Can't Help Falling in Love (25 page)

“Ooh, Mommy, look! It’s Justin Bieber! I need a picture with him.”

Summer ran over to the uncannily accurate wax figure of the young pop star and Megan quickly snapped a couple of great shots with her digital camera. When she turned around, she couldn’t see Gabe anywhere in the room, not even over by the Kim Kardashian figure most of the men were drooling over.

Megan, Summer, and Gabe had come down to Fisherman’s Wharf on a clear, cool Friday night to eat clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls, but had ended up inside the wax museum instead. Amazingly, none of them had ever been there before, thinking it was something for tourists, not locals. Megan couldn’t remember laughing so much. Her cheeks actually hurt and she was pretty sure her abdominal muscles would be feeling it, too, the next morning.

Still, she wasn’t at all prepared to see Gabe standing next to his brother in the next room. Or, rather, the wax version of Smith Sullivan.

“He never told us he was here,” Gabe said with a wicked grin. “Boy, are we all going to have fun with this one. Can you take a couple of shots of us?” He draped one muscular arm around the shoulders of the wax figure and Megan noticed several strangers in the room stopping to stare. Especially when Summer said, “Hey, isn’t that your brother, Gabe?”

He grinned at her. “Sure is, sweetie. And it looks like he’s got a bad case of ear wax...all over!”

As Summer giggled, Megan mused that while each of the Sullivan brothers were unique, all six of them shared a certain...well,
rugged gorgeousness
was one way of putting it. Even in wax, Smith Sullivan was quite a hunky sight.

Of course, a flesh-and-blood Gabe Sullivan put the figure to shame.

A few minutes later, they saw Nicola’s wax figure in the corner at the same time.

“We met her at your mom’s party!” Summer exclaimed. Clearly full of pride, she said, “I don’t need a picture with her because I totally know her. When do we get to meet Smith, Gabe?”

Gabe ruffled her hair. “Next time he’s in town, I’ll have him buy you an ice cream cone.”

“Cool!”

As Summer ran off, Megan’s chest suddenly tightened. It was just what she’d been afraid of. That Summer would assume these group outings meant her mother and the firefighter were going to be together forever. Long enough, at least, to eat ice cream with Smith.

Megan could feel Gabe’s eyes on her. His arms were next, wrapping around her waist to pull her lightly against him. “I heard they’ll kick you out of the wax museum if they see you frowning.”

She buried her face in his neck and breathed in his warm and smoky scent until she was able to stuff away her fears again. All the while, he held on to her, his large hand stroking her back.

“I’m having a great time, Gabe. So is Summer.”

“That makes three of us, then.”

He took her hand and they joined her daughter by the superhero wax figures, all of her hopes and dreams pooling around his offhand statement.

That makes three of us, then.

Oh, how she longed for that to be true. A husband, a family for her daughter, with no more heartache, no more struggles.

Just love.

But how could that ever be a reality for her and Summer when Gabe was a firefighter? One who wasn’t afraid of running into burning buildings if it meant saving someone inside.

Stop it,
she told herself in a firm inner voice. She’d promised both of them that she’d try. Which meant putting the brakes on her worries, her fears, for a little while and just enjoying being with him.

An hour later, Gabe was dropping them off at home on the way to his night shift at the station. They’d agreed he’d come over for dinner on Sunday night after his shift, but Megan already missed him.

Besides, he’d been holding her hand for hours. Touching her, too, soft little caresses on her face, her back, her hips. She was burning up for him, but with Summer between them, Megan couldn’t do anything about her desire.

Desire that she was afraid was going to make her come completely unglued before long.

“Thank you for a lovely evening,” she said in a slightly husky voice.

She reached for the doorknob, but before she could open the door, Summer said, “Aren’t you guys going to kiss good night?”

A strangled laugh came from Megan’s lips and when she looked over at Gabe, his eyes were dark with the same barely restrained desire she was grappling with.

“Of course we are,” he said.

A moment later, his lips were against hers, warm and delicious. It was just enough of a kiss to whet her appetite for more and when he pulled back, she felt dazed.

