“Oh my god. I just got here. How long does it last?” Tears welled in my eyes. All of my immediate plans with Gabe were shot to pieces. We were supposed to find a way to be alone. It felt as though my dreams were shattered. “Promise not to tell my mother. She can only handle one thing at a time. My father might be getting laid off from his job, and she’ll just freak out about this.”
“Oh honey, you’re only contagious a day or so after the spots appear. You’ll have to stay up here for a short while. Then it takes about a week for your skin to clear,” Meggie said. “I’ll get the calamine lotion. I won’t worry your mom.”
“I’ll stay up here,” Gabe drawled.
“No you won’t, kiddo,” she answered from the hall, crushing both of our hopes for more time alone. “She needs rest, and you need to figure out where you’re going to live.”
“Alright, I’ll only be a hoot and a holler away,” Gabe spoke with reluctance in his voice. He leaned over me and squeezed my shoulder. “I’ll be waiting for you under the breakfast table when you feel better. Text me.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
“She’ll be better before you know it.” Meggie winked at Gabe as he dragged his feet. “This came on fast. I saw you two snuggling in the corner like you didn’t have a care in the world.”
* * *
“I’m going to build a snowman,” Deliah said from an upside-down pose on her bed. Her feet were propped against the wall, hair dusting the floor, a book on her stomach. “It finally stopped snowing.”
I rolled over and held my head. “Is Gabe here?”
“He got a ride into town with one of those guys from the coop. He forgot to plug in Meggie’s truck last night. It wouldn’t start. Can you believe they plug in their cars to warm them up? Are you ever going to unpack? You’ve been here almost a week.”
I sat up and let my feet touch the cold floor. I didn’t have any chickenpox in awkward places like Meggie kept asking me, and at worst, I only had a low-grade fever. She said I had a mild case and I was lucky.
When Deliah wasn’t hanging out, Gabe would sneak upstairs and crawl into my bed to cuddle. I loved that he offered to comb my messy hair and dab lotion on my blemishes. It was his best chance at getting a peek at my underwear and he knew it.
“You missed dinner again. Good thing too. Meggie can’t cook. I’m going to have to hail a cab to McDonald’s once a day.”
“I know. Didn’t they warn you?”
“Gabe says she can make anything from a can taste good. I beg to differ,” she said.
“Did he say when he’d be back?”
She managed a back flip off the bed and landed on her feet. “Nope. All they were talking about this morning was some fracking protest at one of the oil wells. Fracking this and fracking that. Are you gonna unpack or come outside with me? You look all better except those marks there on your neck look like the big dipper. Meggie said you’re not contagious anymore.”
I yawned and rubbed above my ear where my blisters still itched. I was relieved my face was spared. “I haven’t decided if I feel better yet. I must have gotten some of Gabe’s sickness too.”
“I know how that happened,” she said with a snicker in her tone. “Meggie went to bed. Uncle Dud’s in the basement. Josh left hours ago. That’s why I’m up here. This is the most boring place in the entire universe.”
When I finally got up, I tiptoed down the stairs. I watched Deliah through the kitchen window. She was trying to roll snow into a ball under the floodlights. Some of Meggie’s borders were smoking outside of Gabe’s old room. Footprints tracked in every direction. I wondered which ones were Gabe’s.
“It’s near freezing in here,” I said aloud after I swallowed a bite of donut. The draft caught my full attention. I scurried back into the kitchen after shutting the door and rubbed my hands together.
“Actually, it’s subzero.”
I pressed the light switch, and my eyes zoned in on Gabe sitting at the table. He was wearing his HalRem cap backward and a black T-shirt. The candy cane he twisted in his mouth was sharpened like a needle.
“I’ll warm you up. I know what you need,” he said, pushing his seat out from the table.
“I didn’t see you.”
“Interesting outfit.” He coughed into his arm.
I glanced down at my plaid flannels. “Meggie gave them to me last night. They’re my late Christmas present.”
“I like the lumberjack look. Plaid and polka dots work on you. Feel any better?” He continued to twirl his candy cane between his lips. What a sight he was.
