“Thanks,” she said softly.
Gabe rubbed his hand over his mouth to prevent him from leaning down to kiss her. He figured he’d scared her enough for one night at any rate.
“Let me buy you another.” Her tender voice broke into his thoughts. “It’s the least I can do.” She didn’t wait for his reply, but slung her huge bag to the barstool where it landed with a thud. He glanced at it wondering what sort of paraphernalia a woman like Tess would carry around in a bag that size. On the other hand, he thought it best to leave well enough alone. She fished out her billfold and laid a couple of bills on the bar.
Dusty replaced the spilled beer and slid Gabe a sly smile, free of charge.
A raucous band of laughter sounded just to the other side of the door and without thinking, he grabbed Tess’s arm and pulled her flat to him. “Watch out.”
The door swung open and Merle and his band of merry men entered the bar, oblivious to the fact they’d nearly pancaked a customer to the wall. They stopped dead in their tracks at Gabe holding a woman solidly against him.
“See you haven’t lost your touch.” Vince teased as the happy group walked by nodding and slapping him victoriously on the shoulder.
Gabe hesitated, unsure if he really wanted to see the look on the face of the woman he held captive. Dropping his hand, he stepped back, his foot catching the edge of the barstool and plopped down on its wooden seat without much finesse.
He smiled, attempting to save face. “So, won’t you join me?” He was sure he made a tempting companion with his saturated shirt, short temper and clumsy feet.
“I’m sorry, thanks, but I’m here with a friend.” Tess reached back, groping for her friends arm. “I don’t know where my mind is tonight,” she gave him a weak grin. “Betsy, Gabe. Gabe, Betsy.” Her smile and her voice were both quick and light, but he could see the rosy glow of her cheeks. Great, on top of everything he’d embarrassed her.
Gabe tipped his hat. “Ma’am.” He hoped that at least manners might smooth over his otherwise natural clumsiness around women. The woman named Betsy reached out and snagged his hand, turning to Tess with a raised brow. She turned her gaze back to him.
“My pleasure.” Her drawl was intentionally slow and Gabe was not as comfortable as he seemed with Tess. He gently slipped it from the woman’s grasp and looked at Tess. Her focus was squarely on his chest.
“Hey, look.” He plucked his shirt from his chest and grinned hoping to see her smile again. “It’s already drying. You sure about that drink?” He stood, unbuttoning his shirt and peeled it off, glad he wore the white t-shirt underneath, but even that was soaked. He reached over her left shoulder, hanging the sodden shirt on the coat rack behind her. Something caused him to linger, maybe it was the scent of her perfume or merely the look in her eye as she glanced up at him. He held her momentary gaze a breath longer then stepped back, giving himself the room to breathe.
“It appears your friends are waiting for you anyway.” She pointed past his shoulder and he twisted to follow her gaze. The ornery expressions complete with cheesy grins met his gaze as they leaned back in their chairs openly watching the two of them. They were acting like a bunch of high school boys tonight. He turned back to Tess with a look of apology.
“Sorry about them.” He eyed his boot. “I’m not exactly known as Mr. Social around here. Guess they’re just giving me a hard time.” He smoothed a finger across his lip in thought, and looked at her, not knowing what else to say.
“It’s okay, don’t worry about it.” She touched his forearm so lightly that he certainly wouldn’t have noticed except for the bolt of lightning that coursed through his veins. “Have a good time.” With that, she grabbed her friend’s arm and stepped around him.
* * *
“Are you out of your mind?” Betsy hissed as she scooted into a booth across from Tess. “Mr. September from Country Hunk Calendar asks you to have a drink with him and you turn him down?”
Tess gave her friend an incredulous look. “I’m here with you tonight. Remember?” She twirled her bottle between her fingers and glanced to where Gabe had been seated at the bar moments before. She dared not look up as he passed, but heard the whoops and calls issuing from the guys he was going to sit with. As much as she wanted to turn and look over her shoulder at where they sat, she forced herself to keep focused on Betsy’s expression. Perhaps if she could convince Betsy to see things in a different light, she’d calm the jitters in her own stomach. “Besides, it’s just Gabe.”
