chapter Two
Gavin headed for the rental car, mostly because he had no idea where else to go. It was right in front of the church, parked crookedly at the curb, the keys still in the ignition.
Just how he’d expect someone to park who was about to break up a wedding and steal the bride.
Break up a wedding. Steal the bride.
Hell. What had he just done?
Had he really just carried Allie out of her own wedding?
Gavin felt a trickle of sweat slip down his back—and it wasn’t that hot out here.
Holy shit.
He’d really done it.
And looking down at the woman in his arms, he knew he would do it all over again.
It was moments like this that being a selfish bastard—as his father so eloquently put it—was a good thing. He wasn’t going to lose any sleep over Josh Brewster and the wedding without a bride. Maybe Josh really loved Allie. Maybe his heart was in pieces right now. But Gavin didn’t really care. This was about him and the fact that he was in love with her. Josh was on his own.
Yanking the passenger door open, he nudged Allie inside and slammed the door before jogging to the driver’s side. He slid behind the wheel, shifted into drive and pulled away from the curb, aware of Josh’s angry presence by the church’s side door. Gavin kept his eyes on the street until they were a block away, then he glanced over at Allie. She was watching him with those big green eyes that had made him mush for years.
“You okay?” he asked, giving her a little smile. She would be if she wasn’t now. He’d make sure of it.
“Strangely enough, I think I might be,” she said.
One corner of her mouth curled up at the corner, and Gavin knew he was right to interrupt the wedding. It wasn’t like declaring that he still loved her and wanted her back could have really waited until after the wedding.
He smiled. “How do you feel?”
“Like the dream I had where you came home and swept me off my feet finally came true.”
Those words were clear and they punched Gavin in the gut. “Yeah?” he asked gruffly.
“Yeah.”
He couldn’t believe he’d been within minutes of losing her for good. He took a deep breath. He’d come here to tell her how he felt, to beg her not to get married.
The not-getting-married thing seemed taken care of. For now anyway. Now for the I-was-stupid-to-let-you-go speech. “Allie, I—”
“I’m starving,” she interrupted.
Ooookay. “What do you want?”
“A cheeseburger. With bacon.”
He couldn’t help his smile. Allie was one of those girls who could eat like crazy and never gain weight. Then he frowned. She’d never been this skinny though. She hadn’t been eating any bacon cheeseburgers lately.
“You don’t look good,” he said simply.
Her eyes widened. “Well, thanks.”
“Seriously. Did you sleep last night?”
“Four hours.” She wrinkled her nose. “Maybe three.”
“And you haven’t eaten?”
She shook her head. “Couldn’t.”
“But you’ve been drinking.” The way she’d slightly slurred her words in the church had made that clear.
“Definitely,” she confirmed. “Lots.”
“Today too?”
“Champagne.” She spread her arms wide. “Happiest day of my life.”
Uh-huh.
That champagne was playing a huge part in her leaving the church with him.
Gavin shoved one hand through his hair, taking a corner too fast. He knew that her state of mind came, at least in part, from a bottle, and he knew that he should be torn about that. But he wasn’t. He’d had to get her out of that church. At least long enough to tell her that he was still in love with her.
“How’s your head?” he asked. Surely she was feeling the effects of the night before. On the phone it had been clear she was drunk. But he hadn’t been able to help the thump of his heart when he’d heard her voice—and the words to the song.
“Swimmy,” she answered, wrinkling her nose again. “Is that a word?”
He shook his head with a slight smile in spite of knowing he shouldn’t find this funny. “I don’t think so.”
“Well, that’s how it feels,” she said. “Like my words are swimming around and around. Like they can’t find the way.”
“Okay, we need to sober you up. Then talk.”
She frowned. “I’m really hungry.”
A cheeseburger he could do. That was now the plan—focus on one thing at a time.
“Can we grab my bags out of my car?” she asked. “I’ve got crackers in there. And Twizzlers. And a Snickers. And lip gloss.” She rubbed a finger over her bottom lip as if being without lip gloss and licorice was the biggest problem in her life. She grabbed the bottom edge of her bra through her dress and wiggled it. “I need a different bra, too. Bernice picked this one out.”
Gavin wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything. “Al, I can…”
She reached up and pulled her veil from her hair, then looked down at her dress, lifting the skirt with her hands. “I need a brush and some different clothes.”
