Stubborn Truth (The Stubborn Series Book 3)

by Arnold, Jeanne

  I sighed deeply as he looked up. His eyes were dark. “I don’t want to talk about who you did it with in the past.”

  He crawled up my body and propped himself on his elbow. His gaze fixated on mine while his other hand came into play and cupped the underneath of my breast. I tried not to react when he caressed my most sensitive skin and moaned his appreciation into my shoulder.

  “I’m not like my brothers. I didn’t mean that. I want you like I’ve never wanted any girl. I promise I won’t hurt you. Okay?”

  I bit my lips and nodded.

  “I thought we got this bullshit out of the way so we could have fun here.”

  It was a fleeting thought, but I considered asking how he knew the girl in the parking lot. Was she an old girlfriend? Was she his first? My nerves began to impede on my sanity.

  I lifted my head in an attempt to quiet my inner thoughts. He angled in and kissed me with strong lips and slid on top of me while holding the sides of my head. I felt every inch of his body contact mine as he moved in slow motion, letting me know how ready he was. Our lips couldn’t get enough. The strawberry gum was mine and then it was his again.

  “Is this what you thought it would be like?” I asked breathlessly. I couldn’t believe I was on the verge of doing what I assumed would change us forever.

  “Damn right. I pictured you in knee socks and nothing else,” he drawled into my ear. “I sat in that jail cell for hours imagining what you would let me do. We’ll see if you still like me afterward.”

  I held my breath thinking about him thinking about me as he hooked his fingers in the lace fabric at my hip.

  We were doing it.

  “Can I take these off?” he said huskily.

  I nodded in place of blurting out my consent. Then I closed my eyes and tried not to dissolve under his touch.

  He did the rest.

  Three

  “You’re a good sport,” Gabe mumbled his thought into the pillow.

  I was lodged between the wall and his back. My hands wrapped around his chest, stroking the soft skin over his heart. I had the sense to put on his pajama top in case I fell asleep.

  “Thanks, I think,” I spoke into his neck where the black paint was hardly visible. “How long do we wait to do it again? Hours? Days?”

  Gabe rolled over. I curled around his middle. “That—you don’t ever gotta ask,” he said as he slid his backbone up the headboard.

  “I wasn’t sure,” I replied and ran my hand behind his neck to play with his haircut. He slipped his hand under my shirt and caressed my side as I climbed onto his lap. I rubbed my nose against his. “I liked it.”

  “Yeah, I know. I can read faces,” he drawled. “Yours was…interesting.”

  I kissed his moving lips. He smiled and I felt his teeth in the kiss.

  “I love everything about you, Av’ry Ross. You sure as heck don’t disappoint. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  My face flushed and I tried to cover my cheeks, but he took my hands and kissed my palms one at a time.

  “I don’t know much about sex other than what Molly and Janie told me.”

  “Coulda fooled me,” he said smirking his handsome smile. “I can’t imagine what they fed you.”

  “Just the important stuff. I’m good now.”

  Gabe tried to tear open my pajama shirt, but the buttons were sewn on tight. “You don’t need them telling you nothing. It should be the other way around. Now that you done it, it ain’t bragging.”

  I undid the top button on my shirt, and he opened the next. I didn’t know what came over me. I was wired, supercharged.

  “You hear that?” he said.

  “My stomach? It’s upset from the French fries. I haven’t had real food all week.”

  “It was a knock. I freaking told her no,” he cursed.

  The knock grew louder, stronger.

  “It sounds like the front door.”

  Gabe slid out from under me and adjusted his pants. “I’m sending her back. This is our night.”

  “You can’t answer the door like that.”

  “Watch me,” he yelled through the wall as he stormed the stairs. “I should answer it stark-naked. That would do the trick.”

  I searched the bedding for my underwear. The only way to hide from Deliah was to go back to New York.

  Gabe called me to the living room. The air chilled by the time I got to the first floor.

  “Not a word,” he cautioned his sister when her eyes lit up at my knee socks and matching pajama top. “We’re adults and you’re a brat. So zip it.”

