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CHAPTER14
Ally
Icouldn’t help myself as I backed down the drive at Ellen and Bruce’s toward their garage.
I peeked.
Yep, Gabe’s truck was there, so he was home. Not that it mattered, did it? Of course it didn’t. I resolutely looked away as I got out of the car, walked down the drive, and knocked on the front door. No answer. I knocked again, checking my watch. I was pretty sure Ellen had said she’d be home around now. Another knock, still no answer.
“Allegra.”
I started as the sound of my name on Gabe’s lips skittered across my skin. Taking a deep breath, I waited a moment for my heart rate to settle before slowly turning around to face him. “Hey.”It’s me. I’m the problem. It’s me. I can’t even do casual sex anymore without catching feelings.
“Hi.”
Fuck, he was just so gorgeous. “I, um, I’ve just come by to drop some stuff off, but it doesn’t look like Ellen’s home.”
“She and Bruce have taken Jesse to get ice cream. The front door is probably unlocked, if you want to just go in.”
“Really? That feels so weird.”
“Not to me, it doesn’t.” He stepped up onto the front porch and I held my breath to keep from breathing in his scent, because what the fuck would I do then, jump him right here on the front porch? Pushing the door open, he gestured with a flourish. “Go ahead. Just drop off whatever you need to. I’ll let them know.”
I bit my lip, releasing it quickly when I saw his eyes drop to my mouth. “Okay, but it’s a lot. My aunt went all Marie Kondo on her place and my mom thought Ellen and Lucy might like it for their charity collection, so she asked me to bring it over.” Babbling again. Why did this man make me babble so much? Babble babble babble. Fuck.
“I’ll open the garage, maybe, and help you shift everything into there?”
Not necessary. “Great, thanks.” I fought the urge to jump in my car and drive away, because his proximity was torture, but that would be stupid and juvenile.
“Wow, thatisa lot,” he said when he saw the back of my car.
“Yeah, they’ve got six kids, so when they do a purge, it’s always a big deal. Speaking of which, she did give me a tablet. It’s old, but it still works. I thought you might like it for Jesse. If you’re gonna let him have electronics at his age.”
“I hadn’t really thought about that yet. It’s weird having to make rules like that for another person, I think. But he can probably use it for schoolwork at least, and I don’t have a spare one, so that’d be great, thank you.”
“Okay.”
“You can give it to him yourself, though, if you like. He’ll be back any moment.” He reached into the back of my car and pulled out two big trash bags full of clothes.
I did my absolute best not to check out his ass and failed miserably, so I thought it was safer to step in next to him to grab two bags myself. “How is it all going, anyway? I’m going to go out on a limb and assume the test was positive.”
“It was. It’s early days, obviously, but actually the first week has gone better than I expected.”
“I’m glad.”
“Thanks.”
“I guess he’s had a rough time of it.”
“It seems that way. I called his mother to let her know how he was doing and she didn’t seem that interested, which probably shouldn’t surprise me, given how she left him. I suggested I might come and get some of his stuff, toys or games, or even clothes.” He dumped the bags in the garage and came back for more, a scowl on his face.
“What did she say?” I prompted, when he didn’t go on.
He took a deep breath. “She said there ‘wasn’t much point in making the trip’, he didn’t have much because he was ‘a real low maintenance kid’ and I ‘needn’t worry’ about setting him up, he didn’t need it. She basically thought three pairs of shorts, three tees, some socks, jocks and a pair of sneakers would do him.”
“What a stone-cold bitch!”
“Yup. That’s what I thought.”