Finally, he just grinned. With that list, how could he doubt she needed her bags? And he was on board with her not needing to keep the dress on. That was a good sign she didn’t intend to go back to her wedding any time soon. “You bet. Where is it?”
“It’s right by the north door of the church. The blue Focus.”
Right. Her car would be at the church. Great.
Praying for a little divine intervention—that he was pretty sure he didn’t fully deserve—he took a left and headed back for St. Mark’s. He pulled up by the door, hoping no one would be spilling out of the church just yet. Angry mobs weren’t his thing. And they’d have a right to be angry. He got that. But this was big. This was bigger than what his hometown thought of him—not that his reputation was spotless anyway—and what everyone thought Allie should have done. He was sorry about the cake and flowers, but a guy didn’t just stand by and let the love of his life marry someone else.
The Focus was unlocked, so he grabbed the two bags out of the backseat, slammed the door and headed back for Allie.
She was stretched lengthwise on the front seat, facedown.
“Allie?”
She didn’t answer or move. Gavin shoved the bags into the backseat of the rental, then leaned in the driver’s side door.
He shook her by the shoulder. “Allie? Come on, babe, wake up.”
She mumbled something incoherent. Was alcohol poisoning a real possibility here? She’d just been talking to him, but suddenly he was concerned.
His hand on her bare shoulder reminded him how pale she was. “Honey, you have to—”
The side door of the church banged open and Gavin glanced up to see a little crowd frozen in the doorway.
Okay, change of plans. He used both hands to slide Allie over and got behind the wheel. She moved then—just enough to sit up, curl her legs under her and lean against him. Once the car was in gear, he wrapped his arm around her, tucking her more firmly along his side. He resisted squealing the tires, and instead, calmly and coolly, pulled out onto Ash Avenue and turned left.
Not for any particular reason, except that it got them out of sight of the church.
“Allie?” he tried again. “Honey, I need to be sure you’re all right.”
He used the rearview mirror to look at her. Her eyes were shut. He tightened his arm around her, still trying to convince himself this was real. It hit him again how tiny she felt, how bony even, and a renewed surge of anger went through him at all the people back there who were supposed to care about her. Didn’t they see that she looked sick? Didn’t they notice that something was wrong? And how about the drinking and drunk dialing? Clearly something was up when a woman got sauced to walk down the aisle.
Just as Gavin was contemplating turning around and beating Josh to a pulp after all, Allie shifted to turn into him more fully and sighed. She settled against him like she was seeking warmth or comfort. Her hand rested on his thigh, her cheek against his chest.
Damn. That felt familiar. And really, really good.
But she was out of it.
He shifted, trying to reach his phone. Allie shifted too…and slid down until her head was resting in his lap. Gavin cleared his throat and moved again, trying to get his fly out from under her cheek. This was no time to get a hard-on. But this was as close as his cock had been to Allie’s mouth in over a year, and his body didn’t appreciate the finer points of her being drunk, emotional and still in her wedding dress.
At least now he could reach his phone, and Gavin was sure that talking to his friend Carter would take away any amorous thoughts.
“It’s me,” he said when Carter picked up.
“Where the hell are you?” Carter demanded. “I’ve been—”
“What are the signs of alcohol poisoning?”
That stopped him. “How much have you had?”
“Not me,” Gavin snapped. “Someone I’m with. She’s clearly drunk but now she’s sleeping and it’s really hard to—”
“Just tell me where you are. I’ll come to you,” Carter said.
Gavin appreciated the offer, but even if it were a possibility, he wasn’t quite ready for Carter to know what he’d done. “You can’t. It’s too far. Just tell me what to do here.”
Carter sighed. “How much has she had?”
“Not sure.”
He sighed again and Gavin gritted his teeth. “So sorry to inconvenience you, Doc,” he said. “Just tell me the symptoms.”
“Confusion?”
“Uh, a little. Maybe.”
“Vomiting?”
“No.” Not that he knew of anyway.
“Slow breathing, low temp, pale skin?”
“Maybe. Kind of.” She was pale and her skin felt cool to him, but she seemed to be breathing all right.
“Are you close to an urgent care or ER?”
