Finders Keepers (14 page)

Had she really just agreed to give me a chance? The moment
was finally catching up to me, and it was causing me to feel a little
lightheaded.

“Other than ruining pie and ice cream, what have you two
been up to in here?”

I guessed teasing Mrs. Gibson about getting after making her
grandchild dreams come true probably would have been humor wasted right then.
Josie wiped the pie filling off the edge of the knife with her finger and slid
her finger into her mouth. Hot damn. That was not helping the dizzy sensation.

“We were just catching up. Sorry.” Josie shrugged.

“You two have known each other since kindergarten. How much
‘catching up’ do you need?”

“A lot.”

“Are you caught up now? Or should I leave and check back
later?” Mrs. Gibson could hang with the most sarcastic of us. If I wasn’t sure
she’d grow horns and breathe fire if she found out how I felt about her
daughter, we probably would have gotten along okay.

“What do you think, Garth? We all caught up now?” Josie’s
face had a hint of a smile.

“I think we covered the important parts. The rest we can
fill in as we go. We’ve got time. We can just take it slow. Nice . . . and . .
. slow.” I wagged my eyebrows at her. Josie responded with her standard reply
when I was a pain in the ass—an eye roll.

“Good for you both. Glad you could catch up. We weren’t
really looking forward to cherry pie anyways.” Mrs. Gibson cringed when she
inspected the massacred pie again. “Please tell me you didn’t do the same thing
to the Masons’ pie.”

“Nope. It’s still on top of the fridge. Safe and sound.”

Not when I got a hold of it.

“Good. Why don’t you grab it,
carefully
, and head
over to the Masons’ with Colt? I’ll take care of the mess.” Mrs. Gibson wasn’t
looking at the ice cream. Nope, she was looking straight at me.

Josie looked from her mom, to me, to the pie, and repeated.
“Okay.” Wiping her hands on a towel, she grabbed the pie off the fridge.

While Mrs. Gibson beamed and hurried into the dining room
with a, “I’ll let Colt know,” a serious frown and a case of what-the-hell hit
me. “Did I hear wrong, or did you just say you were going over to Colt’s?” I
followed Josie around the kitchen as she grabbed a few things.

“No, your ears are working just fine,” she replied calmly.

“Okay, then did I just miss something earlier? Something
about us talking about giving
us
a chance?”

Josie smiled at me, but I couldn’t return it. I was not in a
smiling mood. “No, you didn’t miss anything. We talked about giving us a
chance, and I don’t know if anything’s changed for you in five minutes, but I’m
still planning on giving us a run.”

“Then why are you going to Colt’s?”

The skin between her eyebrows creased. “Did you miss us
talking about taking this whole thing slow? Nice . . . and . . . slow?”

I settled my hands on my hips. When she looked about thirty
seconds from heading out the front door with Colt Mason wasn’t the time to be
making jokes. “No, I didn’t miss that. What does us taking it slow have to do
with you leaving with Colt?”

“Plenty.”

I wrapped my hand around her arm as she covered the pie in
plastic wrap. “Explain.” As far as relationships went, I had no experience. I’d
never had a real girlfriend, but I’d had plenty of girls who were “friends.”
Josie was the expert in the relationship department.

Josie glanced at my hand on her arm. “Trust.”

“The one-word answers are giving me nothing. Trust? What
does trust have to do with Colt?”

“Nothing, but right now, trust has everything to do with
you
.”
She stuck her finger into my chest.

Shit, of course when the one-word bomb from Josie was
Trust,
it would have been dropped with me in mind. “Explain.” My new favorite
word.

“I’m giving you a chance to prove you have or are willing to
learn what it takes to be in a relationship. Paramount in any relationship is
trust.” She grabbed the pie and turned for the dining room. “This is your
opportunity to show you have trust in me.”

“I thought I was the one proving you could trust
me.
”
I was, after all, the man who’d betrayed enough people in my life to make a
person doubt I could ever be trusted again.

“It’s a two-way street.” Josie smiled at me before heading
for the dining room.

