Breathless (14 page)

“Is that why you’re doing this? To end the bet? Why won’t you tell us who he is? Was he on the list? Because if he was, I have to tell the others and give him his winnings.”

Ryan knew in all likelihood the man would be on that list. All single men in any available age range had put themselves down. That much she knew. With one notable exception.

“Yes, he is. I’m not telling you who he is, at his request. Unless he comes forward before Friday, you’re just going to have to wait and find out with the rest of town. I’m sorry if that doesn’t suit you.”

She placed her drink beside the sink, all pretenses of drinking it gone. “If you want to believe that ending the bet is the reason I’m going out with him, that’s up to you. The real answer is simply that he asked me. That’s it. There’s nothing deeper to it. I have no need to play games. I have no
interest
in playing games. I’m going out for dinner with a nice man, for some company. Read into it what you will.”

Emma moved to the fridge, past a bemused Ryan and a grinning Gabe, grabbed hold of the milk bottle Gabe had given her and held up her hands.

“If there’s nothing else, I have a baby to feed.”

Chapter Sixteen

Emma brushed damp palms down the short skirt of her Chinese-style dress yet again, as waves of nerves threatened to swamp her.

“We don’t have to go in if you’d rather we didn’t.”

Pete’s gruff old voice turned Emma’s head in his direction. She reached out a hand to grasp his arm. “Thank you, but I’m fine. It’s just a little daunting, knowing that half the town is here to see who I’m going to walk through that door with. Don’t they have better things to do?”

A soft chuckle preceded Pete’s next words. “Not on a Friday night, they don’t. The boys are all beside themselves, wondering who it might be. Wonderin’ why no one’s talkin’. There are a few trucks missing from out here, so I’m guessing that some haven’t made it here yet. That should give them something to think about.” He glanced at her. “You ready for your big entrance, missy?”

Amusement flooded her, washing away the nerves. “No one’s called me ‘missy’ since I was ten years old.” She nodded and took a fortifying breath. “Let’s do it.”

As Pete put his hand to the door handle, he smiled at her. “Your young man should be here. He works the bar almost every Friday night. I wonder what he’ll think of you walking in with an old man like me?”

Emma flushed, heat rushing up her chest to the tips of her ears.

Great, now I look like a Muppet.

“Gabe’s not my anything. He wouldn’t notice if I walked in with a duck.”

Pete’s chuckle turned into full laughter. “That’s strange. I don’t recall mentioning any names.” Pete held his arm out for her as he pulled the door open. “You are right about one thing. I could be a duck and he wouldn’t see me tonight, not with that dress you’re wearing. You look lovely, girl. Just the thing to catch his attention—and keep it.”

Silence descended when as one, everyone in the entire bar turned and stared.

Emma swallowed and forced a smile onto her mouth. This was even worse than the first night she’d walked in with Darby. She glanced at Pete and received an affirming pat on her forearm.

A real, full-blown smile split her lips because of Pete’s silent support. How ridiculous for all these people to be here, staring at her like this.

A beaming Dan moved toward them from across the wide dance floor. “Evening, Pete, Emma. If you’ll follow me, I have the best table in the house ready for you.” He spun and made his way back the way he’d come, stopping in front of a booth next to one of the wide-open, double-hung windows overlooking both the bistro and gardens outside.

Beautifully crafted handmade placemats were laid with silver flatware, a cut-crystal vase containing a single white rose standing between the two place settings. Wine glasses gleamed in the soft, muted light from the dimmed spotlights overhead.

Dan seated Emma and handed out the menus.

“I’ll leave you to decide what you’ll have. Any requests for drinks?”

Emma flicked her gaze over the fancy menu in her hands, new from the last time she’d been here, only two weeks ago.

Dan smiled at her when she looked up at him questioningly. “I change the menu once a month. Keeps things more interesting. I had these ones made special for tonight.”

Emma slapped a hand over her mouth to stop the laughter. She shook her head and pushed her bangs out of her eyes. “What a shame it was wasted on me. The normal one would’ve been fine.”

A conspiratorial grin wound onto Dan’s mouth as he leaned down. “Pete told me it was him. I wanted to give you guys a good meal. You have quite a kitty to use up. It’s going to take more than one night to get through it. What can I get you to drink?”

Emma’s attention was glued to the menu in her hands as Pete’s glass of orange juice dropped into her line of vision.

“Your wine, ma’am.”

Gabe’s voice brought her head up. His face held no inflection at all. He just stood there, bottle open and poised, ready to pour.

“Thank you.” She pushed her glass over to him and frowned. What was he doing? And why was he back to calling her ma’am again?

Gabe filled the glass two-thirds of the way, placed the bottle down on the table and turned to leave. Emma hesitated a moment too long, Gabe’s back disappearing into the crowd around the bar.

“Why don’t you go see what’s wrong with him?”

Emma looked to Pete opposite her. “Why would I want to do that? If he’s in a mood, it’s not my problem.”

Why
was
he in a mood with her? He was all right yesterday when he and Ryan put up her new roof.

Pete’s slow grin caught her by surprise. “No? Maybe not. But don’t you want to know what’s gotten him all excited?”

Excited
wouldn’t be the word she would use. More like
reserved
.
Detached.
Aloof.

Cranky.

Emma pushed aside her plate. Determined as she was, she just couldn’t finish the amount of food on her plate. She loved food and always tended to order too much, but this time she believed it wasn’t her overordering that was the problem.

Dan was intent on giving them value for their money and, by the looks of the food still on her plate, he must think that meant fattening her up.

Sighing heavily, she sat back and groaned aloud.

