
es. “What’s your condition?”
“That you help me convince the Briarwood board not to go through with their plan to decimate this camp.”
Gabi swallowed hard. “Just that?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Just that.”
“You do realize that you’re asking a person who got sent to the wilds by that very board. Not sure my kind of influence is what you’re after here.”
“Well, I haven’t had any luck finding us a Daddy Warbucks bailout, so I’m going to the trenches here. You’re my inside girl.”
Gabi sighed. “There is only one person on that board who has ever even given me the time of day.”
“Great. Start with her.” He stopped his beer halfway to his mouth. “Who is her?”
“Laura Beringer.”
He nodded slowly. “Met her in April. She seemed … strangely normal, compared to the rest of them.”
“She is.” Gabi laughed quietly. “She’s also the only one who dares to smile in meetings, not afraid to risk people thinking she’s human, even though I’m pretty sure she’s practically made of money.”
“Even better. Definitely contact her.”
Gabi sipped her beer, then nodded. “Okay. I accept your condition. I’ll try to get hold of Laura.”
“Good.” He nodded. “Now, want to know what I’d do with your girls, going forward?”
“Absolutely.”
He nodded, his wheels turning as he took a swig of his beer. “Okay, here’s what I think. The work-crew stuff is working. They’re learning new skills, they’re working together even when they don’t want to, and they’re too busy to get into trouble while they’re doing it.”
“Agreed, but I still fear it’s not going to last. Look what happened yesterday.”
“I know.” He nodded slowly, the perfect plan taking shape. It was nothing new or rocket-science-like, at least to him, but this is what he’d been doing with kids for years. But maybe it’d be new to her, and it certainly would be new to the girls. “Have you heard of challenge by choice?”
“Of course I have.” She raised her eyebrows.
“What if we have the girls do work-type stuff in the mornings, and we design a course of challenges for the afternoons?”
“What kinds of challenges?”
He shrugged. “We could do almost anything. We’ve got a lake, a mountain, acres of forest…”
He watched as she turned the thought over in her brain and probably examined it from fifty angles, and he knew she wasn’t immediately convinced.
“How much choice would you give them? I mean, could they just opt out of the whole thing? Because that would be a bust.”
“I’ve rarely seen it work out that way. Peer pressure is a beautiful thing when you use it for good.”
She raised her eyebrows. “And you know how to make them use it for good?”
“I can certainly try.”
“And the challenge-by-choice stuff? You know how it works?”
“I know how it works, yes.” He sighed, finally ready to shed the handyman cloak. “I’ve been the assistant director of this camp for six years now, and was supposed to take over as director this year.”
She nodded like she’d known it all along. “So why the charade?”
“Because.” He took a drink. “I figured if you thought I was just a hammer-and-wrench guy, you wouldn’t look to me for help.”
“Even though you started offering advice less than two hours after we arrived? Good plan.”
“I know. Sorry. I overstepped.”
She shrugged. “You were right.”
“I know.”
She laughed, rolling her eyes. “And also, incredibly modest.”
“It’s a skill.” He raised his eyebrows. “And no one forced you to take my advice.”
“True. But I did, and it worked, and guess what? Your own plan to stay disengaged backfired, because now I think you do have a clue, and now I am asking for help.”
“I knew it was a bad idea.”
She looked out at the dark woods, thoughtful for a moment. “So since you’re suddenly being all honest, what do you do during the school year?”
“I’m a school psychologist. Over-degreed, underpaid—the whole cliché—just like you.”
“You have a psych degree? Seriously?” Her eyes widened.
“Thank you for not looking completely, utterly shocked or anything.”
She laughed. “It just makes so much sense now. You make so much sense now.”
“Okay? Explain?”
She shook her head like she was hugely relieved, but he couldn’t tell yet just what she was relieved about.
“You’re just … really good with them. And in my lowest moments—of which there have been quite a few since we got here—I was really, really ticked off that you were doing a better job with my girls than I was.”
“But now it’s okay because I actually have a degree?”
“Maybe?” She wrinkled her nose. “Is that terrible?”
“Do you think it is?”
“Oh, don’t even try that psych-speak thing on me. I don’t care how many degrees you have. It won’t work.”
“You sure about that?” He smiled, sensing he had her off balance now.
“Yes. Maybe. Depends.” She narrowed her eyes. “How many degrees do you have?”
