Chapter Eleven
The next day, Gavin sent a text message asking Cait if she’d be interested in getting a bite to eat after her shift and was pleasantly surprised when she said yes. Based on what she’d said about her mom, he’d half-expected her to tell him she couldn’t get away and needed to have dinner with her family.
Instead, she gave him a time she’d meet him at his place, which his mind kept turning over and over, like it was a puzzle.
Either she wanted to meet him there so they could have some alone time after dinner, or she didn’t want him picking her up at her mom’s house. If that was the case, it could simply be a safety measure that was common in new relationships or it could mean she didn’t want him to meet her mom.
But when he saw her walking up the sidewalk toward him, he didn’t care. All that mattered was that she was there and she was smiling.
“Waiting for me on the sidewalk? You must be hungry.”
“I’m starving, actually. This is a little later than I usually eat.” And he was afraid if she’d gone upstairs, he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off her. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but he needed food first.
They’d made it to the end of the block when his phone chimed. It was the chirpy bird sound he’d assigned to his sister, so he pulled out of traffic and looked at the screen.
The upstairs toilet won’t flush and if my kids and my husband have to share the downstairs bathroom I’m going to run away from home.
“Do you mind if we stop by my sister’s house so I can figure out why her toilet won’t flush? It should only take a few minutes, but if you don’t want to, I can put it off. They have a half-bath downstairs, so they won’t suffer too much.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Thanks.” He told his sister he was on his way and pulled back out onto the street.
“Didn’t you tell me she’s married?”
Gavin chuckled. “Yeah, she is. Henry’s a great guy, but he’s... Let’s just say he’s not all that handy around the house. He’ll do anything for anybody, but if it involves tools in any way, you’re better off doing it yourself. So I get the maintenance calls and, in exchange, I can mooch meals off them on a regular basis without feeling like a jerk.”
“Huh.” The way she said it made him glance over, but she was looking out her side window, so he couldn’t really see her face.
“Huh?”
“So when your family calls, you help them out.”
“Well, yeah. They’re my family.” He knew what she was getting at. “And when I call my family, they help me out.”
“My mom has always been my rock,” she said quietly. “Life kicked her pretty freakin’ hard—for a second time—and she just needs a little time.”
“A second time?”
“My dad died of cancer when I was three. I don’t remember much of that time, but I do know she thought losing him was her tragic backstory and she would live happily ever after with my stepdad.”
“I’m sorry, Cait. I didn’t know.”
“Oh, I know,” she said, and she sounded more like herself again. “It’s just that for people who don’t know my mom, it’s hard to understand that this really is temporary. She’s strong enough to get through this, but she had the wind knocked out of her.”
Part of him thought that, after six months, her mom should be coping a little better, but he’d never suffered that kind of loss, so he kept his mouth shut. Cait was right. Not only did he not know her mother, but he hadn’t been in Cait’s life long enough to get a true picture of their family dynamic.
But they were pulling up to his sister’s duplex, so he let it go. And at this point in their hopefully-a-relationship, it was still really none of his business. After pulling in behind Jill’s SUV, he parked the truck and killed the engine.
“I promise this will only take a few minutes.”
“Is that your way of asking me to stay in the truck?”
“Of course not.” He knew if he did, Jill wouldn’t hesitate to walk outside and introduce herself, anyway.
The entire family was in the living room when he gave a quick knock and then let himself in and he felt weirdly nervous as Cait moved to stand next to him.
“This is my sister, Jill. Her husband, Henry, and their rugrats, Bella and Matt. Everybody, this is Cait.”
Cait smiled at them. His sister looked a lot like him, with dark hair and eyes. Henry was tall and thin, with blond hair and glasses. Bella looked like Henry and Matt like his mom. “Nice to meet you all.”
“Nice to meet you, Cait,” Jill said. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
Cait looked at Gavin. “Oh.”
“Okay, not a lot,” she confessed. “Just that he has a girlfriend.”
Gavin’s ears got hot and he cleared his throat. “We’ve got plans, so I’m going to take a look at that toilet.”