“Too much for you, my dear?” Pete’s amusement sparkled in his faded-brown eyes.

“You could say that.”

Emma took in the amount of food left on Pete’s plate. There was none. His helping had looked significantly smaller than hers when they’d brought them over. When she’d queried Gabe, he’d shrugged a shoulder and told her to ask Dan.

“Excuse me, Pete, but I need to visit the ladies’ room. I’ll be back soon.”

Moving through the packed bar and dining area, Emma felt eyes watching her every step. Placing her hand on the bathroom door to push it open, she raised her eyes to see who it was that had her so on edge.

Gabe.

He stood behind the bar, wiping down a stack of newly washed, steaming glasses, his eyes firmly on her. No expression betrayed anything of what he was thinking—his face stayed dark and shuttered. He stared a moment longer, then turned to place the glass behind him.

What was that all about?

Emma shoved the door hard and walked into the bathroom, going to the last stall. The man had been weird all night. He hadn’t spoken to her, other than offering the most basic of courtesies.

The main door to the ladies room opened several times, the last of which had hurried footsteps rushing to the stalls beside her. Doors slammed. Voices rose over the sound of the flushing toilet.

Emma stepped out, set her small bag on the counter and washed her hands, pushing at her hair to make sure it would stay up in its twist and not fall out all over the place, like it usually did. She smoothed her hands down the front of her dress, straightening her skirt and turning in the mirror to check that it still looked okay.

As the water slowed, the voices became distinguishable. One voice in particular stood out.

“You’d think she’d have the decency to pick someone her own age.”

Millie.

Emma had seen the death stares sent her way over the course of the meal. Stares that she’d ignored after the first five minutes simply because she didn’t have the energy to waste.

“I mean, honestly. Pete Hammond? He’d have to be what? Eighty? She’s making a total fool of herself and she doesn’t even know it. The old man only asked her out because he felt sorry for her. It’s funny when you look at it. The idiot men in this town fell all over themselves to make that stupid list. When it came down to it though, none of them wanted to actually date her. That’s why they left it this long.”

Emma paused in applying her lipstick.

Another voice piped up from the stall beside Millie’s. “But I thought they all agreed to give her some time to get settled in first? Isn’t that what Gabe said?”

Emma replaced the lid of her lipstick and slid it silently back into her bag, listening hard.

“Yeah, but Gabe was just making excuses for them. I heard Steve tell Sara that he wasn’t really interested, but Steve was only going to ask her out to get lucky. You know what those city girls are like. They’re all trash.”

Halfhearted giggles bounced around the tiled bathroom, ricocheting and thrusting into her heart each time they echoed back at her.

“That’s why Gabe didn’t want on the list, you know. He’s not interested in sloppy leftovers. Gabe told Ryan if he put his name on the list, he’d knock Ryan straight into next week!”

More giggles, louder this time. Emma’s heart staggered and stopped, shock racing through her.

Sloppy leftovers? Trash?

“You know it’s only a question of time before Gabe comes knockin’ on your door, right, Millie? You two were meant to be together. He knows it. He’s just playin’ around while he still can,” another voice said.

Millie’s strident voice once again caught Emma’s wandering attention. “I know. And I sure don’t have anything to fear from a stuck-up piece of work like her. Walking around with her nose in the air, thinking she’s better than all of us, pretending she can’t swim to get Gabe to notice her. He thinks she’s a joke. The way she maneuvered him into helping her on that waste of a house is criminal. He doesn’t want to. He only goes to keep Darby and his mom off his back.

“Ryan would have her in a heartbeat. I say let him.”

Emma stifled the gasp that burst from her chest, her hand hard over her mouth. Normally she wouldn’t credit a person like Millie with the time of day, especially when she knew the woman had a set against her, but her words rang with enough truth that Emma’s heart ached.

Did Gabe really think she was a joke? Emma hadn’t lived here that long, and Millie had known both Gabe and Darby since they were small. If anyone outside his family would know what he thought, it would be Millie. Could that be why he’d been so determined to tell her he wasn’t interested? He’d made a point of coming over to her home and insisting that they be friends only—after she’d made a fool of herself the first night she’d gone out with Darby. He’d been friendly since. But that didn’t that mean he’d changed his mind—only that he was true to his word.

She really liked Gabe. Loved his company. She felt so at ease when he was around. To think he might not regard her in the same way hurt like hell.

She grabbed her bag from the counter and stepped quietly toward the door as fast as she could. She had to get out of there. Before the tears welling in her eyes made their way down her face.

Chapter Seventeen

Gabe looked up from wiping the spilled drink off the bar.

Emma.

Man, that dress.
It was enough to make him want to turn the air conditioning down ten degrees.

For something that came up to her neck, it was getting him and some of the others more than a little flustered. It followed the sleek curves of her body like the hands of a lover, molding and dipping, clinging in just the right places.

Her breasts created an incredible contrast to the arc of her defined waist, and the explosion of femininity that was her hips continued down to those unbelievable legs. That damn dress was so short he found himself hoping like crazy she’d drop something, just so she could bend over and pick it up.

She was coming out of the ladies’ room, where she had disappeared more than ten minutes ago.

Not that he was counting.

As if sensing his gaze, she turned, impaling him with eyes filled with tears.

Tears?

Fear gripped his insides, clenching his stomach into a hard, knotted mass. What in hell was going on? Why was she upset?

Millie had followed her into the bathroom with her gaggle of airhead friends. It had to be her. He almost groaned aloud. When was that girl going to learn to play nice? Just once?

Those amazing eyes turned hard, accusing him. Of what, he had no idea, but he knew censure when he saw it.