Up by Five (23 page)

And she hadn’t done much. She’d lain there and let him worship her.

More or less.

Her orgasm washed over her a minute later and Conner was only a minute behind that.

As they came down from the clouds together, Conner shifted to the side, freed her hands and then pulled her up against him. And with her head against his chest, his heartbeat strong in her ear, Gabby came to a startling realization.

Everyone in her life believed she was fine, independent, strong. Including Conner. He knew those things. But he also understood that her not
needing
him didn’t mean she didn’t
want
him. And he wasn’t going to let her use that to keep him at arm’s length.

She could change her own oil, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be nice for someone else to do it once in a while. She could make her own cookies, but that didn’t mean that her mother’s care package didn’t choke her up.

And she could take care of herself, but that didn’t mean that it didn’t feel really nice when someone else did it anyway.

Yeah, Conner reminded her of her mother.

Gabby laughed out loud at that, then covered her mouth quickly.

Conner shook his head. “Laughter? Really? You couldn’t pretend you needed to go to the bathroom before you started the giggles?”

She felt sticky from head to toe, knew Conner had gotten just as much frosting on him as she had and the sheets were going to be a mess, but she wouldn’t have moved for anything.

She ran her hand over his stomach. “You’re acting like the girls don’t usually laugh after sex.”

“The girls
don’t
usually laugh after sex.”

She lifted her head slightly. “Oh really? Well, don’t feel bad. I’m sure they
meant
to laugh.”

He rolled to face her, his hand going to her butt—she noticed he seemed to really like it there. Then he pinched her. “Laughing after sex is a good thing?”

“Of course. It helps release all those endorphins and all the crazy hormones that get stirred up. Unless you
don’t
get them stirred up. Like maybe with those other girls,” she said with a straight face. “But don’t worry, you must be getting better. I feel like laughing and laughing.”

He swatted her butt this time. “You’re trouble, Gabrielle Evans.”

She grinned. “How so?”

“You’re laughing at me after sex and I still like you. I think I’m in deep.”

She forced her mouth to stay smiling, but she felt her heart flip.

Dammit.

The three relationships that hadn’t broken her heart? Yeah, that was because they’d never had her heart to break.

That was not the case with Conner Dixon.

“So, I think I messed something up.”

Twenty minutes later, Gabby was lightly dozing, still wrapped around Conner—and probably permanently stuck to him since the frosting had dried between them.

“I wasn’t laughing at you,” she said groggily, snuggling close. “Honest. I was teasing about that.”

He ran his hand up and down her back. “Not that. I think I might have done something you told me not to do.”

She tried to read his tone, but was too sated to decipher if he was teasing or not. And too sated to care. About anything.

“I told you to do whatever you wanted,” she said, then yawned. “You’re good.”

He ran his hand over her butt. “So it’s okay that I think I did the falling-in-love thing?”

And just like that she was wide awake. She quickly lifted her head.
“What?”

“You told me not to fall in love with you.”

“Yes, I definitely did.” Her heart was pounding so hard she was sure he could feel it. Or maybe even hear it at this point.

“Well, I did it anyway.”

“Did…what exactly, Conner?”

“Fell in love with you.”

She stared at him, then sighed and slumped onto her back. “Dammit, Dixon.”

Complicated. It was all complicated. In three days.

“Three days,” she said out loud. “It’s been three days.”

“We’ve known each other forever. The big, important stuff, we’ve known forever.”

He was right. Which made this all even more complicated because it was possible that his feelings were real.

Which would mean hers might be too.

“You’re just having a sugar rush. All that frosting,” she said, pushing up to sit on the edge of the bed.

He didn’t say anything at first and finally she looked over at him.

“Yeah, it’s not the sugar,” he said.

“It’s…kind of big,” she said.

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, I’m going to take a shower,” he said, pushing up off the bed and heading for the master bath, unabashedly naked.