He was. There was one in Waterford, which was only twenty miles and would afford them some anonymity that would not be possible at the medical clinic in Promise Harbor. “Twenty minutes give or take.”
“Get her some Gatorade to rehydrate, then take her to the urgent care. Then call me immediately after.” Carter disconnected.
Gavin did appreciate that his friend could just concentrate on the issue and not push. For the moment, anyway.
Urgent care. Okay. Allie sighed in her sleep and he glanced down, brushing a stray strand of hair away from her cheek. His finger caught on a sprig of baby’s breath and loosened another tendril from the circle of pearls that held her hair up and back.
The pearls matched the ones on the neckline of her wedding dress.
She was still wearing her wedding dress.
F*ck.
As he turned left to get on the street leading out of town, Gavin blew out a breath. He couldn’t show up at urgent care with Allie in her wedding dress. It also occurred to him that this whole urgent care thing could be very complicated. He didn’t have her purse. Did she have her ID and insurance cards in her bags in back? If not, how was he going to pull that off? He could just pay for the urgent care visit out of pocket, but they would want to see her ID, wouldn’t they? And there would be paperwork. He was a veterinarian and they had a ton of paperwork.
He couldn’t even fill in her full medical history. What if they needed to know something he wasn’t sure of? He could claim to be her boyfriend, but her drunken state and lack of ID might make them suspicious.
If they were back home in Bend, the tiny town Gavin had landed in when he’d moved to Alaska, Carter could take care of her.
Gavin quickly thought that through. The plane was waiting for them at the airport, so they could leave right away. If they got in the air immediately, they could be back in Alaska in about ten hours. Would she be okay until then? He’d deal with the police questions if necessary, if it was truly a medical emergency, but if she was just drunk and exhausted, getting her home would be better.
Gavin grabbed his phone again and redialed Carter.
“I can’t take her to urgent care. She doesn’t have any ID or—”
“You don’t even know who she is?” Carter asked in disbelief. “Seriously, man, this is—”
“Carter, stop talking!” Gavin demanded. “Of course I know who she is. Don’t be a dumb ass. We just left without her purse or anything.”
“You can’t go back?”
Gavin glanced in the rearview mirror. Going back was not an appealing option. “Not easily.”
“If she’s got alcohol poisoning, it could be really serious, Gav. That’s not something to screw with.”
“How do I tell? What can I do?”
“She’s unconscious?”
Allie sighed and wiggled, her cheek pressing into his thigh and making Gavin swear silently. “She’s sleeping.”
“Does she respond to stimuli?”
“Stimuli like what?”
“Pain?”
Gavin scowled at the road in front of the car. “Pain? What the hell?”
“Pinch her,” Carter said.
“I’m not going to pinch her.”
“You have to. I have to know how out of it she is.”
Gavin swore again. “Fine.” He reached down. “Sorry, babe,” he muttered before he pinched her arm.
She pulled away and frowned.
“She responds to pain,” he told Carter.
“Try to wake her up.”
“Fine. F*ck.” Gavin looked for traffic and then pulled over to the side of the road. He put the car into park, put the phone up on the dash and turned in his seat. “Allie. Honey, you gotta wake up for me.” He pushed her up into a sitting position and cupped her face. “Al? Open your eyes.”
She sighed heavily.
“Allie?”
Dammit.
He grabbed his phone, keeping her propped up with one hand. “Nothing.”
“You have to do more than that,” Carter said, sounding disgusted. “Slap her.”
“Dammit, Carter, I’m not slapping her.”
“Pinch her again. Something.”
Gavin threw the phone back on the dash, harder than he should have. Fine. He’d wake her up. He leaned in, cupped the back of her head with his hand and kissed her.
For six seconds, nothing happened. Then she sighed, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
It was as if the past year evaporated.
The heat built quickly and steadily from “yum” to “damn”. Gavin tipped her head, slid his hand down her throat, stroked his tongue deep. Allie arched closer, her hands gripped the front of his shirt and she groaned.
Gavin sat back in his seat, bringing her with him. Allie tugged on her dress and moved to straddle his lap. When she settled her weight onto him, his quick, hard erection pressed up against her and they both moaned. He dug his fingers into her hair, pulling the pearls and bobby pins free, tossing them one by one onto the floor, until her hair feel free and loose. She ran her hands up the back of his neck into his hair too. His hair was several inches longer than he usually wore it, and he thought of his beard rubbing against her skin. He’d never worn a beard with Allie before. Did it feel weird?
