He really liked book club nights.
He pulled her close and kissed her. “Yeah, the guys are waiting. Are you sure you don’t want to take a break and ride with us?”
“I wish I could. I want to get some editing done before everyone gets here.” They’d invited all their friends for a celebration of their lives rather than a birthday party. “I’ll come with you next weekend. I promise.”
“Good. I’ll miss you.” He kissed her tenderly, but as usual, they quickly caught fire. When Harper pushed her hands up his neck and into his hair, holding tight, heat seared beneath his skin. “God, babe,” he said between kisses. “I hate leaving you.”
She pushed away, grinning like she’d meant to get him hard as stone. “Now you’ll think of me while you’re gone.”
“I always think of you.” He hauled her in for another kiss. “Nobody’s coming until six tonight, right?”
“Mm-hm,” she said, kissing along his jaw.
“Good. I’ll be home around three.” He grabbed her ass and said, “That gives me plenty of time to tie you up and have my way with you.”
Her eyes darkened as she rubbed against him like a cat in heat. “I’ll be waiting.”
“Riding with a hard-on. This should be interesting.” He kissed her again and headed for the door. “Love you. Good luck on your revisions.”
He paused on the front porch, admiring the gardens. They’d gotten into a water fight with the hose the other night and ended up rolling around in the front yard covered in mud. Harper had breathed new life into him, filling gaps he hadn’t realized existed. His phone vibrated, and he read Justin’s text. Hurry your ass up.
He shoved his phone into his pocket and headed over to Justin’s.
Justin, Dwayne, and Zander, one of Justin’s younger brothers and also a Dark Knight, were waiting out front when he arrived. Dwayne looked up from his phone briefly as Gavin cut the engine and climbed off his bike. Then he went back to whatever he was looking at on his phone.
“Hard time cutting that ball and chain?” Zander flashed an arrogant smile and raked a hand through his thick brown hair. “I’ve got metal cutters to set you free.”
“The only shackles in my house are the ones we’re both into, asshole.” Gavin chuckled and shook his hand. “Good to see you, man. We’re having a get-together tonight. You should swing by and meet Harper.” He’d invited Dwayne and Justin the other night, when he and Harper had seen them at Common Grounds.
“Thanks, man,” Zander said. “Justin said your old lady’s pretty sweet, but that comment just kicked her up to the fucking hot category.”
“That she is.” Gavin glanced at Justin, who shrugged. He knew Zander was just talking shit, but his protective urges surged and he said, “Keep yourself in check around her, because if you step out of line, I will fuck you up.”
“Shit,” Zander said sarcastically.
“Watch yourself, Zan,” Justin said. “Gavin may look like a gentleman, but he’s an animal.” He bumped fists with Gavin and said, “Harper didn’t want to ride today?”
Harper had gone riding with them twice, and she’d loved it. “She’s still hammering out those movie revisions. She’ll come next weekend.”
“Cool.”
Dwayne shoved his phone in his pocket and said, “You ladies want to do your hair next, or can we take this party on the road?”
“Chill, dude.” Zander grabbed his helmet and glanced at Gavin. “Are there going to be any single chicks at your place tonight?”
“Sure, Chloe, Steph, Daphne, and Harper’s friend Tegan.”
Dwayne looked over and said, “Go near Steph and I’ll break your fingers, Z-man.”
Zander scoffed.
“Same goes for Chloe,” Justin said with a menacing stare. “She’s a lady. She doesn’t need you sniffing around.”
Zander straddled his bike and said, “I know what the ladies like.” He made an obscene gesture with his tongue.
Justin stepped forward and Gavin grabbed his arm, stopping him. “He’s trying to piss you off. It’s what brothers do, man. Ignore it or make her yours.”
Justin wrenched his arm free, glowering at Zander as he said, “Don’t be a dick, Zan. Chicks hate dicks.”
“Then you’re doing something wrong, because chicks love my dick.” Zander put on his helmet, ending the conversation.
Gavin chuckled as they climbed on their bikes and started them up.
