Over the Line, page 11
“Oh, hell,” Gabriel groaned, scrubbing his hands over his face. “I’m never gonna live this down, am I?”
“Nope. You’re in love. Welcome to the Thunderdome, Gabe.”
“No. That’s not it.” When one has no defense, denial is what’s left.
“You’ve changed your whole modus operandi with this woman. You’re taking her to the Harbor House,” he started, ticking off the things he was saying on his fingers. “You’re doing yoga, for Christ’s sake. You spent all day Saturday hanging out with her kid, and every time you say her name you go all googly-eyed. Gabriel Miller, all-pro defensive end and serial sleazeball, in love.”
“Man, I’ve known her less than two weeks. I’m not in love—you’re just being an ass. Are we going to go to practice or not?” He hauled his gym bag onto his shoulder, leaving the yoga mat where it was on the floor.
The practice, as it turned out, was one of the best he’d been involved in all year. His knee was felt stronger and was giving him less resistance. It was a small difference, but it was there nonetheless. Using Quinn’s techniques and advice was keeping the rest of his body limber, too, not just his knee, and his level of focus was much improved compared with previous preseasons. He avoided running as much as he could, knowing he already did more than she would think prudent on the injury, but worked as hard as he could on it just the same.
Coach Swells still didn’t look pleased but admitted he was looking better. “Whatever you’re doing is working, keep it up,” the coach said and Gabriel couldn’t help but smile. “You’re already improving. Not much, but it’s there.”
The temperature soared, hitting a brutal ninety-six degrees. Mix that with Lake Michigan humidity into the eighty percent range and it was one hot son of a bitch on the field. No one ran the showers hot after a practice this sweltering and Gabriel was no exception. Jumping in a truck that had sat in this heat with the windows closed felt akin to cruel and unusual punishment and he was sweating again before he pulled out of the parking lot.
He hit every red light between the field and his house and by the time he pulled in the driveway, his clothes were plastered to every inch of his skin. In the living room, he flipped on the stereo and let the loud thumping of a hard rock station obliterate the thoughts from his head. There was just too much to think about and only a parboiled brain do it with.
The breeze through the living room windows felt incredible after the oppressive heat of the truck. Gabriel pulled the elastic out of his hair, letting it fall down over his shoulder blades in a wet, stringy mass. He stripped off his shirt and let the air cool his skin. His pants came off next, and he had to crow-hop across half the living room to strip off his socks. In just his boxer briefs, he held his arms out to his sides and closed his eyes as every hair on his body stood on end, gooseflesh erupting over his whole body. The sensation made him smile.
Gabriel turned on the spot at the sound of a sharp scream, his heart jumping at the sound. When he saw Quinn standing with her back to him, fingers in her ears, he had to laugh at the sight he must be. She probably thought he’d lost whatever marbles football had left him after all these years.
He fumbled around, trying to find the stereo remote. She was already starting to walk back toward the front door. “Shit!” he called as the remote slipped into the couch cushions, out of sight. “Wait, Quinn! Hang on!” He finally got the music turned off and dropped the remote back onto the couch.
“Do you want me to go?” she asked, now that the music was off the quiet in the house was obnoxious. “I didn’t realize you’d be here! I was just going to drop the key off and go. Cooper and I had a night from hell, but he went to school and I had a couple hours free, and I drove all the way out here—” she was rambling but in her embarrassment couldn’t stop. “I’m really sorry, I should have left as soon as I realized you were home but I—” That stopped her, because she’d almost said ‘wasn’t expecting to see you in your underwear.’ “I couldn’t work all day yesterday with Cooper being sick, and I needed a session without seeing anyone from the studio—” she stopped again, this time on the verge of telling him she was stressed about losing all of her fees for the day. She didn’t want to burden him with her problems; that was more humiliation than she had the capacity to handle today.
