Just as Stubborn Read online

  We drove into a village where Gabe announced, “I gotta gas up. You still want lunch?”

  “I want to know how we’re going to camp in a storm. I don’t even want to get out of the truck to get food.”

  “You can put your big girl boots on, and we’ll rough it together. Get a move on and round up some provisions. Don’t forget the candy. You know what I like.” He jerked the bill of his dirty HalRem hat—the one he wore to irritate his father—toward the grocery store. “Here.”

  I took the roll of bills he offered and slid off the seat.

  “Don’t blow away. Don’t blow my whole wad either,” he drawled.

  After loading up a shopping basket, it became too heavy to carry so I dropped it into a shopping cart. I went crazy picking out dried fruits and granola bars. On the way to the registers, I grabbed a couple of handfuls of beef jerky and Skittles. At the checkout, I placed a few candy bars and a jumbo pack of peanut butter cups on the conveyor belt. Most people in line were buying bottled water and batteries. I was buying the concession stand at the movie theater.

  The woman cashing me out kept looking over her shoulder at the parking lot. All I could see were poster-size advertisements claiming the supermarket bakery sold the biggest donuts in all of Texas. They also claimed to sell the biggest hamburger roll and the biggest chocolate chip cookie in the entire state. Gabe always said everything was bigger in Texas.

  “Nineteen dollars, ninety-two cents,” she said with an almost identical accent to Gabe’s. Her eyes turned back again and locked on three pairs of legs sticking out behind the ad in the window. One pair of skinny legs kicked a pair of jeans in the knee and ran into the store.

  I nearly got whiplash as a girl with reddish hair bolted down the produce aisle and disappeared. A guy wearing a ten-gallon hat plodded in after her.

  “Shouldn’t you call security?” I asked.

  The cashier shrugged. “Cody’s on his smoke break. He’s trigger happy, so I don’t call on him unless I’m the one getting harassed.”

  I hung my bags on my wrist and considered if it was safe to wander across the lot to find Gabe at the gas station. The girl didn’t look old enough to have a boyfriend. I wondered if she was fighting with her sibling.

  Gabe tugged on my ponytail and slipped a hand through the bags on my arm. I turned around as he nosed through my purchases.

  “You got enough sugar in there?”

  “There’s enough red and blue dye to turn your insides purple.”

  “This isn’t gonna cut it, Av’ry. You seriously think two grocery bags of candy will last me?”

  When I joined Gabe in the candy aisle, he slung his arm over my shoulder. His mood of the minute was outstanding. I wanted to bottle it up, push him against the marshmallows and kiss him.

  “Oops. I’ll be back. I forgot drinks,” I said.

  The refrigerated section stocked more varieties of Dr. Pepper than I had ever seen before. I thought for a second Gabe snuck up on me. I sensed someone staring, but when I turned around, nobody was there. I grabbed a six-pack for Gabe and an iced tea for me. I lugged the drinks to the main aisle and spotted him digging through the candy bins on the end of a checkout line, acting as though he was mining for gold.

  “Do you know him?” The female voice startled me from behind, enough that I dropped the iced tea, and it rolled under a shelf. She had a hint of a southern accent.

  I glanced up as I snatched the bottle before it got out of reach. “Who?”

  The girl ran a hand over her braid and clearly motioned at Gabe before answering me. Her appearance struck me funny. She wore sunglasses on the darkest day of the year.

  “Is he your boyfriend?” she asked.

  I shifted my weight and set the six-pack on my hip. As her lips parted to speak again, I spotted a cowboy hat and long blond hair corner the end cap and then barrel down the aisle toward the girl. She took off like lightning, squeaking her soles on the floor as another guy came around the line of registers by Gabe and tried to block the exit.

  “Gimme my wallet, you damn gypsy thief!”

  The loudspeaker cracked and one of the cashiers spoke in a monotone drawl, “Cody, please report to the lobby. Attention…Cody.”

  Gabe looked up from his treasure hunt with a fist full of candy wrappers and glared at me to get going.