He pulled back, breathing hard. She didn’t let go of him, keeping their faces close, and they stared into each other’s eyes for several seconds. She didn’t look like anything felt weird, exactly.
“Whoa,” she said softly.
“So, you’re awake,” he said unnecessarily. His voice was husky.
“Yeah.”
“Good.”
Still looking at her as she pressed her lips together, he reached for his phone. “She’s awake.”
“Is she responding appropriately?” Carter asked.
“Um, yeah, very appropriately.”
“Then she’s probably okay. Get her hydrated, make her eat, sober her up as much as you can. Then get her over here. I’ll check her over.”
“It’s, um…” Gavin couldn’t remember the last time he’d said “um” so many times in a conversation. “It’s going to be a while.”
“Where are you?”
“Massachusetts.”
There was a long pause on Carter’s end of the phone.
“You’re where?”
“It’s a long story.”
“You’re coming home now?”
“In a few hours.” Several hours would have been more accurate.
“I’ll see you then.”
Oh, Gavin was sure that Carter would be in his face within moments of touchdown. And he wouldn’t be alone. Not much exciting happened in Bend, Alaska, and Gavin’s love life was the most boring thing of all.
He disconnected the phone call and looked at Allie.
No one was going to think he was boring now, that was for sure.
“You still want a cheeseburger?” he asked.
“I kind of want to stay right here and go back to what we were just doing,” she said.
“You’re drunk,” he pointed out.
She started to shake her head, but lifted her hand to her forehead and said, “Yeah, maybe a little.”
“Or a lot. Let’s find food and coffee.”
Allie slid back into the passenger seat as Gavin pulled the car back onto the street. Wow, no one could say their chemistry wasn’t still strong. He moved in his seat, trying to relieve some of the pressure in his jeans. Maybe they should get a hotel room.
But when he glanced over at her, she had her head resting against the window and she was staring out as their hometown passed by.
“I don’t want to sober up,” she said quietly.
“What?” He looked from her to the road and back.
“I don’t want coffee. I don’t want to be sober. Can’t I just go to sleep and you take me somewhere wonderful where I don’t have to make any decisions or worry about anything or anyone?”
Wow. That was…wow. “Yeah, Al, I can do that,” he said gruffly. “Is that really what you want?”
God, he’d known it. He’d known that she was collapsing under everything. If only he could have been there. But they had gone their separate directions, knowingly, willingly. She’d known what he wanted. She’d chosen Promise Harbor over him.
“It’s really what I want,” she said, closing her eyes. “Really, really, really.”
Glancing at her, he felt his heart clench. He could definitely do that.
He’d been doing it for years. When they were together, whenever she went to Promise Harbor to spend time with her family, he planned a way to help her decompress when she got back to him. Sometimes they’d go out, sometimes they’d stay in. But his focus was on making her smile, making her forget the pressures and frustrations, taking care of her.
She never asked him for any of it. She never had to. He just knew what she needed, and the drive to make her happy was impossible to ignore. He might have hated that she’d go home to her family nearly every weekend and always come home tense and tired, but he did like being her refuge.
He knew that now she was still under the influence. Her words were still slurred and he figured her thoughts were still “swimmy”, but what she wanted made sense. She wanted a break, she wanted to get away, she wanted to have someone else take charge. Maybe she wouldn’t have let those thoughts and words out if she were completely sober. Maybe this was a good thing—without her inhibitions, her rock-solid sense of responsibility, her constant worry about her family, she could be honest about what she wanted and needed.
Whatever the case, he was taking her at her word. She wanted him to take her somewhere? He knew just the place.
“Okay, Allie, I’ve got you. I’ll take care of everything.”
She sighed and turned to curl against him again. “A dream came true,” she mumbled, just before she fell asleep again.
They landed at nine p.m. local time. Not that local time mattered. Gavin’s system was so screwed up with changing three time zones out and back in the space of twenty-four hours that he knew he’d be feeling the effects for days. On top of that, it was right before the summer solstice, so it never got completely dark. Nine o’clock at night looked like two in the afternoon.
