She pulled her head back so she could look up at him. “We did. We’re a good team.”
He grinned and was relieved when she smiled back. “We’re adamngood team.”
They finished drying off and he shut off the lights while Cait climbed into her side of the bed, telling him to hurry up because the sheets were cold.
He liked that she had a side of the bed.
When he slid in beside her, he pulled her into his arms. He didn’t push further, not sure if she was still feeling a little shaky. Holding her was enough. But then her hand slid over his chest and she kissed him, nipping at his bottom lip.
Gavin lost himself in her, making love to her until they were both breathless and sated. He loved exploring her body, finding the spots that made her sigh and squirm. And he loved the sight and taste of her, and the way she sprawled over him—her breath hot and quick against his skin—when it was over.
She fell asleep quickly, but he lay awake for a few minutes, savoring the feel of her in his arms.
As the events of the night passed through his mind again, he couldn’t help but smile at the memory of how well they’d handled the emergency together. And how right it felt to have her in his bed with him.
They were definitely one hell of a good team.
* * *
When the alarm went off and it was still dark, Cait groaned and pulled the blanket up over her head. She didn’t have to work today, but Gavin did. He was the kind of morning person who slept until the last possible second and then sprinted through the shower and the kitchen on his way out the door, so he was ready to kiss her goodbye by the time she stumbled into the kitchen.
She didn’t even want to imagine what her hair looked like, after making love and falling asleep with it still damp from the shower.
“I’ll call you later,” he said, and then he risked her morning breath for a second kiss. “Let me know what your mom says about dinner tomorrow, okay?”
“Be safe,” she told him as he walked out the door.
She thought about brewing herself a mug of coffee, but decided instead to throw her clothes back on and head home. It was a pain in the ass not having a fresh set of clothes or her own toothpaste—she hated Gavin’s brand of gel—and there was no sense in starting her day twice. At least this time, she wouldn’t be rushing to get home and get ready for work before her shift.
But he’d offered to buy her shampoo. It was the first step in having some of her things at his place, and her stomach knotted. It was a big step—and a scary one, considering how things were at home—and had surprised her.
Gavin had also surprised her yesterday—on a couple of levels—Cait thought as she drove back to her mom’s house. First was extending the Valentine’s Day dinner invitation to include her mom and Carter. That was sweet and unexpected, and it said a lot about how seriously he was taking their relationship.
But he’d also surprised her at the accident scene. After taking a minute to make sure the car was safe, he had been quick to hand the scene over to her. There had been no doubt she was in charge and he hadn’t even blinked. She’d been in the first-responder business long enough to know there were a lot of men who took over just because they were men, and Gavin wasn’t one of them.
He rocked her world, made her laughandrespected her professionally. It was like winning the lottery and butterflies danced in her stomach when she allowed herself to imagine a possible future with him. And she was imagining it a lot lately.
When she let herself into the house, she was surprised the living room light was on. And seeing her mom sitting on the couch, sideways so her head rested against the back, set off alarm bells in her head. The TV was on, too, though the volume was turned down low.
“Mom, it’s early. What are you doing up?” She tossed her keys on the side table and sat down on the other end of the couch, curling her legs under her. “Is something wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I just couldn’t sleep so I decided to watch TV for a while.” She was trying too hard to sound cheerful, and Cait’s stomach sank.
“Why couldn’t you sleep?”
“I don’t know. Just restless, I guess. It’s so quiet at night without Duke’s snoring, so I can’t go to sleep. Then I can’tstayasleep. I thought if I came downstairs and turned the TV on, maybe I’d fall asleep on the couch for a little while.”
That was a recurring theme. Most women complained about their husbands’ snoring, but her mom had found it comforting and it was one of the things that hit her every night when she went to bed. Cait had bought her a white noise machine, but it wasn’t the same. And there was nothing she could do to help.
“I saw you on the news this morning,” her mom continued. “At that accident.”
Okay, so maybe this was residual anxiety from the emotional meltdown her mom had after Cait was trapped in the house with Gavin and the little boy. She could deal with that. “The accident was in front of us, but the car made it look worse than it was. The people are fine. I guess everybody will be talking about it at work.”
“I don’t understand why youwouldn’twant people to know. You’re both single. He’s very attractive. So what if they talk.”
“It’s not that I don’t want anybody to know. To be honest, most of the people in our lives already know. But being on the news will make everybody want to talk to me about him and I don’t like talking about my personal life at work. Other than with Tony, I mean.”
“You hardly talk tomeabout him, so I don’t imagine you want other people in your business.”