Justin rode by Zander, and Zander flicked him off.
All three of Justin’s brothers were good guys, but they loved to give each other shit. Hell, didn’t all brothers? Beckett had called Gavin at the ass-crack of dawn to wish him a happy birthday, like he did every year. He’d been out with their friends riding horses since four in the morning, and Gavin got to say hello to all of them. It was awesome. He was looking forward to introducing all of his friends to Harper over Thanksgiving, when they were heading to Oak Falls.
Justin sped down the driveway, and as Gavin fell into line between Zander and Dwayne, his thoughts returned to Harper, the way they always did. Some people had a happy place or the thing they did that brought them the most joy. He knew their long motorcycle rides filled both those spots for his buddies, but while Gavin loved his guy time, Harper had become his happiest place and his biggest thrill.
Three o’clock couldn’t come soon enough.
AFTER HIS RIDE, Gavin blew through his front door feeling invigorated, his body still vibrating from the hours he’d spent straddling his bike. He put his helmet and keys on the table by the door, shrugged off his coat, and hollered in the direction of the sunroom as he headed for the bedroom, “Babe, I just need to shower off and then the birthday boy wants to play. Meet me in the bedroom.” He tugged off his shirt, and as he threw open the bedroom door, he called over his shoulder, “Naked!”
“Surprise!”
“Holy fu—” His parents’ smiling faces came into focus among a sea of helium balloons. Beckett stood a few feet away, doubled over in laughter. It took a minute for Gavin to make sense of seeing them there. “Mom? Dad?” He felt Harper’s hand on his back and turned to meet her beautiful blushing face, and his heart filled to near bursting. “Baby, you did this?”
“We couldn’t celebrate your birthday without your family,” she said. “When Nana told me it was your birthday, I called your mom back and asked if they could manage a weekend trip.”
“Aw, babe.” He pulled her into his arms, pressing a kiss to her temple as he tried to reel in his emotions. “You’ve been planning it all this time?”
She nodded. “I picked them up at the Provincetown Airport two hours ago. I’m sorry my parents are out of town, but they promised to have dinner with us after they get back.”
“I’d love that.”
“Harper is a doll, Gavin,” his mother said, smiling warmly at Harper. Her dirty-blond hair brushed her shoulders. It had grown longer since he’d last seen her. “She’s been the perfect hostess. No wonder you’ve sounded like a different person this summer. Happy birthday, sweetheart.”
His mother hugged him tight. She smelled familiar, eliciting all his best childhood memories, causing his chest to constrict. She lowered her voice and said, “And don’t worry about the naked comment. We understand young love.”
Christ. He looked over her shoulder at Beckett, who was smirking, and said, “You could have warned me, Beck. I talked to you at four thirty this morning.”
“And ruin the surprise?” Beckett said. “I’d never disappoint Harper like that.”
Smart-ass.
“We swore him to secrecy,” his father said.
The sleeves of his father’s light-blue button-down were rolled up to his forearms, revealing a scar he’d gotten when Gavin was seven. Memories of that fateful afternoon rolled in. They’d been fishing, and his father had given a fishing knife to Gavin to cut a line. Beckett had called Gavin’s name, and Gavin had turned, accidentally slicing open his father’s arm. Gavin would never
forget the terrifying sight of blood gushing from his father’s arm or how his father had calmly taken his sobbing son by the shoulders, seemingly oblivious to his own pain, and forced Gavin to look him in the eyes as he said, I’m fine, buddy. This is nothing. Accidents happen, but this is why you need to always focus on what you’re doing and not on the nonsense around you. Let me wrap my arm, and we’ll try again. As he’d tied his T-shirt around the wound, he’d lectured Gavin and Beckett about safety for what felt like the millionth—and the first—time. That time, Gavin had listened. Always the teacher, his father had patiently helped Gavin cut the line, and then he’d taken them home and had gone alone to the hospital, where he’d received seven stitches.
“How are you, son?” his father asked. His thick dark hair had flecks of gray around the temples. He embraced Gavin, holding him a beat longer than his mother had, and said, “I’ve missed you.”
