Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (67 page)

Chapter 6

Her days off passed quickly.  She chatted online with Elza and they reconciled.  Her sister promised to gather all of the infant and toddler clothes that she had and send them to Robyn.  Elza and Jericho had given up on the idea of having another child for the time being at least, but Robyn promised to save her baby things and return the favor if it was needed.

Fuller called her Monday night.  He was drunk and said lewd and then insulting things to her so she ended up hanging up on him.  She had heard from one of her neighbors that he was living with another woman that had a drug addiction but she found that she didn’t really care about his relationship status any longer.  Fuller would only be a part of her life when it came to the child they shared.  She would not welcome him back into her arms or her bed anytime soon and felt better knowing that she was strong enough to stay away from him.

She had a dream about Neal on Tuesday night that was so erotic that she woke up sweaty and feeling strange.  It was almost as if she could still feel his hands on her body like they been in the dream.  She was glad that it was Eric that she worked with on Wednesday night and not Neal.  She wasn’t sure she could look at him after she’d had a dream like that and not say something stupid.

Her second night of working with Eric went better.  He saved his advances for their female customers and didn’t say anything appropriate to her.  She was almost positive that he had sex with a customer in the bathroom during his break, but she didn’t say anything to him when he came back behind the bar, grinning widely and winking at the pretty blonde who barely looked old enough to be inside a bar.

The girl blushed and straightened her clothes.  Robyn fought the shake of her head that she wanted to give Eric and figured that many had probably had sex in both of the bathrooms at Gabe’s Place.  She knew that they certainly had at the bar she had worked at before. 

The tips were good again.  When Eric handed her her paycheck, she realized she’d forgotten about it.  She didn’t open it until she was home, but when she did, she didn’t believe the amount.

She’d made a rough estimate of what it should be just to make sure that she would have enough to cover her bills before she’d bought the laptop.  The amount she was looking at was twice what a full two week paycheck would be. 

She wished she had picked up her paycheck sooner.  She wanted to talk to Gabe.  But it was too late to call him that night and she was tired, so she showered and then crawled into bed, promising herself that she would call Gabe first thing in the morning.

She had another bout of morning sickness and her breakfast didn’t sit well in her stomach though she didn’t get sick again, so it was after ten o’clock when she dialed Gabe’s number.

He answered on the first ring.  “Hello.”

“Hi Gabe, this is Robyn.”

“Hello beautiful.  Is there a problem?  Has Eric been harassing you?”

“No.  I think you made a mistake with my paycheck.”

“I check the hours and amounts twice myself before they’re drawn up Robyn.  Is it too little?  If you need money, just ask.  Have you made an appointment with the doctor?”

“I just got the insurance card yesterday.  Our mail comes late here so I don’t usually get it before I go to work.  I’ll call this morning.  My paycheck wasn’t too little.  It was way too much.”

Gabe cleared his throat.  “Nonsense.  And it’s always been my policy that if I make a mistake in an employee’s favor they can keep the money.  I’m not like the banks.”

Robyn let out an uncomfortable laugh.  “Thank you, but I really don’t like to think that I’m taking more from you than what I deserve.”

“I have customers raving about your beauty, your efficiency and your politeness already Robyn.  If you’re good to me, I’ll be good to you.  If you make me money, I will show my appreciation.  I have a feeling that no matter how long you remain under my employ, you will make me a lot of money.  The sales the night you worked with Kasia were fantastic.  You’re both gorgeous and between your sweet disposition and Kasia’s sassy, you’ll have all of the male customers filling the till and the tip jar every Saturday night.  You’re enjoying the work aren’t you?  I assume that you get along better with Neal and Kasia than you do with Eric, but he’s been tolerable at least hasn’t he?”

“After he gave up on hitting on me, yes.  Neal is very nice and Kasia is very hard working and straightforward.  I think Eric had sex with a customer in the bathroom last night.  It was on his break but. . .”