  “Avery’s only five years older than me,” she told him. “You need to pay the cab driver. I don’t have any money.”

  “Are you for real? I told you not to come here.”

  “Do I look real? Now pay up. Do you know how hard it is to get a cab in this city?” She unzipped her floor length coat. Underneath she was wearing plaid pajamas.

  Gabe grabbed his jacket and fished out his wallet. He slapped a twenty-dollar bill onto Deliah’s hand and pointed to the door. “You go pay it.”

  “Nuh uh. You’ll just lock me out. It’s after midnight. I’ll freeze to death.”

  “Yup,” he said. “Go.”

  “Come on, Gabe,” I grumbled. I took his hand and squeezed it. “She can sleep up here.”

  “In this icebox? No way,” she said. “I smell a fire. I’ll sleep where you sleep, Avery.”

  “Did you really go outside without boots or a coat?” I asked Gabe when he skipped down the stairs and joined us in the basement after he paid for the cab. Snow was caked on his pajama bottoms. “There’s three feet of snow in the front yard and you’ve been coughing.” Not to mention he didn’t have on a shirt or a hat. The thought brought me back to our cozy reunion ten minutes earlier. I studied him to see if he looked different. I wondered what I looked like. My entire existence had changed.

  “Snow don’t bother me. Just little sisters.”

  “So why did you come here?” I asked Deliah.

  She twisted her ponytail and sighed.

  “She likes to make trouble,” Gabe answered. “You’ve got a sister. You know.”

  My little sister Brianna was much younger than Deliah. Still, when I left, she was turning into a little diva.

  “You’ll thank me. I’m the best birth control you’ll ever get. Shouldn’t you be in jail? Did they shave your head?”

  I could feel the steam fire out of Gabe’s ears. If she wasn’t his sister, he would have thrown her smart mouth out into the snow. It amazed me how they acted as if they’d grown up together.

  “Joel says we’re having my mom’s memorial in two days. Tessa was fixin’ to come, but it’s winter and she doesn’t know it’s happening.”

  “Two days?” I asked. “That’s not much notice.”

  “He knew about it. He just doesn’t tell anybody his plans,” said Gabe. “He’s pissed about his car, so he’s going to make us all miserable too.”

  “I don’t have anything nice to wear,” Deliah said.

  “I’ll ask Molly if you can borrow something. It’s not like she’s using her clothes these days. What about Caleb?” I said.

  “He hides his dresses in storage.” Gabe turned around and made eyes at me. “He skipped town. Maybe we should too.”

  “Don’t you want to go to your mother’s service?” I asked.

  “Not particularly. I wanna go to bed,” he replied. “There’s a mattress in there. Pull it out for her.”

  I followed him into the bedroom and shut the door. “Don’t be grouchy,” I whispered. “She’s lonely. Put yourself in her shoes. Her mother died, and she had to move here with all of you.”

  “My mom died too,” he said.

  I studied his back before he turned around. He took a step toward me and forced me to step on a pile of his books. I hadn’t noticed the stacks of paperbacks along the floorboard. The look in his eyes scared me.

  My head bumped the wall. His fingers absorbed th
e hit after he grabbed me by the sides of my face. He plunged his lips into mine and laid a startling kiss on me, pushing his knee into my thigh and holding me tight to the wall. He purred into my mouth as if mollified.

  “You gave me the best damn night of my entire life. Started in the toilet—but I can let that go.”

  “Do I look different?” It was a stupid question.

  Gabe tipped his head back and ran his gaze around my face. “Naw, you look the same. Maybe a smidgen sweeter.”

  I blew out my breath and wove my hands through his arms to hold his back as tight as I could. He took my hands and lowered them to his butt.

  “More like that,” he said squeezing my hip. “Now go put the girl to bed and get back in here.”

  * * *

  “That kid—I don’t think I can manage her, Avery,” Meggie said the following day after dinner. She rocked the baby over her shoulder and changed the station on the kitchen TV from one news program to another. “I can’t replace her mom, but she doesn’t even mind me. She takes off at all hours. She’s moody one minute and a ball of laughs the next. Joel won’t deal with her. You see how he bolts when business calls. Is this what I have to look forward to when Emmie gets older?”