Allie was still asleep. He’d also slept, as well as could be expected on the plane, for several of the ten hours of the flight.
As he deplaned, he shook hands with Major, the pilot who had traded the spontaneous flight to the East Coast for a year of free veterinary care for his ten mushing dogs, six cats, four horses and seven goats. In addition to his regular fees. “I’ll be out to check on Eddie soon,” Gavin said.
Major chuckled and lit up a cigarette. “It was the most interesting trip I’ve had in a long time,” the older man said. His eyes flicked to where Allie lay curled in her seat. “Good luck, boy. Looks like you have your hands full.”
Gavin turned to look at Allie. He couldn’t believe she was here. Hands full? Maybe. Okay, probably. But he knew what it was like to have his hands empty of her…he wasn’t doing that again.
He carried her to his truck, loaded her bags in back and headed for home. They pulled in just before eleven thirty.
Gavin tried to rouse Allie to walk into the house, but she was having none of that. Instead, she seemed to melt into him when he picked her up off the truck seat. Not that he minded. She weighed next to nothing and he liked the feeling that he was taking care of her. He knew Allie. She was a do-er. She took care of people. She always had a plan, went nonstop and gave one hundred and ten percent to everything. For her to fall into this deep of an unconscious state with him meant she was either completely exhausted or completely trusted him. Or both. Whichever it was, she needed him and needed to be here.
He deposited her on the king-size bed in his bedroom. He had a guest room on the main level, but Allie wasn’t sleeping under his roof in any bed other than his. And he was going to be right beside her.
He was damned tired of seeing her in that wedding dress though.
With a deep breath, he realized he needed to change her clothes. For one, she’d be more comfortable, and for another, he couldn’t very well burn the dress with her still in it.
“Allie? Babe, let’s get you out of this thing,” he said, pulling her up to sitting.
She pulled back, trying to lie down.
“No, no, come on,” he said, tugging her upright.
He reached behind her and lowered the zipper on the dress. The bodice gaped and slipped forward on her arms. Gavin stoically kept his eyes from dropping lower than her face. This wasn’t sexual. That wasn’t what was happening here. He was going to undress her, put her in one of his T-shirts and tuck her in. Period.
The dress hadn’t dropped away from her breasts completely, so he also unhooked her bra and then rose to grab a T-shirt from his dresser. She’d flopped back onto the pillows, the bodice loose, but still covering her when he returned to the bed. He slipped the T-shirt over her head and then pulled it down as he pulled the dress and bra down. He didn’t see any bare body parts—but he knew they were there. And his body reacted.
Gavin stubbornly ignored the tightness behind his zipper and slipped the dress and bra out from under the shirt, pulling the dress the rest of the way off her hips and down her legs. He left her panties on and tossed the dress to one side. He was going to roast marshmallows over the fire he made with that dress tomorrow.
Then he stripped off his own clothes except his boxers and managed to get the comforter and sheets pulled down from under Allie. She sighed contentedly, burrowing down into the pillow, and he slid in next to her, flipping the covers over them both.
The big windows were covered with blackout shades, making it feel like it was nighttime in the bedroom at least. But there was enough light from the light in the hallway that he could lie and watch Allie’s profile. She was here. He finally let his body and mind relax enough to absorb that fact. He and Allie were in his bed together in Alaska.
This was where she belonged. With him. And finally it was going to happen.
His actions and reactions had been fueled by emotion—panic, fear, love, determination—for the past twenty-six hours. Now everything just drained out of him. It was over. He’d gone to her. He’d done the right thing. He’d rescued her.
Everything was good now.
Gavin felt his body start to sink into the mattress, and he reached to pull Allie against him. She wiggled close, her butt right in his groin, her legs against his, her back to his chest.
His body hardened as his heart softened.
Everything was very good now.
“Walking pneumonia.”
There was a beat of silence then, “What the f*ck? She’s actually sick?”
“It’s a mild pneumonia. Treated with antibiotics. She’ll be fine.”
“It’s not just stress and liquor?”
Allie heard Gavin mutter something else and the other male voice say, “Extreme stress, fatigue, lack of sleep, not eating well—all of that can contribute to physical and mental exhaustion and, yes, getting sick.”
Extreme stress—check.
Lack of sleep—check.