Gabe chuckled.  “At least it was on his break.  I’m sorry Robyn.  But in a small town that runs rampant with affairs, things go on behind closed doors, and sometimes those closed doors are the closed doors of my restrooms.” 

“Yeah, I guess.  I’m sorry to bother you.  I guess I’ll let you go now.”

“You’re not bothering me.  Is everything else okay?  Have you heard from Fuller?”

“He called the other night but he was being such an asshole.  There’s talk around town that he moved in with a junkie.  There’s no way I’d take him back.”

“Good.  When women are pregnant they’re vulnerable.  It can be hard to refuse the father of your child, but you are a strong woman Robyn.”

“Thanks.  Goodbye Gabe.”

“Call me if you need anything, and I mean anything.”

Oh if that couldn’t carry a double meaning she thought.  “Of course.  Thank you.”

“Goodbye Robyn.”

Robyn hung up her phone.  She made her doctor’s appointment and then played around on the internet some.  She took a nap until late afternoon, wondering if naps were going to become a regular occurrence for her as she got further into her pregnancy.

After that, she got along better with Eric.  He had laid off completely on his sexual comments to her.  She wondered if she was starting to look pregnant and scrutinized herself in the mirror, but other than a slight rounding in her belly, she couldn’t see much of a change.  Her second paycheck was normal.  For that she was glad.  With tips she was making pretty good money and she was completely comfortable behind the bar again.

The nights she worked with Kasia were interesting.  Kasia always flirted with their male customers and the tips were spectacular.  But she talked honestly to Robyn when business was slow and confessed that she wanted to find a good man that would love her that she could love back.  She said she’d been tempted many times to accept the proposal of her oldest son’s father, but she didn’t love him and already felt like she took advantage of him as it was. 

Kasia teased Robyn about Neal.  Customers had commented to Kasia that Neal looked at Robyn in ways that they’d never before seen him look at a woman.  Robyn was flattered that people thought he was interested in her, and she had seen him looking her in ways that made her think that he was interested in being more than just her coworker and friend, but he didn’t ask her out.  After a while she told Kasia that nothing was ever going to happen between her and Neal, no matter how bad she wanted it to.

Neal was kind to her.  They talked on the nights that they worked together.  He was so easy to talk to that Robyn felt herself confessing some of her fears to him and the problems she’d had in her relationship with Fuller.  He wasn’t judgmental and never told her that she should have known better than to date Fuller in the first place like her mother or Elza did.  But while Neal made it easy for her to open up to him, he never mentioned much about himself.  Robyn was very curious, but didn’t put much stock in the ridiculous things that Eric tried to tell her about Neal.

Eric also told her that Kasia was sleeping with Gabe.  Robyn didn’t believe it.  Gabe wasn’t around much but when he was, he was lending a hand behind the bar or helping them clean up so they could get off a little early.  He still gave her admiring glances, but she was sure that her admiration of him wasn’t very well hidden as the days passed. 

She still felt like she carried a torch for Neal, but she decided he was completely oblivious to her interest in him, or didn’t feel the same way, so she tried to move on.  It was hard sometimes, but Robyn didn’t want to feel uncomfortable working with him because she was attracted to him and he didn’t feel the same way.

So she put aside her feelings for Neal.  But that only seemed to make her attraction to Gabe grow.  It got more and more uncomfortable as the days passed.  She caught him looking at her one night when she was working with Kasia.  She’d met his eyes and had seen such emotion that it had blown her away.  Her mouth had gone dry.  She’d had to take a sip of water and swallow before she could answer the question that Kasia had asked her.

It was the next week when she decided she couldn’t take it anymore.  Her feelings for Gabe had already clouded her judgment.  She was worried that they were going to drive her out of her mind, especially since she was pretty sure that he felt the same way.