“I’m better. Did you start work?”
“I’m back as an official member of the roughneck nation. I shadowed Lane at HalRem Oilfield Services. He was clearing an area for a rig once the ground thaws. We decided where to put the new road in. Next we’re bringing in water and electric. HalRem’s got drilling down to a science. It only takes about two weeks to get a well in. That’s if everybody coordinates and follows safety precautions. Lane’s teaching me how to make the job run efficiently.”
“I’m glad he’s taking you under his wing.”
“I’ve been on sight during summer breaks for eight years, Av’ry. I got my H2S training when I was twelve.”
“I don’t know what that is,” I replied. “But that’s young to work.”
“Lieutenant makes the rules when they suit him. He owns the exploration company and we’re drilling contractors. Meggie lets Josh work a field job and he’s under eighteen.”
“Did you check out where you’re going to live?”
He made a sour face that told me it was horrible. “Complete anarchy on the roads every time I head that way. I didn’t make it today because of a pileup. Don’t you check your phone?”
I smiled. I couldn’t help myself. Gabriel Halden was asking me about a phone.
He stood and stared at Deliah through the window. She had fallen into the snow and was making snow angels. “Why’s the Bentley here?”
I shrugged.
Gabe snagged the hem of my top with his finger and lifted it to examine my stomach. “Man, I sure wish I still had the coop.”
“Your sister’s right there.”
He poked at my spots.
“Sneak me upstairs, and we’ll play Connect the Dots.” He pulled on my hands and fell back into his chair.
The skin on the back of my legs tingled and itched. “We’d have to be quiet.”
“Avery!” Deliah yelled through the back door. The artic wind rushed in. “Are you coming out? I can’t do this alone.”
“Quit your hollering. She’s busy,” Gabe snapped back at her.
Deliah didn’t reply. The door shut with a bang.
I leaned in and wrapped my hands around his neck. He removed his hat, set down the candy cane, and pulled on my hips until I was straddling his lap. “She has no idea what to do with snow,” I said.
“She’ll figure it out. How hard could it be?”
“Haven’t you built a snowman?”
“Nope. We came up here to escape Texas summers when it was hot as heck.”
I pushed back on his shoulders. “You’ve never built a snowman? It takes years of practice. I dare you to try.”
His hands circled my waist and pulled me so my chest was pressed to his. The skin on my neck constricted and my stomach flip-flopped simultaneously. “Show me what I’ve missed, Av’ry.”
We clenched lips until we were both humming our anticipation for what was to come. His ribs vibrated. His fingers dug into my hips.
Someone thumped on the ceiling, and we both looked up. “There are too many people in this house,” I said.
He stood with me attached to his legs and carried me to the bottom step. A bedroom door opened, and light flooded the upstairs hallway.
“Never mind. In here will do,” he said. He carried me into the living room and bumped into a playpen, where a fire was burning in the hearth. I hadn’t noticed the fireplace during my entire stay in the summer. Together we fell
, Gabe on top of me, melting into the cushions on Meggie’s new leather sofa.
“You taste like Christmas,” I told him.
He licked his lips and smiled in the shadow. “You taste like the girl of my dreams.”
I let my eyes close as he tasted me from my ear to my collar and back to my lips. His hands were under my top, his legs holding me down. Everything about Gabe’s kiss made me want to strip off my pajamas right in the middle of the room, pox marks or not. I knew he would die happy if he could hear my thoughts.
“Did you hear that?” I asked.
“No,” he said and resumed urging his peppermint mouth into mine.
Someone giggled on the upstairs landing. Then the floor thumped again. The thumping grew louder. More giggling.
“I know you heard that,” I said.
“Man, you’re easily distracted. Josh probably brought a girl home.” He was suddenly heavier, forcing me deeper into the cushions as his lips told me he didn’t care where we were or what noises surrounded us. He was busy making out with my face while I made up stories in my head. Josh wasn’t even home.
“Gabe?”
“I don’t give a flip what it was, Av’ry,” he drawled at my ear and then pushed off me. The door slammed in the kitchen. “Dammit all.”
