Page 53 of More Than a Fling

“Me too.”

Annie had never felt this level of connection, she honestly felt like he could be her soul mate…if there was such a thing. That terrified her. Did he feel the same she wondered?

After the last slide was shown everyone mingled for a while, catching up, telling stories, then Zane said he had an announcement to make.

“Everybody you are the first to know, Allie and I are expecting another baby!”

“Woohoo! That’s great!” Sam said.

Sheepishly Allie said, “Full disclosure, you aren’t exactly the first, I had to tell Casey, but Charlie, I made her swear that she wouldn’t even tell you. We are thrilled beyond belief.”

Allie and Zane glowed. Allie had never looked more beautiful or content and Zane hovered over her like Tarzan protecting Jane. He was so tender and obviously devoted to her. It was like a storybook romance. Happy ending and all. It made Annie long for hers.

Annie and Gabe left holding hands, leisurely walking back to his house. The stars were shining brightly in the sky and they decided to sit outside his place for a few minutes before turning in.

“You know I should probably move back to my own place tomorrow since it’s Sunday and we’ve both got killer weeks ahead of us,” Annie said sounding melancholy.

“Don’t leave me baby,” Gabe coaxed.

“We have to get back to real life eventually.”

“We have been, we’ve been working and functioning quite well, I thought anyway,” Gabe said.

“I agree, we’ve been playing house well together, but we both have homes and responsibilities, we knew it wasn’t going to last forever, we talked about three nights and it’s been a week, which, by the way, has flown by.”

“It’s been the best week of my life Annie.”

“Mine too.” She sighed deeply, already feeling lonely.

Attempting to cheer her up Gabe said, “My plant is going to miss you.”

She laughed then punched him lightly on the arm. “You’re so bad.”

“Let’s make a date for Wednesday, seven o’clock dinner at my place,” Gabe said.

“Small consolation but at least it’s something,” she said, sounding pitiful.

“We’ll figure it out.”

“I know, I’m just sad.”

“Me too, babe.”

24

Midnight’s spirits were improving in leaps and bounds. Gabe turned her out after a particularly successful training session and marveled at how good it felt to see her confidence build and how gratifying it was to be a part of her healing. He had earned her trust and in the process a partnership had been born.

He decided to catch up on some paperwork and surprised Slim who was behind Gabe’s desk, looking like a kid caught in the cookie jar. “Watcha looking for Slim?”

Head down, Slim mumbled under his breath something Gabe couldn’t quite make out about a grain order, but Gabe wasn’t convinced. “You got something you’d like to talk about Slim?”

“Naw, sorry ifin I startled ya,” he said. “I’ll let ya git back to yer werk.”

Gabe decided to let it go for now and said, “What time is your appointment tomorrow?”

“Prit near at sunrise.”

“Good luck Slim. You don’t have time to be sick, we need you around here,” Gabe said, squeezing Slims bony shoulder.

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