Gabriel scrambled around, trying to gather up the clothes he’d thrown off. He almost knocked over a lamp and banged his shin on the huge pine coffee table he’d always hated. Something in her tone was off, the way she’d cut herself off mid-ramble bothered him. Dressing as fast as he could, he answered her initial question. “No, I don’t want you to go. I just...wasn’t expecting you to show up today and I had the music up so loud I didn’t hear your car. I’m sorry. I thought I was alone—”
“Your house, no need to apologize. I heard the music, so I knew you were home. I should have knocked instead of just walking in. Are you decent?” she asked, turning her head toward him partway, her eyes still trained on a vase in the hallway.
“Yeah, sorry, I’m good,” he said, unable to stop apologizing. She couldn’t quite meet his eyes when she turned, and he had to admit to having some difficulty with the task as well. It wasn’t every day a woman surprised him when he was almost naked. Twelve hours ago a similar scenario had been the goal, now it just felt humiliating.
“If you want to go ahead and get a workout in, I’ll let you get to it,” he said. “You can leave the key on the counter before you go.”
As soon as she was out of earshot he clapped both hands over his face and tried to suppress a groan. He’d had a great day at practice, but now gotten caught with his pants down. It was like even the world itself was trying to keep him from getting too cocky. Shaking his head, he stepped into a pair of shoes, then walked toward the bathroom for a new elastic to get his hair out of his face again.
Quinn’s phone vibrated in her pocket and she groaned. It was Cooper, so she had to answer. “Hello?” she said quietly and her son voice answered, sounding weak and tired.
“Momma?” He hadn’t called her that since he was in elementary school.
She swallowed against a lump in her throat and spoke again, “Yeah, baby? What’s up?”
“I don’t feel good again today. I still feel like I’m gonna throw up,” Cooper said. Quinn could tell he was trying not to whine, but the exhaustion in his voice was plain. This stomach bug he’d caught was not going to let go anytime soon.
“I can tell. You didn’t sleep well last night.” She leaned against the bathroom door jamb, dropping her mat bag on the floor at her feet.
Gabriel paused in the hallway just around the corner from the bathroom door. He felt a momentary twinge of guilt for not leaving her alone, but she sounded upset and he wanted to know what was bothering her.
“I’m going to work out at Gabe’s house, then I only have one class. Coop, I really need the money—” She stopped to listen. “I know. Yes, I know. Go lie down in the nurse’s office and take a nap, and as soon as I’m done, I’ll come get you. I don’t know. It shouldn’t be more than an hour. Let me talk to the nurse, okay?” There was a long pause. “Hello? Well, I’m whispering because...Oh, never mind. Yes, I’m well aware of how sick he’s been, but he said he felt better when he got up.”
There was a longer pause again, and when Quinn swiveled her head looking to see if he was around, Gabriel ducked out of her line of sight. Her head hung low, and she grabbed the handle for her mat bag. “Yes, I’ll be right there. Give the phone back to Cooper, would you please? Hey, babe. I’ll let Gabriel know that I need to leave. See you soon. Love you too, bub.” She hung up the phone and rested her forehead on the doorjamb, a deep sigh echoing through the shower surround.
Gabriel backed away and headed for the door.
It was work but Quinn managed not to cry. Moments like these she wanted to, but crying only got you swollen eyes and a runny nose. Holding in these emotions didn’t get you anywhere either, but at least you looked like a human being while you dealt with the problem at hand.
Quinn looked all through the house for him but didn’t find Gabriel anywhere so she left without saying goodbye. She was nearly to her car when, while rooting for her keys in her purse, her fingers lit on something unexpected. She pulled her hand out of the bag and found herself holding a crisp one hundred dollar bill. She gasped and looked at it again, turning it over in her hand as if she’d never seen such a thing. It had been so long since she’d seen one she wasn’t sure it was real. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and looked up to the door of the house, where Gabriel was trying to sneak back in without her seeing him.
Holding the money in her fingers like something venomous, she marched up the steps and knocked on the door. He answered almost before the sound of her knocking faded out, and she held out the hand with the money in it. “I don’t want this.”
