Clay's Hope (8 page)

The next day she didn’t come home with her
usual distracted air.

“Hey, Clay,” she called as she pushed
through the door.

I stood abruptly from my normal waiting spot
near the stove, wondering why she needed me. The movement drew her
attention, and she looked at me with a slight smile on her face. My
heart leapt at the sight. Was she actually happy to see me?

“Brought you something,” she said.

The fact that she’d thought of me while she
was out made me want to grin. My patience was paying off. I was
sure of it.

Then, she pulled three books from her bag
and set them on the table. Books? She’d brought me books? Of course
she did. She read constantly, and had given me something that meant
a great deal to her.

I eyed the titles. Books about plants and
wildlife. Though I doubted they contained anything I didn’t already
know, I turned to Gabby, trying to figure out how to thank her for
thinking of me. But she was already digging in the fridge, my
moment of attention already gone. With a sigh, I waited, ready to
accept my sandwich and follow her to her room.

That night, after she and Rachel went to
sleep, I went to the kitchen, grabbed one of my books, and stayed
up late reading. As I thought, the book didn’t offer anything new;
but it was better than her textbooks.

The following morning, after I returned from
campus, I tried to continue reading but grew frustrated. The books
were fine. The waiting at home wasn’t. I wanted to walk with her to
each class and face the men there as a man. Though she seemed to
tolerate me, I didn’t think she was ready to accept me openly. I
needed to find a way to make myself useful, a way for her to need
me.

Giving up on reading, I stared out the
window. What could I offer her that she would need? She didn’t seem
to need or want a man’s attention or affection. I recalled her sigh
last night when we’d run out of ham. She needed someone to bring
her food. Unless she liked fresh rabbit—which I doubted was the
case—I needed money and a job to provide for her.

A car drove past, and I smiled.

If Gabby was willing to bring me books,
maybe I could teach myself enough about cars to be useful to her.
The rusted thing she drove would need attention eventually.

That night, after she went to sleep, I eased
off the bed and shifted to my skin. I tore a page from one of her
notebooks and picked up a pen. With the pen against the paper, I
hesitated. How should I start? How would I end? Love, Clay? I
sighed, looked at her curled under the covers, and knew I needed to
keep it simple for both our sakes. She wasn’t ready for even a hint
of what I felt for her. The brief encounter with her in her
swimsuit proved that.

I wrote the word
mechanics,
then
leaned the paper against the stack of books she’d brought me.
Hopefully, she’d understand.

* * * *

As soon as she moved, I was awake. I held
myself still as she sat up and brushed her hair out of her face.
She looked over at the dresser, as if sensing something was out of
place, and got out of bed. She picked up the note, stared at it for
a moment, then turned to glare at me.

“So you can write words to me, just not
speak them?”

I wanted to cringe. I hadn’t considered
that.

“Whatever. You’re going to get caught
creeping around the house at night.”

However, when she returned home, she had
several books on mechanics and one on do-it-yourself home
repairs.

Gabby was deep in
thought as she read next to me on our bed. Since bringing me the
books on mechanics, time with Gabby had become more special. She
had seen right away that I couldn’t turn the pages on my own and
told me to nudge her when I needed a flip. She’d unknowingly given
me permission to touch her. And over the past week, I’d read fast
and brushed my nose against her bare leg as often as I could.

Tonight, her scent clouded my senses, and I
swam in my own paradise as she sat beside me. I didn’t mind that
she didn’t seem to notice me because I knew what was happening. She
was accepting not only my presence but me, too.

Though I’d already decided to learn more
about mechanics to help her, her acceptance pushed me harder to
learn faster. I needed a way to show her what she meant to me. What
her acceptance meant to me.

So I absorbed the information on the pages.
The basics of an engine were easy to grasp, but the practical
application was a bit harder. I couldn’t work on her car during the
day, mostly because she was gone at school, and partially because I
knew she wasn’t yet ready to see me as a man. So at night, I
carefully used her car as a test subject with the tools I’d
procured here and there from the neighbors.

Soon, I moved from the engine basics to a
deeper understanding of the subsystems and the hi-tech tools needed
to troubleshoot them.

