Page 92 of Return of the Bad Girl (Rock Canyon, Idaho 4)

Her car was gone.

It didn’t make any sense. Why would she just leave without telling him?

When he walked back into the house, he went to grab his phone from the charger and saw a sheet of paper on the counter.

Gabe,

I just need some time to think. I’ll be back on Monday. Please feed Possum.

C.

Gabe stared at the note and started to laugh. He laughed until he couldn’t breathe as he reread the letter again and again. For the first time in his life, he’d opened up to a woman and tried to share pieces of himself.

And she had bailed. Taken off without even saying good-bye to his face.

It says she just needs time. Maybe you’re wrong.

But Gabe didn’t think so and as he crumpled the note in his palm, pain shook his whole body until he was shouting with it. Before he could stop himself, he was hitting the cupboards and the walls, tearing the place apart until he lay on his back, panting, cupboard doors off their hinges and gaping holes in the walls, reminding him that he’d lost control.

That losing Caroline had made him lose all sense.

Crawling back to his feet, he took a few calming breaths before he called Chase. “Can you give me a ride to Home Depot? I only have the bike, and I need to pick up some stuff.”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“I had an accident.” Gabe grimaced as he looked around the room.

When Chase showed up ten minutes later, he gaped at the damage. “What the fuck did you do? Try to take out a wall?”

Gabe smoothed out Caroline’s crumpled note and handed it to Chase. “I’ll be down by the car.”

Before he even reached the door, Chase said, “I’m sorry, man.”

“Yeah,” Gabe said, heading out the door.

He’d taken a gamble on Caroline and lost.

Look at that, Mom. You and I aren’t that different after all.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“My advice to all women is to accept the fact that insensitivity is a common trait in men.”

—Miss Know It All

IN NEW YORK, Caroline tried not to think about Gabe or what he might be thinking after she’d snuck out on him. If the lack of returned texts or calls was any indication, he must be furious with her.

After the first day, the guilt had started sinking in. Why had she tried to sabotage something that was going so well? Gabe was everything, the whole package. Caring, loyal, accepting . . .

And she’d run for the hills the minute he started getting too close.

She’d already left two voicemails and six or so text messages, so any damage control she needed to accomplish would have to wait until she got home.

Which had her so tied up in knots, she’d hardly slept at all and missed her alarm clock this morning. She’d woken up with enough time to throw on clothes before she had to leave for her appointment with Mr. Kline. Luckily, she walked into MacAvoy’s Tavern with five minutes to spare and immediately saw that the bar was certainly in need of some help.

It was dirty; the kitchen was inexcusable; and the bar staff was incompetent. However, the original wood carvings on the walls, the bar itself, and solid wood bar stools were exquisite, and she wondered if there might be a way to keep them.

“I’ll need a day to come up with a solid renovation plan, but I definitely think I can help you, Mr. Kline,” Caroline said to the short, round bar owner a few hours later. The man was in his early fifties and seemed like a solid person, which was part of the reason she had a hard time understanding the bar’s disrepair.

---