Summer smiled at the two of them, clearly pleased to see that her matchmaking had worked out so well. “See you Sunday, Gabe. That was fun.”

* * *

On Sunday night, the three of them were sitting on the living room carpet, trying to extract a thigh bone in a tightly contested game of Operation.

Well, a tightly contested game between Summer and Gabe, anyway. Sitting this close to Gabe had Megan’s hands so shaky she could hardly play. Again and again, she set off the red buzzer by bonking the tweezers into the sides of the small holes on the game board.

Summer and Gabe were neck and neck with their piles of little bones and organs when Summer pouted. “This isn’t fair. You do this kind of stuff for your job. I’m just a kid.”

Megan waited to see if he was going to be fooled, but he merely raised an eyebrow. “I’m trained as a paramedic, not a surgeon.”

Summer made a face. “It’s practically the same thing.”

Gabe smiled at her daughter. “Not even close, but nice try, kid.”

When Summer cheerfully said, “Your turn,” Megan knew she wasn’t done rummaging through her bag of tricks to try to make sure she won the game.

Gabe picked up the tweezers and was just about to go for the brain when Summer let out a shriek. “Oh my gosh, what a huge bug!”

Megan winced as her daughter’s piercingly high voice penetrated her skull. “What bug, Summer?”

But her daughter was busy staring at Gabe’s hand where it had stilled right over the playing board, rather than bonking into it and giving her the potential win.

Megan couldn’t help but laugh. “He’s one of eight, sweetie. I think you’re going to have to try harder than that to distract him.”

A second later, Gabe reached in, grabbed the brain and almost had it all the way out when the tip of the tweezers slid against the board. The red buzzer sounded and Summer grabbed the tweezers from his hand, expertly pulling out the brain.

“I win!”

“Nice work, Summer.”

Megan couldn’t imagine a single one of the guys she’d dated playing this game with Summer, let alone enjoying it. Not to mention dealing with her antics so well.

“You have school tomorrow. Time for bed,” Megan said. “Go brush your teeth and get your jammies on and I’ll read you a story.”

“Can you read it to me tonight, Gabe?”

Perhaps Megan shouldn’t have been shocked by Summer’s request, but she was. No one else had ever read her daughter a story, not even her father, who’d always preferred to be outside on the grass playing with her when she was a baby than indoors with her teething and chewing on a book on his lap.

“Megan?”

Rather than answering Summer’s question, Gabe’s eyes were on hers, and she could read the question on his face:
Is this okay with you?

Every minute the three of them spent together, she watched Gabe and Summer draw closer. They were two people who genuinely enjoyed each other’s company.

Her daughter had fantastic taste in men.

And yet, for some reason this felt like another big step, after so many other big steps. First, spending a Friday night together at Fisherman’s Wharf, acting like a family. Then, kissing Gabe in front of Summer. And now, Gabe telling her a bedtime story.

What if something happened to him? What if Summer got used to Gabe playing games with her and reading bedtime stories and then—

She caught herself a split second before her brain reeled off into panic land.

I need to try. Just keep trying.

“Sounds great to me.”

Gabe scanned her face, the smile she’d pasted on it. “Maybe,” he said softly, “we could all read it together.”

Relief swept through her, love fierce on its heels. She’d never thought to meet a man who understood her this well, who could read her secret thoughts without her saying a word.

Thirty minutes later, Summer was tucked into bed and they were headed out to the living room.

“I loved listening to you read
The Magic Tree House
to Summer, the way you did all the characters.”

He shrugged as if it were no big deal. “Sophie’s pretty good at putting on the pressure to get us in there to read to the kids during story time at the library.”

Megan loved the thought of Gabe sitting on a little plastic chair reading to a bunch of kids...and their drooling mothers. She could only imagine the kind of fantasies he must inspire in those women during what had to be the best thirty minutes of their month.

The very same fantasies he inspired in her.

“Ready for your bedtime story?” He pulled her onto his lap on the couch.

“But I’m not tired yet,” she said softly.