Damn, now he was choked up even more.
“I’ve missed you, too, Dad. How long can you stay?”
“Just for the weekend,” his father said. “You’ll be sick of us by the time we leave Sunday night.”
“Hardly,” Gavin said.
“Good to see your ugly mug.” Beckett tugged him into a manly embrace. “I’ve got to say, I was pretty disappointed to find out the hot blonde messaging me on Instagram was your girlfriend.”
Gavin scoffed. “I bet you were.” He glanced at Harper, gathering balloons with his parents and taking them out of the bedroom. The brightness in his parents’ eyes brought a rush of unpleasant memories of when they’d met Corinne. What a beautiful difference this was.
As he and Beckett grabbed handfuls of balloons and carried them into the living room, Gavin thought about last summer, when he’d reached out to his family to try to mend the distance that his brief, once-a-year visits had created. They had welcomed him with open arms, and they hadn’t made him feel guilty or held it against him in any way.
He’d never make that mistake again.
He looked at Harper, helping his father hang a birthday banner over the fireplace, and he knew she’d never put him in a position where he felt like he had to.
Chapter Twenty-Two
OVER THE COURSE of the afternoon, with the help of his mother, Harper cooked all Gavin’s favorite dishes and treats, while the guys pestered them for tastes—and Gavin stole kisses from his beautiful, thoughtful girlfriend. The friendship between his family and Harper was so real, he knew it was seeping into the very walls of their home. When Serena, Chloe, and Jana showed up, they helped Harper and his mother transform the inside of their home into a celebration of colors and lights, while Gavin, Beckett, and their father decorated the patio and the path to the dock. They hung paper lanterns from tree limbs, strung streamers with bright nylon tassels over the patio, lined the path to the dock with mason jars, and decorated the dock with strings of blue lights. They set up long tables for the food, and the girls decorated them with candles and flowers.
Hours later, their yard was bustling with the din of good friends and family. Gavin sipped his beer, chuckling to himself as Rick made silly faces at Hadley, trying to coax a smile from Daphne’s little girl. Hadley’s stoic expression remained firmly in place even as Andre and Drake dropped to their knees and joined the effort.
Hadley pushed to her feet in her pretty pink dress and toddled toward Jock, who was chatting with Tegan, Harper, and Jana. Hadley wrapped her little arms around Jock’s leg, and his jaw went tight. He looked uncomfortably at Tegan, who reached for the little girl. But Hadley clung tighter to Jock’s leg, her cheeks puffed out in anger as she leaned away from Tegan’s touch. When Tegan stepped back, Hadley looked up at Jock, and a wide, toothy grin appeared on her sweet face.
There was a collective “Aww.”
“I can’t believe it,” Daphne said, glancing shyly at Jock. “You must be a pretty special man to win my little girl over.”
Jock glanced at Daphne and said, “Her radar’s off.”
“Come on, dude. What’s your secret?” Rick asked. “We’ve been trying to get her to smile forever.”
Jock shrugged, looking a little bewildered as the guys joked about Hadley being into the strong, silent type.
Harper must have noticed Jock’s discomfort because she crouched beside Hadley. She’d changed into a sexy floral wraparound dress, tied at the waist. It was shorter in front than in the back, and in her crouched position, it showed off her thighs. She said something to Hadley and held her arms out. Hadley toddled into them, and Harper shifted her on her hip as she stood up. Gavin’s heart did a double take, imagining Harper with their baby as she spoke to the little cherub-cheeked girl, earning the cutest smile of the night.
Gavin’s father sidled up to him with Justin and Beckett and said, “That look on your face tells a story, son.”
“Yeah? What story is that?”
His father slung an arm over his shoulder and said, “The one that ends in happily ever after and grandbabies for me and your mother.”
“No pressure or anything,” Beckett teased.
They both laughed.
“No pressure necessary,” their father said. “Gavin will know when it’s right. You have quite a tight-knit group of friends here, Gavin. It’s nice to meet them and to know you’ve found your way back.”