“Just Gabe? You mean you already know him well enough to call him just Gabe?’” Betsy’s eyebrows rose into her dark, wispy bangs.
Tess took a swallow of her drink wondering if she dare tell her that she’d recently hired just Gabe to do her carpentry work. She rubbed her finger along the table, deciding Betsy might not ever leave hearing this particular news, so she told her the truth…almost. “He had some mail at the house—”
“He’s the former owner of the house?” Betsy leaned back, curiosity etched on her face. “This is getting interesting.”
Tess needed to find a stopping point to this conversation that was going nowhere fast. Hadn’t Betsy heard Gabe’s friends? Glad to see he hadn’t lost his touch? What did that mean? Not that it mattered or should.
“Yes and he’s just being nice because I hired him to do some work around the place.” Tess felt awkward the minute the words slipped from her lips.
Betsy’s grin widened a bit too much for Tess to be comfortable. “It’s not like what you think.” Tess explained letting the boredom drip from her tone and hope that it did any good getting past Betsy’s radar.
“What I think? What am I thinking, Tess?” She grinned and raised one perfectly arched eyebrow.
Betsy was the stereotypical classic beauty. She was the woman most men made a beeline for in a crowded room or at a party. Tess loved her dearly but always felt somewhat pale in comparison. It bothered her to think that she might set her sights on Gabe, though she wasn’t at all sure why she should feel that way. She took another sip of her beer and glanced away from Betsy’s expectant gaze. So much for testing the waters.
Her eyes came face to face with a huge rodeo belt buckle, gleaming in its polished glory. Looking up she recognized one of the men who’d made comments about Gabe. She wondered if she could get him to elaborate on those comments, but she mentally stopped herself. Good lord, what am I doing? She frowned at her thoughts. It is absolutely none of my business to pry into Gabe Russell’s love life, past or present. Even if she were interested, which she had convinced herself that she wasn’t. Almost.
“May I have this dance?” Tess looked at Betsy who returned her look with a challenging gaze. Surely whoever this was, was asking Betsy to dance. Why didn’t she address the poor man?
“Excuse me, Miss?”
Tess felt a light touch to her shoulder and her gaze jerked upward to the young man grinning down at her. “Oh, me?” Tess looked at Betsy, who cast a tolerant look to the wall. “I’d love to—I didn’t catch your name.” Tess agreed, simply so she wouldn’t have to listen to Betsy’s lecture about getting out and having fun. She caught Betsy darting her gaze to the dance floor.
“Vince.”
“Okay, Vince.” She glanced at Betsy once again and received a subtle thumbs up sign. Tess scooted from the booth and felt the man’s hand slip around her waist as he led her to the dance floor.
“You know the two-step?” He leaned close to her ear and her shoulders hunched instinctively.
“I know a little,” she answered, turning her face to his. With a degree of certainty, she knew there was no reason to be nervous, and he was one of Gabe’s friends. For some reason, knowing this steadied her nerves.
The five-piece band pounded out a honky-tonk version of an old Garth Brooks song as the postage stamp-sized dance floor steadily began to fill up. Tess felt a bump on her shoulder and found Betsy in Gabe’s arms. She smiled at her friend. An unexpected flicker of jealousy
assaulted her and she swung her attention back to Vince, hoping he hadn’t noticed.
Tess concentrated on her feet, twirling at the proper time, offering her dance partner an occasional obligatory smile, and fought the urge to scan the dance floor for her friend. Or was it her friend she was looking for?
As the song ended, Vince twirled her under his arm in fast succession, sending her thoughts spinning until she landed against something solid and black. She blinked and focused in on the bright yellow and red wording advertising Dusty’s bar and grill stretched a little too tight across a broad chest. Her eyes rose past the firm chin and slammed into a pair of dark colored orbs.
Gabe’s eyes warmed as she met his gaze. “You mind if I cut in, Vince?”