She averted her eyes. That was her only hope of not saying something stupid like “let’s have sex for the rest of our lives”, which Conner would no doubt interpret as “I love you too”, which was not a good way to keep things from getting more complicated. Especially since it wasn’t that far out of the realm of possibility.

“You can’t be in love with me,” she said, keeping her eyes off of his tight abdominal muscles and the impressive muscle just south of them.

“Why not?” He grabbed a clean pair of sweatpants from a drawer in his dresser.

“It doesn’t happen that quickly. Or that easily.”

He chuckled. “I have four friends who would tell you differently.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but yeah, Ryan, Amanda, Shane, Isabelle, Nate and Emma had all fallen quickly. It had taken Shane and Isabelle a little longer to get to the happily-ever-after part, but the true-love part had been there from the very beginning. And Cody and Olivia had fought it for almost two years—but it had been there.

“Why do you get to shower first?” she asked, suddenly feeling itchy wherever there was cream-cheese frosting—which was pretty much
everywhere
. She could use some time locked in the bathroom by herself to think and resolutely put cream-cheese frosting on her list of things-to-be-cleaned-out-of-my-life-so-I-won’t-go-insane-in-medical-school. The frosting definitely seemed to have a funny effect on her. Like a love potion.

“If I let you go first, you might sneak out while I’m in there. As long as you’re covered in frosting, I figure you’ll stay.” He stepped into the bathroom and closed the door.

She stood up from the bed, then realized he was right and sat back down.

Then realized that there was another bathroom in the apartment. And that Conner hadn’t invited her in to share his shower. And that she wanted to get in the shower with him.

She headed for the guest bathroom.

Fifteen minutes later, she stepped into clean panties and determinedly kept her mind on
anything
but the fact that she’d fallen in love with Conner Dixon—how stupid was that?—and that he’d supposedly fallen in love with her—how unbelievable was that?—in the space of three days.

She was pulling a shirt over her head when her phone started ringing. For the first time in a long time she thought
thank god
at the sound.

“Hello?”

“Gabs, we need to talk.”

“Grant? Is everything okay?”

“No. Josh screwed up.”

Well, that wasn’t the first time either of them had said those words. “What’s up?”

“Can you meet us at the shop?”

She frowned and glanced at the clock. It was almost ten. That meant it was important. No one else would be at the shop, making it a safe place to talk privately. That meant it was
really
important. “Yeah. Okay. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

She pulled her hair up and secured it with a large clip, finished dressing, grabbed her keys and shoes and started for the door.

“Where are you going?”

Conner, only a towel around his waist, was leaning in the doorway to his bedroom.

“Damn, I could get used to that view,” she said without thinking.

“Feel free to get used to it.”

And he was in love with her. Supposedly. And she was in love with him. Probably.

She shook her head. “I, um…” had to do something—oh yeah, “…I have to meet my brothers.”

“At ten at night? Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

She looked at him in surprise. “Excuse me?”

“Ask them to come over here.”

“I’m going to meet my
brothers
. I won’t be alone.”

“Fine, okay. Give me two seconds to get dressed.”

She crossed her arms. “Get dressed for what?”

“I’ll go with you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Good grief. Not just because this was family business with her brothers and Conner wasn’t invited, but because that was…ridiculous. If she wanted to go out, no matter what time it was, she would go. Like she’d always done before she’d moved in with Conner.

“It’s no big deal. Just let me get some clothes on.”

He started to turn away.

“Conner,” she said firmly.

He stopped and looked back.

“I’m going to meet my brothers. Alone. You’re not coming.”

He sighed. “I know I freaked you out with the love thing.”

She sighed back at him. “Yes, you did freak me out. But that’s not why I’m saying no. They need to talk to me. Grant just called.”

“Then I’ll go with you and make sure everything’s okay.”

“Why wouldn’t it be okay?”

“If everything is okay, they wouldn’t be calling at ten at night.”

“They might. We all have crazy schedules.”

“I have some experience with late-at-night, can-you-come-over-here-right-now calls, Gabby.”