He frowned across the room. I could make out the scowl of his brows, his pinched hairline.
“Deliah won’t look in here,” I said in the softest voice. I was partially relieved and partially irritated that his hand stopped moving.
We listened for footsteps. She disappeared.
“Good.”
He shifted his weight off me and wedged himself between my hip and the back cushions. I held my breath as he held my gaze. I felt his hand at my hip, fidgeting with his belt buckle and the zipper on his jeans. My heart galloped when he set his hand in the center of my shirt. He slid his fingers into the gaping fabric between the buttons and stroked my skin.
“If she goes upstairs, we’re getting this over with here, and this is coming off.”
“You make it sound like a chore,” I said as he brushed his cheek against mine and placed a gentle kiss below my earlobe. “Just don’t look at my spots.”
“I swear to god, Av’ry. We waited all week. I’m gonna love every spot.”
Deliah shouted, “Gabe? Is that you?”
A horn honked outside. The light turned on. I closed my eyes.
“Ugh, I didn’t need to see that,” she gasped when she found us together. “Your truck’s here.”
The horn honked again. “What’d you say?” Gabe barked back at Deliah.
“What in the Sam Hill is going on in there?” Mr. Halden’s voice cut through the room and electrocuted all of my senses.
“Oh man,” Gabe muttered. I opened my eyes to see him hovering, hurrying to button his jeans.
Mr. Halden stood in the doorway. I narrowed my gaze on his father’s glistening chest as he pulled his pajama shirt up his arms and covered himself. He was wearing the exact same pair of flannels as I was. I looked away as fast as I could.
I wanted to die. Then I wanted to thank Gabe for not undressing me—but I wanted to die first. What were we thinking?
“He’s got a dozen kids, and he can’t figure out what we’re doing?” Gabe whispered.
Deliah was standing beside her father. Her hair was covered in snow. She eyed him with surprise. He was supposed to be in Texas.
Meggie skipped down the stairs, buttoning the top button of her shirt, and then wrapped herself in her bathrobe. She strung a hand around Mr. Halden’s chest from behind and held him still. She was wearing the same set of pajamas.
“Joel. Calm down. You’ll wake Emmie. What’s all the racket?” She pulled a baby monitor out of her pocket.
The horn honked for the tenth time. Deliah shot to the window and swiped her mitten over the condensation. “Did anybody hear me or were y’all too busy having sex?”
“Get in here, Gabriel,” ordered Mr. Halden as he walked to the kitchen window. “I will have none of this behavior in this house.”
“Uh oh,” Deliah muttered. She pulled on her hood and hid her face.
“It’s Meggie’s place, her rules this time,” Gabe blurted. “She’s letting Avery live here until we find a place.”
Gabe’s body language told me he was about to tear out.
“We’re going to talk now,” his father said. “Before you go out there.”
As expected, Gabe sprinted out of the house without a jacket and Deliah ran out to the porch to watch. Judson appeared in the entryway.
“Are we having a bomb scare?” he asked humorously and grabbed a Carhartt off the coatrack. “Hey, brother.”
“Judson? Where in the blazes did you come from?” Mr. Halden gaped as one Halden after another fled the farmhouse.
“Joel, you didn’t give me a moment to tell you your brother was in town. Don’t act like you didn’t arrange this,” Meggie said as the baby screamed. She headed back up the stairs.
“Hot damn!” Gabe yelled from the driveway. He walked around his black F150 that looked different than I remembered and then slapped Lane’s back in an excitable way. I grinned to myself when he bent to trace the Texas license plate with his finger. I thought he was going to kiss it. “He towed it back from Texas. It’s been in his garage! Check out the tires!”
“For the love of Pete!” roared Mr. Halden as a crashing sound chimed through the night.
I jumped backward and bit my tongue so hard I tasted blood. Deliah slipped inside and hid behind me as the clatter rang in my ears. We drew our gazes to what was unfolding at the bottom of the driveway. Gabe’s hands flew up into the air and landed behind his neck. Mr. Halden wasn’t yelling at him.
