Return of the Bad Girl (28 page)

“You don’t think I told myself that, over and over? I just felt like I couldn’t take the chance. I couldn’t let Kyle take everything from me,” she said, laying her cheek on her kneecap. “But it turns out I did that to myself anyway by letting my emotions eat at me.”

She felt Gabe move before his lips pressed against her bare shoulder. “We all do it. I did it to my best friend, Chase. He had this full-ride academic scholarship to Berkeley, and I was so jealous, I couldn’t even see straight. He was going to get out of town, and I was staying behind. I’d tried not to let it affect me, but when I caught him kissing my sister, suddenly it wasn’t just me he was deserting,” he said, wrapping his arms around her. “We all do stupid shit as kids—hell, even as adults. The key is whether or not you can forgive yourself and move on.”

Turning to face him, she asked, “Have you forgiven yourself yet?”

Gabe’s expression clouded, and she almost took it back, until he said, “I’m working on it.”

Caroline snuggled into him and whispered, “I don’t know how to move on from this.”

“I think you already took the first step by talking about it,” he said, trailing kisses across her skin. “The rest will just take time.”

“Is that what helped you? Time?” she asked, enjoying his ministrations.

“That,” he said, dipping his head to kiss along her jaw, “and I realized there was something I wanted, but because of self-loathing, I didn’t feel like I deserved it.”

“Your shop,” she said as her hands smoothed up his arms and over his shoulders.

“No,” he whispered just below her ear. “You.”

Caroline jerked in surprise at his words, unsure how to take them.

“Relax. I just mean that I’ve never risked getting close to a woman because I didn’t think I deserved to be happy,” he said, his hand skimming down her arm. “But with you, I think maybe my karma is starting to turn for the better.”

Laughing nervously, she said, “I don’t think anyone has ever considered me a karmic gift before.”

“Just think of what you’d be called if you could actually cook,” he said, kissing her before she could respond.

But it was a futile effort. The minute he broke the kiss, she muttered, “You’re gonna pay for that.”

As he pulled her down, he said, “Bring it on.”

T
HE NEXT MORNING
, Gabe was up early and at the firehouse, fighting a brick wall.

Despite Caroline’s help moving the tables around, he’d gotten in the rest of his equipment and now needed to set that up before he officially opened for business. Not to mention all the cleaning he had to do. The place had been sitting so long, there were bionic cobwebs in every window and dust bunnies the size of wolverines. He hadn’t realized exactly how big the place was until he’d started getting rid of the junk that had been left behind. Plus, there were several posters of bikes he’d designed that weren’t going to hang themselves, and he’d had a feeling brick walls were gonna be a bitch to mess with.

He’d been right.

Why had he left the comfort of Caroline’s arms for this?

“Gabe?” Chase’s voice called from the front of the firehouse.

“Yeah, hold on,” Gabe said, gritting his teeth as he tried to get the stick-and-hang hooks to work on the brick. “Damn it.”

“Um, hey, man, I brought some help.”

Gabe looked up and saw Chase standing in the doorway with a group of guys behind him. Justin Silverton, Travis Bowers, Eric Henderson, Mike Stevens, and a couple others Gabe had seen but didn’t know stood holding on to a couple of ice chests, grinning.

Gabe climbed down awkwardly and said, “Hey, thanks for coming guys, but—”

“You’re feeling so overwhelmed with gratitude, you don’t know what to say?” Eric asked.

“No, I was just going to say that you don’t have to help me out with this,” Gabe said.

“We know that, but Chase said you were giving a discount to anyone who helped you set up shop,” Mike said, grinning.

Gabe glared at Chase, who shook his head. “He came up with that on his own.
I
said it was a party, and they had to bring their own beer.”

“Look, I left my baby-crazy wife to come help you out, but if you aren’t going to use me, then I got somewhere to be,” Travis said.

“Dude, you’re oversharing again,” Mike said, grimacing.

“I don’t mind hearing more about Bowers’s wife. She’s hot—”

“Finish that sentence, and I’ll use this saw on you,” Travis said to one of the younger guys, nodding toward the steel blade in the corner.

