Page 22 of Your Soul to Keep

They assured me they would as I turned toward Gabe.

His lips twitched and his eyes twinkled as he offered me his elbow.

The barest beginnings of a smile touched my mouth.

Nan would have loved him. She would have put him through an Inquisition that would shame the history of the Spanish, but she would have loved him.

Just then, Bridge came barrelling out of the kitchen toward me. “I have seen the light and he’s six foot two and wears robes. Please tell me Father Donnelly can baptize me naked.”

Wren slapped a hand over her eyes while Harley and Noelle snorted like heathens as my Nan would have said.

And I did something I didn’t think was possible.

I laughed.

6

The Eye in My Storm

“Shae-baby,”hegasped.“Notlike this.”

After we left the church hall, Gabe bustled me out to his truck, practically tossing me into the passenger seat.

Guilt for leaving trailed after me, but it wasn’t strong enough to drag me back.

The back door opened, and Gabe’s suit jacket flew through it. He closed it and stood outside, rolling his neck along with the sleeves of his dress shirt.

Slanting a glance at the devastatingly handsome man sliding into the driver’s seat, I couldn’t help but think Nan would have been proud.

“I feel like a kid again,” I admitted.

Turning toward me, he grinned and wagged his eyebrows. “Want to go for a drive?”

I laughed. That used to be code for let’s get naked.

Still smiling, I replied, “I’m up for a drive, an actual drive, not a ‘find the darkest parking spot down by Carousel Park and make out’ drive.”

“I wouldn’t dare dream of anything else,” he teased lightly.

With one big hand braced on the steering wheel, the corded muscles of his forearms and the acres of ink a delicious contrast to the crisp white of his shirt, he eased us out of the lot and onto the main road. Within minutes, we crossed the Mistlevale border. The weight on my chest lifted, and I could breathe.

I closed my eyes and laid my head back against the seat.

Gabe’s hand found mine, linked our fingers together, and brought them to rest on his muscled thigh.

I clung to him.

Who might we have been if given the chance?

Who might I have been if fate hadn’t mauled my heart?

Would I be this quiet, cowed creature who slunk away from life, from love, from adventure?

Even now, with Gabe sitting beside me, all I could think of was the fact that I would lose him.

One way or another, I would lose him.

Every love story ends with a broken heart.

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