Page 20 of Your Soul to Keep

I swallowed the sob that lodged in my throat and smiled through my tears for my Nan, Gabe’s face swimming before me.

Father Donnelly raised his glass. “May you be a full half hour in Heaven before the devil knows you’re dead.”

I didn’t remember making my way back to my girls, but when the walls began closing in, it was Gabe who took my hand. “Let’s go for a drive.”

A drive?

Nothing, at that moment, could have possibly sounded better.

“I can’t just leave,” I protested weakly.

Oh, God. I wasn’t ready for this.

For him.

His brow lowered darkly. “Why the fuck not? You don’t owe anybody anything. You’re the one who’s grieving.”

“We can handle things here, Shae,” Wren promised.

Harley nodded.

Noelle gave me a double thumbs up. “You’ve been here for hours. You’ve done your duty. People are just socializing at this point.”

I looked around, my heart beating like the wings of a hummingbird. “Where’s Bridge?”

Harley jerked her head toward the kitchen. “She’s already in the kitchen lighting a fire under the staff to get on the clean up.”

“I have to pay,” I countered, wavering.

What’s the matter with you? Go with him!

“We’ve got it,” Harley assured me. “You can reimburse us later.”

“Ready?” Gabe challenged, his eyebrows rising expectantly. “You look like you’re about to crack.”

I frowned. “I thought I was killing it.”

He huffed out an impatient snort. “You were but it looks like it’s starting to kill you. Let’s go.”

My brow furrowed, the mix of anxiety and desire igniting the fight in me. “You’re like a, a bull.”

Placing his hands on his hips, his chin jutted out as he locked eyes with me. “You have no idea.”

I drew back. “Maybeyoushould just go.”

I was looking for a fight, someone to absorb my anger.

And he knew it.

Wrapping a hand around the back of his neck, he tipped his chin down before looking at me from beneath raised brows. “We can do this the hard way or the easy way, Shae-baby. The easy way is you walk out of here with your little hand tucked into my elbow.”

I sucked in a breath as I hazarded a startled glance at my girls. If this was how he acted after one coffee date, what would he be like if we got serious?

Wren froze, staring at him with her mouth hanging open.

Noelle’s fingers covered her smiling mouth as her eyes skittered back and forth between us.

And Harley? Harley fucking beamed at him.

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