I dodged in front of her. “I’d prefer this to be a one-way
street.”

“I know you would. But this isn’t about what’s best for you.
This is about what’s best for us.”

She moved around me. I slid in front of her again. It was
impossible to let her go. “No, Joze.”

She could throw a fit, she could slam that pie into my face,
she could give me in the silent treatment for a month, but I wouldn’t let her
leave in Colt’s truck and head over to Colt’s house where I knew he was already
planning to take her to Colt’s bed. She took a breath and looked at me. She was
as calm as I was flustered.

“Garth, this whole slow and steady thing is a trial period.
I need to know that if you don’t have it, you’re willing to do what it takes to
learn how to be in a supportive, loving,
trusting
relationship that
doesn’t center around jealousy and control. I’m here to help you figure it out,
but you have to want to figure it out.” Her hand formed around my waist, and
she stepped against me. “Think of this as the first hurdle in a series of
them.”

“What’s at the finish line?”

“I guess we’ll have to get there to find out.” When she
moved around me again, I let her go. God knows I didn’t want to so badly my
body almost quivered, but I did it. That was a victory on its own.

Not even two minutes later, I heard Colt’s truck fire to
life. If trust felt like that every time I had to prove it to her, I didn’t
doubt it would be the death of me.

JOSIE HAD GOTTEN home an hour ago. I
felt like a third parent when I checked the clock as that sorry excuse for a
truck rumbled up the driveway. After helping Mr. and Mrs. Gibson clean up after
dinner—something both of them seemed confused by—I’d taken a shower and crawled
into bed. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was incapable of sleeping
with Josie out where she was. I probably should have just run circles around
the guest room. That would have been a better distraction from my thoughts than
just lying quiet and motionless in bed.

I was close to throwing off the covers and starting my first
lap when Colt’s truck pulled up. Speaking of clocks, it was only ninety seconds
before Josie came through the front door. A minute and a half wasn’t long
enough to get anywhere close to hot and heavy inside of Colt’s truck, so I
exhaled my second relieved breath of the night after Josie left. Being the
parents they were, Mr. and Mrs. Gibson were still waiting up. After a couple minutes,
I heard a series of
goodnights
as footsteps headed down the hall and one
set up the stairs.

I wanted to see Josie. I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to
hold her like I had last night. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted so much right
then. I don’t know if I’d ever “wanted” so much in my life.

Josie’s bedroom door closed long before I finally felt
sleepy. All of that adrenaline took a while to wear off, but once it did, I
felt more like I was drifting into a coma instead of sleep. That was when my
bedroom door whispered open so noiselessly I was surprised I noticed it. When I
saw who slipped inside, I wasn’t so surprised I noticed it. Welcome back,
adrenaline. It’s been a while. I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes, and watched
Josie approach in a different but similar pair of “pajamas.”

“It’s not a dream,” she whispered, smiling at me. I must
have looked confused. “That look on your face? It looks like you’re trying to
decide if this is real or a dream.”

“The past twenty-four hours have felt like a dream. I don’t
know what’s real and what isn’t anymore.” Josie sat on the edge of the bed, and
the moment caught up with me. I could almost imagine a shotgun racking. “What
are you doing in here?”

“I can’t sleep.” She clasped her hands and shrugged.

“Do you want me to make you a warm cup of milk or
something?” I wasn’t sure how Josie went about falling asleep when she had a
hard time getting there, but I was certain she didn’t use the same methods I
usually did: a woman or a bottle of whiskey. Most nights, both.

“Thanks, but no. I wish a warm cup of milk would work. I’d
actually be able to get more than a few hours of sleep every night.” She was
trying not to look at me—probably because I was half naked and we were beside
each other on the same bed. I lowered the blankets a few inches to make it that
much harder for her.

“Are you an insomniac or something?” I grinned when she
finally lost the battle and glanced at me. Not at my face either.

“I think I get a whole half an hour more sleep than a true
insomniac, but I’m as close to being one as I want to get.”