He pasted a look of innocence on his face but that money hadn’t been in her purse when she showed up this morning and there was only one person who could have overheard her phone conversation.
Her cheeks were flushed as she held the bill out to him. When he didn’t take it, she shook it at him. “I didn’t ask for this, or for you to listen to me while I talked to Cooper.”
He had the grace to look apologetic, but she couldn’t afford to let him get to her. The memory of last night was still too clear and if she didn’t leave now it would be too easy to waste the day with Gabriel in this big house. It wasn’t to be today; she had to pick up her son, and that was the least of her problems.
“I don’t want your pity,” she said. He took the hand that held the cash and closed his over it, not missing how she flinched at his touch. After their night at Harbor House, he’d thought they were past her fear of him, but there was more work to be done.
“It’s not pity,” Gabriel said, his voice soft. He crooked a finger under her chin and lifted her face to his, seeking her eyes. “Whatever this is, it isn’t pity.”
If he hadn’t missed her flinch, she didn’t miss the way his pupils dilated when her eyes met his, and the way his hand softened on hers. His attraction to her had never been more painful than it was right now, when she was feeling so terrible about life in general.
“Cooper needs you. You should go.”
Quinn nodded and tried one last time to hand the money back to him but he put up his hands and backed away. As she left to pick Cooper up, she tried not to notice that he stood in the doorway until she was out of sight and he tried not to notice that he missed her as soon as she left.
As embarrassing as the encounter at Gabriel’s house had been, she’d be lying if she said seeing him in his underwear hadn’t brought back the thrill of desire she’d felt for him last night. Let’s face it, seeing any guy in his underwear who didn’t have a beer gut and too much back hair was a pretty thrilling experience. More so for a woman who hadn’t been with a man in more years than she cared to count. Feeling like a giddy kid despite the circumstances, she had a hard time taking the smile off her face at the memory. Her nerves were jangled and she almost spent the whole drive to Cooper’s school laughing. Once she made it there, she jogged her way to the nurse’s office.
CHAPTER 11
Cooper stumbled into his room and slammed his door shut. The springs in his bed squeaked as he landed on them. He was down for the count for the time being.
Exhausted, she tipped over on the couch and closed her eyes. Cooper had gotten sick enough at school that if he needed anything, she’d hear the vomiting before he had to say a word. He’d dragged the kitchen garbage can in the bedroom with him, so she knew he was in for another long night. For now, though, the apartment was quiet and there was nothing that needed her urgent attention, so she took a few deep breaths and fell asleep.
The nap lasted quite awhile long and when she woke she fixed herself a salad for dinner. After she got the dishes cleaned up, she worked through a short flow, trying to calm herself from the stress of the last two days and clear her mind. Images assaulted her, from dinner last night to the parking lot to Gabriel’s living room and she gave up after only a few simple poses, unable to clear her mind like she should. Instead, she made a run to the convenience store a block away.
The parking lot for the store was empty aside from a vehicle she assumed belonged to whoever was working, and when she opened the door she saw the sign on it telling her they were closing in half an hour. She looked at the time on her phone and was surprised to find it was close to ten o’clock.
The emptiness of the store and the lot surrounding it left no reason why she should feel like she was being watched but she couldn’t shake the feeling the whole way to through the store. There were eyes on her the whole time she was inside, grabbing crackers and ginger ale. When she reached for the last two cans of chicken noodle soup, the feeling grew so strong she looked over her shoulder and out the window. The only thing she saw was a black sedan driving past the store.
She dropped the soup in her basket and headed for the counter, feeling like she needed to get a move on. She tapped on the counter with her fingernails as the cashier rang up her purchase and when she paid with the money Gabriel had given her, caught the surly woman’s rolling eyes at the large bill.
