Chapter 11

Gabe hit the pause button for the DVR and reached for the ringing phone.

Over the past two weeks, he hadn't seen as much of Bailey as he would have liked. She was working a lot and then classes started at the community college. They went out on a couple more dates, each ending with him dropping her off at home. He spent a little bit of time with her parents, and it seems that they had accepted—and welcomed—him as a fact in Bailey's life.

If he would admit it to himself, he really wanted her to stay over with him, this time without her sister or friends there. But neither of them seemed to have any inclination to rush things, and for that, he was happy. Gabe found that once Bailey began to open up to him, he was more and more interested in her, and not because she got his heart pounding.

She was a smart girl who simply had the misfortune of growing up in a poor, rural town. Her graduating class was all of 126 kids and she was third; April was twenty-fourth. The small high school wasn't big enough to offer a lot of AP classes and electives, but in the classes she took, she excelled.

Many of the people in the area were "provincial". That is, they didn't see much beyond their small community. The small towns were good enough for everyone's parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, so folks tended to stay in one place. Even the people who went away to college or the service often returned, sometimes from higher-paying jobs, just to be close to their families and "home". In many cases streets like Napier Road were named that because everyone who lived there was a Napier.

Gabriel sensed that Bailey was destined for something more, and she knew it. But she just didn't know how she was going to get there. Her family was proud and well-to-do by the standards of their community, but a college education was going to be a stretch. On top of the expense, he knew that coming from a small, rural high school didn't prepare her for college in the same way that one of the larger high schools in the city would have. They simply didn't have the resources, technology and staff.

But she was smart and determined, and while it might mean that she would have to study a little harder than some of the other kids, she would certainly succeed at anything she set her mind to.

He wondered who would be calling him on a Wednesday night. "Hello?"

"Gabe? It's Bailey." Immediately, he knew something was wrong. He reached for the remote control and flipped the TV off.

"What's wrong?"

"We were in a car accident—"

Gabe was on his feet and already hunting for his keys. "Are you okay? Where are you?"

There were tremors in her voice. "We're okay, I think. We're at the corner of Call and Phillips Highway."

"I'll be right there," Gabe said as he bounded up the steps. "Have you called 911?"

"Yes," she breathed.

"Hang on, honey," he said. "I'm on my way."

Gabe drove like a mad man. When he got to the accident scene, he wondered how either of the girls could be okay.

The back half of their car was a mangled mess. The passenger's side was collapsed in from the B-pillar back. Another car sat along the side of the road, its front bumper almost in the driver's seat. Both of that car's airbags were deployed. An engine block sat in the middle of the road. Coolant, oil and other engine fluids leaked out all over the pavement.

Two police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck lit up the night sky with their lights. An EMT crew was securing someone on to a gurney. Gabe desperately hoped it wasn't one of the girls.

He let out a sigh of relief when he saw April and Bailey standing over on the side of the road. April's eyes were wide and she looked like she had been crying. Bailey was talking to a police officer.

"Excuse me, sir, can I help you?" a second officer asked him briskly.

"I'm with them," he pointed to the girls. "What happened?"

"They got hit by a drunk driver," the officer replied. "He ran the red light. The tall one's lucky; if they were going five miles an hour slower or the other guy's going five miles an hour faster, we'd be life-flighting her to a hospital."

Gabe ran over to the girls. He wrapped them both in his arms. Everyone began to talk at once.

"Are you okay?" he asked as the girls chattered on. Both nodded. "Have you called your folks?"

Bailey shook her head.

April burst into tears. "No. Daddy's going to kill us."

"No, he's not, miss," the police officer said in a firm but compassionate voice. "That other guy was drunk out of his mind. We just ran his tags; he's driving on a suspended license after two other DUI's. He'll be going to jail for a long time."

"But we wrecked our car," April wailed. "We don't have—"

"I'll take care of that," Gabe said as Bailey tried to comfort her sister. He scrolled through the numbers on his phone and dialed Bailey's house. Her mom picked up the phone. "Hi, Joanne?"

"Hello, Gabriel," she said. "Bailey's not here; the girls had class tonight."

"I know, they're with me," he paused for a second. "Joanne, the girls were in a car accident tonight."

"What!?!?!"

"They're both okay," Gabe said calmly. "A drunk driver ran through a red light and hit them. Neither was hurt, but the car is going to be totaled."

"I ... Is?" she stammered.

"I think we're about done here," Gabe said, glancing over at the officer who was writing the report. "I'm going to take the girls home with me. If you'd like to meet me at my house, you're welcome to come over tonight or you can come up tomorrow."

