Watch Over Me

by Sydney Landon

  “Hey, babe, I think I left my phone at your place. I’m already on the road so could you bring it with you to the office?”

  She began to laugh hysterically as she sat on her heels clutching her phone. It wasn’t even eight in the morning and already she’d lost all of the relationship maturity that she’d promised both Wendy and herself. Now, thanks to her trigger-happy finger, she couldn’t just simply tell Dominic that she’d seen the message from K—who was quite possibly Kandi. Shit, why had she deleted it? Realizing that he was probably waiting for a response from her, she typed out, “Okay, I’ll bring it.” Maybe she should have added, “Don’t worry; I’ve already looked at everything on it.”

  Falling backward onto the bed, Gwen kicked her feet against the mattress in frustration. Surely, Kandi being in Charleston with Dominic was no coincidence and she hadn’t gotten one call while he was gone. And then, being the forgiving and desperate person that she was, she’d fallen into bed with him promptly last night. Yes, she had vowed to be mature and let Dominic walk away if he wanted to, but she was getting damned tired of being the girl that NEVER got the guy! She’d even tried to make herself into someone she wasn’t because she felt she was the one who needed to change to make things work.

  In theory, there was always something about a person that wasn’t perfect and could be improved upon, but you couldn’t and shouldn’t have to change the core of who you were for anyone. That was what she was finished doing. She had no problem fighting for her man—she might not be able to work a stripper pole, but she brought plenty to the table and one of those things was honesty.

  Jumping to her feet, she headed to the shower. She was tired of not knowing where things stood with Dominic. She would deliver his phone and confess what she had done. Really, how much worse could things get? At this point, being officially dumped would be rather anticlimactic, to say the least. She was walking into the bathroom when the phone chimed again. Freezing, she muttered under her breath, “You have got to be kidding me,” as she stalked back to his phone, thinking it was another text for him. She sagged in relief when she found nothing on his screen. Thank God, she didn’t think she could handle seeing a sext from Kandi at this point.

  Grabbing her own phone, she found a text from Wendy. “Make sure you take that test we discussed first thing in the morning.”

  It took Gwen a moment to understand what her sister was saying. Then it hit her—another pregnancy test, just to be certain. Geez, why had she even mentioned that to Wendy? She would have her taking a damn test every day for the next month, even though she’d already taken at least twenty of them just days ago. “Well, good morning to you too,” she typed out sarcastically.

  “Good morning, Gwen. How are you today, my dear sister? Now take the darn test already!”

  Gwen laughed despite herself. Wendy could do sarcasm just as well as she could. Glancing at the clock, she knew she didn’t have time for a debate so she quickly typed back, “I’m going to do it now—just for you!”

  “Let me know! Love you!”

  Gwen sent her a quick reply and then retraced her steps to the bathroom. She rolled her eyes, but still pulled out one of the remaining pregnancy tests that she’d stashed in her cabinet. She grumbled as she made short work of peeing on the stick, before setting it on the bathroom counter and getting in the shower. As much as she loved her cell phone, Gwen could only think that life would surely be better if they didn’t exist. There would have been no text from Kandi for her to find and no nagging from Wendy. She could have started her day relaxed and happy instead of suspicious and grumpy.

  Technology, ugh, sometimes she hated it.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Hey, where’s the coffee?” Gage asked as Dominic walked through the office door.

  “Do I look like your maid?” Dominic quipped as he dropped into a chair in front of the security feeds.

  “But I texted you to bring some coffee,” Gage huffed as he punched some buttons on his keyboard. “If you’d let me know you weren’t stopping, I’d have done it myself.”

  Dominic brought up the feeds for the next customer’s property before saying, “I left my phone at Gwen’s so I didn’t get your message.” Dominic heard the familiar squeak of Gage’s chair as he leaned back in it.

  “You totally went right after her last night, didn’t you? How long did you make it before you ran to her apartment? Ten minutes?”

  “Oh, shut it,” Dominic grinned. “I knew from Shannon that she was supposed to be home Sunday evening, so I just—kept an eye out for her.”

  Gage surprised him by sitting up straight and asking, “Shannon? As in your neighbor, right?”

  Shaking his head at Gage’s abrupt question, Dominic said, “Yeah. That’s what I said. You know the one with the crazy kids that I’ve mentioned.”

  “Damn, Dom, give them a break. I’m sure they’re not that bad. Kids will be kids and all that stuff. I bet Shannon has really done a good job with them, all on her own. You gotta give single moms some serious respect; you know what I’m saying?”

  Dominic turned from the monitor he had been watching to stare at his friend. “Man, what’s wrong with you today? You’re like an emotional wreck or something.” Instead of laughing at his insult, Gage did something even more out of character and actually blushed. He was still trying to figure it out when Mac walked in carrying coffee and a bag.

  “Morning. Ava guilted me into stopping to pick this shit up for you two,” Mac grumbled as he plopped the bag and cup carrier down on the desk.

  Recovering from his earlier snit, Gage chuckled, saying, “Bro, you are so whipped. I wonder what else I can have her suggest for you to do.”

  “She didn’t say I couldn’t stir yours with my finger,” Mac threatened as he held Gage’s cup suspended.

