Off The Clock (First Responders 1)

A week went by, and then two, and Gabe never called. Carly started having a love-hate relationship with her telephone, her heart leaping each time it rang, and then hating it when it remained silent. He’d said he’d call her. The absence of those calls spoke volumes. And Carly wasn’t going to call him. She’d done all the chasing she was ever going to do.

She wanted to say that she agreed with him. That making love had been a mistake. But she couldn’t. She didn’t regret it, or how he’d made her feel. Wanted and beautiful. That was what she chose to take away from the night, not the crushing words after.

She was in the backyard deadheading the flower beds when he came around the corner of the house. He looked more delicious than ever in a pair of board shorts and flip flops and a T-shirt that fit his shoulders perfectly. A jolt of awareness shuddered through her as she brushed off her hands, slightly sticky from picking old petunia blooms.

And as he came towards her all she could think was, He came.

“Hello, stranger.” Oh, well done, she thought. Her voice had come out all steady and cool. And he did look slightly chagrined, she noted as his steps slowed.

“Hey,” he answered back, stopping at the edge of the flower bed.

“How’ve you been?”

His dark eyes widened and she thought he looked a little confused. What had he expected? That she would fall into his arms as easily as she had last time?

“Not so good,” he replied. He met her gaze. “Sorry I didn’t call.”

“I didn’t really expect you to. It’s okay.”

Which was a damned lie.

“You didn’t?”

She picked up the bucket with the wilted blooms. “You made it pretty clear you wanted to take a step back from everything.”

“Me?” He held out his hand and then dropped it again. He stepped around the corner of the bed so they were face to face. “You were the one running scared. I stayed away to give you space.”

“Running scared?” Her fingers started to tremble on the handle of the bucket. “I distinctly remember what you said during dinner, Gabe. You were the one who said we needed to cool off.”

“Only because I saw you when you got up. When Nathan cried. You couldn’t even look at me. And you were in a big hurry to get back into your clothes. You couldn’t get away fast enough.”

Carly’s lips dropped open. “Good God, for a man who I thought was smart, you can be really dense! I wasn’t trying to get away. I was trying to get to Nathan as fast as I could so he didn’t wake you up.”

The moment hummed through the air as Gabe absorbed what she was saying.

“Then you showed up at the door and suggested dinner like nothing had happened. You were all dressed. It wasn’t come back to bed, it was come have dinner. I thought maybe I should go. And then everything you said…”

“You thought I was running scared.”

She nodded.

“But you don’t want romance.”

It was true. She had said that. Except that he was the exception and didn’t know it. She was simply afraid of screwing it up. But she was more afraid of letting him walk away this time, she realized.

“So you thought I was into one-night stands?”

“Of course not!”

“I trusted you. Don’t you understand that? I’ve always trusted you.”

“I know,” he replied, taking the bucket from her hand and putting it on the ground. “Believe me, even waiting as long as I did was torture. I said I wasn’t going to push. Only I couldn’t help myself.” He sighed and stepped forward, lifting his hand to cup her cheek. “I see you and I want to take care of you. I know how hard it is and I want to make your day easier. I don’t know what it is…” his voice dropped to a husky whisper, “…but you make a man want to do things for you.”

Carly knew of a few women whose fantasy was to be taken care of, but she wasn’t one of them. She wanted so much more than that. She blinked a few times, trying to figure out exactly how she was feeling and what she wanted to say. When Gabe leaned in again, she turned her head away while everything seemed to turn cold.

“I don’t know why I have to keep telling you this, but I’ll say it one last time, Gabriel.”

She looked him square in the eye and said firmly, “I don’t want your help. I don’t need your help. And I don’t want you hanging around out of any misplaced sense of guilt or obligation or duty.”