A shiver ripped up her spine and she looked out the front window again, casting her eyes all over the street as far as she could see. The rear end of a black car turned a corner just as she caught sight of it but she couldn’t tell if it was the same one she’d seen the first time or not. What kind of car did Gabriel say the photographer drove? Was it black? She couldn’t remember.
Her purchases paid for and bagged, she loaded them in the van and headed back home. Being close to her apartment didn’t make her feel any safer and she kept looking in the rear view, trying to see if anyone was following her down the block. When she turned into the parking lot at her complex, the shine of a black car flashed past the entrance and she was sure it was the same car she’d seen through the window at the store. When she parked in her space, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed Gabriel’s number.
Before he could even greet her, she said, “What kind of car did that guy you saw with the camera drive?”
“A black Ford Fusion, why?” There was concern in his voice, and the volume on whatever he was watching went down. “Why?”
“I ran to the store to get some stuff for Cooper and the whole time I was there I felt like I was being watched. I’m probably being paranoid, but there was a black car that I saw twice while I was there and now when I pulled into the lot at home, he drove past the entrance behind me.” She unbuckled and turned every way she could in the seat, looking in every direction her eyes would swivel.
“Are you sure it was the same car every time you saw it?” Somehow she knew he’d come up off whatever piece of furniture he’d been sitting on.
“I don’t know, Gabe. I only saw the back end the one time, but the one that just drove past my building was a Fusion, I’m positive. What if it was him? The detective?” She didn’t think her heart could take this, she felt like she was on the verge of a panic attack.
“Quinn, you’re freaking out and I need you to breathe,” Gabriel said. His voice was so low and soft, like a doctor’s when they were trying to soothe a child after a nasty vaccination. “Take a deep breath, I’ll do it with you.” He did, breathing right along with her as he tried to calm her down. “Focus, just like you do in class. I saw you yesterday, Quinn. You were amazing. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. Focus on that point in the distance, just like you tell me to do.”
She locked her eyes on a lamp post a few blocks away and tried to concentrate all her energy on it. Hearing him breathing over the phone with her, feeling his presence with her even though he was miles away helped, and she was able to calm herself down before the panic got out of control.
“Better?” he asked. When she answered in the affirmative, he whispered, “Good. Now, we don’t know anything for sure yet. There’s no reason to be afraid. He’s a detective, not a serial killer.”
“Why do they need to know about my life so badly? What could they hope to accomplish with all this? It can’t be about Cooper, that makes no sense,” she said, resting her forehead on the steering wheel.
“No, you’re right. It doesn’t. He’s too old and Mitchell’s been in prison for too long for this to be a simple custody ploy, but we can’t worry until we have something to worry about, alright?”
The ‘we’ gave her heart the same jolt as the ‘when’ had last night. He was so sure about the two of them, and wasn’t running in the other direction right now, which was a massive credit to his character. He could just be using the word ‘we’ because the detective had been at his house and was a genuine concern for him, but she didn’t think that was the reason at all.
“Are you going to be okay now?”
“Yes, I think so,” she said. Picking her head up off the wheel, she looked around the lot again.
“Good. You stay on the phone with me until you’re inside the apartment.” As she climbed out of the car and grabbed the bags out of the back of the van, she clamped the phone between her ear and shoulder. “Do you still feel like someone’s watching you?”
“Not now, no,” she said. When she got to her door she let out a sigh before she turned the key in the lock and opened it up. “I’m here. Do you want me to check under the beds, Columbo?”
His laugh was warm, his relief clear. “Well it wouldn’t hurt, would it? Tell Cooper I said ‘hi.’ Keep the phone close by, just in case.”
“Yes, Dad.” She smiled and signed off, leaving the phone on the counter. She did check under the beds, in the closet, and left every cabinet door standing open just for good measure. When she checked Cooper’s room, he groaned but she didn’t smell sick in the air and took it as a good sign.
“What are you doing?” he asked, throwing his spare pillow over his face. Just as his body got situated it dawned on him that she was searching his room. He sat bolt straight, his eyes wide open. “What happened?”