“Three. Education, outdoor recreation, and a master’s in adolescent counseling.”
“Holy crap.”
He laughed out loud as she deflated back into her chair and took another swig of her beer. “I didn’t realize this would be such a shock.”
“Well, hello. We roll up a week ago and you introduce yourself as Luke Magellan, camp handyman. And you’re all handy … and man-ish.”
He smiled, watching color rise to her cheeks as she checked to see how much of her beer she’d drunk. Looked like Gabriela O’Brien was a lightweight.
“Define ‘man-ish.’”
Gabi rolled her eyes. “You know—all walking around with your big muscles and your five o’clock shadow and your perfect-fit jeans.” She swallowed. “Delete that last part. I haven’t noticed your … jeans.”
“But the rest of the package is … man-ish?” He grinned.
“I definitely haven’t noticed your pack— Oh, God.” She buried her head in her hand as she handed her beer toward him. “Please cut me off.”
He laughed. “Gabi, you’ve barely had half a beer.”
“I know. So imagine the possibilities of me finishing that.”
He was silent, doing exactly that as he watched her sitting in the candlelight, completely, beautifully flustered. Her skin had already turned golden in the sun of the past week, and her hair was streaked with lighter strands. Her sweatshirt didn’t quite cover the tank top and yoga pants she’d probably worn to bed, and she looked ridiculously comfortable … and dead sexy.
“All right,” he said, trying to momentarily ease her mind by pretending to change the topic. “So what do you know about challenge by choice?”
She looked up, and he couldn’t tell whether she was relieved or disappointed by his redirection. Looking into her eyes, he’d bet on disappointed. Good.
“Just the basics, I guess.” She pulled up her knees, curling her arms around her legs.
He paused for a long moment, trying to gauge his next move … trying to gather up the courage, really, which was a little hard to admit.
“Want to practice?” he finally asked.
“In the dead of night in the middle of the woods?” Her eyebrows flew upward. “No. Definitely not.”
“But you don’t even know what the challenge is.”
“I don’t think I need to. I did enough of these things in college.”
“You’ve never had a Luke Magellan–inspired Echo Lake challenge, though.”
“True.” She rolled her eyes, smiling. “Fine. What’s the challenge?”
“I challenge you … to kiss me.”
Oh, hell. He’d pu
t it out there.
Now her eyes opened for real. “What?”
“We’re just—you know—practicing the concept. I imagine it’s been a while since you’ve done it, right?”
“Um, kissing?” She shook her head. “I’m not—what?”
He laughed softly as her cheeks grew pink. “I meant the challenge thing, not the kissing. And it’s challenge by choice, Gabi. I challenge you to kiss me. You get to choose whether you do.”
He held his gaze steady, but inside, his head was churning. What the hell was he doing? Yeah, it was almost midnight, and he was a red-blooded male with a gorgeous female within arm’s reach, but still. Gabi was out of here in a few weeks’ time. Why was he looking to start something tonight?
Was he looking to start something tonight? Or had it just been way too long?
To his surprise, without breaking eye contact, Gabi uncurled her legs and stood up slowly, moving gracefully around the little coffee table to where he sat. He swallowed hard as she put both hands on the arms of his chair, leaning down so she was just delicious inches from his face. He tried to keep his eyes glued to hers so they wouldn’t travel to where her tank top gaped, giving him a dead-gorgeous view of creamy curves, but apparently he slipped, because suddenly he felt her finger under his chin, lifting it.
Her eyes were amused as she moved closer, then slid her lips close to his ear, speaking in a whisper.
“I reject your challenge, Luke.”
Chapter 19
Luke shook his head quickly. “What? You can’t—what?”
She pulled back, but didn’t lift her hands from his chair. He struggled to keep his eyes north of her neck, but dammit, he was pretty sure she was torturing him on purpose.
“I said I reject your challenge. You said I had a choice, right?”
“But—why—Gabi, seriously. You come walking over like you’re about to drag me to bed … and then you say you reject the challenge? Not nice.”
She smiled. “Not trying to be nice. Maybe I have my own challenge in mind.”
“Oh?” God, he was dying to reach out and pull her onto his lap. Dying to let his hands slide off her clothes and touch all of that silky smooth skin. Dying to lift her up and take her inside, the future implications be damned. “What’s your challenge?”
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