He wouldn’t have thought Rob was Jenny’s type. An EMT Gavin had met in the line of duty a few years ago, Rob was hardly in the same league with the guy his mother said Jenny had dated—and was possibly still seeing. But whatever.
Feeling increasingly grumpy and blaming it on the weather, his discomfort and his weariness, he shoved his hand into his pocket to retrieve the key to the utility shed. All in all, the best thing he could do now was to focus on the tasks at hand. He’d deal with his unexpected visitors—all of them—as best he could during the process.
* * *
It didn’t take Rob long to cut through the branch Gavin had pointed out. Jenny realized only then how much Gavin had been held back by his injured shoulder. Remembering the stitches that had marched across his taut skin, she bit her lip. He must be terribly uncomfortable, to say the least, though he would fall over face-first before he would admit it. Even as a young man, he’d hated acknowledging when he was sick or hurting. She’d once teased him of being afraid testosterone would leak out of his ears if he confessed to any weakness. She could still remember the way he’d grinned, kissed her and murmured, “You’re my only weakness, Jen.”
Breaking into the painful memory, Rob planted his foot on the tree trunk and snapped off a smaller branch with his hands. He tossed it in the ditch on top of the others. “Sounds like a pretty harrowing night. You’re lucky you made it here safely through the storm.”
“I was foolish to be out in it. I didn’t pay close enough attention to the weather reports.”
He eyed her over another fallen branch he’d just picked up. “Were you planning to do some fishing while you were here?”
She laughed softly at the image of herself handling a squirming fish. “No. It was just supposed to be a private work retreat.”
Didn’t other people feel the need occasionally to get away, to find a quiet place alone to think and plan and evaluate? True, it wasn’t something she had done before, but it had made sense to her when the idea had occurred to her. Gavin had had a similar plan; he’d holed up here to rest and heal in peaceful privacy. The weekend hadn’t worked out as either had expected obviously.
Casting a lingering look around at the sodden landscape, Rob said, “Couldn’t ask for a more peaceful place for a hideaway, normally. Gavin’s been really generous letting me come up here when I needed to get away and if the place wasn’t already rented out. I’ve spent quite a few pleasant hours sitting on that porch in the dark, drinking a cold beer and listening to the frogs and crickets.”
“That was my plan,” she said with a wistful smile. She hated beer, but she mentally substituted a cup of tea and was sorry she would miss the experience. “Of course, it wouldn’t have worked out even if it hadn’t been for the storm. Once I’d discovered Gavin was using his cabin and it had been leased to me by mistake, I’d have left immediately and found another place to stay for the weekend.”
“I doubt he minded sharing for one night,” Rob murmured just as Gavin parked his truck nearby and climbed out with a slam of his door.
Gavin reached into the back of the truck and started to lift a chain, but he dropped it almost immediately. The metal links clanked against the truck bed, not quite drowning out his muttered curse. Apparently he’d unthinkingly used his right arm and the heavy chain had hurt his shoulder. Instinctively, she moved toward him to help, but Rob cleared his throat softly, stopping her midstride. Without looking their way, Gavin switched arms, grabbed the chain with his left hand and hauled it out of the truck, dropping it at their feet. Hefting another branch, Rob acted as though he’d noticed nothing.
Hearing the roar of a motor, Jenny looked around to see a heavy-duty rig powering up the muddy hill. With an extra set of oversize wheels on the back, an extended cab and a row of floodlights across the top, the truck looked made for hauling, towing and chewing up rough terrain. It stopped just short of the downed tree, and two thirtysomething men climbed out. The driver was well over six feet tall, black, broad-shouldered and male-model handsome, the passenger shorter, ginger-haired and built like a linebacker. Gavin definitely hung out with the athletic crowd, but then he always
had. As a matter of fact, he’d been hanging out with the redhead for quite a long time, she realized.
Avery Harper glanced curiously in her direction as he and his companion approached. He stopped suddenly in his tracks. “Jenny? Jenny Baer?”
She pushed a wet strand of hair out of her face. “Hello, Avery. It’s nice to see you again.”
Green eyes wide with shock, Avery looked from her to Gavin and back again. “Wow. Are you two...? I mean... Wow.”
“Jenny didn’t know I was here when she drove up last night.” Gavin sounded weary, as if he had already grown tired of explaining. She could understand. How many more times were they going to have to recount, both together and separately, how they’d ended up spending a night together in his cabin? He finished giving the quick summary of last night’s events to his friends, introduced J. T. Dennett to Jenny, then barely gave them time to exchange hellos before launching into his plan for clearing the drive.
Feeling somewhat in the way, she moved back as the four men attached a chain to the fallen tree and then connected it to the tow hitch on J.T.’s truck. She noticed that Gavin’s friends did most of the heavy work, nudging him out of the way to keep him from overusing his injured arm. They weren’t particularly subtle about it, but were so casually jovial that he took no offense.
“Better stand back,” Avery advised, moving to Jenny’s side when J.T. climbed behind the wheel of the truck. “Just in case.”
Together they moved a few feet backward while Gavin and Rob stepped off to the other side to call out directions to J.T.
“So, you didn’t know Gav was here,” Avery commented a little too blandly.
“No,” she said firmly. “Not a clue. And he had no warning that I’d rented the place.”
“Huh. I have to admit, I was surprised to see you here, but his explanation made sense, even if it was a crazy coincidence.”
“Well, I’m glad you found it believable,” she said drily.
His nod had a slightly mocking edge. “More believable than if he’d announced the two of you had gotten back together,” he murmured.
Her relationship with Avery had been rather acerbic while she’d dated Gavin. He probably liked her even less since the breakup. But that was okay. She didn’t have to try to make Gavin’s friends like her anymore, though she was getting along well enough with Rob.
Still, it was only polite to try to make conversation. “So, Avery, are you still on the force with Gavin?”
Avery had actually entered the academy a year earlier than Gavin, and Jenny had blamed him for having so much influence over Gavin. At the end, Gavin had snapped at her that he knew his own mind, made his own choices and wasn’t just following his friend’s lead. He’d actually set law enforcement as a career goal even before Avery, he’d informed her defensively.