Vince smiled, then leaned in with a whisper that was clearly meant for her to hear. “That was the plan, wasn’t it?” Vince stated. With a nod and a short, “ma’am,” he acknowledged his thanks for the dance.
Tess frowned and watched him leave the dance floor, easily sliding his arm around Betsy as he left. Her friend smiled at Vince in a way that indicated she didn’t mind losing her dance partner. Somewhere along way, Tess had a feeling she’d been the brunt of an elaborate set up.
“Tess? Would you like to dance?” She turned her attention to Gabe, who stared at her like she was the only woman on the floor. Her gaze rested a moment on the intriguing way the outline of Dusty’s bar read across his chest, then she met his curious gaze with a heart-stopping smile. He tipped his hat back and the intense undercurrent in his eyes melted her insides. Testing the waters? Good Lord above, she was being pulled in over her head.
“Nice shirt.” Her fingers itched to trace the letters that spelled D-u-s-t-y. She blinked, then returned to his gaze, and swore the earth moved beneath her feet.
He gave her a boyish grin. “It was the only size Dusty had left. Does it really look that bad?”
His grimace caused her to smile. She wanted to tell him how much she appreciated the fact that the shirt was probably a size smaller than he should have.
“You know, it’s dark, no one will notice the fit.” Except for me. “So, what’s the deal? You a big fan of Dusty’s or something?” Tess felt a little giddy, flirting was not a normal behavior for her, but there was something about being around Gabe Russell that rattled her otherwise “set” ways.
He teased her easily right back with a gleam in his eye. “Aw, you know how clumsy cowboys can be.”
She narrowed her gaze and smiled at his gallant gesture.
“We want to slow things down a bit for all you sweethearts out there,” the female lead singer announced as the chords to the acoustic guitar matched the tingles playing up Tess’s spine.
“You get that melon eaten?” She glanced to the floor, then smiled at him, tipping her head. Having no idea what to do with her hands, she tucked them in the back pockets of her jeans.
At first, he frowned as though he wasn’t connecting to what she asked, then a heart-melting grin broke out on his handsome face. Tess locked her knees so they wouldn’t buckle.
“Took a bit of doing, but yeah, we managed. Surprised you’d remember it was me in the store.” His curiosity held a bit of a veiled challenge. There was little doubt that she’d felt sparks between them. Maybe she wasn’t the only one testing the waters tonight. Her heart pounded like thunder in her chest.
“It was the hat.” She reached up playfully tapping its edge. He reached up, catching her hand and her heart stopped as he held her gaze.
“Uh huh. So, it seems you’ll dance with Vince, but you’re not interested in my offer of a drink, yet you remember me from a store full of customers.” His voice was smooth as Kentucky’s finest and nearly as intoxicating. “What am I going to have to do, Tess, to prove I’m a nice guy?” His arm slid around her waist carefully and she felt the heat of his body closing the gap between them.
“I didn’t say you weren’t a nice guy.” Her words were barely above a whisper.
He looked down at her and his expression turned cloudy. “Hey, this isn’t about my behavior earlier, is it? Because, I don’t generally let my temper get away like that.”
“Gabe, would I have asked for your help on the farm, if I thought you weren’t someone I could trust?” She held his gaze and relaxed when he offered his smile, only then realizing how gently he had already begun to sway with her to the music.
“When a man loves a woman—” the singer soulfully belted out in a bluesy voice. The blue spotlight darkened the dance floor and with the addition of several more couples, they were soon cocooned in the crowd. Her skin tingled where his palm touched her ribcage, her other hand was tucked snug within his palm. She shut off everything but sensation, and let her body absorb the music, his body heat, and the spicy scent of cologne.
She was aware too, that he’d not taken his eyes off her and that realization caused the back of her knees to weaken. Something powerful was happening and she considered it could be purely physical on her part, as well as his. The confusing part of it was that no man had ever looked at her the way Gabe looked at her at this moment. She simply wasn’t the type men salivated over. Whatever was going on between them, Tess thought, was most likely a mixture of heat and alcohol with maybe a touch of loneliness mixed in. Not exactly the kind of thing relationships are based on. “Keep your head on straight,” she quietly reprimanded herself.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear what you said.” He leaned close enough to her that with a slight turn her lips would graze his jaw.