Belatedly, he realized he had two options. He could ask Cait if she wanted to go upstairs and hang out in the bathroom with him while he diagnosed his sister’s toilet, or he could leave her downstairs. With his nosy older sister.
He hadn’t really thought this through very well.
“Can I get you something to drink, Cait?” His sister gave him an innocent smile. “It never takes Gavin long to fix things.”
It sure as hell wouldn’t tonight, he thought as he practically ran up her stairs. Not even five minutes later, he’d reattached the lift chain and went downstairs to find Henry and the kids in front of the TV and Jill and Cait nowhere to be seen.
They’d be in the kitchen, he thought. His mom and sister always retreated to the kitchen to drink coffee or wine disguised in coffee cups, which fooled nobody. He would have been tempted to linger outside the arched doorway to the kitchen and eavesdrop, but Bella was watching him. If he stood there doing nothing, she’d start asking him questions and he’d be caught, so he forced himself to move.
“That was really fast,” Jill said, and then she pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. He could see in her eyes that she knew he’d been nervous about leaving the two of them alone.
“If the whole firefighting thing doesn’t work out for you,” Cait said, “you could be a plumber. Maybe don’t charge by the hour, though.”
“You guys are funny. All fixed, so you ready to go, Cait?”
Cait knew, too, and he had no doubt she would give him a bunch of shit when they got back to his truck.
“I can heat you up some leftover chili if you want to stay,” Jill said.
“Thanks, but we have plans. Oh, and your lift chain came unattached and I can’t even guess how.”
His sister smiled. “All I heard was blah blah call me if it happens again blah blah, but thanks for fixing it.”
He walked over and kissed her on the cheek, and then gave Cait an expectant look. She smiled and then set her half-empty glass of water on the counter.
“It was nice to meet you, Jill.”
“You, too. I’ll be in touch about that thing we talked about.”
Gavin frowned, but Cait just smiled and preceded him into the living room. After saying goodbye to Henry and the kids, they walked in silence back to his truck.
He made it maybe an eighth of a mile before he cracked. “What thing did you and Jill talk about?”
She burst out laughing and it was a few seconds before she could answer. “There’s no thing, Gavin. God, you’re easy.”
“You have a mean streak.”
“It wasn’t me. It was your sister. I just went along with it.”
“What did you guys talk about?” He tried to ask the question casually, but he was pretty sure she wouldn’t be fooled.
“You.”
He snorted. “Obviously. But what?”
“You were barely gone long enough for her to get me a glass of water. I only drank half of it.” When he glanced over at her, she shrugged. “She asked me if I was the woman in the Snapchat picture.”
“She’s seen it?” It had to be Grant. He was the only one of the guys who’d spent enough time with his family to send them things like that.
“I told her no and pretended to be pissed off.”
He whipped his head around to look at her and almost side-swiped a parked car. “Jesus, Cait, why would you do that?”
But she was laughing again, and he was tempted to downgrade their dinner plans to a fast food drive-through. “You really are easy to wind up. And you say it’s easy to push my buttons.”
“So she hasn’t seen the picture?” Maybe he wouldn’t have to kick his best friend’s ass, after all.
“Oh, she’s seen it. But when she asked if it was me, I said yes. Then she called you a creeper.” She gave him an angelic smile that he knew was totally fake. “I didn’t tell her you have the picture framed in your bedroom.”
Despite her twisted sense of humor being a pain in his ass, he took her to his favorite wings place. It was a little loud, but the food was good and he was a regular.
He’d made the mistake before of trying to impress women. Putting on button shirts and taking them to nice restaurants. Washing his truck. But he couldn’t sustain that standard long and it was better to let a woman know what she was getting right from the beginning.
The server gave them menus and Cait ordered a beer. He ordered an ice water for now and a beer to arrive with his food, since he’d only have one.
“Do they have boneless wings?” Cait asked when they were alone, scanning the long, busy menu.
He scowled at her over the top of his. “Boneless wings aren’t wings.”
“But you can eat them without looking like a toddler who stuck his face and hands in a bucket of sauce.”
“It’s popcorn chicken tossed in sauce.”