  Deliah was so much like Gabe. I imagined he was as difficult as she was when he was thirteen.

  “I can’t help you there,” I told her. I worried my aunt could tell I was different. I sure felt different. I had a secret that only Gabe and I shared.

  Meggie sighed and bent down so I could kiss Emmie’s head goodnight. “How did I go from having one kid to managing a football team in less than a year? I can’t even find the time to take a shower. Uff-da.” She walked to the stairs with the baby and stopped. “Judson told me about Gabe’s incident in the parking lot yesterday. By golly, kiddo, if his dad finds out what he did, I’ll have to scrape him off the ceiling. Do your best to keep it under wraps. At least until the memorial is over. I wish Caleb would answer my calls. All of the boys should be here.”

  Deliah burst into the kitchen after Meggie took the baby upstairs for a bath. “Where’s Joel?”

  “He took off in Meggie’s truck while you were out back.”

  “Thank heavens,” she said dramatically as she fell into a seat and huffed.

  Gabe followed and knocked the snow off his boots in the middle of the room. I kept my eyes on his new hairstyle. He looked cold.

  “You show her yet?” he asked.

  “Show me what?”

  Deliah kicked off her boots and stood on the kitchen chair. “You’re famous, Avery!”

  I glared at Gabe and he rubbed his jaw. “She’s not fooling. But infamy’s just around the corner.”

  Deliah waved her tablet in the air.

  “Show her,” Gabe drawled and then scratched his head with both hands. His expression unnerved me.

  “That’s you!” Deliah shouted even though I was standing right in front of her. “Every news channel from here to Fargo is showing the same clip. Don’t worry, only one of the stations claimed that you dated all of Joel Halden’s sons. Caleb is going to split his gut!”

  I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. Deliah played the clip again. She hit pause when my face filled the screen. The camera followed me through the campus demonstrators and zoomed in on me waving to the girl with black hair whom I met in the bursar’s office. She held a “Save Mother Earth” sign in her hands and chanted something unintelligible behind the correspondent’s voice. They made it look as if I was part of her rally.

  “I wasn’t in that…that protest!” I exclaimed as my brain began to function. “How did they do that so fast? They made that up. It’s all patched together. I don’t know her! Can they do that?”

  “Show her the one where they say the Halden’s darling knows better than to fracture the Bakken. Or the one where she’s going to shut down the entire HalRem drilling division. That one’s priceless,” Gabe told his sister.

  I covered my ears. I didn’t want to hear it.

  “You look like an actress, Avery,” Deliah said.

  “She’s right. You look great on camera.” Gabe swung an arm over my shoulder. He pulled me into his chin and whispered, “At least we have video of the virgin before the sacrifice.”

  I jabbed him in the ribs but not hard enough to hurt him. “This isn’t funny. Your father’s going to send me home. He’s tried three times before. He’ll blame you.”

  “Too late. He’ll cuss me up and down, no matter what headline hits first. This one’s a hoot. My story’s lame in comparison.”

  “Your story will be all over the Internet too. Did you think of that?” I asked.

  Meggie paced down the stairs wearing a frown. “Why must you make so much noise? I just got Emmie to sleep. What’s so important that you have to shout?”

  I took the tablet from Deliah and held it up. “I need your help, Aunt Meggie. I can’t go home again.”

  * * *

  Deliah was sitting on the edge of my bed. As soon as I opened my eyes on the morning of her mother’s service, she strummed her guitar.

  “It’s morning,” she informed me as if I didn’t see the sun shining through the frosted glass. “Gabe and I stayed up until three-thirty practicing. We’re playing at the service.”

  I pulled my hair into a ponytail with a band from my bedside table. My phone hadn’t lit up all night. I figured Gabe was up to something. I hoped he was making the news story go away. Meggie swore she would do damage control after she stopped snickering at my terrible luck, but I feared Mr. Halden’s stubborn streak wouldn’t allow him to see it as anything but my fault.