Not eating well—check.
That all sounded about right to her.
Allie buried further under the covers of the most comfortable bed she’d ever been in and closed her eyes again. The guys were just outside the bedroom, the door open, and she didn’t want them to know she was awake.
“What the f*ck were they all doing? Just sitting around, picking out his and hers towels and thinking that it didn’t matter that she was obviously not doing well?”
Allie felt her chest get warm at Gavin’s words. Obviously he was frustrated. He’d never been very good at hiding his feelings. She’d always loved that about him. If he was happy, you knew it. If he was angry, you knew it. If he wanted you, you knew it.
But this frustration was over her. He was concerned, protective, willing to fight battles for her.
A shiver of desire went through her but, as always when it concerned Gavin, it was twisted up with a bunch of other emotions—love, of course, and the ever-present sense that she needed to hold on tight and absorb every minute because it might not last. She squeezed her eyes shut and breathed. She was not going to think about how it hadn’t lasted before, how she had to keep saying good-bye to him, how no matter what she did or how it felt, it wasn’t enough to keep him.
She wasn’t going to think at all, in fact. This just curling up and sleeping for hours and hours seemed to be working just fine.
“Gavin, what she needs is rest. Sleep. Her body knows that. We’ll get her some antibiotics. When you wake her up to feed her, have her take them. In a few days she’ll be fine. No one can sleep forever.”
Well, she was going to give it her best shot.
“And look at it this way. Obviously she totally trusts you and feels safe with you. That’s what she needed. A safe haven. Looks like you’re it, buddy.”
That was exactly what she needed and exactly what Gavin was. What he’d always been.
Even after they’d broken up and decided they shouldn’t see each other anymore—all three times—all she had to do was call and he’d stay up all night talking, or she’d tell him she needed to see him and he’d immediately book a flight to a city halfway between them so they could be together. Even if was just for a weekend.
The only time he hadn’t been there was at her mom’s funeral…
Allie stubbornly closed her eyes, shut down her mind and drifted off to sleep again. She was here now, with Gavin. He’d take care of her. That’s all she needed.
“Detective Stone.”
Damn. He’d been hoping for voice mail.
“Hayley, it’s me.”
“Have you lost your mind?” she hissed in a sudden whisper.
“No. And don’t tell me you’re surprised by this.”
“That you showed up? No. That you kidnapped her? A little.”
Hayley was probably the only person in Promise Harbor who knew all about him and Allie. And that he’d never really gotten over her.
“I didn’t kidnap her,” he said, knowing it was unnecessary. Hayley wouldn’t have believed that of him. If she had, she’d have been all over his ass. She knew his address and she carried a gun. He wouldn’t mess with that. “She wanted to come with me. She asked me to take her away.”
“This is crazy, Gav,” Hayley said, her voice still hushed. He’d called her at the station on purpose. She wouldn’t be able to yell at him in the middle of the Promise Harbor Police Department.
“Maybe. Or maybe it makes complete sense.” He hoped the latter was true. He was still having trouble believing it had all happened too. “Maybe I’m a frickin’ hero. Because if I’d ever set foot in Promise Harbor again, she would have been cheating on Josh with me.”
“Oh, you’re such a big talker,” Hayley said, finally laughing lightly. “You would have never done that.”
She was right. Cheating was one thing Gavin absolutely didn’t tolerate. Even before he’d learned his dad’s dirty not-so-little secret, Gavin had thought cheaters were a*sholes. After finding out that his dad didn’t just cheat, but that he actually thought he had good reasons for it that should make it forgivable, Gavin couldn’t even be in a room alone with him.
“Gav,” Hayley said, suddenly hesitant. “Um, speaking of scumbags, your dad was at the wedding.”
Hayley knew that when he was sixteen Gavin had walked in on his dad in his office, screwing his best friend’s wife on the desk. Hayley didn’t know about the argument they’d had when Gavin confronted him or his father’s reasons for doing what he’d done, but she still hated him. The whole truth would have probably caused her to find a reason to Taser him.
Gavin closed his eyes. His dad at the wedding meant his mom and probably his brothers had been there too. Well, of course they were. It was Promise Harbor and his family was a part of the community. Nothing big happened without their attendance, and nothing was bigger than the Brewster-Ralston wedding.