“You have strong feelings about wings.”
“I do, yes.”
He could tell by her expression that she was trying not to laugh at him. “Am I allowed to sit with you if I get boneless wings? Or is there a roped-off section for people who don’t like cleaning wing sauce out from under their fingernails for hours?”
“I could lick the sauce off your fingers for you.”
She laughed, but it faded into a no look. “I can’t decide if that’s sexy or not. I’m leaning toward no.”
“Too far,” he admitted with a grin. “I told you I do that. But I’ll try to behave while you’re eating sauced-up popcorn chicken with a knife and fork.”
“I might eat my fries with a fork, too, just to embarrass you.”
They both laughed and when their eyes met over their menus—her eyes sparkling with humor—he felt a little kick to the chest.
He really liked this woman.
* * *
After great wings—even if they were boneless—a couple of beers, and with a stomachache from laughing so much, Cait couldn’t remember the last time she’d had such a fun night out.
She’d probably be sorry when her alarm went off at an obscenely early hour tomorrow, but when Gavin asked her if she wanted to go upstairs, she said yes.
And when they’d gotten their coats off and kicked off their shoes, and he pulled her hard up against his body, Cait stopped caring about early alarms and ran her hands down his back to cup his ass. With a groan, he gripped the back of her neck and kissed her hard.
She surrendered to his mouth, flicking her tongue over his as he pressed her hips against the cabinet. All night, she’d been wanting this—wanting him—and even as he kissed her, she was pulling up the hem of her shirt. She wanted his hands on her, and she wanted him naked.
He broke off the kiss and helped her pull the shirt over her head. But one of his fingertips skimmed the back of her arm, from her elbow up. She yelped and jerked her arm down.
Gavin’s eyes widened in confusion for a few seconds, and then a slow smile curved his lips. “Found it.”
“Did not.”
“I found your other ticklish spot. I told you I would.”
“You found it accidentally.” Hoping to distract him, she pulled the shirt off and tossed it away. Then she tossed the bra after it and reached for the button of her jeans.
“I still found it,” he said, though he didn’t look as smug now that he was following the progress her fingers made with her zipper. He only looked away long enough to strip off his sweater. He dropped it on the floor and reached for her.
Cait shoved her jeans down, taking her panties with them, and kicked them away. He kissed her hard, his hands cupping her breasts. She moaned and undid his jeans, hoping he’d get the hint.
But he took his sweet time kissing her before moving his lips to her breast. He sucked one nipple—gently at first, but then hard enough to make her gasp—while running his thumb over the other.
She braced her hands on the end of the counter as need pulsed through her. “If I’m naked, you should be naked, too.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and she chuckled at his response. Funny how it didn’t bother her at all in this context.
He didn’t notice her amusement, though, as he was in the process of ditching his clothes. Then he was back, his mouth on hers and his erection grinding against her. She moaned, so ready for him...and he danced his finger up the back of her arm again.
She couldn’t get away from him, since she was sandwiched between his body and the cabinets, but she tried. And in the ensuing tussle, they ended up on the floor. He was laughing, but when he rolled to his back and she straddled him, there was no doubt his amusement had zero impact on his desire.
“If you tickle me again, I’m going home,” she warned, even though it was an empty threat.
With his hands pressing down on her thighs, he rolled his hips so the length of his erection slid over her slick flesh. “You don’t want to go home.”
Cait reached down and closed her fingers around the base of his cock and he sucked in a breath. She squeezed, stroking the length of him in her fist. “You don’t want me to go home, either, so no more tickling.”
He arched his back as she stroked him again, and he reached out to grab his jeans. After pulling a condom from the pocket—and she wondered if that was cockiness or confidence on his part—he tore open the package.
“You need to stop,” he said, his jaw clenching. “I’ve been thinking about this all night—shit, since the last time—and I can’t wait.”
“I’m done waiting.” She shifted to give him space to roll on the condom and then lowered herself onto him.