“Josh just hit your car!” Deliah hollered in my ear.
“I’m fully aware of what just happened,” her father replied in a ferocious tone.
“Looks like I was all wrong about this place being boring,” she said in a quieter voice as I rubbed my ringing ears. “Crazy stuff happens in North Dakota and everybody dresses funny.”
Two
I toweled off my wet hair in the bathroom as fast as I could when I heard the noise in the next room. I walked into the hallway outside my bedroom door expecting to see Deliah waiting to tell me what she found out about the accident that happened the previous night. The pair of torn jeans standing in the room weren’t familiar, but his height and posture resembled a Halden. He had his hand in Deliah’s drawer and was carefully lifting items and setting them on the opposite side. Then I noticed the ponytail tucked into his collar.
“Oh fiddle,” he said as he slammed the drawer and spun around. He froze with his hands in the air. I halted in the doorway with my hands still holding a towel to my head. “I didn’t mean to startle you, darling.”
It took me forever to sort my thoughts. What was Gabe’s uncle doing in Deliah’s dresser? What was he doing in my bedroom? What was he doing in North Dakota? He clearly wasn’t lost.
“Don’t mind me.” He walked past without another word. My thoughts didn’t form into words until he was gone.
“Joel will kill him!” Deliah exclaimed so loud I heard her from the second-floor landing. I didn’t know what I was going to tell Gabe about his uncle’s sudden interest in sparkly notebooks and sheet music. “That car cost a million dollars, and Josh’s truck is all screwed up.”
I found Gabe sitting beside Deliah at the breakfast table, talking with a mouthful of cereal. “He’ll just get another one.”
“How did he manage to smash the Bentley and miss all of the other trucks?” I asked. “And what’s all the black on the snow out there?”
“Looks like paint,” Judson answered without looking up.
I wasn’t sure what I would say if we made eye contact. Deliah would make a stink if she knew someone was snooping in her belongings.
“Haven’t they learned not to mess with Texas?” asked Gabe. He kicked a chair out for me.
“If I
was Josh, I’d hide in my room forever. He’s gonna kill him,” Deliah repeated.
“Oh, please stop saying that,” Meggie scolded from the sink. “They just got to the point where they can be in the same room. When your dad gets back from town, we all need to sit down and set some rules. There are so many of us now.”
“Good luck with that,” Gabe said. “I don’t want to be in the same time zone as him. Why didn’t you tell me the lieutenant was back?”
Meggie set a cup of coffee in front of Judson and answered Gabe. “I wasn’t expecting him. He snuck into my bedroom.”
“La la la la,” Deliah sung with her hands over her ears.
“I hear ya, kid,” said Judson. He winked at Meggie. “If I don’t got a female warming my bed sheets, I sure as hell don’t want to hear about anybody else’s.”
Meggie braced her arms on the sink and stared out the window. “Okiedokie, that’s enough.”
“You’re pretty brave showing your face,” said Deliah when Josh jumped off the stairs.
“They shot paint at me.” He checked the living room to make sure Mr. Halden wasn’t around.
“Protesters,” Gabe sneered. “Any chance they get to yell Frack You, they do it.”
“You mean like the PETA people toss red paint? These guys use black paint?” Deliah asked as she searched the refrigerator.
“Pretend oil?” I said to Josh. “Why would they do it to you?”
“It’s a new scare tactic,” Gabe replied. “See a bucket, run for your life.”
“This is all new to me too,” Meggie said. “I better not wake up tomorrow in a black house. This is not the Williston I know.”
“Did they pay you to nail his Bentley?” Judson asked Josh when he took a seat.
“It was so dark. Somebody was following me. I spun on the ice. You saw the rest. My truck is toast.”
“Your truck is catawampus. So you saw them and ran like a little girl?” Gabe teased. He grinned at me.
I loved his morning mood. I loved him entirely, and especially the fact that I was feeling better and we weren’t going to be separated by thousands of miles ever again. I decided not to piss him off and tell him about his uncle’s odd behavior.
Stubborn Truth (The Stubborn Series Book 3) Page 3