He didn’t give a shit what his dad thought. In fact, embarrassing and frustrating his father had been a hobby of his from age sixteen to eighteen, when he left home, and he’d gotten damn good at it. But he hated that it also affected his mother. He hated hurting her.
“This is all your fault, you know,” Gavin told Hayley.
“My fault?” she asked. “If you’d asked my opinion about this plan of yours I would have locked you a cell until the whole thing was over.”
“If you’d told me they were getting married before the other day I could have come home and talked to Allie long before it got to this point,” Gavin said.
“I called you about it two weeks ago,” she argued. “It’s not my fault you don’t check your messages when you’re out playing with your bears.”
Gavin rolled his eyes. The work he did with the endangered wildlife program was hardly “playing”, and his involvement with the polar bear capture and release program was something he was very proud of. Which Hayley knew well. “You knew about the engagement for more than two weeks,” he said.
There was a long silence on her end before she said, “You told me to stop telling you about Allie.”
He took a deep breath. He had said that. And meant it. It tore him up every time Hayley called him. The first time had been when Allie’s mom, Lily, had been diagnosed with cancer. It had been hell knowing what Allie was going through and not being there. The idea that she was hurting, sad, stressed out had eaten at him. His role had always been protector, savior.
But she hadn’t called him. She hadn’t reached out or needed him.
Because she had Josh.
Gavin felt the acid churn in his stomach. Other than the fact that she’d been standing next to Josh at the end of the aisle in a church, Gavin hadn’t really let himself think about it. But Allie had been standing next to Josh. Josh Brewster. Mr. F*cking Perfect.
Of course she had been. Who else would have been there?
Gavin blew out a breath.
Every time he’d talked to Hayley after Lily’s diagnosis it seemed that she had bad news. Lily wasn’t doing well, the disease was progressing, Allie was holding it all together. And he’d known that meant that Allie was taking care of everyone and not thinking about herself for even a second.
The old bitterness had reared its head, and he’d had to remind himself that even when they were a couple, talking about a future together, she had thought of her family first, put their needs ahead of what she wanted and needed. He hadn’t been able to convince her she was worth consideration even when she was madly in love with him. After he’d broken her heart, he knew she wouldn’t listen to him tell her that it was okay not to do it all herself.
Even now it was painful to think about it. He knew he’d failed Allie when her mom was sick and then passed away, but he hadn’t known what to do then and didn’t know how it could have been different now.
The solution had always been for her to be with him in Alaska. That seemed simple enough. She was a teacher. They needed teachers in Alaska.
But her family was in Promise Harbor.
“I know,” he finally said to Hayley. He paced to the window and looked out over his property. He owned twenty acres and his veterinary practice. He loved Alaska, the people he’d met, the outdoors, the animals, the space, the freedom. He sighed. “I didn’t want to hear about Allie. It hurt too much.”
“Ugh,” Hayley groaned. “I knew about it for five months, Gav. It was killing me not to tell you, but I knew you’d freak. And then I finally couldn’t take it anymore. But you weren’t calling me back and I didn’t know if you’d gotten the message or what. I knew you were going to freak,” she said again.
“Well, I think it’s safe to say you were right on that one,” Gavin said.
“So, she’s in Bend with you?”
“Yep.”
“Does she like it? Is she staying? Is this for good? Are you going to get married?”
He chuckled, even as he wanted to sigh heavily. He didn’t know the answer to any of those questions. They hadn’t had a conversation beyond him waking her up, making her eat and drink and then asking Are you ready to get up? and her saying Not yet.
“She’s been in bed since we got here.”
“Good for you,” Hayley said.
He laughed out loud at that. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but not like that.” Then he did sigh. “She’s exhausted. And sick.” He felt pretty exhausted himself.
“But she wants to be there. I think that’s a good thing,” Hayley said, sounding more like the friend who was always on his side.
Even when he acted like an idiot, Hayley had his back. Not that she wouldn’t arrest him if he deserved it. Plenty of times she’d told him to pull his head out of his ass when he needed it.
But even she hadn’t been able to advise him on the impasse he and Allie had reached sixteen months ago. Allie was determined to stay in Promise Harbor and he was just as determined to be anywhere else.