Gabe looked around at the group of guys he hardly knew and was at a loss.

Chase came up alongside him and patted his shoulder. “Just give us something to do, Gabe. We’re here for you.”

As Gabe started handing out assignments, he was surprised by how fast the time flew. It had been a while since he’d worked with a bunch of guys, but that had been in a mechanics shop, where he was just another grunt. Here, he was the boss, and the rush of pride he felt when they finished the setup was overwhelming.

“Thank you, guys,” Gabe said, holding out his hand to each of them. “You fucking rock.”

“Nice,” Mike said, rubbing his hands together. “Now about my discount . . .”

What the hell, right? They had sweated their asses off for him.

“Discounts all around, gentleman,” Gabe said, grabbing an order pad and tossing Chase his sketch book. “Moriarty’s Custom Bikes is open for business.”

C
AROLINE WALKED INTO
Hank’s Bar and shook her head at the waste. If Hank had been serious about increasing business and actually running a business, she wouldn’t feel like she was about to step on someone else’s dream. But she couldn’t put in her time and effort when the owner was just going to run the place into the ground anyway.

Waiting, as the bartender ran to grab Hank, Caroline studied a few of the pictures behind the bar. In one, a young woman leaned back against the counter, laughing. Caroline wondered if maybe she was Hank’s daughter.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Caroline,” Hank said, coming from the back. He held his hand out to her, and she took it, catching the scent of whiskey as they shook.

Ole Hank likes to hit the sauce early.

“Hey, Hank. I would love to help you out, but I got to be honest, I just don’t think I can,” she said.

“What? Did Henderson offer you money not to take me on as a client?” Hank asked.

“No, sir, this is my decision, based on my own observations,” she said, waiting for the explosion.

“What in the Sam Hill do you mean,
your
observations?”

Preparing herself to deal with the stages of denial, she said bluntly, “Hank, I’m not going put in the time and effort it would take to improve this place if you’re just going to let your employees waste your booze.”

“Waste my . . . What do you mean?”

“You need upgrades, Hank. Upgrades that will control your bartenders’ habits to overpour,” she said, picking up one of his bottles. “But even that won’t help you if you don’t stop drinking in your own bar.”

“I don’t—”

“Please do not insult me by lying. I can smell it on you now.”

Hank blustered for a moment before explaining. “I like to have a wee nip in the morning. It wakes me up.”

“Yeah, and I bet you have nips here and there throughout the day until you’re three sheets to the wind by close,” she said, shaking her head. “Look, I just came by to tell you that I appreciated the offer. You have a great bar with lots of potential, but it’s just not for me.”

“But if I don’t start turning a profit, I’m going to lose everything.”

Caroline paused at the door and gave him one last piece of free advice.

“I suggest you hire a manager. Someone tough and business-savvy who will control the employees—and you. Good luck, Hank.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

“It’s true that absence can make the heart grow fonder . . . but why tempt fate?”

—Miss Know It All

W
EDNESDAY WAS A
bad day for Caroline, and by the time she walked through the apartment door, she was ready to crack a few skulls.

It had started out awesome.

Gabe had brought her French toast covered with powdered sugar in bed, and although Gabe used most of the sugar as an excuse to lick her all over, it had been delicious. But then, after Gabe left, she’d jumped into the shower only to find he’d used all the hot water. By the time she was done, her teeth were chattering too hard for her to curse.

From there, the downhill slope of badness had been almost comical.

A dead battery and the hour-long wait for AAA had made her late for a business consultation in Twin Falls. The bar owner had been understanding until they’d started talking about her commission. Then he’d thanked her for the advice and shown her the door.

She’d made it back to the apartment only to find Googlie lying listlessly on the kitchen floor. Frantically, Caroline had run down to the veterinary hospital. As Zoe had examined him, she kept making these clucking and hmmm-ing noises that had grated on Caroline until she couldn’t keep quiet any longer.

“What does that mean? Is he going to be okay?” Caroline had asked, rubbing his little ears nervously.

“Well, if it’s okay with you, I’d like to keep him for a few days. I’ll run some tests and give him some fluids, since he seems a little dehydrated,” Zoe said. Almost as an afterthought, she reached out to hold Caroline’s hand. “We’ll take good care of him.”

