Page 35 of Your Soul to Keep

I abandoned my quest. My neighbors were elderly, but their hearing was as sharp and crisp as any five-year-old child sitting at the top of the stairs on Christmas Eve.

Face flaming, I flew downstairs and threw open the front door.

Gabe, leaning his perfect ass against the wrought iron railing of my tiny front porch, stood with his hands shoved in his pockets, ankles crossed, the very picture of nonchalance.

“Good morning, Shae.” Grinning, he jerked his chin to the right.

My eyes followed his line of vision to find Mrs. Mason standing on her porch in her mou-mou with a watering can in her hand and a twinkle in her eye.

“Mrs. Mason,” I squeaked.

“Good morning, Shae.” She smiled widely, her sparkling eyes darting back and forth between us before resting on Gabe. She looked at him appraisingly. “Oh, what I wouldn’t give to be forty years younger.” She nodded at me seriously. “I’d give you a run for your money.”

Gabe scoffed as he stood to his full height. “As if I could handle a woman like yourself,” he teased.

“Oh, I’d have trained you as sure as I trained my Evan.” The lines of her face deepened as her gaze went hazy. “Now, there was a man,” she continued softly before giving her head a brisk shake and retrieving her smile. “You kids go on inside.” She jerked her chin in the direction of my other neighbor’s door. “You don’t want Mrs. Wemberly to come out and see you.” She widened her eyes as she mentioned her bosom nemesis. “The woman would keel over.”

“Oh my God, Mrs. Mason,” I scolded, near catatonic at the thought of cantankerous Mrs. Wemberly entering the fray, but unable to contain my smile.

She laughed and turned to go inside, then stopped. Winking at Gabe, she said, “She looks lovely in pink.”

He wagged his eyebrows. “And I bet she looks even better out of it.”

Rolling my eyes, I clutched the towel that now matched my flaming face and backed into the house.

Eyes on me, Gabe dipped his chin and followed.

His eyes answered questions I was afraid to ask.

I shivered as I pointed into the kitchen and ordered firmly, “Wait there. I’ll be right back.”

In less than two minutes, I returned wearing my signature jeans and t-shirt with my long hair slicked back in a ponytail.

In the kitchen, Gabe leaned against the counter, his ankles crossed as he sipped his coffee. Between us lay a coffee for me from the corner café, cheese buns from Beach Buns bakery, and chocolate croissants from The Beanery.

“Wow,” I hummed. “That’s quite the spread. I didn’t even notice it when you came in.”

“I told you I was bringing you coffee before going to work.” He grinned. “They were sitting on your porch. I forgot all about them when you opened the door in that towel.”

I laughed. Forcing myself to relax, I lifted a cheese bun to my nose and inhaled. “I love these things.”

“Cheese gets me back in your good graces?”

I snorted and took a bite. “Nothing will get you back into my good graces after this morning.”

“How about your pants? Or your bed? Will it get me into either of those?”

I glared at him as I chewed. I’d offered myself up on a silver platter, and he had turned me down. But I’d play his game. “Is that all you think about?”

He grinned lazily, assessing me with those bright blue eyes that missed nothing. “Lately? Pretty much.”

Turning away, I snatched the washcloth off the sink and swept up the few crumbs that escaped my hungry mouth. My stomach tied itself in knots. I didn’t have what it took to hold a man like that. If I couldn’t hang onto Gary, who was practically transparent in comparison, I had no hope at all with Gabe.

Leaning back against the counter, I tossed the cloth into the sink and studiously avoided his gaze.

Quietly, he mused, “It must have been a zoo at Ayana’s yesterday.”

I nodded. “Yes.”

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