Second Nature (His Chance 2)

He started laughing too, and then he said, “Okay, so what other ideas do you have?”

“That’s it for now, but I’m sure we’ll come up with something. There are all kinds of possibilities and it’s super flexible, look.”

I took it from him and twisted it, bent it, then twisted it again, and Gabriel laughed and said, “You just spelled out S.O.S.”

“So, it’ll be useful if we’re ever lost at sea.” I straightened it out, then grasped it at one end and waved it around as I said, “Or we could get a second one and have sword fights. That’s good, too.”

I tossed it aside, and he smiled at me and said, “I’m glad you went on that little shopping spree. It was a great surprise.”

We shifted around and pulled the blanket over both of us, and he curled up in my arms. After a while, he murmured, “Have I told you how much I love you?”

“Yes, but I don’t mind if you repeat yourself.”

He grinned and tucked his head under my chin as he said, “I love you more than anything, Riley, and I’m so glad I’m yours.” That was, without a doubt, the best thing I’d ever heard.

We were all tangled up together when we woke up the next morning. It was warm and cozy and I would have loved to stay in bed all day, but we actually had a rental truck waiting and a long, busy day of traveling and packing ahead of us.

After we took turns in the shower, we both got dressed in jeans and T-shirts, except that Gabriel’s were black and form-fitting and looked sexier than mine. He tied his hair back in a ponytail and put on his canvas flats, and after he picked up his phone, its charger, and a jacket he said, “It feels weird to be traveling this light.”

“It does, but we’ll have everything we need in L.A., and we’re just spending one night before coming right back here.”

We went into the kitchen to make some coffee. I still wasn’t brave enough to attempt the giant commercial machine, even though Sawyer had shown me how to use it more than once. Instead, I turned to the same automatic coffee maker we’d been using since we arrived (one of five different methods for making coffee that Sawyer kept in his kitchen). While I filled the carafe with water, I asked, “What do you suppose that is?”

There was a small white box on the counter, which was tied with a red ribbon and sitting on top of a business-sized envelope. Gabriel shrugged and said, “I assumed it was from Alastair to Sawyer, or vice versa.”

“Didn’t Sawyer’s note last night say something about a gift for us in the kitchen?”

“Oh yeah. I’d assumed it meant they’d left some baked goods for us.” Gabriel picked up the box, then showed me the envelope, which was addressed to both of us. He pulled out a note and read it as I finished getting the coffee brewing, and then he muttered, “Well, I’ll be damned.”

“What is it?”

“So, you know Sawyer was looking for a small warehouse we could use for our lingerie company, both for storing our inventory and doing the packing and shipping. Well, he found a building and went ahead and bought it yesterday. He said several people were interested in it, so he had to act fast.”

“Are you okay with him making that decision without you?”

“Oh, totally,” he said. “We’d talked about this ahead of time, and I asked him to handle it. Real estate is his area of expertise. Plus, it’s his money, so I didn’t want to tell him how to spend it. Although in the note, he says if I hate it, he can just turn around and flip it.”

He untied the red ribbon and lifted the lid on the small box, then dumped the contents into his hand as he said, “There’s a reason your name was on the envelope too, Riley.” I glanced at the set of keys in his hand, then met his gaze as he said, “There’s an apartment on the second floor of the warehouse, and Sawyer thinks it’d be perfect for us.”

“You’re kidding.”

“He made a point of saying we’re under no obligation to say yes, and we’re also welcome to keep living here in this apartment as long as we want to.” Gabriel grinned and added, “I think he’s worried it’ll come across as a scheme to kick us out of their home.”

“Can I see the note?” He handed it over, and I read half of it before saying, “He’s offering it to us rent-free. Why wouldn’t he charge us?”

“Keep reading. He says he has no interest in being our landlord, and he really doesn’t need the money. He also says it wouldn’t make sense to rent it to anyone else, since we wouldn’t want a stranger to have access to our offices and the warehouse.”