Page 14 of If This is Love

Did I just hallucinate that?

A car horn blared, shaking me completely back to reality, and Jax jerked my arm as he leaped forward, and it all happened too quickly.

The horn, the jerk of the leash, the jelly-like weakness in my spent legs, another damn manhole cover, a jarring, smarting collision with something hard, and then nothing but darkness.

GABE

ALGIERS POINT, NEW ORLEANS

“Youdo not control me,” I growled, hands on my hips while I paced in front of one of my kitchen counters. “Iam in complete control of myself, and I don’t need you.”

Gunner, who was patiently observing the confrontation from the opposite corner of the kitchen, muttered a low grunt as his paws slowly slid on the tile, and he sprawled out on the floor.

I glanced back at him and realized, one: this was ridiculous, and two: going for our usual morning run was way more effective at squashing my nicotine cravings than barking at the pack of smokes anyway.

I stood up straight and crossed my arms over my chest, leveling my gaze on the pack. “Not today. Not even one. Awholeday without any.” I looked at Gunner and clicked my tongue. “Should we go, brother?”

He immediately pushed up off the floor, his tail steadily swaying from side to side.

I pulled the door open and jerked my head toward the outside, and he scampered out and down the steps. “Pace yourself, old man.”

I shut the door behind me and jogged down the steps. Gunner was stamping his feet while he impatiently waited on the sidewalk, and the second I reached him, he was ready to run.

“You’re gonna be so friggin’ exhausted that you’ll be passing out all over the place by ten a.m.,” I grumbled, picking up my own pace to the speed he was reaching for.

We zipped up the street, and he was still barreling toward the end of the street like he was on a damn mission. If we did the entire six miles at this speed… no, wecouldn’tdo the entire six miles at this speed. This was a damnsprint.

A high-pitched whistle pealed from my lips. “Gunner,slow,” I snapped.

He immediately complied, dialing back his pace to a more manageable jog about a hundred yards from where the sidewalk ended at the boulevard that flanked the levee. I side-eyed Gunner’s uncharacteristic behavior for a second before I turned toward the path again, and I nearly tripped over my own feet.

Shewas right there. Just standing in the middle of the street.

Ruth.

My imaginary girlfriend who’d somehow shown up in the flesh as the director of one of my current contracts.

The fact that she wasright thereout of absolutelynowherewas startling enough by itself, but the surprise quickly morphed into cold, hard, laser-like focus when I saw a car coming around the bend on the far side of the Old Point Bar.

I broke into a sprint again, and Gunner immediately matched my speed. “Ruth!”

She was far enough away that my voice might not have carried all the way to her because she didn’t respond. She was just staring at something in front of her while a lean black lab sat obediently at her feet, and the car was only a few yards from finishing the curve and potentially not seeing them before it could brake.

Gunner and I sprinted faster.

The driver blasted the horn at Ruth, and then it didn’t matter how fast we were sprinting, everything moved in slow motion.

The horn caused the black dog to dart toward the sidewalk, jerking Ruth’s arm in the process, her legs not being able to catch up to him quickly enough, the car slowly swerving around them, her shoe catching on something, and her taking flight.

It was three seconds that felt like three years of trying to run through jello.

She landed hard. I still wasn’t quite to her yet, and the motherfucker behind the wheel didn’t even fuckingstop.

In one glance, I mentally catalogued the make, model, and approximate year of the car so I could deal with them if I ever saw them again, and by then I’d finally reached her. She’d fallen forward, catching herself with her hands and knees before momentum rolled her onto her side. Fortunately, her dog had jerked her far enough that she was mostly on the sloping sidewalk rather than the road.

I snapped at Gunner, commanding him to occupy the other dog so I could tend to Ruth, and I knelt on the ground next to her.

“Ruth,” I said, gently setting my hand on the side of her arm. “Can you hear me?”

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