chapter 42
As snow piled up on the windows, Gabe cursed softly. The expensive cell phone in question now showed six missed calls.
Leave it to Izzy to track him down in the middle of the season’s biggest snowstorm.
After checking to be certain that Summer’s blanket was secure, Gabe rolled down the window. “Sorry, didn’t hear your calls. Things got a little hectic.” He cleared his throat. “With the storm and all.”
“The windows look pretty fogged up, pal.”
“Stow it, Izzy. What’s the emergency, did some D.C. bureaucrat misplace a box of paper clips and trigger an audit?”
“That was last week,” Izzy said dryly. “This morning I got a call from Senator Winslow. He was upset when you and Summer didn’t show up at the motel last night, so he called the local police, in case you were stranded in the snow. But the police hadn’t seen you, which made him even more worried. That’s when he called me.”
“False alarm. As you can see, we’re both fine.”
“Summer’s in there with you?” Izzy’s head tilted slightly as he took a step closer.
“Back off, partner,” Gabe growled.
“No need to shout.”
“Who the hell’s shouting?”
“You were.” Izzy tried to hide a smile. “They probably heard you over in Casper. Besides, I can’t see anything in there because it’s too dark.” He muttered something that sounded like “damned shame, too.”
Gabe grunted as snow whirled through the window and dusted his shirt. “Something else on your mind?”
“Wanna tell me why you’re parked out here when there’s a decent motel right over that hill?”
“Not really. Anything else?”
“In case you forgot, the wedding is supposed to start in a few hours.” Izzy crossed his arms. “The girls have been asking for Summer.”
Gabe closed his eyes, rubbing his neck. “That late already?”
“Afraid so.”
Where had the night gone? “What I wouldn’t give for some stomach-scouring black coffee right now.”
A steaming cup appeared at the window.
“I’m not even going to ask how you did that.” Gabe took the cup gratefully. “But God bless you and Mrs. Starbucks, wherever she might be.”
“No Starbucks open in two hundred miles, not with this snow. I made it myself. Any complaints, keep them to yourself.”
“No complaints from me.” Gabe took a sip of the strong, steamy brew and sighed. “Nice job, Teague. You’re going to make some lucky woman a fine, strapping husband one of these days.” He ducked the punch aimed at him through the window. “You waiting for something else? I’m on officially authorized leave, in case it escaped your notice.”
“I’m well aware of that.” Izzy cleared his throat as Summer muttered in her sleep. “As it happens, Senator Winslow asked me to hang around and escort you two to the ranch. The snow is pretty bad along the last stretch of interstate north of town.”
So the world was about to come roaring back to life.
Gabe frowned at his coffee. He was insanely proud of Summer for the difficult job she had carried out. He knew that her sense of duty was just as inviolable as his was. But he was going to see that she took more time off. He even had the perfect plan for how she was going to spend it.
In the backseat of a Jeep Grand Cherokee, blowing off the top of his head and making him thank his ragtag team of guardian angels for seeing that he got the stupid assignment of protecting a senator and his fiancée.
Meanwhile, Izzy was waiting and Gabe’s cell phone was blinking with a text message. There would be no more delays, no more holding the world at bay.
No more reckless sex in the back of a Jeep.
“Understood, Teague. You can go on ahead.”
“No can do. I’ll just hang right here, freezing my butt in the snow while you finish waking up.”
“Do you have any idea how obnoxious you are?”
Izzy’s lips twitched. “They tell me it’s a gift.”
Gabe tugged on his sweater and boots, then swung open the door and turned to glare at Izzy. “If a word—even a syllable—about any of this gets out, you are history, Teague. She’s had enough razzing from those chimp-brains back at her field office.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“They better be.” Gabe handed back his empty cof-fee cup and slid into the front seat. “We’re going to the motel to clean up. We’ll be out in twenty minutes. You can follow us, if you feel the necessity.” Gabe slammed his door and revved the motor. When he looked out, Izzy was standing in the snow, chuckling. “You still there, Teague?”
“Hell, yes. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”