She rocked her hips slowly, easing down the length of his cock as he lifted his hips. His thumb brushed over her clit and she moaned, taking him all in. He reached one hand to her breast, pinching her nipple between his thumb and finger, while his other grasped her hip.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he said, his voice raspy.
She looked down at him, her hair falling forward, and the look on his face made her believe him. And when he let go of her breast to press the back of his knuckle against her clit, she moaned and quickened her pace. His knuckle kneaded against her, a hard pressure that stole her breath and sent jolts of sensation through her body.
The orgasm was intense and she cried out. Gavin grasped her hips in both hands, his fingertips digging into her flesh as he raised her and then pulled her down harder and faster until he came with a guttural groan.
Then he reached up and threaded his fingers through her hair, pulling her down so he could kiss her. She moaned against his mouth and then collapsed on top of him. She could feel his heart beating, his pulse as quick as her own, and she savored the feeling as she tried to catch her breath.
“I’m so freakin’ sorry,” Gavin whispered a moment later.
It took a few seconds for his words to penetrate the pleasurable fog her mind was lost in. “Sorry for what?”
“When we were coming upstairs, I planned to put on some music. Be romantic and seduce you into my bed.” He blew out a breath, making her hair tickle her neck. “The kitchen floor’s not very romantic.”
“You took the bottom. That was kind of romantic.” Then she laughed and kissed him. “Trust me, I’m not complaining.”
“I could have at least gotten you as far as the couch, though.”
The fact he’d wanted her so badly he couldn’t wait to cross the room more than made up for the hard surface, as far as she was concerned. “Next time.”
The mmm sound he made vibrated through her. “Definitely next time.”
With a reluctant groan, she pushed herself up. The floor might not be romantic, but it would make the going-home part easier. Getting out of his bed had been hard. Now she slipped back into her clothes as she gathered them and several minutes and a quick trip to the bathroom for him later, they were both fully clothed again.
“I guess there’s no sense in telling you that you don’t have to walk me to my car?”
He shook his head. “If you won’t stay, I’ll walk you out.”
“I can’t.” She grabbed her phone. “What if we video chat while I walk? You can see me, but you don’t have to go out in the cold.”
“Not going to happen. I was raised better than that.”
“I know. That’s why you called me ma’am the day we met.” When he frowned, she laughed. “You did. I was trying to work up the courage to ask if you’d want to get a drink sometime and I don’t even remember what we were talking about, but you called me ma’am.”
“No shit? You were going to ask me out?”
“I was.”
“It’s just a habit.”
She rose up on her toes to kiss him. “I know that now, but at the time I didn’t think it was the kind of thing a man called a woman he might want to have drinks with.”
“I can’t believe I missed out on you this whole time because of that. Next time, I’ll definitely make sure we get at least as far as the couch.”
* * *
By lunchtime on Friday, Gavin was seriously dragging ass. He’d gone to bed mostly on time because they really had to be careful about Cait’s sleep schedule since nobody wanted treatment from a sleep-deprived EMT.
But getting out of bed to walk her to her car each night tended to wake him up enough so he had trouble falling asleep. Last night she’d fallen asleep in his bed and this morning had been chaos as she raced to leave his place and get home to change, while he tried to get ready for his shift. Throw in the fact that a higher volume than usual of idiots who totally forgot how to drive in Boston in the winter were starting to add up and he’d like nothing more than to go upstairs and crash in his bunk for an hour or six.
Unfortunately, they were doing visual inspections of the lines, which were stretched down the length of the bays and onto the sidewalk, and nobody got excused from that.
When his phone vibrated in his pocket, he stood and pulled it out, hoping it was Cait. These days, that was always his response to his phone going off. I hope it’s Cait.
And he wasn’t disappointed. Are you busy?
He was, but he was tired and a few seconds wouldn’t make a difference. Yeah, but I have a sec.
Carter’s been talking about playing basketball, but I think he’s feeling awkward about sending you a text message.
Gavin wanted to make a comment along the lines of how, if you wanted to run with the big dogs, you had to be able to send a text and not have your older sister do it. But he was the one who’d brought up basketball in the first place, so he took the high road.
Can he walk to the firehouse? It was between his place and Cait’s mom’s house.
