Ian’s eyebrows couldn’t have climbed much higher in his forehead. “You weren’t kidding, were you?”
There had been too much excitement today. From the scare over the baby to the tense words with Brian—both Ian’s and later Gabby’s. Ian could tell she was on edge. He was no doctor, but he knew that wasn’t good for her. She needed to relax, but here she was, running around to meet him late at night, fighting what should be his f**king battles with her brother.
Then again, Brian was her family, not his, so he guessed he didn’t have much say in how those two interacted with each other. He just wished he weren’t right in the damn middle of it.
“What do you say we get out of here?” he asked once he’d surmised she was about to pace a hole in his carpet.
“Hmm?” she asked distractedly.
“I don’t know. Go for a ride or something. I’m the new kid in town, remember? I don’t get out much except to hang with the same people I see every day.”
She scoffed, fingering a long, dark strand of hair from her ponytail. Then she sighed and dropped beside him onto the couch, close enough that the side of her warm thigh pressed into his. “I’m pretty sure you’ve seen all there is to see.”
“Hey,” he said, gently turning her chin toward him so she had to look into his eyes. Was it his imagination that she melted a bit into his touch? “You’re here, but I get the feeling you’re not, you know?”
“Yeah,” she admitted. He could stare into those clear green eyes all night.
“So let’s drop out of life for a while. Even if it’s only for a couple of hours, we’ll pretend it’s just you and me.”
The corners of her lips curled up in a most enticing way, got him thinking about all sorts of things he’d like to do but couldn’t. Wouldn’t push anything on her. God, she was so f**king beautiful. So beyond anything he’d ever dared to pursue. “Where will we go?” she asked.
“I’ll drive, you navigate. Show me your life here. I want to know everything about you.”
“I was pretty much a nerd, Ian. What life I’ve had didn’t start until I went away to college.”
She chuckled as his brows drew together. Someone as smart, sexy and seductive as she was, describing herself as a nerd with no life? He’d imagined a high school career filled with throngs of admirers and slavering suitors. “I expected that you were Homecoming Queen or something.”
“Ha. No. It wasn’t my thing to really care what other people thought about me, which is like the kiss of death around here, and I damn sure didn’t run around trying to be everyone’s friend or make people like me. I wasn’t popular. In fact, I was probably universally hated.”
“I find that hard to believe. They were most likely intimidated.”
Her little smile bloomed into that full-force grin that tugged at his heart in all the right ways. “Am I intimidating to you?”
“Hell, no,” he lied, and she laughed. Yeah, she could be, but he could handle her.
“All right, Ian, I’ll give you the grand tour, if you really want it.”
He only wanted to be with her—only her, not her and all the troubles whirling around in her head. “I do.”
“Let’s go.”
Minutes later, they cruised in silence down all but empty streets, past darkened buildings. He drove while Gabby mostly stared out her window.
It did make him a little crazy to live in a town where there wasn’t much to do except catch a movie or a beer at the bar. Not that he’d been one to revel in the incessant hustle and bustle of city life, but it had been nice to have the option.
“Do you find yourself going a little stir crazy, being back here?” he asked, trying to get her talking.
“Not really. I can function in both. It doesn’t take me long to adjust either way.” She pointed ahead. “Up there on the right? My high school.”
Jesus, it was small. It must’ve been impossible to blend into the background at a place like that… Something he thought he’d become somewhat of an expert on during his own school days. He hadn’t been able to have many friends, because inevitably they’d start to wonder why they couldn’t hang at his place every now and then, or why he often couldn’t go out on the weekends. Because his stepdad had been such a drunken ass**le, Ian couldn’t subject anyone else to it, and he’d felt a duty to protect his mother from it as best he could.
His knuckles tightened on Gabby’s steering wheel as he fought down the rising tide of memories. “What’s your most embarrassing moment?” he asked on impulse. This was about her, not about him.
“Oh God.” She laughed. “I made it through most of my school years without very many. Then, graduation night, I wore some heels I wasn’t used to, and I tripped and fell while I was walking up to accept my diploma.”
“You did not.”
“I did. Believe me. I’m sure Brian still has a picture of me lying on my face. It was all I could do to get up and move forward, and not turn and run…” She trailed off into silence, then sighed. He was pretty sure he knew what she was thinking. Reaching over, he laced his fingers through hers.
“You got up, and you’re moving forward,” he said, and out of the corner of his eye saw her smile. “More than once.”
“It was the same kind of feeling when Mark did that to me. Like I was back there, flat on my face in front of the entire town. ‘What do I do now? How can I face everyone?’ All at once, I realized how much I did care what everyone thought.” Her fingers tightened around his. “You know, you’re the only person on earth I feel I can talk to about this. I wonder why?”
He didn’t have an answer for her, because he couldn’t get past the knowledge he was the luckiest sonofabitch alive right now. Beneath that, however, another thought festered, upsetting the glow her words had given him. “Are you feeling the same way about everyone finding out you’re pregnant?”
She tilted her head pensively, and in between looking at the road, he stole glances at her as she formulated her reply. A passing streetlamp fleetingly lit her flawless profile, the slight purse of her lips, casting a sheen over her hair. Yep, luckiest bastard alive to be sitting with her, no matter what came out of her mouth. “I’m not, really. I mean, it’s crossed my mind. But it’s not my primary concern.”
“What did your parents say after we left the hospital?”
“Honestly, not much. Which concerns me, truth be known. I’m sure they’ve been having it out between themselves all night about it, and I’ll learn the verdict soon enough.” She chuckled, but it didn’t hide her nervousness.
Fuck. She didn’t deserve this. Above all else, he wanted her happy and relaxed…but how was he supposed to get her that way? It was impossible. Every turn their conversation took led deeper into gloom.
“I shouldn’t have asked that,” he told her. “We’re supposed to be shutting everyone else out for a couple of hours. I forgot. I’m sorry.”
She surprised him by turning to him and grinning. “We can pretend we’re an established, happily married couple out on a romantic date to celebrate the life we’ve created.”