I was reading about those tools when I heard
a car pull into the drive and another pull in front of the house.
Lifting my head, I listened to Rachel’s familiar step as she walked
down the drive. Then, she was speaking to someone.

I nudged Gabby, and she automatically turned
my page for me. I smiled and was tempted to kiss her for her
consideration but decided to nudge her again. The second nudge
broke through her concentration. She finally looked up and met my
gaze. I looked pointedly at the closed bedroom door. We both heard
the front door open and Rachel speaking.

“...and this is where I live. Please have a
seat, and I’ll change quickly. My roommate and our dog should be
around here somewhere.”

“No rush,” a man answered. “Our reservation
isn’t until six.”

Gabby looked at me, her eyes wide and her
scent clouding with worry. Why would it worry her that Rachel
brought a man home? I didn’t care for it either; but after seeing
the way Rachel dressed when she went out, I’d known it would be
inevitable.

Rachel knocked on Gabby’s door, and Gabby
jumped slightly. Her behavior puzzled me. Gabby rushed to close the
book in front of me and called, “Come in.”

The words were barely out of Gabby’s mouth
when Rachel walked in still wearing her clothes from her job at the
hospital. She reeked of chemicals and sickness. Though she smiled,
her flushed cheeks had me worrying. Gabby wasn’t like me; she could
get sick. I hoped Rachel stayed back until she washed.

“There you are,” Rachel said, closing the
door. “Come meet Peter.” She walked closer to Gabby and dropped her
voice to a whisper. “Don’t kill me, but he has a friend without a
date tonight, and I said I had a friend without a date
tonight...please come with.”

A what? I turned to stare at Gabby, who
groaned. Anxiety drifted from her. I didn’t know what a date meant,
but Gabby didn’t seem to like it. The fact that Rachel had brought
a man home and now wanted Gabby to leave with her, worried me.

“Don’t do this to me, Rachel. This won’t end
well, and you’ll probably never forgive me.”

“Come on...please?” Rachel said as she sat
on the bed next to Gabby. “I really like this one.”

Frustratingly ignorant, my confused gaze
bounced between the two women.

“That’s the problem. Remember what I said?
It’s always a guy who ruins a friendship.”

I didn’t remember that conversation, but
Rachel seemed to. Not that it appeared to stop her from
begging.

“I don’t want to go out tonight,” Gabby said
softly, desperation changing her tone.

Go out. I knew that term. That meant leaving
dressed in short skirts. I glared at Rachel. No amount of leftovers
would atone for this.

Gabby glanced at me, then gave me a nudge.
Was the nudge because I was glaring or because she wanted me to
bite Rachel? I was willing to bite.

“I like having a friend,” Gabby said.

Something in her tone stopped my glare, and
I turned to study her. Gabby held herself back from people. I’d
witnessed that over the summer and when I’d followed her to school.
Yet, she wasn’t that way with Rachel. She relaxed around her. I’d
noticed that right away. Could it be that Gabby was as lonely as
me?

“If he hits on you, then it wasn’t meant to
be. Don’t worry so much,” Rachel said with a smile.

Rachel pulled Gabby off the bed, and I
hopped down, sticking close to Gabby. I wasn’t sure what they’d
decided. Were they going out or was Rachel just introducing Gabby
to the man in the living room?

In the living room, a man with light hair
and light brown eyes sat on the couch. He stood as soon as he saw
the women. Or, rather, Rachel. His gaze didn’t waver from her, the
scent of his attraction flooding the air.

Good. He could have Rachel. Not her
leftovers, though. Those were still mine for putting up with the
damn collar.

Rachel stepped aside and introduced Gabby,
whose anxiety spiked a moment before it disappeared. The man met
Gabby’s gaze, politely nodded, and went back to staring adoringly
at Rachel.

I studied Gabby as she exhaled in relief.
What had she expected from the man?

Rachel was saying something as she inched
her way to the arch, but I didn’t really hear her words until she
said, “Tell her about Scott.” I whipped my gaze to Rachel, who had
already disappeared around the corner to her bedroom.