Robyn was working with Kasia that night.  She had been out the door as soon as clean up was over because she had a hot date.  Gabe had showed up a few minutes before closing time, helped with the beginning of cleanup and then retired to the office to finish some paperwork.  After Kasia left, he came out of his office and gave her a wide grin. 

“Ready to go home beautiful?”

“Gabe can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Certainly.”  Gabe gestured for her to follow him to the big back booth.

She sat down, her heart starting to beat fast.  Her palms were sweaty.  She wiped them on her pants.  She cleared her throat and looked away from him.  He was so good looking that she didn’t think that she could look at his face when she said what she needed to say to him.  Her desire for him felt like it was eating her alive. 

It had felt the same way with Neal.  But it seemed like a much better idea to try to seduce Neal.  He was as good looking as Gabe and he wasn’t married, but though he was kind to her, Neal had never given her much of an indication that he was attracted to her.  She’d catch Gabe looking at her sometimes like he wanted to kiss her or do something even more intimate to her. 

Robyn cleared her throat.  “I. . .”  She swallowed hard.  “I want you Gabe.  I know that it’s wrong to want to be with you because you’re married, but it doesn’t change the way that I feel.  You are so gorgeous and you have been so good to me.  No other man has ever treated me the way you’ve treated me.”

Gabe brought his hands gently to her face and turned her head so that she’d have to look at him.  “Oh Robyn.  You are so beautiful.  I can see your feelings written all over your face when you look at me, but I understand that you have reservations because of my marriage and your pregnancy.  Darling, I am married to a woman that loves no one but herself.  My children aren’t mine.  She was pregnant when I met her.  She refused to tell me who the father was.  I fell for her hard and fast.  She’s always had me wrapped around her pretty little finger.  Jessa isn’t mine either.  I had her blood tested for my own peace of mind.  My wife has had many lovers since we’ve been together.  They have mostly been women and besides our wedding night, it was only women at first.  But Leslie’s lovers certainly haven’t always been women.  She refuses to have sex with a man that wears a condom, so Christian and Jessa could belong to any number of men.  I love my children, but it’s not my blood that flows through their veins.”

“Oh Gabe.  I’m so sorry.”

“Darling it’s hardly your fault that my wife is a cold hearted bitch with a sex addiction.  Over the years I’ve done everything I could to try to please her, but no one man or woman will ever be enough for her.  She’s insatiable.  As for your pregnancy, I would happily be a father to your child.  I cannot believe that any man would leave a woman like you when she is carrying his child.  Then again, a real man wouldn’t have left you, especially the way that he did.”

“You are so kind.  But it’s hard to believe that a guy that looks like you would want to be with a pregnant woman.  You could have any woman you wanted.”

Gabe chuckled.  “Pregnancy agrees with some women.  I don’t know what you looked like before you were pregnant of course, but you are so refreshingly beautiful.  When you smile, it takes my breath away.  I’m not sure how much weight you’ve gained, but no one would ever look at you and think you’re pregnant.  If you’ve gained any weight at all, you must have been terribly thin before.  Your body is gorgeous.  Soft and feminine with just right the amount of curves.  Your face is like a work of art.  I love the fact that you don’t feel the need to wear makeup.  When you already possess a beauty so divine, why mar it with cosmetics?”

Robyn could feel herself blushing.  No man had ever said anything that like that to her before.  She’d been told she was pretty and even beautiful, but Fuller had always called her hot or sexy and talked about her like she was a piece of meat.  If she’d thought that Gabe had made her feel attractive before, she now thought that she’d never felt more attractive in her life.  She also felt a wetness start between her legs.  She shifted uncomfortably.

“Do you really want me?”

“Oh Robyn.  I have wanted you since the moment I saw you.  I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable by making what I knew you felt was an improper move though.  I knew that if you felt the same way for me that I did for you, I had to let you make the first move.  I have dreamed of hearing you say that you wanted me for so long.  It is one thing to look at a woman and know that she desires you.  It is another completely to hear the words leave her beautiful lips.  May I kiss you?”