Caroline couldn’t help but notice that Zoe hadn’t told her he would be fine. Guess she didn’t want to give her false hope.

And so, by the time she got home, she was emotionally drained and just wanted to crawl into a dark cave and never come out. She was crying into a box of Lucky Charms when someone knocked on the door.

Getting up from the couch, she pulled the door open, and her jaw dropped.

Her father scowled at her. “Are you going to invite me in or not? I am still recovering from a heart attack, you know, and these stairs were hell.”

Jumping forward, she took his arm and helped him inside. He was breathing hard, and once she had him settled, she asked, “Do you want something to drink?”

“Just water, please,” he said, leaning his cane against his leg.

Caroline stood up to get him a glass, and when she came back, some of his color had returned.

“Thank you,” he said, taking the glass from her.

After several quiet minutes, she finally prodded him. “I’m surprised to see you, Dad.”

“I wanted to speak with you about what you told me, but I needed time to process everything,” he said, setting his water glass aside.

Again, he was silent, and she shifted in her chair. “And gather information?” she suggested. At his surprised look, she said, “Ellie told Val, and Val told me you were investigating Kyle.”

“I’m going to have to talk to Ellie,” he said, clearing his throat before continuing, “I needed to have more information on Kyle’s . . . extracurricular activities before I could decide where to go from here. I just needed you to know that I would never allow anyone to hurt my daughters this way, no matter who his father was.”

Caroline raised her eyebrow. “But it’s okay for you to write your daughters off and pretend that they don’t exist?”

His lips thinned with displeasure. “I haven’t always been a pinnacle of patience.”

“Ha, that’s an understatement,” Caroline said, recovering from her initial shock. When she’d run out of his house after she told him about Kyle, and he hadn’t contacted her, she figured he’d taken Kyle’s side after all, that he’d found something in Kyle’s background that made him believe Kyle was innocent.

Her father gave her a long-suffering look. “After your mother died, I didn’t know what to do with any of you, but at least you seemed to realize the importance of a good education. If I’d known what that—” He cut himself off, and Caroline wondered if he’d been about to call Kyle a nasty name.

Edward Willis almost cursing
and
admitting he was wrong in one day?

“If I’d known what Kyle had done, I would have pressed charges,” he said, adding, “No matter who his father is, he had no right to hurt and humiliate you.”

Caroline couldn’t seem to stop blinking in surprise. She was on the verge of asking if he was on painkillers. It was one thing for Edward Willis to be a blustering hard-ass but for him to be almost . . . well, comforting? Talk about a personality adjustment; the man had had a damn transplant!

“Dad, I don’t want to be rude, but . . . are you high?”

Her father’s face snapped into a scowl. “Excuse me?”

“Okay, you have never,
ever
in your life admitted that you might have been rash or made a mistake,” Caroline said, laughing a little. This was a scenario she never thought would come about, but the fact that her father was actually acting like a father as well . . . weird. “And I’m sorry, but the complete one-eighty of the personality is kind of freaking me out.”

“I pushed you girls, I know, but I wanted you to be the best. To do the best thing for—”

“For the Willis name,” Caroline finished for him. “We know. We’ve had the Willis name and everything it means beaten into our heads since we were born, but honestly, do you think it helped any of us? I mean, I left home before I graduated; Val married the man you wanted her to, yet she was miserable; and Ellie is so screwed up, I don’t know what to do about her. So explain to me how having a distinguished name and money has turned any of us into a sane, functioning adults?”

“You seemed to have turned out just fine,” he said.

White-hot anger shot through Caroline. “Oh no. You can take credit for my stubbornness and my will to succeed, but what I did after I left your house . . . that’s on me and a few friends I made along the way. Everything I have, I worked my ass off for, and yeah, at times I did some things I wasn’t proud of, but the Willis name had nothing to do with my success.”

“Fair enough,” her father said, far too reasonably, further confusing Caroline.

“Is this some kind of near-death experience thing?”

“Really, Caroline, I am trying to control my temper, but your obnoxious attempts to bait me are grating,” her father snapped.