Yes.
Tell him to meet me there at 8am if he wants to play ball tomorrow. If something changes and I can’t go, I’ll try to text.
After a few seconds, he got a reply. He’ll be there. Thank you, Gavin.
Do you want to play, too? If there was one unwritten rule of their Saturday morning games, it was no women. But Scott had brought Jamie a couple of times, so he was willing to risk it.
I want to play, but not basketball.
Damn. Twenty-four-hour shifts were really a pain in the ass sometimes. Best of seven series?
LOL. We’ll start with a best of three series and see how it goes.
He laughed, and then remembered where he was. Sure enough, the guys had all stopped what they were doing to look at him.
“Something you’d like to share with the entire class, Boudreau?” Rick asked.
“No way in hell, LT.”
“Tell her goodbye and let’s go.”
Gotta go back to work. Talk soon.
Be safe.
He slid his phone back in his pocket and gave his full attention back to the job at hand. They had to tell dispatch they were temporarily off-line when they checked the lines, so the faster they were done, the sooner they were back on the job.
“Cait’s brother’s going to play ball with us tomorrow morning.”
“Uh-oh. Getting in with the family now. Shit’s getting serious.”
“I invited him to play before Cait and I... Before she even borrowed my apartment. What about you and Wren? You guys get to the meeting-the-family point yet?”
Grant shook his head, frowning at the line stretched out in front of him. “Not yet. Meeting my family means going to New Hampshire and I think she’s still not ready for a road trip together. And she doesn’t really talk about her family, I guess.”
“Lucky you,” Gavin said, maybe more wryly than he should have.
“Nothing changed on that front?” He shook his head. “Now that I think about it, it’s kind of strange how little I know about Wren’s family. She’s pretty good at changing the subject, I guess.”
“You said you thought she’d been through some stuff. Maybe it has to do with them. I wouldn’t poke too much. If there’s something to tell, she’ll tell you when she’s ready.”
“Yeah. And in the meantime, we’ll shoot some hoops with your girlfriend’s little brother.”
The way he said it made Gavin nervous. “Okay, but that whole thing where we talk about shit while we play ball? Like women and stuff? That can’t happen.”
“You mean talking about sex? That’s the only reason I show up.”
“We’re not talking about my sex life in front of the woman’s little brother.”
“Of course we’re not. Jesus, I was kidding.” Grant threw up his hands. “Seriously, do you think I was raised by wolves or something?”
“Hell if I know. You were raised in New Hampshire, so who knows? I’ve heard stories.”
“You are such an asshole.”
“You’re both assholes,” Scott said. “Quit running your mouths and get back to work.”
* * *
The next morning, Gavin, Grant and Aidan hung back when the tour ended since it didn’t make sense for them all to go home and then meet again at the gym. Especially Aidan, since he and Lydia had bought a house in the suburbs. She didn’t like getting up early after closing the bar, so Aidan was a regular at the Saturday morning games.
When it was time, Gavin walked down the stairs and outside to find a sleepy-looking teenager standing on the sidewalk, trying not to shiver because he was too cool to wear a coat. “Hey, Carter.”
“It is so early, dude.”
“Best time to shoot hoops. You get a little exercise in the morning and have energy to get a bunch of shit done during the day.” He nodded for the kid to follow him and headed for the lot where he parked his truck. “Plus, if we went home and made plans to play later in the day, none of us would show up. Going straight from work is the only way it happens.”
The other guys greeted them with a general hey when they arrived, though he did introduce Carter to Aidan and Grant, since they worked with him.
They played for almost two hours, which was longer than usual for them, but Carter seemed to be having a good time. He relaxed pretty quickly and even laughed a few times, and he got more aggressive with the ball as he got to know the other guys.
But once they had to hand the gym over to the next group, the others left pretty quickly. As they walked back to his truck, Carter relived some of the highlights of the game, and Gavin laughed at a few of them.
It had been a good morning, and he was glad he’d invited him. Not just for Cait’s sake, but because he liked the kid. They didn’t have a lot in common, but he was smart and funny, like his sister.