His beautiful mouth moved up at the corners and she thought he was going to kiss her. Instead, he nuzzled into the curve of her neck, making her shiver with his tongue.

“Once upon a time there was a man.”

“Not a prince?”

“No,” he said with a soft nip at her chin. “He was a perfectly average, ordinary man. But one day he got lucky and met the prettiest woman in the entire world.”

“Are you sure she wasn’t average and ordinary, too?”

His teeth found her earlobe, sending thrill bumps over the surface of her skin. “I promise you, she was extraordinary. She was so pretty he couldn’t believe she was talking to him.”

“Did they kiss?”

His mouth moved closer to hers as he said, “Oh yes...and those kisses rocked his world.”

Finally
—finally!—
he was kissing her mouth and her toes were curling from the passion erupting all through her. But despite how frantic she was to make love with him, she somehow managed to remember that her daughter was sleeping down the hall.

Megan had decided it was okay for Summer to spend time with Gabe, for outings and game nights, even for bedtime stories. But there was no way she would ever be okay with her daughter seeing a man come out of her mother’s bedroom in the morning. Not until things were far more serious, not unless there was going to be a wedding soon.

Considering she couldn’t even bring herself to say
I love you,
she knew better than to keep kissing him like this with her daughter only a couple of walls away.

She shifted on his lap. “Thank you for coming over tonight.”

“Thank you for inviting me.”

Judging by the thick bulge in his pants and the hunger in his eyes, she knew he was just as ready for wall-banging, crazy-monkey sex as she was.

Feeling like the worst kind of tease, she said, “I want you to stay, but—”

One finger covered her lips. “I understand, Megan. I would never want to do anything to hurt Summer, either.”

She very reluctantly climbed off his lap and they walked, hand in hand, over to the door. After another long kiss good night, and another sweet
I love you
, he was halfway down the hall when she called out.

“You never told me how the story ends, Gabe.” She held her breath, waiting for his response.

His expression held all the love and desire she knew he felt for her.

“It doesn’t.”

* * *

Megan was blurry from lack of sleep when she walked Summer to school on Monday morning. Her body had been buzzing from Gabe’s kisses, but she hadn’t bothered trying to take care of it herself. Not when it wasn’t the orgasm she needed.

It was the man, himself.

She’d never been a woman who chased after men, partly because she’d married so young, but mostly because it just wasn’t her personality. But it was pure female instinct that had her heading away from Summer’s school in the opposite direction of her house.

Ten minutes later, she rang Gabe’s doorbell, her heart pounding from how quickly she’d covered the pavement to get to him. But as she waited, she suddenly realized she had no idea whether he’d be there or not, whether he was out for a run or picking up bagels for breakfast. And when he didn’t immediately open the door, she could practically taste her disappointment.

She was just turning to head back home when the door opened.

“Megan?”

Clearly, the universe was doing her a favor, because not only was Gabe home, but he was wearing a towel wrapped low around his hips. She was still busy gaping at his sculpted muscles when he said, “Come in, sweetheart.”

His hand was warm on the small of her back. “Is everything okay?”

She finally noticed his concerned look at the way she’d shown up like this, out of breath and likely wild-eyed in her desperation to see him. To be with him.

“No,” she said with complete honesty.

“Is it Summer?”

His instant panic radiated out to her and she quickly put her hand over his racing heart to calm him. “Summer’s perfect. I just dropped her off at school.”

“Then what?” His hands were in her hair as he pulled her closer to search her face for clues.

“I missed you,” she whispered, shyly dropping her eyes at her stark admission. “Friday night. Sunday night.” She lifted her eyes to his. “I felt like I was going to go crazy if I didn’t see you again.” She put her arms around him and reveled in the strength beneath her fingertips.

“I ran zigzags back and forth around this city all morning,” he told her in a raw voice as his gaze dropped to her lips and then moved back up to her eyes. “It was either that or use my tools to break into your apartment and climb into your bed with you.”

A moment later, he’d picked her up and was carrying her into his bedroom. Megan was thrilled that he was as desperate as she was to pick up where they’d started—and never had a chance to finish—that weekend.