Before she could stand, though, Gavin’s arm snaked around her waist. He kissed the base of her spine and she shivered.
“Text Carter and see if he’s okay. Then tell your mom to go to bed,” he murmured against her skin. “And you can stay inmybed.”
She didn’t want to explain to him that her mom wouldn’t have bothered her at all if she wasn’t really upset. And Carter’s moods being what they were, things between the two of them could blow up into an emotional shit storm with just a word or a look. It was easier to mediate between them now than to let it get worse and have to cope with the fallout of that. But she didn’t want to go into all of that while in Gavin’s bed.
“I have to go” was all she said. She heard him sigh, but he kissed her back again before withdrawing his arm.
He not only got out of bed and threw sweatpants on, but he pulled on a hoodie and shoved his feet into sneakers to walk her out to her car.
“You don’t have to do this, you know,” she said when he pushed open the building’s main door and the cold hit them.
“I want to.”
Cait had to admit it was pretty sweet, and she tried not to be too angry with her family for dragging her out of this man’s bed.
Once she was in her car and the engine was running, he leaned in through the open door to kiss her goodbye. “Call me tomorrow, if you get a chance.”
“If I’m free.”
He laughed. “I’m never going to live that down, am I?”
“Nope.” She tugged on the front of his sweatshirt to get one last kiss and then pushed him back. “Go inside where it’s warm now.”
She watched him in her rearview mirror until he was out of sight and then tried to refocus her attention on the family drama waiting for her at home. But she wasdefinitelygoing to call Gavin tomorrow.
She wanted more of him.
* * *
The calm before the storm—literally—really sucked, Gavin thought as they moved around the big double bay, doing final checks on their gear and the apparatus. It felt as if they’d already checked and rechecked everything a dozen times, but that was the job. When lives depended on the equipment, you didn’t let things slide or assume, because you hadn’t used something in a while, it was still in working order.
According to the forecast, freezing rain was going to hit the city just before lunch, and the long and boring morning was going to become a grind of MVA responses. And EMS would have their hands full with the accidents, along with falls and pedestrians hit in crosswalks by cars that couldn’t stop.
And thinking of EMS brought him right back to Cait. He shouldn’t have been surprised. It had been at least six minutes since he’d thought about her, so he was overdue.
He was trying his hardest not to be annoyed by her mother interrupting what had been an amazing night and making Cait leave. Family was everything and he could never see falling for a woman who didn’t share that value. When his own family needed him, he was there.
But his family didn’t need himall the damn time.
It was one thing when Mom’s car didn’t start or Jill had the flu and needed her kid picked up from school. Family did things for each other. But Cait’s mom and brother seemed to need Cait to fulfill that maternal role for them. He knew dating a woman with kids was tough. Dating a woman whose “kids” were her own mother and a teenage brother might be worse, because he wouldn’t have a lot of patience with a grown woman interrupting their time together because her teenager had a shitty attitude.
“You look pissed,” Grant said, interrupting that unhappy train of thought. They’d run out of things to do and were currently polishing the chrome on the trucks, which was the default busy work.
“No, just lost in thought.”
“So catch me up. Did the EMT toss your apartment, or what?”
“Her name is Cait, which you know. And no, dumbass, she didn’t toss my apartment.” She’d left his sheets smelling like her body lotion. Berries, maybe. Something sweet that made his mouth water.
“You left my place in a hurry so I thought you might be worried about it.”
“I left your place in a hurry because she asked if I had doughnuts and coffee, so I wanted to get her doughnuts and coffee before she left. And then we had pizza.”
Grant grimaced. “You had doughnuts and pizza? I’m confused.”
“We went to Brockton.”
“No shit. So you guys spent the day together, then?” Gavin nodded, but didn’t say anything else, which he could see was killing the other guy. “And...”
