I felt a subtle drop in the water temperature and knew we wouldn’t have long to wash before it dropped to frigid cold. That thought led me to Gabe’s early morning adventure. “Where’d you get called out to this morning?” I handed him his shower gel then reached for my own.
“You won’t believe it,” was his answer. He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it either. He lathered up his hands and began washing his body. I loved the differences between our builds and coloring. Where I was slender, fair, and blond, Gabe was muscular, tanned, and dark. The sight was almost enough to make me lose my focus, but another subtle drop in temperature prompted me to get to washing.
“Try me,” I replied drolly. I split my attention between washing and listening to Gabe tell me about Nate Turner’s demise.
“I don’t know what the fuck he was doing out here, but I guaran-fucking-tee it wasn’t for good reasons.”
“I don’t believe it,” I said in shock.
“I told you.” Gabe’s gloating remark and smirky smile earned a wet smack on his ass. “What was more shocking was the way the sheriff tested me for GSR and had my car checked over like I was the one who ran him off the road and killed him.”
“GSR?” I asked.
“Gunshot residue.” Gabe explained to me what happened when a person shoots a gun. “So the swabs came back negative and my car was cleared of any foul play.” Gabe shook his head then his dark brown eyes widened. “I forgot to tell you the worst part.”
I couldn’t imagine what could be worse than getting called out of your warm bed to identify a douche bag club owner’s brain-splattered corpse only to be treated like a suspect when all you did was tell the truth. But I was all ears. “What was the worst part?”
“Ugh, this awful homophobic deputy was on the scene and later at the station. I’m telling you, babe,” Gabe said after releasing a frustrated breath, “Billy Sampson and I will go a round or two before long.”
I could tell by the scowl on his face that he saw the way I stiffened when I heard Billy’s name. Okay, meeting him was way worse than the cold, gruesome body, and the interrogation that followed. I hated the way my heart raced and my stomach churned from just hearing his name.
“I wasn’t aware that he moved back.” The words were barely a whisper when they crossed my lips. How had his return flown under my radar? My brain instantly returned to times so dark that I thought my life wasn’t worth living, that no one would ever love me because I wasn’t worthy.Don’t go there, Josh. You’re much stronger now.As if fate wanted to shock me back to the present, the water coming from the showerhead turned ice cold.
“Fuck!” Gabe reached around me and turned off the water. He reached outside the shower curtain and grabbed our towels off the hooks. He handed my towel to me before he began toweling his hair.
I stood their awestruck and watched the play of muscles in his chest and arms. I marveled for the hundredth time that Gabe wanted me the way I was. He thought I was worthy and I clung to those feelings instead of the sorrow that tried to move in and ruin my day at the mention of a demon from my misguided past. He looked up from what he was doing and caught me staring at him. The cocky grin he wore told me he mistook my interest as purely sexual. It often was sexual, but not right then.
“I really like you,” I told him. “I just thought you should know.” I looked away and began toweling myself off before I was blinded by his white smile. “You should’ve been in a toothpaste commercial,” I groused.
“Aw, you say the sweetest things.” He reached for me as I started to climb over the edge of the bathtub, but I eluded his grip. I’d be late for work if I gave in to the urge to play around with him.
Once we were dressed and in the kitchen, Gabe pulled me to him and asked, “Do you have time for breakfast?”
I did, but I was honestly still reeling from the bomb that Gabe inadvertently dropped on me in the shower. I needed to regroup and get myself together before my first client arrived. Besides, I wanted the opportunity to talk to my best friends about the latest development before the rest of the staff showed up for work.
“Raincheck?” I asked him.
“Anytime,” was his swift reply.
The goodbye kiss he gave me at his back door was anything but swift and it was exactly what I needed to warm my heart during the walk home because two blocks felt like two miles in January. Gabe would’ve given me a ride home, but I found the brisk air to be exhilarating on most mornings. That morning all it did was wrap its icy fingers around my already stressed heart and squeeze.
Both Meredith and Chaz were running a little behind that morning so I didn’t have a chance to speak to them about Billy’s return to Carter County. I knew without a doubt that neither of them knew or they would’ve told me. I had practically befriended Chaz at birth and my beautiful queen came along in ninth grade. I knew without a doubt that I could count on them for anything, even if it meant they had to deliver unsettling news.
Not only were Chaz and Meredith late, my client was early, so there wasn’t time to chat. I had to push aside all my conflicting thoughts and feelings so I could focus on making Mrs. Applegate feel like a million bucks. I closed my eyes briefly, found my center, and went on about my day as if nothing and no one could hurt me.
“CAPTAIN, CANIHAVEa minute?”
Captain Shawn Reardon looked up from his desk and assessed me with keen eyes. I wasn’t sure of his age, but I placed him in his late forties to early fifties. He struck me as one of the guys who went gray early but kept their youthful faces. His light blue eyes were a lot like lasers when they were locked on a person, as they were on me right then. I had worked for the man for three years and it was the first time I requested to speak to him privately instead of the other way around.
“Come on in, Gabe.” Captain folded his hands on top of his large desk. “What’s on your mind?” he asked briskly. Many people probably found his demeanor to be abrupt, but to me, he was a man whose every word and action had a purpose.
“I got a call in the middle of the night from Sheriff Tucker regarding a homicide on one of his county highways. The victim didn’t have any ID on them, but he did have my business card in his wallet.” The captain sat up straighter, if that was even possible, and listened as I told him everything that happened during my visit to Nate’s office a few months prior and the early morning activities.
“Let me see if I understand you correctly. Sheriff Tucker called you out to ID a body and once you did, he treated you like a suspect. Did I hear you right?” Captain asked.
“Well, I wouldn’t say…”
“Professional courtesy dictates that he should’ve at least called me, your superior, and informed me of what was going on. Did he ask you if you wanted a union rep present?” Captain’s eyes turned an icy shade of blue and a vein popped out on his forehead as he became angrier with every word he spoke.