Beside me, Gabby’s fading anxiety flared
with an edge toward panic. I glanced at the man, but he was still
where he’d been, staring at the empty arch where Rachel had been,
obviously infatuated with her. Who was Scott, and why the panic
from Gabby?

Gabby made a small noise that drew Peter out
of his daze.

He cleared his throat and looked at Gabby.
She took a soft, deep breath. Nothing he could hear, but I did. She
was trying to calm herself. I wished I understood what was
upsetting her.

“Nice to meet you, Gabby.”

“You too,” she said, sounding normal. “Want
to sit?”

She motioned him to the couch and took the
chair for herself.

Continuing to observe her, I lay on the
floor between them. As if sensing my attention, she glanced at me
and then back up at the man.

“This is Clay,” she said.

I turned and found Peter staring at me.

“He’s huge,” he said.

“Yeah. So, who’s Scott?” Gabby said, asking
what I wanted to know, too.

Peter looked back up at Gabby. “Oh, a friend
of mine. He’s also in med school. We had plans to go to O’Donell’s
tonight for dinner and a drink or two. Then, I ran into Rachel and
invited her to join us. We thought it’d be more fun if you could
come, too.”

A date meant meeting another man? Not
happening. I looked to Gabby, waiting for her to say no, but Rachel
came back into the room just then, dressed in a skirt so short I
could see her underwear if I wanted to look.

“Of course you will, won’t you, Gabby?”

There was a silent exchange between the two
that had both wearing a pleading look.

“Okay,” Gabby said slowly, giving in. “But I
need to be home early enough to let Clay out.”

What? I was too stunned to react.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine for that little
while.” Rachel waved her hand dismissively at me, and I made a
choked noise. What had just happened?

“Go get dressed,” Rachel said, waving Gabby
toward her room.

Gabby stood, ready to listen to Rachel, the
short skirt queen. Gabby’s willingness finally broke my control.
There was no way she was leaving with Rachel and love-boy to meet
up with some other guy.

I stood and rushed to block Gabby from
entering her room. She eyed me and tried to step around me, but I
cut her off.

Rachel laughed. “Come here, Clay. Come here
and let Gabby get ready.” She squatted down and patted her leg. She
was lucky I didn’t have fingers at the moment.

Ignoring Rachel, I continued to block Gabby.
She had to understand. I wasn’t okay with this.

“I’ve never seen him act like this,” Rachel
said.

Because I’d never been this angry with her
and Gabby. I almost bared my teeth. Only Gabby’s considering gaze
kept me sane.

“I’m surprised you have such a wild looking
dog,” the man said. “It seems too big compared to the house...and
the two of you.”

Gabby shook her head ever so slightly and
dropped to her knees in front of me. She wrapped her arms around my
neck, hugging me. My pulse stuttered with her mouth so close to my
neck. I forgot to breathe, but lack of air wasn’t what made my
chest ache and my gut clench.

Bite me, I pleaded silently. Show them I’m
yours and you’re mine.

Instead, she spoke softly near my ear.

“I’m not crazy about the idea either, but
you have to let me go and stop acting weird.”

Have to? No. I didn’t have to.

She pulled back.

“Ready to be good, Clay?” She stood and
scratched me behind the ear...just as a pet owner would do.

The pain in my chest grew worse, and I
turned, went to her room, and jumped up on the end of her bed. She
followed me in, closed the door, and folded her arms. An edge of
anxiety lingered in her scent, warring with her growing anger.

“I am not changing in front of you.”

Exactly. I grinned at her and lay on the
blanket. Her eyes narrowed on me for a moment, then she
shrugged.

“Fine. I’ll change in the bathroom.”

She turned and pretended to study the
clothes hanging in the closet. She was bluffing. She had to be. But
why? Did she want me to be jealous? I already was. The idea of the
hours she spent around men while on campus each day nearly drove me
insane. She didn’t need to add a date. What did she have to prove?
She already owned me. I was here, in the human world, trying to
figure out how to blend into her life, trying to make us work. What
more did she want from me?

Gabby reached for a skirt just as short as
the one Rachel wore. Not in this lifetime. I growled.