  “This sky is freaking me out,” I said outside of the store as we climbed into the truck. The temperature was a touch cooler and I shivered, running my hands up and down my arms, until the heater came on. The back window was pushed wide open. I glided into the middle, and Gabe fashioned his arm around my shoulder and played with strands of my hair that had fallen out of my ponytail. There was no sign of trouble outside. There was no sign of Cody.

  “It’s really nothing. Looks like a blue norther. Don’t you get storms out east?” His fingers tickled my neck.

  “They’re usually white, not black. We don’t get tossed in the air like Frisbees.” I jerked my hand at the windshield and said, “That is not nothing.”

  “Welcome to Texas. I can’t wait to show you more this time. She’s full of surprises.”

  I found myself babbling so I wouldn’t think about the storm or Meggie or Gabe’s speeding. The sky transitioned from black up ahead, to scary as hell black in every direction. It was midafternoon and Gabe had the fog lights on. I watched bits and pieces of acreage and vegetation become airborne every time the wind gusted. The truck jerked so much I was forced to relive my turbulent landing in Dickinson.

  “How much longer? We’ve been driving for hours. The weather is not improving. You realize a tent will blow away even with us in it. You were kidding about that, right? This road doesn’t even look safe. Where are we going? It’s pretty remote around here, don’t you think?”

  “Yep. Remote,” he answered.

  Gabe quieted after we turned off the highway. Even his shoulders tensed. I attempted to hold his hand, but he kept running it through his hair, patting the pocket on his shirt. When I tried to look in his pocket, he pushed my hand away.

  “Do you even have a flashlight? I can’t get any reception out here. If Meggie goes to the hospital, how will we know? Do you know what hospital? I’m going to have to go back at some point to see her. How much longer until we get where we’re going?”

  “Aw, just wait. Shhh.”

  I wasn’t sure how to take his tone. “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Okay, because I’m not camping with you if you stop talking to me. I’m not camping in a storm either. Really, Gabe. You’re my boyfriend and you have to talk to me. Not be off on some head trip without me. I’ll leave if that’s the case. I get that you have a lot on your mind and stuff going on with your family. I do too.”

  I gasped out loud when he slammed the brakes and honked the horn. My shoulders flew toward the dash, and I slapped my hands against it. Everything in the bed shot forward and hit the toolbox. A stack of paperbacks toppled and landed on my feet. The sting from my palms radiated into my arms, and my teeth clamped down on the side of my tongue. The truck stopped underneath an iron sign that arched over the road.

  Thank goodness for the seatbelt.

  “You don’t have to scream like that.” He rubbed at his ear.

  “What are you talking about? I didn’t scream. It came from outside. Why did you honk? Did you hit something?”

  “My hand slipped on the horn. Maybe I’m hearing things. I’m tuckered out,” Gabe said.

  He set his hands on his thighs and dropped his chin. I shot a gaze over the hood to see if there was a deer, and then I glanced up at the ornate sign above the hood. There were no words, only six iron stars in a row. When I returned my eyes to Gabe’s profile, his eyes were closing. His long dark lashes twitched.

  “I’m really trying here,” he said in a husky voice. “I want you to stay more than you know. Where you gonna run off to? There’s nothing but dead acres for miles. And you got a limp.”

  “
Fine,” I said softly. “You didn’t have to stop driving to remind me I can’t run away. What’s bothering you?”

  His head turned slowly and he looked as though he was trying to hide a smile.

  “I want to take you someplace, is all. I’m not checking out, okay?”

  “But you’re acting strange, and I’m worried about this sky and camping out. I’m hungry too. We never ate a real lunch. Can I get into the toolbox and get some more of our snacks before it pours?”

  He grunted, but it was a funny grunt, and he didn’t answer me.

  “You like it when I act strange and you know it,” he said. “Since when did you become high maintenance?”

  I looked up just as he placed his hat on my head so it covered my eyes. The hat smelled like his shampoo, just like his yellow T-shirt that I kept wrapped around my pillowcase. I couldn’t wait to lay my head beside his and watch him sleep.

  “Hold tight. Keep your eyes covered until we get there.”

  We drove down a dirt road, over rock hills, and stopped. I lifted the cap and peeked.

