Page 41 of Forever Yours
“1997 was a much different time, though,” Gabe reminded her.
“I can’t even call Emma to tell her we can’t get out. You don’t think it will be a week, do you?” Devlin asked, her voice quiet. She turned around and sought out Gabe’s face. She started to take a step toward him then stopped.
He stood for a moment, not answering Devlin’s question, the silence broken by the sound of polyester rubbing against itself as Sebastian walked into the room dressed from head to toe in his winter gear.
Prudence let out a snort of laughter and Annabelle walked over to Sebastian, reaching out her hand, apparently trying to test out the puffiness of his very oversized jacket.
“You look like a marshmallow,” she said as she gave him a small shove. “I could knock you over and you’d bounce right back.”
“Hey, I’m going to be toasty warm if we have to walk anywhere.” He eyed her. “You, however, won’t make it any farther than the driveway. I’ve seen what you call winter clothes.”
“I just have to get as far as your overcompensating truck.”
“I’m not overcompensating for anything, thank you very much, but I’m not sure even that’ll get us home at this point.”
“Let’s not be all gloom and doom, at least not yet.” Greyson grabbed a pair of snow pants. “If we can get to the main road, we have a good chance of getting out of here still today, or tomorrow, depending on when the main road gets plowed.”
Greyson kept talking but Gabe tuned him out, instead focusing on Devlin, who had made a slow meander until she was close to him. While the others were now gathered around Sebastian toward the living room, just Gabe and Devlin were in the kitchen and his mind flashed back to the previous night. She set a mug of coffee in front of him. He started to thank her but went rigid when he felt Devlin’s hand on his back side, caressing his ass.
“Don’t get too cold out there,” she whispered. Her breath was warm, and it tickled his ear as she leaned closer to him, her hand now running up his back under his shirt, her nails scoring his skin, all while he tried not to react in front of the others.
One tilt and his lips were right at her temple, and he fought every urge to place a kissjust there.At this point, he both cursed and thanked the weather. It seemed more likely that they’d get to spend at least one more night together and he couldn’t wait until they were alone again, but that meant he wasn’t able to let this just be what they agreed on—one night—then they’d be back in reality, back in Amber Falls and able to keep their distance from each other.
I’m not ready to let her go.
The unbidden thought appeared, and he realized it wasn’t an unwelcome one.
“Hey, Gabe,” Sebastian called from the front door. Startled out of his reverie, he fumbled the coffee cup and it clattered onto the countertop, spilling hot liquid over his hand. He hissed in pain, waving his hand through the air. Gabe saw that the rest of the group had made their way to the door, with Greyson now all dressed for snow removal.
“Oh no!” Devlin moved him to the sink and started to run cold water over where the coffee had landed. “Here, hold it under the water, it’ll stop the burning from getting any worse.” She gave him a rueful smile. “I know a thing or two about hot coffee burns.”
“Sorry, man,” Sebastian apologized, “but I’m roasting in this getup. We’re going to go out and see if we can get to the driveway.”
“I’ll meet you out there in a few minutes,” Gabe called over his shoulder. The burn wasn’t that bad. It seemed like the coffee had been in the cup for a while and was lukewarm at best. He didn’t tell this to Devlin, however, and reveled in her holding his hand, feeling foolish that he was this content with just being near her, the simple touch of her hand on his skin grounded him in a way he’d never felt before.
“The trick is to keep it under the water until your finger is almost too cold. That’ll stop the skin from getting any worse.” A smile crossed her face. “I remember the worst burn I had.”
“Now, why would you be smiling so much at the memory of your worst burn?”
“Because it was the dumbest way to get burned and I laugh every time I think about it. I was working in this restaurant, and I’d bent over to plug something in next to the fryers.” She’d turned the water off at this point but kept his hand in hers as she continued the story. “I was wearing a high ponytail and when I bent over I didn’t realize that the tip of it dipped into the hot grease. When I stood my hair whipped across my face and left a Nike Swoosh symbol on my forehead.”
He stared at her, speechless for a moment. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Hand to my heart I’m serious. That’s how it happened.”
“No offense, but that’s the dumbest story of getting a burn that I’ve heard.”
“Believe me, you’re not the first person to react like that. Can you see why I laugh every time I think about it? I either laugh or cry at my own ridiculousness.”
Gabe chuckled at the imagery. “I can see why you chose to laugh about it.”
They both jumped at the sound of a clearing throat behind them and turned to see Prudence and Annabelle standing and staring.
“Oh, sorry,” Devlin said. “You’ve got to go.” She let go of his hand and he felt bereft of her presence already.
“That’s okay.” He shot a look at the other two ladies. “They’re fine without me for a few minutes.”
“Don’t mind us,” Prudence breezed. “We were just discussing how fortunate we were that the pipes didn’t freeze overnight, but I can see that there’s plenty of heat in those old pipes, uh, flowing.”