  “I will so go tell her,” Gage whined until Mac reluctantly handed him the cup he’d been holding hostage.

  Mac took a chair next to Dominic and pulled a doughnut from the bag. “We need to eat fast because Seth Jackson called me while I was on the way to the office. A couple of his brothers are going to be in town today from Florida and he wanted to know if we could squeeze in a last-minute meeting this morning at the Oceanix Resort.”

  Looking at his watch, Dominic asked, “How last-minute are we talking?”

  Mac popped the last of the doughnut in his mouth. “We need to be there at nine.”

  “But that’s only thirty minutes from now,” Gage scowled as he snagged a doughnut.

  Dusting the crumbs from his shirt, Mac said, “Yeah, Seth said he’d understand if we couldn’t make it. Apparently, there was some mechanical issue with their company plane, and the brothers ended up landing here instead of Charleston. Since we’ve been trying to get a meeting with them, Seth thought it might be a good opportunity.”

  “We can make it.” Dominic nodded as he got to his feet. “I’m going to run a cup of coffee up to Gwen and see if she’s here yet with my phone. How about picking me up out front in fifteen?” Dominic heard Gage making the sounds of a whip cracking as he walked toward the door. Just as he was opening it, he heard him shout; then a loud thud sounded. Fucking Gage. When would he learn to keep his chair firmly on the floor? No doubt, Mac had flipped him backward.

  Dominic was still grinning when he walked out of the cafeteria and almost plowed into Gwen as she was walking through the lobby with Crystal. “Whoa . . . morning, babe. Sorry. You were almost wearing your coffee.”

  When he leaned down to give her a kiss, she phone-blocked him. Or rather, she somehow stuck his cell phone in his face, before his lips could connect with hers. “Good morning,” she replied in a voice that sounded unusually shrill. “Here’s your phone,” she added unnecessarily since he already had it in his pocket. She was nervously chewing on her bottom lip, glancing between him and a curious Crystal. “Um—I . . . Do you have a minute?” she finally asked.

  He was just opening his mouth to answer, when he saw Mac’s Tahoe pull u
p in front of the door. “Sorry, babe. I’ve got to run,” he said, pointing to where Gage was now on the sidewalk, flagging him. “We’ve got a meeting across town. If I don’t see you today, though, I’ll stop by when I get in this evening.” Not wanting to risk getting stiff-armed on the kiss again, he rubbed her shoulder briefly before hurrying toward the door.

  Gage was still standing on the sidewalk, so Dominic stepped around him and slid into the front passenger seat before motioning the other man to the back. As they pulled away, Gage leaned between the seats, saying, “I thought we talked about the space issue. It looks like you practically pounced on the woman as soon as she walked in the door. I mean, I know you blew it last night with your whole stalking routine, but it’s not too late to reclaim a piece of your manhood.”

  “No doubt,” Mac began idly, “I’m gonna hate myself for asking, but what in the hell are you two talking about?”

  Before he could answer, Gage jumped in. “I’ve been helping him out with Gwen. She was all freaked out because our boy here was stuck to her like a second skin. She was beginning to push him away, and I told him to step back and give her some space. Like, be the man and ignore her. I mean that’s second nature to most of us born with a penis. Well, actually, I’m questioning even that on Dom because he lost all of his manliness by crying over a girlie movie that he insisted on watching with Gwen last week. The poor girl took off without telling him a few days later. Hell, she probably drove to the nearest truck stop just to feel the testosterone again. Then she comes home last night and he’s standing outside her apartment door, trying to look through the peephole. He’d already banged on her neighbor’s door to find out where she was.”

  Dominic frowned as Mac looked at him with a mixture of pity and surprise. “Bro, is that true? I mean, I can overlook the stalking thing because I’ve probably been guilty of that with Ava, but what’s this about crying during a movie? Don’t you know if you feel that coming on, you get up and go to the bathroom? That’s usually the one place women won’t follow you.”

  “I didn’t cry!” Dominic snapped. “I just pointed out that Jane Fonda was trying to kill her soon-to-be daughter-in-law and that the girl should jump ship before she had to put up with that for life.”

  Wrinkling his nose in confusion, Mac asked, “Are you talking about Ted Turner’s ex? What’s the movie got to do with her?”

  “Thank you!” Gage crowed.

  “Fuck you both.” Dominic glared at his friends. “I might have embarrassed myself slightly by making a few comments during the movie, but I wasn’t even remotely close to crying like asshat here is trying to insinuate.”

  Mac chuckled for a minute before saying, “All right, I’m gonna let that part go for now. But I have to ask you, man, why in the world would you be taking relationship advice from speedy dick back there? His idea of a long-term commitment is buying the woman dinner first.”

  “Hey!” Gage protested. “I’ve had girlfriends before. I mean, come on, I’ve dated way more than either of you have so don’t you think I probably know more about women?”

  “Relationships?” Mac laughed. “Have you ever gone out with a woman without sleeping with her? And if that miracle actually happened, did you ever attempt to see her again or did you go ahead and delete her from your phone?”