  Deliah set Molly’s clothes out on the bed. “Gabe told me he’s wearing a sleeveless T-shirt and jeans. Meggie says it’s not a fashion show, but we have to dress up.”

  I stole into the bathroom first and then left her upstairs trying to decide what color eye shadow to wear. I needed a plan to get Gabe out of his jeans so his father wouldn’t get on him about his image. The kitchen was empty. I cut up a banana for my cereal, sat down, and took a minute to enjoy the silence.

  Josh slammed the back door as I swallowed my first spoonful of cereal. He didn’t even bother taking off his snowy work boots as he ran to the basement steps with something in his hand. He spun around after I cleared my throat.

  “I didn’t see you there,” he said. Then he slapped a newspaper on the table in front of me. “Thanks for taking the heat off me for once.”

  He ran down the stairs and left me to glare at the headline on the front page of the Williston Herald. My face was bigger than the article. The next thing I knew, Meggie and Joel began squabbling on the second floor. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it was heated.

  Two hands touched my shoulders and startled me. I dropped my spoon and tried to stand, but they held me down.

  “Gabe, you scared me half to death.” He set his chin on my head. “Are they arguing about me? Have you seen this? It’s not going away.”

  “You pushed me out of the top spot on his naughty list.”

  He stepped into my view. I leaned back in my chair and waited for my heart to restart. My boyfriend was a prime candidate for cover model on GQ Magazine. He was striking. His tie hung around his open collar. He had Eli’s guitar case eased over his shoulder. I wanted to snap his picture and blow up the image to plaster on my wall alongside Deliah’s boy band posters. They had nothing on Gabe’s statuesque build. He wore a suit like he wore his jeans. Perfectly.

  “Wanna split? We can be in Canada in less than two hours.”

  “We’re not leaving the country,” I said. I would have done anything with him looking like that had he begged me. “This is crazy. I don’t know anything about hydrofracking or oil recovery.”

  He took my hand and pulled me out of my chair. “Simmer down. I got something for you in the truck.” He kissed my forehead before stepping away to study my black dress. It was the only dress I brought with me from New York. “Frack ’em all to hell
. You look mighty fine today.”

  I followed him to the front door after I shoved the newspaper in the garbage can. As soon as I slid my foot into my clunky boot, Gabe lifted me off the ground. The boot fell off.

  “What are you doing?” I shrieked into his face. He grinned and ran out the door, holding me to him like a child. “Gabe! Don’t drop me in the snow!”

  He closed the passenger door after I climbed in and then skated around the truck before swiping snow off the window with his hand. The engine was running. The seat was warm.

  “I don’t have any shoes, Gabe. My toes will freeze.”

  “Gimme a minute, would ya?”

  He turned on the wipers to remove the snow he couldn’t reach.

  I was momentarily distracted by the image of him sitting in a truck all dressed up. “Do you have a stash of suits in Meggie’s basement?”

  He placed the guitar behind the seat. “Naw. I got fitted for this one when Eli died. Meggie made me and Caleb go to a tailor.”

  “You look really nice. Like better than nice.” I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. I couldn’t take my hand off of his leg. I secretly wanted to crawl onto his lap and place kisses inside his collar. But I knew we were being watched as long as we were at Meggie’s.

  “This is for you,” he drawled and reached behind me, stretching over my shoulder so I could inhale his fresh morning scent. He pulled out a box and set it on my lap. It was heavy. “About time you looked the part.”

  I lifted a cowboy boot out of the box and studied it as if it were a precious sculpture. “What part do I need to look?” I couldn’t hide my grin.

  “Texan.” He took the boot from my hand. “These got real wooden pegs and that inlay is handmade. You gotta wear them in. Then they’ll fit like a second skin.”

  “How did you even know my size?”

  “I know everything about you,” he said and then paused to look down his nose. “I asked Meggie.”

  “I didn’t get you anything.”

  “Really?” He gave me a look that made me want to grab his face and kiss it. I guess I gave him what he wanted. “You put up with living here. You put up with my family. You put up with me.”