“Have you always had that problem?” I didn’t like knowing
something I couldn’t fix was bothering Josie. If a genie magically appeared and
granted me one wish, I’d have insomnia made into human form so I could give it
a serious ass-kicking.

“No. I used to sleep so hard I could snooze through a fire
alarm.” She shifted so she was facing me more.

“So when did you and sleep decide to become long lost
friends?”

She studied her hands in her lap. “A couple of years ago.”

I didn’t need her to clarify the month, day, or hour.
Because I knew. I knew what event and person was responsible for Josie’s
insomnia. I wanted to kick my own ass? How was that even possible? I didn’t
know, but if there was a way, I would figure it out. “Ah, hell, Joze. I’m a
piece of shit. I don’t know why you’re even talking to me. I’ve screwed up so
many things for you.”

“Well . . . actually . . .” She bit her lip, acting almost
shy. Josie did shy about as often as I did humble.

“Well actually
what
?” I asked eagerly. I’d do
anything.

“Last night was the first night in two years I fell asleep
and stayed asleep for close to six hours.”

When she looked at me again, I got it. I mean, I didn’t
get
it
exactly, but I knew how to help. I might not have understood why Josie
could sleep with me beside her, but I didn’t need to know why to fix the
problem. Scooting over, I threw open the blankets and patted the mattress.
“Come on over. I warmed a spot up for you already.”

She didn’t need a second invitation. Josie had wiggled and
wormed her way under the covers before I realized that, for the second night in
a row, I was sharing a bed with Josie Gibson. If the young boy version of me
could have expected that, growing up would have been a few shades brighter.
“What are your parents going to think? Or do?”

“They’re not going to think or do anything because they’re
going to wake up tomorrow none the wiser.”

“You are one devious vixen, Joze.” Once she was curled up, I
draped my arm over her and slid up beside her.

“Are you still in your jeans?” Her hand grabbed the waist of
my jeans and gave it a tug. “Do you ever take these things off?”

I couldn’t form thoughts, let alone words, with her hand
skimming my waist. When her fingers reached the button above my fly, her hand
froze before dropping away. I breathed again. Clearing my throat, I worked up
something that I hoped would be coherent. “When you grow up never knowing if
you’re going to be jerked awake by bottles shattering around you, you keep your
pants on and your boots close by. I’ve spent as many nights sleeping under the
stars as I have under a roof.” Josie’s hand slipped into mine, her fingers
lacing with mine. “How was Colt’s?” A better man might have kept his mouth
shut, but I hadn’t gotten where I had by being a better man.

“Uneventful. He didn’t lure me into his bed like I know you
were convinced he would.”

I’d already guessed that, but I still exhaled in relief.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t
try
to.”

“No, it doesn’t mean that.”

Imagining Colt trying to get Josie into his bed sent me
close to the explosion point. The only thing that kept me from jumping out of
bed and driving to Colt’s just so I could throw his mattress out his window was
Josie’s touch. It took a minute or two before I was calm enough to form words.
“So? Did I pass the trust test?”

“You passed it. With flying colors. I have to admit I didn’t
think you could do it. I kept looking out the Masons’ living room window
expecting to find your truck barreling up the driveway.”

“I came close. I must have stopped myself from running
through that front door a hundred times. But I didn’t, and that’s what counts.”
Josie’s feet bumped mine, and I practically jolted from how cold they were. She
was worried about me getting frost bite? So I gritted my teeth and pressed the
tops of mine—which
were
toasty warm—into the bottom of hers. If the girl
didn’t run around in lingerie in the dead of winter, her feet might not have
been mini glaciers with toes.

“You’re kind of great, you know that?” She sighed and
wiggled her toes over mine.

“I don’t know if this is greatness or stupidity, but I’ll
take any compliment you want to send my way.” So, yeah. My feet
had
been
warm. Not anymore. But hers were at least. “Since I passed the trust test, mind
telling me why you went over to Masons’?”

“I left my favorite sweater over there,” Josie said with a
shrug. “When Colt finds out about us, I don’t want him throwing it in a
bonfire.”

