Page 104 of Sanctuary

Lori pressed her hand against Gabe’s chest. “You’ve got my mom to thank for that.” She laughed lightly. “And so do I. It hurt that you didn’t tell me about it earlier, but I understand now.”

Gabe covered Lori’s hand with her own. “I promise I’ll tell you everything from now on. No secrets,” she said and claimed a last kiss before they left the hotel room. Gabe took one last look around before she followed Lori up the hallway to the door. She might not have the memory Lori had, but she would never forget the special things that happened here last night.

“You’ve been practically floating around on a cloud all morning,” Solo said. “I take it Lori did more than just hear you out last night?”

Gabe nodded and grinned. “She did, yeah, and we’ve moved from friends to something entirely new to me.”

“You had sex all night, and for the first time, you want a repeat performance.” Solo took a bite from her bagel, and the cream cheese squeezed out onto her shirt. “Ah, shit.”

Seeing the mess Solo had just made, Gabe leaned over the engine block table before she munched into hers. “Not exactly. We made love all night, and I’m pretty sure I’d like to see the same show for the rest of my life.”

Solo widened her eyes. “You’re in love!”

“Looks like it,” Gabe said. “I’m starting to see why you’re such a big fan of it.”

Solo glanced away, busied herself with her lunch, and said nothing.

“You are still a big fan, aren’t you?”

They’d gotten straight to work this morning, so Gabe still hadn’t gotten to the bottom of Solo’s behavior at Lori’s birthday dinner.

“Sure I am,” Solo said after shoving the last piece of bagel into her mouth. She scrunched up the empty food bag and began to rise from the couch.

Gabe caught hold of her wrist and tugged her back down to the sofa. “What’s going on with you and Janie?”

“Everything’ll be fine. You don’t want to hear about my problems when you’re just starting out with Lori.”

“Hey, I’m always here for you, Solo. Nothing’s going to change that.”

Solo gave a short laugh. “We’ll see. When I was getting with Janie, I neglected everything else in my life. Ask Shay.”

Gabe tilted her head, remembering that she’d been the one to suggest that she and Lori played hooky today, even though the garage had only just opened. She could see how it might happen. “Well, I’m here now, and we only just sat down for lunch, so spill.”

Solo looked around as if she was expecting a huge audience of people, but the rest of the team were downstairs working.

“It’s just me and you.” Gabe patted Solo’s knee. “Tell me what’s happening.”

She rubbed her forehead and huffed out a long breath. “I feel so stupid. I’ve always known I was punching above my weight. I should’ve seen it coming.”

Gabe frowned. “Seen what coming?”

“Janie’s cheating on me.”

“She’s sleeping with someone else?”

Solo shrugged. “She says she hasn’t, that they’ve just been flirting, but I don’t know whether to believe her or not. She says they’ve just been talking, but when people say that now, it means they’re having sex.”

“Does it?”

“That’s what my brother’s twenty-year-old kid reckons.”

“For them, maybe, but it still just means talking for people our age, Solo.” Gabe put the rest of her bagel back in its wrapper, her appetite severely lessened by Solo’s news. “How did you find out?” She had a host of questions, but that seemed like a good starting place.

“She told me just before we left for dinner. Hence me getting weird about the cheating thing from your past and mentioning it like an asshole.” Solo sank into the couch and put her head in her hands. “It’s somebody at work.”

“Is it serious?”

Solo dropped her hands to the sofa and made eye contact with Gabe for the first time since they’d started this conversation. “I don’t know. She doesn’t know.”

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