“So I guess you and my sister are hooking up?” Carter asked once they were on the road, killing the good mood.
Gavin tamped down the verbal cuff upside the head he wanted to give the kid for being disrespectful and counted to ten. Maybe that was what his generation called dating nowadays, for all Gavin knew.
“Cait and I are seeing each other,” he corrected.
“Cool.”
Gavin waited, but that seemed to be all Carter had to say on the matter. “She’s a pretty awesome lady.”
“She’s not bad,” Carter said, his mouth quirking up in a rare show of humor. “We’d be pretty fucked without her.”
He knew he had to tread carefully here, because putting his finger in Cait’s family business behind her back wouldn’t go over well with her. On the other hand, she had to know when she agreed Carter could use some guy time, that he might vent.
“I think you’d do okay,” he said. “I know losing your dad was a hard blow, but your mom has raised three kids. She can handle things if Cait finds her own place.”
Or moves in with me, he thought, and then he had to clench his jaw to keep from cursing out loud. Apparently his brain was on fast-forward, because they were nowhere near that yet. If they got there at all.
But, man, it would be sweet to have Cait waiting for him at home. Or to be waiting there for her when her shift was done.
Carter shrugged, picking imaginary lint or bugs or something off the truck door. “I know Cait will move back out someday, but I hope it’s not for a long time.”
That was the opposite of what Gavin hoped, though he wouldn’t say so. “It would be an adjustment, but you’d be okay. And it’s not like she’d move to Wisconsin or anything. She’d stay close by.”
“Do you know why Cait moved back into the house?”
“To help you and your mom out. Managing everything yourself can be overwhelming if you’re used to having a partner to help out.”
“She moved back in the day I came home from being out with my friends and found my mom crying on the kitchen floor and she wouldn’t get up. She just kept saying she wished she had died, too.”
“And Cait was afraid your mom would try to hurt herself?”
“We both were.”
Gavin rubbed a hand over his jaw, trying to figure out what to say, while also trying to process the new information. Cait hadn’t moved home just because her mother couldn’t figure out how to pay the bills or unclog a sink. She’d been afraid for her and maybe she was afraid of what could happen if she left too soon.
As tempting as it was to find a place to park so he could really focus, he also knew from experience that kind of focus could make a young man clam up. Sometimes it was easier to talk while there was something else to focus on.
“I think she’s better now,” Carter continued. “I don’t know if she really wanted to hurt herself then, either. I think she just wasn’t eating or sleeping and she was trying to pretend to me that everything was okay, and she just had some kind of a breakdown. But Cait said we couldn’t take a chance like that.”
“She’s right.” Gavin took a right turn, buying them a few more minutes in the truck. He wasn’t sure if Carter noticed or not. “Maybe it’s like a well. Your mom fell all the way to the bottom and she’s been climbing out. And maybe Cait’s pulling on the rope a bit and keeping her from falling back down, but your mom still has to climb. And she will get out of that well.”
“I know.” Through the corner of his eye, Gavin saw the boy nod and it seemed as if his back was a little straighter. Then he looked over at him. “Do you have an Xbox?”
“Nah. I never really got into it, but my buddy Grant has a PlayStation and sometimes he kicks my ass at Madden NFL.”
Carter talked about video games until they got near his house, and then he gave directions. He had Gavin pull over in front of a small blue cape and unbuckled his seat belt. “Do you want to come in and meet my mom?”
“I would, but since Cait and I are dating, I should probably wait until she invites me over to meet your mother.”
“Yeah, probably. Cait’s working today. She wasn’t supposed to, but she picks up extra shifts on the weekends sometimes because it’s good money.” He hopped out, but hesitated a second before closing the door. “Thanks for letting me shoot hoops with you guys today.”
“Anytime, Carter.”
As he drove away, Gavin drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. The information Carter had shared added new layers to Cait’s life that he had no business picking at. And being another layer of her life wouldn’t be easy for him.
But, blowing out a breath, he made the only decision he could make. He’d be patient and see where things went because it was still early, but he was pretty sure Cait was worth it.