AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gabe could only shake his head. Those two had the oddest chemistry. To those who didn’t know her, Ivy often appeared sullen and standoffish. Most men gave her a wide berth, respecting her don’t-fuck-with-me-I’m-the-original-ice-queen vibe. But when Sean was around, two things happened. One, Ivy lost some of her edge and relaxed, just marginally. And second, Sean, who was typically easy going and laid-back, suddenly got into protective alpha mode.
Ivy stayed close to Sean, and he kept her close. Both seemed oblivious to this inevitable gravitational pull. Gabe was used to it now, but still never understood why his friend hadn’t made an actual move.
“What can I get you, ladies?” Gabe asked.
Ivy ordered a beer of her own, while Hope opted for a vodka soda.
“Make hers a double,” Ivy said, jerking a thumb in Hope’s direction. “Our girl’s had a rough day.”
Dumping a lime and two healthy shots of his best vodka into a glass and filling the rest with soda water, he pushed the glass along the bar toward her. Hope took the glass and sipped immediately.
While she drank, Gabe studied her. She’d fixed her drowned-rat look, but she still appeared tired. Downright weary. Her elegant features seemed a little pinched, and the shadows under her eyes betrayed her stress and worry. Whatever was wrong had been wrong for a long time, and Gabe had an unfamiliar urge to draw her in, hold her close and promise her no matter what she’d be okay. He’d make sure of it.
He gave himself a mental slap. A girl like Hope Morgan didn’t have problems, not real ones, anyway. And if by some slim chance she did, she sure as hell wasn’t going to turn to a guy like him for help. What had gotten into him?
The answer hit like another slap. Their encounter in the hall. Their first encounter, and it had only lasted minutes, but it had felt… real. In those few minutes, Gabe had an onslaught of feelings he hadn’t experienced in years. She’d provoked him, challenged him, and captivated him all in one. She’d left him rattled all day. Then she’d walked through the door of his bar, wearing his jacket, and just the sight of her had settled him.
It was insane. And unnerving.
Preparing Ivy’s drink, he tilted his head until he caught Hope’s gaze. “Your afternoon didn’t get any better after you got back into your apartment?”
Hope dipped her head, and a pretty blush crept into her cheeks as she tugged his jacket tighter around her, like she was trying to wrap herself in it. Hot damn, she was enthralling as hell.
“It was fine,” she murmured. “I’m fine.”
Ivy snorted. “Say it one more time and we might believe you.”
Hope rolled her eyes. “Everyone has bad days. Today was mine. But I’m fine.”
Gabe didn’t believe her. They all stared at her, waiting for her to elaborate.
Then Sean grinned his million-watt smile that had the power to melt the panties off any girl and slung his arm around Hope’s shoulders, drawing her onto the bar stool next to his. “Right. We’re all human, all on the same ocean of life,” he said philosophically, sounding like an inspirational Hallmark card. “Some days, life sucks. Then you wake up the next day, put yourself together, and get on with it.” He tugged her a bit more, until she leaned against him. “But if you can’t for any reason, remember you got friends who have your back. You don’t have to do life alone. Right?”
Sean knew a little something about bad days. And he was right. Sometimes you needed to be reminded that you didn’t have to tackle life alone.
When the shit hit his own fan six years ago, there was no way he could have gotten his act together without Sean or his sister and father. Hell, there’d been a stretch when he wouldn’t have remembered to feed himself if it hadn’t been for the intervention of family and friends.
“Right,” Hope said, snuggling in for one of Sean’s trademark one-armed hugs, but not looking altogether convinced. “I appreciate the sentiment, and that you count me as a friend considering we’ve only hung out a few times at your gym, and both times you were kicking my ass in class, which didn’t feel particularly friendly.” She matched Sean’s smile with one of her own.
“Any friend of Ivy’s is a friend of mine,” he countered with a charming wink.
Hope chuckled, then drew herself up straight on her stool.
“It’s all going to work out. I know it,” she said, her tone confident.
The way she said it, Gabe knew she was the glass half full kind of person. Optimism. Personally, he was allergic to it. Couldn’t afford it in his life. But a woman like Hope was made of it. For her, life had probably always worked out—one way or another. Coming from a rich-ass family had to help in that regard.
Finding for the second time that day that he just couldn’t let it go with her, and more than a little curious to know what kind of problems a beauty queen from the right side of the tracks could possibly have, he heard himself asking, “So what exactly made your day so bad?”
She gave him her bestas if you don’t knowlook.
“Other than the getting-caught-in-a-rain-storm and locking-yourself-out-of-the-apartment bits?”
“You locked yourself out during the rain?” Sean asked with a wince of sympathy.
“Yep.” Ivy on the other hand was wearing a gleeful smirk. “And none other than our very own Gabriel Walsh came to the rescue. A right gentleman he was. Gave up his coat so that our poor Hope wouldn’t freeze to death in the heated hallway of our building.”
Gabe didn’t miss the sarcasm.
