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Gabe blinked, trying to register her words. She wanted Sole Regret to get back together? Wait—that didn’t make sense.
“His girlfriend is waiting in the truck,” Jacob said. “I’m sure he wants to get her home soon. He just stopped by to tell me something.”
Gabe’s head stopped reeling long enough for him to snap out of his confusion. “Uh, yeah. Remember what I told you, Jacob.” He stared beseechingly into his eyes. “And act on it.” Then again, maybe he should be trying to negotiate with Tina. Did her encouragement mean that it was Jacob who wanted the band to end? Gabe’s tattered hope for reconciliation shredded further.
“Thanks for stopping by,” Jacob said, closing the door in Gabe’s face. Gabe leaned in close to the door to listen in on Tina’s conversation with Jacob.
“What was that all about?” Tina asked, her voice muffled.
“Nothing important.”
Nothing important?
Jacob said something else, but he was now too far from the door for Gabe to make out the words. Gabe released a frustrated breath and spun on his heel to return to the truck. The problem with bands was that they were made up of more than one person.
He was pretty sure he had Adam on board with making amends, but now he wasn’t sure that Jacob would even hear him out. Maybe the lot of them weren’t worth Gabe’s headache.
Chapter Fourteen
Melanie watched Gabe return to the truck where she waited for him in front of Jacob’s lovely brick house. Though most of Gabe’s face was concealed by shadows, she could tell by the firm line of his lips that things had not gone as planned. He climbed inside the truck and curled around the steering column, pressing his forehead against the wheel’s upper curve.
“Fuck!” He took a swing at the dashboard, his knuckles hitting the plastic with a loud thud.
Melanie took his wrist and kissed his damaged knuckles. Her heart ached for him. She knew what it was like to have a friend who didn’t make good decisions.
“Everything okay?” she asked, rubbing his firm-muscled back with one hand, clinging to his fingers with the other.
“He doesn’t care that Amanda was basically blackmailed into dumping him. The knowledge wasn’t even important to him.”
“Poor Amanda,” Melanie said. She could tell that the woman was hopelessly in love with Jacob Silverton, and though Melanie did not understand the man’s appeal, she did understand heartache and wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
Gabe shifted in his seat and leaned over the central console so he could wrap his arms loosely around her. Melanie wondered if he hated the piece of functional plastic between them as much as she did at that moment.
“You’re the only thing sane in my life right now, Mel,” he whispered, seeking her lips for a tender yet rousing kiss. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Well,” she said, “you’re not about to find out. I’m here for you. Always.”
He held her a moment longer, his breath slowing and becoming more regular. “You better start needing me more,” he said with a half-hearted chuckle. “I’m starting to feel like a leech.”
“I need you,” she said, kissing his jaw, his lips, his chin, and the tip of his nose. She wished there was more light in the truck than that coming in from a distant street lamp so that she could gaze into his gorgeous green eyes. “This feeling you give me? I can’t do without it. Not ever.”
“Is this what they call a codependent relationship?”
She shook her head slightly. “This is what they call a perfect match.”
“Let’s go home and be alone together. I need to feel you against me. All of you. Inside and out. All of you.”
“All of you,” she echoed, sliding a hand over his slightly scruffy jaw.
He drew away and started the truck, and after putting it in gear, reached over and took her hand. He kissed the backs of her fingers, her engagement ring, and the inside of her wrist.
“Maybe,” he murmured against her rapidly thrumming pulse, “we should stay home. Never leave again.” He lowered her hand to rest against his thigh, and she didn’t need any encouragement to keep it there.
Becoming hermits sounded like a perfect plan to her, but she worried that such a life wouldn’t be enough to satisfy him. He had a busy mind, an energetic body, and wicked creativity. Could she keep up with him? Make him happy? Inspire him to be all he was capable of being? She couldn’t know for sure until she tried.
“We’ll eventually run out of toilet paper,” she joked. The weight of the responsibility to make such a complex man happy made her a tad uncomfortable.
“They do sell toilet paper online.”
“But what if I want to try it before I buy it?”
He snorted. “I’d pay money to watch that.”
He turned onto a now familiar road that led away from Austin and toward home.
“I promise you’ll be okay, Gabe,” she said, hoping those were the words he needed to hear. “Just let things happen.”
“You make it sound so easy.” He rolled his eyes, and she giggled, squeezing his thigh.
“Has anyone ever accused you of being a control freak?”
“Guilty as charged,” he said. “And the next thing I plan to control is the frequency and duration of your orgasms.”
She squirmed, her hand sliding up his thigh until her pinkie rested against his crotch. “Whatever makes you happy,” she said, grinning to herself.
“Do you want to go to the lake tomorrow? Supposed to be a nice day. We’ll take the dogs and Nikki. Unless, like you, she’s afraid of bait. Then she stays home. I can only bait so many lines.”
Melanie snorted, remembering their fishing trip to the lake last weekend and the squirmy pink larva he’d expected her to pierce with a hook. “I have no idea how she feels about fishing, but I’m still not touching maggots.”
As soon as they pulled into the drive, the front door opened and Beau came bounding off the porch and across the yard to greet them. Lady and Nikki waited just outside the front door.
When they reached the bottom of the steps, Nikki asked, “Did you have a nice time? Any news about the band?”
“Yep,” Gabe said, “and nope.”
Melanie handed the bag of leftovers from the restaurant to Nikki. “Some delicious food in there, but I’m sure it’s all cold by now.”
“That’s what microwaves are for.”
“I’ll worry about installing the dishwasher tomorrow,” Gabe said, wrapping an arm around Melanie’s back as soon as they entered the house. “I think it’s time for bed.” He kissed her neck and whispered, “Unless you’d rather ride the Stallion.”
“You’re the only stallion I want to ride tonight.”
Nikki coughed and then headed through the great room and toward the kitchen. Melanie couldn’t help but notice Nikki was walking a bit gingerly.
“Are you limping?” Melanie asked.
Nikki turned to look at her, her eyes wide and overly innocent. “Who, me? Or Lady?”
“You.”
“Overdid my workout a bit.” Nikki shrugged. “I’m fine. You two go on to bed. I’ll just talk to the dogs some more.”
She muttered something that Melanie couldn’t quite make out, most likely about having to spend time alone. Nikki had never done well by herself.
“Want to go to the lake with me, Gabe, and the dogs tomorrow?”
Nikki closed the microwave door and spun around, her face brightening with an excited smile. “That sounds like fun.”
“You’d better get to bed soon. We’ll be rising early,” Gabe said.