“I think she needs to be here,” he told Hayley. “She needs someone to take care of her for a change. She needs to be far away so that they can’t need her.”
“I hope it works out this time, Gav,” Hayley said sincerely.
“Thanks. I need you to be sure everyone knows she’s okay. She’s here with me and she’s staying. Just make sure no one’s freaking out. Like Owen,” Gavin said of Allie’s dad. “Or Sophie.”
Sophie Brewster was Josh’s mom, but the families had always been so close that Gavin knew Sophie thought of Allie as another daughter. Allie’s mom had been Sophie’s best friend, and Gavin was sure Lily’s death had hit Sophie as hard as anyone.
“Or Josh?” Hayley asked dryly.
“Yeah, you can tell Josh that he’s lucky I don’t come back there and kick his ass for letting Allie get this stressed and sick.”
Hayley chuckled. “Couldn’t tell him even if I wanted to. He took off.”
Gavin scowled. “What do you mean?”
“He left.”
Gavin could tell that Hayley was grinning widely.
“Left?”
“Went to Greenbush Island.”
There was something in Hayley’s tone that caught Gavin’s interest. What wasn’t she saying? “Why there?”
“All I know is that he’d booked the honeymoon suite at the Oceanside Inn there.”
Yeah, that was all she knew. Sure it was. Hayley was a great cop and loved knowing stuff other people didn’t. She had contacts all over. If Josh Brewster left town and she wanted to know where he went and why, she’d know.
“So he went on the honeymoon?” Gavin asked. Hey, the guy had paid for the tickets. Maybe he wanted to get drunk on a beach instead of drinking in Promise Harbor, where everyone knew he’d been left at the altar. Gavin couldn’t say he blamed him.
“Technically he went to look for Allie.”
“Allie’s not on Greenbush Island.”
“I know.”
“You lied to him?” Gavin knew Hayley was a good friend.
“Didn’t have to. He didn’t ask me.”
“Convenient.”
“Everyone knows we’re close, but maybe Allie didn’t tell him we still keep in touch. Whatever he didn’t know before the wedding, I’m sure his mother filled him in on.”
Gavin grinned. He and Hayley had definitely had some fun. It had been minor things—parties at the river, underage drinking, sneaking into the swimming pool after midnight, taking the principal’s car for a joyride—stuff that hadn’t hurt anyone but had made them a bit notorious.
“Well, maybe looking for her is just his excuse to go off by himself and lick his wounds,” Gavin said. He paused for a moment, wondering if he’d feel a stab of guilt over Josh Brewster’s wounds. Hmm. Not a one.
“Oh, he didn’t go alone,” Hayley said brightly. “He took Devon Grant.”
“He took another woman?” Gavin asked, amazed. Sure, Allie had left him at the altar for another guy. Sure, Gavin had broken up the wedding—in front of the entire town, including his own family. But Gavin was possibly even more amazed that perfect Josh Brewster, everyone’s favorite golden boy, had done something so spontaneous and gossip-worthy.
“You remember Devon?” Hayley asked.
“Sure. She and Allie were tight in high school.”
“Right.”
The realization dawned slowly. “Josh took off on his honeymoon with Allie’s best friend?”
“Ex-best friend,” Hayley said, clearly enjoying sharing the news. “Josh and Devon were really serious for a while after college.”
“No way.” Gavin thought about the information. Then slowly he felt his grin spread. “That’s awesome. Good for him.”
“You don’t care about Josh,” Hayley said with a laugh. “You’re just glad that this means he and Allie won’t be getting back together.”
Gavin’s scowl returned. “He and Allie won’t be getting back together.”
Hayley said, “I’m not the one you have to convince.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Keep me informed, okay?”
“Definitely.”
“And Gav?”
“Yeah?”
There was a long pause, and for some reason Gavin braced himself. He knew Hayley. Well. There was something in that pause that made him frown.
But in the end she just said, “Take care of yourself. And maybe stick around long enough to at least have a drink with me next time, okay?”
He wanted to push, to ask her if everything was all right. But this was Hayley. She was tough as nails and she knew he’d be there for her. If she needed something, she knew all she had to do was ask. He finally said simply, “Promise.”
As he hung up, Gavin looked at the ceiling. Allie was still up there, still sleeping.
When he’d wished to have her in his bed, this wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.