“These are my brothers, not your sisters.” But even as she said it, she realized that he was right—this wasn’t going to be just a chat with her brothers. That could have waited. And she realized that neither she nor Conner would ever be completely without these crazy, at-all-hours phone calls. Which was even more reason not to combine their lives and their at-all-hours craziness.

“I’m coming along,” he said firmly.

“The minute you go into your bedroom to get dressed, I’m leaving,” she told him. “Can we just be up-front about this so you don’t feel like I’m sneaking out or mad?”

He narrowed one eye. “I might be able to catch you.”

“You’d come running after me?”

“Very likely.”

Dammit. She kind of wanted to see that.

“I’m okay on my own,” she said anyway.

He sighed. Again. “Fine.”

She could tell that was hard for him to say. “I’ll be fine. I’m going to see Grant and Josh. It’s a ten-minute drive.”

“Text me when you get there.”

She rolled her eyes. “No.”

“Gab—”

“I’m not your little sister.”

“I’m very aware of that.”

“I don’t need your protection.” But it felt good. She liked that he was concerned.

Which was unfair. He didn’t want to be concerned about people anymore. He didn’t want to worry. He was retired from that.

And she didn’t
need
him to worry.

“It’s a fucking text,” he said, clearly irritated. “It will take two seconds.”

For god’s sake. She should just do it. Then he
wouldn’t
worry and she could stop having this conversation. “Fine, I’ll text you.”

“Text me when you’re on your way home too.”

She shook her head. “You’re annoying me, Dixon.”

“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” he told her.

“Is that right?”

“If you
don’t
text me when you get there and when you’re on your way back here, I’m going to do some
really
annoying things.”

She put a hand on her hip. “Such as?”

“Go out looking for you. Call all of your relatives. Call Shane.”

He’d call a cop? No way would Conner… But seeing the determined look on his face at the moment, she believed him.

“Do you do this with all the women you send home after sex?” she asked.

“No, I don’t,” he said without hesitation. “You’re a special case.”

She was not going there.

“I thought Nate was the crazy-overprotective one,” she said. She’d never had anyone go out looking for her if she was late getting somewhere. Her family knew she was completely competent and capable and would call for help if needed. No reason to go looking.

Conner wouldn’t
really
have a reason either. He’d just want to know where she was and how she was.

Dammit. He was getting to her.

“Nate’s an amateur,” Conner scoffed. “Michael’s one kid, who didn’t do anything rebellious until he was eighteen. I had
four
girls, two of whom started misbehaving before they could spell
misbehaving
, and all four gave me gray hair well into their twenties.”

And right there was the reason she could not let him be in love with her. He didn’t want more women to worry about, he didn’t want to be crazy-overprotective anymore. He wanted to be fun and laid-back.

Well, hell, the kind thing to do here was let him come along. If he was with her he wouldn’t be worried and wouldn’t act crazy.

“You’re killing me, Dixon. Fine, let’s go. Just stop talking and get moving.”

“I’m going?” he asked.

“If you can be dressed and in my car in three minutes.”

Four minutes later they were on the way to Gabby’s family’s shop.

As they neared the shop, Gabby felt her stomach getting tighter. It wasn’t like Josh screwing up was new. The youngest of her brothers was a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of guy. He was spontaneous and fun. He was laid-back and took things as they came. But he also had a hard time planning ahead and seeing possible consequences. Gabby knew that Grant and Reed cleaned up a lot of Josh’s messes without ever telling her. So the call tonight meant it was something big, something only she could help with or something that affected her directly.

She jumped when she felt Conner’s hand on her arm.

“You okay?” he asked when she looked over at him.

“Mostly.”

“Grant didn’t tell you what it was about?”

“Just that it was something Josh needed help with.”

Conner didn’t say anything. He didn’t offer encouraging or soothing words. He didn’t say “it will be okay” or “don’t worry”. He knew how this worked—it might not be okay and she would worry anyway. Instead, he tugged her hand free from the steering wheel and laced their fingers.