A Reunion And A Ring (Proposals & Promises 1)

“You’re on call during your off-hours?”

Tess chuckled drily. “I’m pretty much on call 24/7. It’s the downside of having made myself indispensable.”

Gavin lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe you should consider looking for another job?”

“I would, but...well, I love the one I have,” Tess confessed almost sheepishly.

Jenny smiled. “Not to mention that she pretty much runs the company. Her title might be office manager, but the whole place would go under without her. As Scott is the first to admit.”

Flushing a little, Tess shook her head. “That’s hardly true. Scott is a brilliant man. He just needs a little organizational assistance.”

She hurried away a few moments later to handle whatever crisis had occurred at ten o’clock on a Saturday night.

“How much later are you expected to stay at this thing?” Gavin asked Jenny.

Looking toward the gregarious Stevie again, Jenny made an on-the-spot decision. “I’m ready to leave whenever you are.”

At least she didn’t live far, so the drive wouldn’t take long. And she could have her little talk with him in the privacy of her apartment.

Stevie made no argument when they took their departure of her. In fact, she looked just a bit too pleased that Gavin had offered to drive Jenny home.

Jenny was definitely going to have to talk to Stevie tomorrow. She knew her friend wasn’t Thad’s biggest fan, but surely she wasn’t trying to deliberately sabotage the relationship by throwing Gavin in Jenny’s path. Why on earth would she think an ex-boyfriend from a spectacularly failed relationship would be a better match?

She and Gavin made their way through the crowded bar area near the exit door, then stepped out into the darkened parking lot. They could still hear the muted strains of Eleven Twenty-Five playing behind them. In front of them a steady stream of traffic traversed the road that ran past the restaurant, parallel to the river. Pebbles on asphalt crunched beneath their feet as they walked to Gavin’s truck. He didn’t speak, and she could think of absolutely nothing to say, either.

He opened the door for her, then held out a hand to give her a boost into the tall cab. She settled into the seat, arranged her dress around her legs and fastened her seat belt. Gavin climbed behind the wheel, slanted a smile at her that made her nerves flutter again, then started the engine. Country music blasted from the speakers before he quickly turned it off. Fortunately, it had been a new song and not one that carried any old baggage with it.

She gave him the name of her apartment complex and he nodded to indicate that he was familiar with it. He didn’t seem to be interested in conversing as he drove, so she settled back into the taut silence and mentally rehearsed a breezy, casual speech about how nice it had been to see him again, how she was glad they’d had a chance to put the hard feelings behind them, how she would always remember him fondly even as she went on with the hard-won life she’d been leading before they’d reconnected.

“You’ll turn right at the next light,” she said, mostly to ease the mounting tension.

“I know.” His tone wasn’t curt exactly, but there was an edge to it that made her aware she wasn’t the only one dealing with discomfort during this drive. She thought wistfully of how effortlessly he’d teased with Stevie and how comfortable he’d seemed with Tess, but there was entirely too much history between her and Gavin to allow them that easy interaction.

With a couple of cars stopped ahead of him, he braked for the red light, his fingers drumming restlessly on the steering wheel. She found herself mesmerized by the movement. The light must have changed and he eased forward. Because she was studying his strong hands instead of looking out the windshield, she didn’t see what happened next, but Gavin suddenly braked and pulled into the parking lot of the gas station on the corner. The station was closed for the night, but one other car was parked in the lot. She noticed someone standing outside the other vehicle—a woman, she thought, but it was hard to tell in the shadows under the yellow security lights.

She frowned toward Gavin. “Is something wrong?”

“Sit tight. I’ll be right back,” he promised, and slipped quickly out of the truck.

She watched as he approached the other car, his hands out in a nonthreatening position at his sides. Squinting, she saw that the woman was bent over, one hand on the top of her car and the other hand on her stomach. Either she was quite overweight, or...

Or pregnant, she realized suddenly. Despite Gavin’s instructions, she reached for her door handle and jumped out of the truck to see if there was anything she could do to help.

The woman was probably close to her own age, though it was hard to tell in the pale lighting. She leaned heavily against her car, crying, gagging and moaning while Gavin talked soothingly to her. To make things worse, Jenny could hear wails from the backseat of the car, at least two separate little voices. “What’s going on?”

Gavin had the woman by the elbows now, supporting her as he summed up succinctly, “She was stopped at the light ahead of us and had some sudden sharp pains and felt dizzy. She was able to pull in here and stop the car but now she’s in severe pain and nauseated. I told her I’m an off-duty cop and I’ll get her help. I’ve already called for an ambulance.”

He’d done all that in the brief minutes it had taken her to even see that someone was in trouble, Jenny realized. Still speaking in the same calming tone, he supported the woman while she was sick again beside the car, and he was apparently unfazed by the unpleasant situation.

Another shriek came from the car.

“My babies,” the woman gasped, taking a staggering step that way.

“My friend is going to check on the kids right after she grabs a blanket from behind the seat of my truck,” Gavin assured her with a glance at Jenny. “I need you to lie down until the ambulance gets here. Your kids are safe for now. They’re just frightened and upset.”

Jenny whirled toward the truck, located a plaid stadium blanket folded neatly behind the seat where Gavin had said it would be and whipped it out onto a relatively clean patch of pavement. She’d spotted a first-aid kit, too, but couldn’t imagine anything they’d need from that at the moment. Gavin was certainly prepared for anything, it seemed.

She helped him carefully lower the crying woman onto the blanket and then she opened the back driver’s side door of the woman’s car. Two children were strapped into car seats, the older a boy of maybe four, the younger no more than eighteen months, if that. Both were fighting their restr