AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What’s our plan for today?” Nia set her head on his shoulder and splayed one hand over his bare chest, her warm breath caressing his skin as she spoke.
“All I’ve got so far is cuddling,” he said, smiling when Nia giggled. “But I do have a shift at the Shack later, maybe you can swing by after?”
“Save me some deviled crab?”
“Only if you’re going to share this time.”
Nia snorted and kissed his chest. “I’ll think about it.”
* * *
Now
When he opened his eyes that morning, he frowned at his ceiling because it wasn’t like the one in his dream. That early morning in his bedroom at the summer home felt so real. He could still taste the saltwater on her lips, feeling the sand on her skin brush against him as they cuddled, kissed and whispered silly nothings to each other for hours.
Except there was no warm, deliciously curvy body beside him. A furry dog was tucked into his side, hot breath against his armpit with every snort and snore that came out of her.
Gavin hated how even after all this time, Ginny had that kind of effect on him.
It had been a week since the shouting and almost kiss in his office. A week and he hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Ginny. Spencer checked in once, clearly to find out how theirconversationhad gone, and when Gavin didn’t reply, he didn’t text again. He didn’t know what to tell his brother—“Oh yeah, I saw Ginny. I said awful things to her and then almost kissed her” sounded pretty ridiculous. If she hadn’t set her hand on his chest, Gavin knew that he would have kissed her. And it wouldn’t have been polite. Standing that close to her, the confusing scent of her wrapping around him, Gavin had been able to recall in perfect clarity what kissing Ginny had been like. Then it made him wonder if she’d picked up any new tricks since they last saw each other, which was another spiral he did not need to go down.
More importantly, he’d been so fucking mean to her.
At the time, saying all those things made sense. It was what he wanted her to hear, know and understand. When she walked out of his office, he’d stared at the space where she’d stood and replayed the whole thing. Ginny didn’t deserve to be treated that way. He was angry and upset, but he had no right to tear her down like that. But fuck, he missed the way she could keep him on his toes. Every argument—silly or serious—they’d had in the past had been sort of foreplay and the sex that followed was always explosive.
Except the only thing that came out of that argument was a raging boner and more anger than he knew what to do with. Bronte cornered him later and asked him a million questions, but Gavin didn’t even know what she was saying. His head had been so fixated on Ginny and their entire interaction.
The anger was useless, because Ginny was right. Falling in love with her washisproblem and she hadn’t done a damn thing to make him feel that way. But a part of him refused to accept full blame for that. She’d seduced, fucked and enjoyed him all those summers they slept together, Ginny had to know what she was doing to him. Right?
He huffed in frustration and Cedar stirred beside him.
Smiling, Gavin dropped a hand to rub Cedar’s side, slowly lulling her back to sleep. He had another long day of work ahead of him, but if he was being honest, Gavin just wanted to stay in bed. He had a home office, on days when he needed to get through piles of paperwork, but he had promised Bronte that they’d figure out solutions to raise funds and get some of their animals adopted.
His phone buzzed from somewhere on the floor and Cedar finally gave up on sleep, snorting loudly as she lifted her head to glare at Gavin.
“I bet that’s your favorite person calling, so you can take it up with her later,” he told his dog, who hopped out of bed and performed the most epic stretch before walking out of the room.
Gavin swung his legs over the side of the bed and rubbed his face as his phone started buzzing again. He knew it was Bronte, but he didn’t want to have to explain himself to her. Besides, if she was calling him, it meant he was already late for work, so a few more minutes wouldn’t hurt. His phone stopped for approximately eight seconds and then started buzzing again. Smiling to himself, Gavin rummaged around in his clothes and swiped his thumb over the screen to answer the call.
“Usually when someone doesn’t answer the phone, it’s because they’re busy or don’t want to talk,” he said, putting Bronte on speaker so he could clean up his room at the same time.
Bronte scoffed. “You don’t get to do that when you’re the boss. So does this mean you’re not coming in today?”
“I am, just a little later.”
“How much later? Because we’ve got shit to do and it’s already ten a.m.”
He groaned, tossing everything into his laundry hamper. “Gimme an hour.”
“Bring your ideation brain, boss, because we need to crack this today.”
Gavin made a weird sound of affirmation and after a round of goodbyes, he hung up. He quickly made his bed and had a shower, brushing his teeth while the hot water washed away all thoughts of Ginny and their almost kiss. When he stepped out of the bathroom, Cedar was sitting on his bed, leash held between her teeth.
He smiled and ruffled her fur before dropping a kiss to the top of her head. “Office or a walk, because you can’t have both.”
Cedar dropped the leash and nudged it off the bed, her tail wagging at the idea of going into the shelter. It’s where Bronte was, where all her furry friends were too. It was also where she and Gavin had found each other.
She’d been abandoned on the front stoop of the shelter a few years ago, fur matted and dirty. Gavin had been working late, filing paperwork and processing paychecks, and when he stepped out to lock up found her curled up and whimpering. He kicked into ‘abandoned pet’ mode by carrying her into his truck and driving her to the speciality animal hospital where Spencer worked. It took them hours to get under her fur and check her over, but once Spencer was done, Gavin had been relieved to know that outside of malnutrition and dehydration, there was nothing physically wrong with the dog.