"We'll come to you," she said. "They're both okay?"

"Yes, they're going to be fine," he said confidently.

"We'll be there in an hour," she said and Gabe closed up his phone.

He went over to one of the police officers. "Do you mind if I take some pictures?"

"Be my guest," the policeman said absently.

With his pocket camera, Gabe took some pictures of both cars where they had stopped. He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the girls were only a fraction of a second from either being dead or seriously injured.

When the wreckers arrived, Gabe gave them the name of a body shop where he had some work done in the past. The other car was going to be impounded as evidence; it was apparently loaded with empty bottles of beer and tequila.

April and Bailey retrieved their purses and bookbags out of their car then climbed into the backseat of Gabe's Lexus. He drove them back to his house. No one spoke.

He led them inside and gave them each a glass of water. A few minutes later, Andy and Joanne arrived. The girls rushed into their parents's arms. This was the first accident for any of them.

Gabe mostly stayed out of the way as the girls recounted what happened.

Andy was upset, mostly because his daughters's lives had been endangered. The girls had thought that he would be mad that the car was destroyed, but when he saw the pictures Gabe had taken, he was singularly thankful that the girls were okay.

"Cars can be replaced," Andy said firmly. "My little girls cannot."

"Thank you for everything tonight, Gabe," Joanne gave him a warm hug.

"You're very welcome," he said with a smile. "Listen ... it's late. Why don't you guys stay over here tonight? We can take care of everything in the morning."

"We don't want to impose," Andy said.

Gabe waved him off. "I've got lots of extra bedrooms. If you leave now, you won't get home until after midnight anyway."

"We've got work tomorrow—"

"Andy, you own the garage," Joanne interrupted. "I'll call off tomorrow and you just let the guys know that they have to open without you. We can spare a day to take care of our kids."

The girls's father knew she had a point.

"Are you sure?" Joanne asked Gabe.

"I insist," he replied. And that was that.

He showed everyone the extra rooms that he had. Upstairs, there were three bedrooms, plus a fourth room he had converted into a home office and place to store his show business mementoes.

Gabe found a stack of clothes for everyone to sleep in, then he retreated into his bedroom. All night, he had wanted to take Bailey in his arms, thankful that she was okay. Like her parents, he knew how close he had come to losing her. One of the officers had estimated that the drunk driver was going between sixty and seventy miles per hour. The speed limit on Call Street is thirty-five.

He had brushed his teeth and changed in to a pair of workout shorts when there was a knock on the door. Gabe hurriedly pulled a nightshirt over his head.

"Come in," he called.

The door opened and Bailey tentatively stuck her head in. She smiled shyly.

"Thanks for coming to get us," she said softly. Bailey stepped into his room, leaving the door open.

Without any prompting, she seemed to instinctively step into his arms. Gabe reflexively pulled her close, thankful to feel her close to him.

"You're welcome," he replied. There was so much more he wanted to say, but instead he simply held her.

The events of the night now passed, Gabe savoured the smell of her hair and the softness of her skin against him. He wanted to lead her to his bed and hold her until morning, but he knew that it wouldn't happen. Not tonight. Not with her parents in one of his bedrooms.

She reluctantly withdrew from their embrace, but she didn't let go. Her hands went to the back of his neck and she lifted up on her tiptoes. Their lips met in a desperate kiss.

Gabe's hands went to the small of her back. Through the haze of the kiss, he realised that she wasn't wearing a bra; her breasts were pressed against him through the thin material of two t-shirts. He wanted to tear her clothes off and ravage her body. He wanted to be as close to her as possible.

Instead, he settled for a deep, wet, passionate, sloppy kiss.

They pressed their foreheads together. The tips of their noses brushed.

"Good night, Gabe MacKenzie," she said quietly.

His hands framed her face and he gave her one more gentle kiss. "Good night, Bailey Crawford."

Against everything he wanted that night, Gabe let go and watched the sway of Bailey's hips as she walked out of his room. As she closed the door, she turned and winked seductively at him.

It was then that Gabe realized just how hard his cock was. And that he had spent the last few moments poking a girl half his age with it.

He climbed into bed and fell into a fitful sleep, dreaming of Bailey's soft body.

The next morning, Gabe woke to the most wonderful smell. He recognised it instantly: biscuits, sausage gravy and eggs. He stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. Once refreshed, he went out to his kitchen and found Joanne and Bailey in his kitchen, skillfully preparing breakfast.