Yeah, that odd sensation was probably my heart growing three
sizes. The next sensation wasn’t so odd. It was that flash of fire over what
had transpired for her to leave her sweater at Colt’s in the first place. “If
he ever did that, he’d be the next thing thrown into that bonfire.”

Josie laughed softly. “Good to know you’re protective of my
favorite sweater.”

“You, Joze. I’m protective of
you
.” I nuzzled her
neck and would have tightened my arms around her if I didn’t think it might cut
off the circulation to her lower body. “Listen . . . I’ve been thinking”—a new
concept for me, I know—“and I don’t want you to up and change anything in your
life right now. I’ve ruined so many things for you—I don’t want you to change
anything until you’re certain about me. Not until I’ve cleared your hurdles and
jumped your hoops and whatever else I need to do to prove I’m capable of making
this work.” That was hard as hell to say. Because it was so difficult and it
twisted my insides when I’d been in bed thinking about it half the night, I
knew it was the right thing to do. I wanted Josie all to myself and the whole
world to know that. That was what was best for me. But . . . it wasn’t what was
best for her.

“You don’t want me changing anything in my life? Colt
included?” There was nothing antagonizing in her voice, but I knew she was
gauging me and my level of seriousness.

I felt another flash of fire thinking of Colt and her
together. “Let me put it this way—if there was an exception to that, Colt would
be it.” It wasn’t the response I wanted to go with, but at least it was an
honest one.

“Okay, I’ll take that into consideration. Thank you.” Her
hand squeezed mine again.

“So what’s the next hurdle? Since I’m on this whole proving
myself path, I’m eager to get to the finish line.”

Josie was quiet for a moment before twisting until we were
face to face. “Seeing if you’re capable of taking things slow . . .
physically
.”

I lifted my brows. “That will be a challenge. I’m afraid my
reputation indicates I’m not, but I’m eager to prove myself capable of rising
to every challenge.” With Josie’s mouth so close to mine and her chest pressed
to mine that way,
something
was definitely rising. Shit. I didn’t need
that with the next hurdle I was expected to jump. I closed my eyes and imagined
Mrs. Westmore, the ancient elementary school librarian, naked on a cold day.
There . . . problem solved. Mostly. “When do we start?”

Josie’s eyes dropped to my mouth, and she smiled. “What do
you think part of the reason I’m here is?”

“Cunning little vixen.” Since I knew the test was already in
progress, I had to revisit the whole naked-old-woman-in-the-cold image for a
few more seconds to make sure I wasn’t going to blow it. A big part of me
wanted to kiss her and touch her and make love to her the way I should have
that one time . . . and I didn’t need that to be a part of me. Not when I had
to show her I was capable of a relationship that didn’t center around sex.
“Good night, Joze. Sleep good.” Kissing the tip of her nose, I closed my eyes
and hoped I’d be able to sleep with Josie pressed into me like that. I knew
that was a long shot, so I hoped I’d be able to
pretend
I was asleep.

“Good night, Garth.” Before twisting around, she planted a
quick kiss into my cheek.

Life had changed just like that. People were right when they
said it could change in the blink of an eye. Josie had been as far off as a
person could get, and now she was falling asleep in my arms, promising to give
me a chance to love her the way she deserved to be loved. It was all very . . .
“I know I’m going to sound like some pathetic douche, but are you sure this
isn’t a dream?” If it was, could I expect a dream Josie to answer honestly?

Bringing our entwined hands to her mouth, Josie brushed her
lips over my knuckles. I felt that soft touch all the way down into my freezing
toes. “This is real.”

Even if it wasn’t, that was okay. I just wouldn’t wake up.
When her mouth moved away from my hand, I half sighed, half groaned. “Damn,
because a dream would be good right now.”

“Why’s that?” she asked in the midst of a yawn.

“Because then I could do all the things I’m holding myself
back from doing to you and not have to feel guilty or reserved about any of
it,” I teased. I was only partly teasing.

“I’ll take real over a dream any day.”

I thought about that for one moment. “With you, Joze,
they’re the same thing.”