Only With Me (With Me 2)

“Do you think she would take a DNA test?”

My smile dropped. “What for?”

With a shrug, she stated, “She might have a bit of Greek in her.”

I rolled my eyes and got out of my truck. This wasn’t going to be easy.

Gabi’s front door was cracked open when I walked up to it. Pushing it open, I called out, “Gabi? Charity?”

I heard a voice coming from the balcony outside.

As I got closer, I realized it was Gabi’s voice.

“I understand how this works. I’ve been doing it for six years now. No, I don’t think so.”

Her voice was different. Cold, on edge. Whoever she was talking to, they made her feel on guard.

“I’m just as tired of this as you are. Believe me.”

Not wanting to eavesdrop, I cleared my throat and Gabi jumped then spun around. Her somber face was quickly replaced with a huge smile. Her eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning.

“That’s fine. I need to let you go.”

She hit End and pushed her phone into her back pocket.

“Hey,” she said softly.

I walked up to her and pulled her into my arms. “I missed you.”

“You’ve only been gone for an hour.”

“That’s too long.”

With a giggle, she buried her face into my chest. I could feel the stress releasing from her body as I held her to me.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

Pulling her head back, her eyes searched my face. I swore it looked like she wanted to tell me something, but she smiled and replied, “It is now that you’re here.”

“You seemed a little tense when I walked up. I wasn’t listening to your conversation, but I could tell you were on edge.”

“It’s nothing. Business stuff.” She tried to give me a reassuring smile, but I wasn’t fully buying it. “So, does your mom hate me?”

I laughed. “Actually, she invited us to dinner again since we had to cancel.”

Gabi’s face fell. “On no! I never told Kilyn dinner was not happening tonight.”

Cupping her face in my hands, I grinned. “I called Thano when everything happened at the bakery. I forgot to tell you Kilyn said to call her. I’m sure she’ll want a play-by-play of how that all went.”

Gabi laughed nervously. “That was crazy. I’m curious to see who this person is who ordered all those cakes.”

The sound of the front door shutting had us both turning to look back into the living room. Charity walked by and Gabi immediately headed in.

“Where were you, Charity?” Gabi called out, anger lacing her voice.

Charity stopped walking. “What?”

I couldn’t help but notice she looked a little confused. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes seemed like she was lost in another world.

“You left to run an errand and never came back! We had an emergency at the bakery and Max had to call me.”

Narrowing her eyes, Charity replied, “Max always has a damn emergency.”

“Well, I just spent the last few hours baking thirty lemon mascarpone cakes with Nic’s mom! Not how I really wanted to get to know the woman.”

Charity glanced over to me and pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh.

“So?” Gabi asked, her hands now resting on her hips. She looked so damn cute standing there all pissed off. I wanted to drag her off to her bedroom and sink deep inside of her.

“Sooo? What?”

“Charity! Where were you?”

“I am um . . . I ran an errand and then got caught by someone I know and we got to talking and I totally lost track of the time.”

“Was your phone off? We called you.”

She looked between Gabi and me before focusing back in on Gabi. “I lost my phone. I must have left it somewhere.”

Something was off. Charity was nervous as hell. She could hardly look at either one of us.

“I’ve got a massive headache, if you don’t mind, I need to go lay down.”

Gabi and I both watched as she walked into her room and slowly shut the door.

“Is she okay? Something didn’t seem right,” I asked.

Gabi stared at the door. “I’m not sure. I hope she is okay. She’s never lost her phone before. It’s like her safety beacon. I think she needs it to breathe.”

I laughed and pulled her over to me. “So, we have the evening to ourselves. What do you want to do?”

She pulled her lip in between her teeth. “Would you be upset if I said I wanted to stay in? I’m exhausted.”

Lifting my hand, I brushed her blonde hair behind her ear. “As long as I’m with you I don’t care where we are.”

When she smiled my knees felt weak. “How about I pour you a glass of wine and you sit on the sofa. I’ll massage your feet.”

Her eyes lit up. “Oh, my gosh, that sounds like heaven.”

Slapping her on the ass, I motioned for her to sit down while I headed into her kitchen. I had remembered where her wine glasses were from our first date when she made me dinner.