Gavin met his father’s gaze, knowing exactly what he meant. Not back to these same friends, but back to being Gavin Wheeler, the man who not only let people into his life but into the very heart of who he was. It’d been a long time. “I’m sorry I ever let anyone or anything come between us. I got lost for a while, Dad, but I am back, and I’m here to stay.”
“That’s water under the bridge, son,” his father said. “Don’t give it another thought. We sure don’t.”
“Besides, we have more important things to worry about, like is Steph dating Dwayne, or is she fair game?” Beckett motioned toward Steph, who was talking with Violet, Dwayne, and Zander. Dwayne had one arm around Violet and the other around Steph. Zander’s eyes were trained on Tegan.
“We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon,” their father reminded him. “Do you really want to start something you can’t finish?”
A cocky grin slid across Beckett’s face. “Oh, I’ll finish, all right, Dad. Several times, in fact.”
“That’s my cue to go find your mother.”
As their father walked away, Beckett said, “No wonder you haven’t invited me out here to hang with you. You were afraid of the competition.”
Gavin scoffed. “Hardly, bro. The only woman I’ve been interested in for the past year is the gorgeous blonde in that sexy dress over there.”
“Good, then tell me about Steph. I love those streaks in her hair.”
“Really? You’re usually Mr. Conservative.”
“Shows how well you really know me. I wear ties for a reason, dude, and it has nothing to do with appearances.”
Then we have that in common.
“Steph and Dwayne grew up together—they’re not a couple. But don’t leave me with a mess—or a broken heart—to clean up.”
“Shit, bro. When have I ever done that?” Beckett took a swig of his beer and headed in Steph’s direction.
“And so it starts,” Gavin said to Justin.
Justin didn’t respond, and Gavin realized Justin was chewing on nails, glowering at Chloe and the tall, dark, and a little-too-nerdy date she’d brought with her. According to Serena, Chloe had met him on a dating site and this was their third date. He nudged Justin.
“Hm?”
“If you like her, you should ask her out before she finds someone worthwhile on Match or Tinder.”
“She better not be on fucking Tinder.” Justin shifted his eyes away from Chloe. “I just want to make sure she’s safe.”
“He looks harmless. He’s dressed nice, clean-cut, seems attentive toward her.”
“Don’t let looks deceive you, man. Assholes come in all shapes and sizes. Some just clean up better than
others.”
“Then go talk to him and feel him out,” he said, catching sight of Harper standing with his mother at the top of the path that led to the dock. Moonlight spilled over her bare shoulders as she hugged his mother. His mother walked away, and Harper gazed out at the water.
Justin didn’t move.
“Excuse me, buddy. There’s a gorgeous blonde in a wraparound dress waiting to be kissed that I have to attend to.” Gavin crossed the yard to Harper and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. He kissed her neck and said, “Do you know how much I love you?”
“More than fishing?” She leaned back, her soft hands moving over his arms.
“Hm. I don’t know. That’s a tough call.” He kissed her cheek and she sighed. “What are you doing over here all by yourself?”
“Remembering our first night in the rowboat and thinking about how much I like your family. Your parents are so warm and loving. They adore you, Gavin. Your mom told me stories of when you were younger and how you and Beckett used to sneak out. She said as teenagers you’d ride horses with your friends before dawn and that your father used to follow you guys there without you knowing just in case there was an emergency.”
He was quiet for a moment, processing what she’d said. “I never knew that.”
She tipped her face up toward his and kissed his chin. “I want to be that type of parent. The kind that lets their kids do a few rebellious things but makes sure they’re safe. I wasn’t ever rebellious, and maybe I missed out.”
“I’ll be rebellious with you. We’ll sneak out after my parents go to sleep and go skinny-dipping.”
She laughed, and the sweet sound warmed him all over.
He turned her in her arms, and his insides turned to liquid heat at the love in her eyes. “God, you’re gorgeous, Harper. How did I get lucky enough that you chose me to share your heart with?”
Bayside Romance (Bayside Summers Book 5) Page 24