Tess closed her eyes to the temptation, trying to refocus her thoughts. Suddenly, she’d lost her voice and wondered if she was losing her mind. Good lord, she’d only just met this hunk of cowboy and according to his friends, he supposedly had a reputation that went along with that dimpled smile. Why was she allowing her insides to turn gooey? A direction of topic was needed. Tess forged ahead hoping to quell her lustful thoughts.
“Uh…I wondered what day next week you wanted to get started on the barn?” She hoped her smile was bright enough to cover the fact that she really just wanted to jump his bones.
His gaze narrowed and she feared he maybe saw straight through her. He glanced over her head and frowned as if deep in thought.
“Tuesday morning? That all right with you?” He gave her a look between business and challenge
“I’ll have the coffee ready.” When his face broke into a million dollar smile, her heart tripped.
“Sounds like a plan.” The reminder of her own words and his sweet smile stayed in her heart long after she returned home that night.
Chapter Six
Gabe stood at the window, staring down at the deserted main street of town. The sun had yet to peek over the rim of the hill and he was already on his second cup of coffee. He considered it was pretty silly to allow his emotions to skitter around haphazardly inside like they were doing now and like they’d done consistently since he placed his arms around Tess on Saturday night.
Monday he’d worked himself to near collapse hoping to dispel those irrational feelings. He’d spent the better part of the day helping Merle rebuild his front porch steps, then worked laying a new cement drive at Travis’s place. However, watching Travis, Becky and their three kids laughing and being a family didn’t serve to appease his thoughts. Even now, when his body should be weary from his hard labor, he felt charged, ready to do something. He had decided his newfound energy had something to do with Saturday night. Something had definitely happened between him and Tess, but he wasn’t sure if it was wise to pursue whatever that was. His life at present was not exactly what a man could offer as a secure future for anyone, and Tess deserved more than that.
“Better to leave well enough alone.” He’d said those words enough times lately and yet here he was again repeating them as if they’d become his mantra. The promise he’d made to do the repairs around the farm, he would do, since they served his purpose just fine. He figured somewhere along the line, it evened out. She bought the materi
als and he provided the labor, though he had yet to decide how much, if any he was going to charge her. One of these days, she would tire of the country life, he was sure, and then she’d head back to her apartment in the city, content that she’d at least given country living a try.
He smiled, considering of how she looked leaning over the porch railing as she stared out to that grove of Christmas trees. No doubt, any person would be infatuated with the open spaces and fresh air—for a while anyway. However, he had doubts Tess had what it took to stick out the tough times on the farm. He raised his brows and guessed maybe that remained to be seen.
He brushed his teeth, pulled on a clean t-shirt, grabbed his keys and hat, and headed out the door. Checking his dash, he pulled into her drive at eight-fifteen. He leaned over the wheel and peered at the house. There didn’t seem to be anyone awake yet. She was probably still snuggled deep underneath the covers, a thought that caused his body to tighten.
He cleared his throat dismissing that image dancing at the edge of his brain. Knowing he was early anyway, he decided to check out repairs on the barn.
As the sun rose into the sky, Gabe measured the areas where replacement boards were needed and a couple of pieces of fence inside the barn that needed repair. He jotted down the measurements on a piece of paper he had wadded in his jeans’ pocket. He wondered what plans she had for the barn. Surely she wasn’t about to attempt raising farm animals. He shook his head, checking his list again and chuckled quietly at the idea.
Stepping from the barn into the sun, he took a moment to put on his sunglasses. His line of vision stayed on the windows of the second story of the house, where the shades were still tightly drawn. She must have really had a good time with her friend the other night he mused. He’d had only the one dance with her all night, which confused him greatly since he thought that—well, no matter what he thought, the point was, as soon as she could, she’d slid away from him, grabbed her friend and didn’t look again in his direction the rest of the night.
Unfinished Dreams Page 5