  Gabe climbed on top of an overhang. I couldn’t stop my eyes from roaming up multiple levels of cedar beams and over peaked walls of glass, across layers of logs, and down the flanking wings. The cabin in front of me was sleek and contemporary and hidden in the most unsuspecting plot of woods. It reminded me of Hunter Barrett’s log cabin where I nearly met my death.

  We weren’t camping. I was pleased.

  “You aren’t serious. Is this your cabin? Why don’t you have a key?” I shouted in the wind.

  Trees bent sideways in the storm as I climbed out of the truck to get a better look at our lodgings. My hands covered my hair to keep it from smacking my face, but it was no use.

  “There’s no key. He changes the locks. I always break in. I leave this window unlocked.”

  Gabe’s boot slipped on the overhang and he did a fast step to get back to where he was near the cabin wall. I almost lost my stomach watching him balance on the slick surface.

  “A place like this would have a security system,” I called up. “How do you know the cops won’t come if you trip some laser beam or booby trap?”

  “I know they won’t come ’cause I killed the system back home. None of the cameras will work. None of the connections are linked until I put it all back.”

  I was impressed. He had a plan.

  “Who knows you come here?” I hollered as the wind picked up.

  Gabe shuffled along the roof until he came to a window. “Nobody. Meggie said the alarms went off last week. They checked it out. Nobody ever asked me.”

  “That’s because you were five states away,” I shouted just as the loudest rumble of thunder struck. I jumped and hit my elbow on the side of the truck. Gabe waved me back into the cab, and I climbed in as soon as the rain started pouring down in drops the size of jellybeans. In a matter of seconds, he was drenched and hanging by one hand as he tried to dislodge a window.

  Another attack of thunder shook the truck. I watched Gabe disappear into a second-story room and reappear a few minutes later at the front door.

  “This is crazy!” I yelled at myself, hesitating to run through the deluge. Giddy about the idea of going inside with only Gabe. I didn’t think I could even run if I tried. “I don’t want to get wet!”

  Gabe stared at me, shaking his head, and then he lunged at the truck, pulled open the door, and grabbed my arm until I fell off the seat into his arms. He carried me through the rain, and when he was about to walk beneath the porch, he stopped.

  “Gabe!”

  Rain pelted his face so he could hardly open his eyes. I used my hands and his hat to try and shield my face, but the rest of me was soaked to the bone.

  “Quit hollerin’ down the rain. It never pours like this in Texas,” he laughed. Then in his uniquely funny drawl, he yelled, “I couldn’t hear you. You say you wanna get wet?”

  “Put me down,” I ordered. Instead, his chin knocked the hat off my head, and his wet lips quieted my mouth with a kiss that made me forget it was raining.

  I had no words when I finally stood dripping in the entrance. The log cabin was not as big as the mansion in Benjamin, and it was definitely not as classical. Its style was streamline and new. All of the furniture was covered in white sheets.

  “Power’s out. I’d have to go back outside and fire the generator, but we can make do. It’ll be like camping,” Gabe said as he shook his wet hair and droplets pelted me.

  “Is this for real? You had me going good. I thought we’d be sleeping in some mysterious cave with bats, waiting for rescue from the storm.”

  “You mean like the Scooby Doo gang stranded on an adventure? Naw, I wouldn’t need rescuing,” he boasted and kicked off his boots. “Did it even occur to you that roughing it in a sack with me all night could be fun?”

  The sides of my mouth lifted into my cheeks. There was no hiding my grin. The boy made me crazy standing there all wet and happy. Crazy in a way that made my skin prickle with excitement. I was alone in a cabin with Gabe.

  Finally.

  “Yeah, I guess,” I said as coolly as possible when he unbuttoned his outer shirt and shrugged out of the sleeves. Something fell out of the pocket and landed on his foot. He swiped it up before I could see it. I wanted to ask him what it was, but his T-shirt was stuck to his skin and distracted me.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “Near Paris.”

  “This is incredible. I always wanted to live in a cabin. Do you have any towels in Paris?”

  “Somewhere upstairs.”

  My eyes traveled up the staircase that centered the open floor plan. Lightning flashed outside the wall of windows. I had to think twice before I remembered I could climb stairs again. I’d grown used to avoiding them.

