Page 64 of A Little More Forgiveness

“I am, thank you.”

“Can I go back to bed now?”

“Yeah, yeah. Feel free to go upstairs and crawl in beside your man.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice. Call me if you need anything.”

“I will.”

“And, Gabe?”

“Yeah?”

“Take care, and I mean it, call me if you need anything, okay? Anything at all. I’ll always be here.” His low voice, so full of care and love brought a lump to my throat. I must have done something right in a former life to have as good a friend as Mason.

“I will, and you take care too.”

Ending the call, I laid my head against the hay stacked behind me, which, by the way, is nowhere near as comfortable as you’d imagine. I’d been poked by numerous sharp ends at least half a dozen times while on my call and was beginning to itch like crazy.

“Gabe?”

Leo.

“In here.”

His head popped around the corner of the barn, quickly followed by the rest of his tall frame, muffled up in Mitch’s wool-lined jacket. Both the dogs, who despite having greeted me this morning already, were inordinately happy to see me as they clambered up on my knees, their cold noses nudging my face and sniffing in my ear.

“Shouldn’t you be resting?” I asked, concerned. “Or at least staying inside in the warmth?”

“I’m fine,” he replied, though I didn’t fully believe him. He moved closer but stopped a few feet away from me, hesitance clouding his eyes. “We missed you this morning,” he said, his soft tone soothing my fraught nerves. “And what are you doing out here?” His words came out unsure and cautious, and I instantly felt bad for making him feel wary around me.

“I needed to call my business partner.”

His eyes narrowed. “So early in the morning? Wouldn’t he still be in bed?”

I sometimes forgot how smart Leo was. From his reticent demeanor to his quiet personality, I’d never have put him down as a lawyer, but like now, his razor-sharp intelligence connected the dots at lightning speed, and he was quick to pick up on anything the tiniest bit off, reminding me a lot of Ethan and his supercomputer brain.

I let out a small laugh trying to cover my little white lie. “He was, and none too happy about me waking him up. But I remembered I had an urgent issue needing a resolution before the holidays. And as I’m still likely to be here by then and don’t have my laptop with me, I needed him to take the lead.”

He nodded, but from the pinching of his brows and the slight downward turn of his mouth, he clearly didn’t believe my story. Yep, definitely a smart man. Closing the distance between us, he squeezed himself beside me on the bale. I shuffled over to give him more room, but his wide frame took up a lot of space. With us both hunched together, his left leg rested comfortably along the length of mine, the heat from his body transferring through the denim.

“So why are you really out here?”

So, not letting my lie go unchallenged, after all… “I told you. I needed to speak to Mason.”

He locked eyes with me, his face neutral, waiting me out. Looking up at the barn ceiling, my eyes followed the lines of the rough beams as I debated whether to lie again, to make something up he might consider plausible, but remembering Mason’s words about talking to them, I decided screw it.

“When I woke up this morning, I was on one side of the bed.” Fuck, why did the image get me right in the heart?

Leo frowned. “Okay.”

“You and Mitch were on the other.”

“Okay,” he repeated, a confused expression crossing his face.

I kept my eyes averted, still concentrating on the beams overhead. “You two were way over on the other side of the bed. Together.”

It only took him another second to put my implications together.

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