  Dominic turned in his seat to find Gage once again looking around nervously as he had in the office earlier. “Of course, I have,” Gage snorted. “I’m just not sitting around crying over my feelings all of the time like you two.”

  “We’re not talking high school here,” Dominic added. “We’ve been friends for over ten years now, and I’ve never known you to actually date anyone. You seem to have an unlimited supply of women more than ready to sleep with you, though, which is completely baffling to me.”

  “Why are you busting my balls?” Gage huffed. “Unless you’ve forgotten, we all spent eight years surrounded by mostly men. None of us were exactly doing much dating back then. And Mac might have finally snagged a woman and gotten married, but Dom, you’re not doing too hot in that area. Plus, I don’t recall a single long-term relationship that you’ve been involved in—your mother and sister don’t count, by the way.”

  “You’re right.” Dominic seemed to surprise Gage when he agreed. “I had girlfriends at times before I joined the military, but like you said, that doesn’t happen too much while you’re enlisted. Gwen is a completely new thing for me, which I knew she would be. Being married to Uncle Sam was all of our lives for too long. Hell, I hate to admit it, but I’m afraid I’m screwing up with her because I’ve been out of the dating game for too long.”

  “You’ve dated since we got out,” Mac added. “Why the sudden panic over a woman?”

  Dominic ran a hand over his head in frustration. “Because I’m in love with her and it has me second-guessing everything I’ve ever known.”

  “But you’ve only been going out a few weeks,” Mac choked out. “That’s pretty fast, bro. Are you sure it’s not just something of the physical nature? We all spent a lot of time without a woman in our lives—well, other than . . .”

  “One-blow wonders?” Gage added from the backseat.

  Mac winced at the other man’s description. “I wasn’t going to put it like that, but you know, casual hookups. It would be too easy to lose it over the first woman who you have some kind of connection with.”

  Dominic released a heavy sigh, wishing this conversation had never gotten started. “Mac, I’m not some teenager who lost his head after having sex for the first time. I’ve been hung up on her since I first saw her at our apartment building. I went to a senior citizens water dancing class for God’s sake! What does that tell you?”

  “Well, fuck,” Mac said, sounding stunned. “You do love her, don’t you?”

  “Ain’t no doubt about it,” Gage added. “No man does something like that unless he’s already given his dick away. Big props to you on going that far, though, bro. I thought it was bad when I waxed her legs the other night.”

  Laughter filled the vehicle when Gage’s last comment hit him. “Dude, whose legs did you wax? We better not still be talking about Gwen.”

  “Shit, no, not Gwen,” Gage sputtered out. “I . . . I meant I’ve done that in the past. Not like recently or anything.”

  Looking at Gage in the rearview mirror, Mac snorted, “I call bullshit on that. You’re seeing someone, aren’t you? Hell’s bells, you got a woman, Gage?”

  Dominic turned completely in his seat to stare at Gage incredulously. “You do, don’t you? That’s why you’ve been wigging out this morning. I knew something was up. It’s Crystal, isn’t it? You finally get her to take pity on you?”

  “No, it’s not Crystal,” Gage replied, surprising them all. “I . . . um just ran into this girl one day and then we seemed to keep running into each other. I mean, it happened before I even realized it was a thing. One day we were laughing when we almost collided in Walmart and then I was eating with her at McDonald’s.” Seeming truly perplexed, he asked, “Can you imagine me doing something that innocent with a woman? And I had a good time, too. There are a couple of issues with her that I have no idea how to deal with, though.”

  Forgetting his own problems, Dominic was intrigued. The only woman he’d ever heard Gage say more than a few sentences about was Kandi and that was just because the other man was obsessed with the thought of a stripper threesome. “Why haven’t you said anything about seeing someone? Hell, I’ve given you plenty of opportunities while we’ve been talking about Gwen. And what are the issues with her? Fuck, she’s not married, is she?”

  “No, man, she’s not married. She’s just different than my usual type.”

  “Doesn’t accept dollar bills in her underwear?” Mac asked.

  “Ha-ha.” Gage rolled his eyes. “I believe you’re talking about Dom’s past girlfriends.” Looking relieved, he added, “Oh look, we’re here. I hate that this conversation will have to wait, but what’re ya gonna do, boys
?” With that, he flopped back against his seat, and Dominic thought it was probably the first time Gage had been more excited to work than to goof off. Strange—who was the mystery woman that Gage had gotten involved with? Shaking his head, he decided that he had enough confusion and mixed signals in his own love life without worrying about his friend’s.

  * * *

  “That’s a total waste of a manicure.” Gwen looked up to find Suzy smiling down at her. She’d decided to have lunch at one of the outdoor tables that were scattered into the beautiful landscape around Danvers. Her mind was on the previous night with Dominic when Suzy’s voice pulled her from the daze that she had fallen into.

  Holding up her half-chewed nail, she gave a sheepish grin before dropping her hand back to her lap. “Yeah, between popping my fingers and chewing on them, I’m a lost case. It just makes me grateful that I never understand what they’re saying at the nail place when they fix my mess.”

  Indicating the bench, Suzy asked, “Mind if I sit with you? I’ve already walked off my nervous anxiety and now I’m just tired.”