Page 17 of Sanctuary

Lori made a quiet noise that Gabe couldn’t decipher.

“Nothing,” she said and turned right to walk along the tree line away from the imposing structure.

“Seems like a waste. Can I take a look? If the garage does well, we might need a place to store cars before we work on them, and that place could be perfect.” Gabe couldn’t read Lori’s expression, and she didn’t respond immediately. Clearly, something bothered her about the place.

But then she smiled and gestured toward it. “Sure. I bet you can sniff the motor oil from here, can’t you?”

Gabe fell in step with her again, and Max walked alongside them both. “What do you mean? Is it where your gardener keeps their ride-on and tractor?”

“Not exactly.”

When they got to the building, Lori lifted the latch on the side door and tugged it, but it didn’t budge.

“Can I help?” Gabe asked, cautious not to swoop in and assume Lori would want assistance.

“Please.” Lori stepped aside and held out her hand. “Let me hold Max.”

She gave Lori his lead and pulled open the door with relative ease. When she turned back, she caught Lori’s gaze on her ass. Yep, Gabe was definitely right about a physical attraction.

“You could’ve made it look a little less easy,” Lori said. She went in and flipped the light switch then stepped back outside. “There you go.”

“You’re not going in?”

Lori shook her head, and her jaw clenched slightly. “I don’t need to; I know what’s in there. I’ll wait out here with Max.”

“Okay.” There was a story to go with the unloved building, but Lori obviously wasn’t ready to share. Maybe she never would be. Gabe stepped inside and couldn’t believe what she saw. Someone had clearly spent a lot of time and money setting it up as a garage, but it didn’t look like it had been used at all. Along the length of one wall was a steel peg board with every tool anyone could need hung on it.

Her gaze moved to the center of the room, where a vehicle of some sort sat beneath a dusty cover. “Is it okay to look under the tarp?” she called out.

“If you want.”

Gabe grabbed a handful of the tarp from the front and lifted it slowly, building the anticipation for herself. “Jesus Christ.” She recognized the distinct shape of the bumper wings and folded back the tarp to get a better look. “No fucking way.” She stepped back and shook her head. What the hell was the story here? Sure, it was in need of complete restoration, but a Ford Brewster town car? Sitting here, rusting and unloved. She pulled out her phone and took a photo of the front of the car’s grill to show Lightning and the others.

Gabe let the tarp fall again and did a complete three-sixty to take in her surroundings. Someone had some serious plans, but they’d never followed through. She didn’t want to make assumptions, but she didn’t think this was Lori’s abandoned project. But she could be very wrong about that.

God though, what a waste. Judging by the undisturbed dust, no one had been in here for ages. Maybe Lori would consider selling it, although all Gabe’s capital was wrapped up in the garage. Then again, maybe she’d let Gabe buy it in a couple of years when she’d made some money. She wouldn’t want to keep it—she’d always been a truck lover—but just working on it would be amazing. And when they’d finished the restoration, it’d be worth a lot of money. “That’s it!”

Gabe rushed out of the building with an idea she was sure Lori would be interested in. “We could bring her back to life,” she said when she got outside. “Restore the engine. Source some white wall tires. Give her a brand-new paint job—Solo is an artist with a spray can. We’d do all the labor for free, and we could get your TikTok people to fund all the parts. Then you could auction her off to raise money for the Sanctuary.” Gabe stopped her rambling when she finally registered Lori looking less than enthusiastic.

“It’s a wonderful offer, Gabe, it really is. But it’s too much. I know how much work it would be, and I can’t accept it because I can’t offer you anything in return.”

Gabe grabbed the bait and wiggled her eyebrows. “Are you sure about that?”

Lori bit her bottom lip and shook her head. “I definitely can’t offer you that.”

“Oh…” Damn it. She’d misread the signs somehow and mistaken Lori’s friendliness and interest as something more than just professional. She sidestepped slightly to put a little distance between them. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply?—”

Lori put her hand on Gabe’s forearm, and her touch felt electric. Gabe didn’t pull away, though the intensity of her reaction surprised her. Maybe it had just been too long since she’d blown off some sexual steam.

“It’s okay.” Lori removed her hand and ran it along the length of her ponytail. “It’s my fault.”

“Whoa, no, don’t say that.” Gabe resisted the temptation to reach out to her. “I’m to blame. You were just being friendly, and I got carried away because you’re so damned cute. I’m sorry. I’m an ass. Can we hit reset and just ignore what I said? I need to keep visiting my guy, and I don’t want to mess that up.” She stopped rambling and waited for something—anything—from Lori.

“Take a breath.” Lori put the latch across the door and offered Max’s leash to Gabe. “Let’s keep walking and talking. It’s complicated.”

“Okay.” Gabe ruffled the fur on Max’s head and avoided meeting Lori’s eyes. It wasn’t like she hadn’t suffered her fair share of rejections, and they were still painful in their own way. And maybe it was for the best. With resettling in a new city, getting used to civilian life again, and starting a business, Gabe didn’t need anything else to complicate her existence.

“Did Toni tell you much about my personal life?” Lori asked after they’d walked in silence for fifty yards or so.

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