  Gabe booked up the stairs like a boy playing tag. I followed cautiously. Before I reached the top, he began tossing towels into the hall.

  “Maybe we should get some dry clothes. I’m freezing. Oh no. We left the food outside.”

  “You’re cold. You’re hungry. You really are high maintenance.” He chuckled. “In here. We always leave clothes behind,” he told me as we walked by a door that pushed into a bedroom. I snatched up a towel from the floor and entered in front of him.

  The door clicked shut behind me. My heart revved like Gabe’s truck at a stoplight. I knew he was playing with me when he turned the lock.

  I stood beside the four poster bed and didn’t turn around as the rain grew louder, the wind more violent. One of the windows was open. This was the room he broke into.

  Photo albums were piled on the floor in front of the bed. I glanced at an opened one. A dress shirt hung from a bureau door and a pile of pink clothing was stacked in a basket. I studied the basket from across the room and then a wild thought hit me.

  “Was Jordan here this summer?”

  He didn’t answer.

  After I left Williston, Gabe and his brothers called to apologize for being insensitive to her. Gabe and I had briefly talked about his ex-girlfriend and how he should have known better than to fault her for what Hunt had done. I thought Jordan was out of their lives after that, but according to Caleb he still talked to her.

  I spun around and settled on the edge of the bed, shivering in my wet clothes. Gabe walked over to the mirror and peeled off his T-shirt. I could see his face and chest in the reflection. His glistening muscles made it impossible to look away.

  “Take your clothes off,” he said with a twang as he caught me eyeing his form in the mirror.

  I sat quietly and contemplated his request. Sometimes I did anything he asked. Sometimes I put my foot in my mouth. “Did Jordan stay at this cabin, in here, after everything went down with Hunt? Did you come here with her?”

  “Why do you always gotta bring her up? She’s back with her family, and she’s got a new boyfriend.”

  He knew how to break into the room she’d slept in. How could I drop it? I unlaced my sneakers and t
ossed them at the door. My damp jeans irritated me.

  “Those don’t look like Caleb’s or Lane’s clothes, that’s why I asked.”

  Gabe stepped over to the basket and picked it up. He ran it under his nose. I almost fell over as I watched him crack a smile. He launched the pile at the bed. A pink bra hit me in the face.

  “I’m just messing with you. They could be hers. They could be Caleb’s. Who knows what he does with lacy panties behind closed doors.”

  “I’ll take that shirt.” I pointed to the hanger. “I don’t want to know whose it is.”

  Gabe yanked the dress shirt off the hanger. I stood up as he walked past and tossed it at me. As soon as he opened a drawer, I pulled my wet top over my head and tried not to get stuck in the sleeves. My shivering wasn’t helping. I couldn’t manage to pull on the shirt before he looked up from the drawer he was scavenging and caught me.

  “None of these will fit you,” he said, holding up a pair of running pants and a pair of flannel bottoms. His hazel eyes twinkled as they appraised me.

  I managed to undo the button on my jeans and step out of them without provoking a comment. I tried to button the oversize shirt while avoiding Gabe’s stare, thinking for sure he’d try to stop me.

  As predicted, his hand reached out when I got to the middle buttons. My breath stuck in my lungs. I tipped my head back just as he leaned in to whisper and slide his other hand behind my back, pulling me to his chest. This time I inhaled the scent of his skin. He smelled like rain and everything Gabe.

  “I’m worn out. I know you’re starved,” he drawled as I glared at his flexed arm and smelled his cinnamon breath. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we got later. You down with that?” He took a pink unmentionable off the bed, swung it around his finger, and raised his eyebrows suggestively. “Nobody’s here. You can just wear the shirt for me.”

  I nodded, sort of relieved, sort of disappointed. I was starving. Mostly for food. If he could wait, I could wait.

  I grew bashful exploring the cabin after I walked down the stairs with only a thin cover up and a photo album under my arm. I took a quick glance and thought I found a photo of Gabe and his brothers with his mom when they were little. I planned to inspect it further. I wanted to know what she looked like. I wished he would talk to me about his past, his mom, whatever his issue of the moment happened to be.