Chapter 5

SARAH

Sarah watched the man seated with Seth and Indie flirt with the middle-aged server, her face blushing as he complimented her. Sarah had known Miss Perry for years. As a teen, Miss Perry had taught Sarah all she needed to know about the food industry and what to love about it. She was Sarah’s inspiration to become a chef. And to see her become a giggling marshmallow in this man’s presence was an unusual sight. Miss Perry was hard as nails and unwavering in the face of difficult customers but had a softer side that few people saw. And this man was getting the most nurturing side of straight-talking Miss Perry.

He was a handsome guy, she decided as she sat down next to him in the booth. ~Okay~…~he was fucking sexy~, she admitted silently. With those blue eyes that were highlighted by the shock of black hair that settled over his forehead. Even though he was sitting, she could see that he was huge, someone the Kansas Jayhawks scouts would pay loads of money to have on their team. His blue T-shirt stretched over his sculpted chest and biceps, a white scar creeping along the edge of the left sleeve, making Sarah wonder what other scars he had and ~where they were~…

“Sar? Are you okay?” Seth asked as she dropped her fork onto her plate.

With a deep breath, she lied through her teeth to her twin brother, knowing he’d be able to read the truth in her green eyes. “I’m fine.”

“Why is Mommy so red in her face, Pops?” Amelia asked, and Sarah narrowed her eyes at Seth who bit his lip, his own green eyes lit up with humor.

“Maybe her coffee is hotter than she thought,” Indie intercepted, hiding her own smile in her iced coffee. Amelia frowned as she looked up at her uncle and aunt sitting on either side of her.

“But she’s drinking a milkshake.” If she hadn’t spent fourteen hours in a labor ward, pushing the little ~mini-me~ out of her ~pacchiu~, Sarah would have packaged her nicely and sent her where she came from. Seth allowed the laughter to rumble out, and Indie tried hard to smother her giggles, unsuccessfully.

Sarah groaned and dropped her head onto the table when Gabe tried to change his laughter into a cough. “My daughter will socially kill me.”

She felt Seth stroke her hair and peered up at him through her blonde bangs.

“She’s only doing as we taught her, Sar.”

“Should have also taught her ~when~ to tell the truth,” she muttered into her folded arms.

“It doesn’t work that way, Sarah. The truth is the truth.” With a groan, Sarah tossed a crumb of toast at Amelia who laughed with her whole body, giving Sarah a fuzzy feeling inside. She loved her daughter to bits, and the love of Amelia was what carried Sarah through some very dark days.

Seth shook his head as he tugged Amelia’s ponytail. “Come on, Elli, I’ll drop you at camp.”

“So what am I supposed to do for the rest of the day?” Sarah gaped at her brother. And then glared when he shrugged.

“I don’t know. Sleep. Go for a walk. Take a drive. Go to the lake. You spend too much time indoors and need to get some sun, Sar.” He helped Indie to her feet and put some cash on the table. “Have some fun, Sarah. You need it.”

She felt her mouth open and close as she stared at her brother leaving the diner with Indie. Amelia turned to her mom with a bright smile as she waved at Sarah. She gulped as the door closed, her heart stuttering in her chest as she was left alone with the large stranger.

“Seth has an idea. The lake would be a great place to be, and the fish would be looking for someone to catch them.” Gabe’s voice was deep and smooth, reminding Sarah of a well-aged whiskey, warming her up in ways that the summer sun never could.

“Why did you call Elli ‘glitter girl’?” Sarah asked, trying to ignore the goosebumps along her arms.

He tilted his head as he looked at her, his eyes as blue as a summer sky just after the sun rose. He had turned in the booth to face her, his arm resting on the tabletop as he licked cream from a teaspoon. “Come fishing with me and I’ll tell you one of my secrets.”

From this distance, Sarah could see the navy spots in his light blue eyes. It was intriguing, and it meant that his eyes were his worst defense because all of his emotions were on full display.

“On one condition…” He arched his dark eyebrow. “We don’t actually catch any fish.”

***

Sarah lay back as she peered at the blue sky flitting through the leaves of the bur oak at the edge of the lake. Days like these were rare when she had no responsibilities. From getting Amelia ready for school or summer camp, a quick trip to the gym, cleaning their home, and preparing dinner before she left for work, only to get home just before midnight so that Seth could start his shift, solo time was a luxury.

She couldn’t remember when she had a day off. And she was enjoying herself, relaxing on the bed of Gabe’s truck, a cooler box of sodas and sandwiches stashed at the edge of the water to keep cool, and the sound of the birds and critters keeping them company.

Somehow, Gabe had sweet-talked Miss Perry into packing them a picnic—with desserts—and drinks. He had then stopped at the library and given her ten minutes to choose something to read before guiding her to his silver Ram 1500 Limited Crew Cab. Instead of entering the park through the main gate, he had driven down a service road and parked the rear end close to the water’s edge between two large oak trees. After he made the bed comfortable with blankets that he kept in a storage compartment under the backseat, the two of them had settled back with a book.

Sarah found Gabe to be an anomaly. He wasn’t shy but neither was he talkative, and Sarah enjoyed his quiet humor. In the two hours that she had been with him, Gabe had made her laugh as much as Elli could. And when he was as quiet as he was at that moment, there was a sense of peace and safety that she had only experienced with her brother. But she was sure that many more layers to Gabriel Von Ashner would scare the nasty spirits out of her.

“What are you thinking?” His soft voice broke through her thoughts, and she turned her head to look at him. His one arm was bent beneath his head, the other resting on the book he had laid across his chest.

“When did you learn to love reading?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Okay, not the question I was expecting, Miss Marshall.”

She shrugged. “It’s not often you get a guy that likes reading.”

He smiled, and her stomach quivered at the sight of a dimple on his cheek. “It was the only thing my granddad could think of to keep a ten-year-old busy. He would give me the book, then put the video on with the sound turned off. He would then quiz me about what happened. Eventually, I barely looked at the screen, the words hooking me more than the images.”

“He was a smart man, your granddad.”

“The smartest.” He chuckled. “When he died, I was fourteen and Grandma didn’t know what to do with me, especially when I became a little hellion. She had her bridge club at the house one afternoon which meant I couldn’t watch TV, so she handed me a book with the words, ‘Read like your granddad taught you’… She handed me a ~Mills and Boon~ and I was hooked.”

“Serious? Romance novels?”

“It taught me a trick or two with the ladies,” he admitted, his cheeks a bright pink.

Sarah swallowed the sudden dryness in her mouth, her heart beating faster as she thought about some of the scenes she had read in her favorite novels. Another layer is uncovered. A wave of heat that had nothing to do with the summer’s day washed over her as she had flashes of him doing some of the things described on those forbidden pages.

“How about a swim?” she asked quickly, pulling her dress over her head and racing to the water to cool down her thoughts. Gabriel Von Ashner was a very dangerous man.