Page 52 of If This is Love

“Yep.” He clinked my glass with his. “Welcome to the Point, Ruth.”

14

GABE

ALGIERS POINT, NEW ORLEANS

About a month after Ruth spilled her guts and a few silent tears at the Old Point, I decided I was perfectly content with what this relationship had turned into:

A tight, platonic friendship. Even if it was a tight, platonic friendship with my fantasy woman in the flesh, whom I was now more in love with than I had been the entire time I knew my ex-wife.

But never mind that.

“Okay, I need a favor,” Ruth blurted out through huffs and puffs while we were on the last leg of our morning run with the dogs—and yeah. We’d been running in the morning together every day, and it was fuckinggreat. Just because I couldn’t put my hands orotherbody parts on her in the way Ireally, reallywanted to, it didn’t make this relationship any less great.

Even though I still believed it would bebeyondgreat if we changed that and got rid of theplatonicpart.

“Shoot,” I replied, keeping pace with her while we pushed through the last incline. “Whatever you need.”

She hesitated a second before speaking. “Are you free today?”

I cast her a side eye. “If you need me to be.”

“Well, Skye, Chloe, and I are going over to Tulane to pick up a young lady. Brennan’s at the airfield all day today, and I don’t like us going over there without a man.” She paused again, catching her breath. “I don’t know if that’s my issues talking because Skye just brushed it off. But sometimes I feel like she’s sort of accustomed to being in harm’s way, and she always says, ‘Well, none of the girls we’re picking up have the luxury of having a man protecting them here, so why should we insist on that luxury?’ And I completely understand where she’s coming from, but I would feel more comfortable if you were there with us.”

“Uhyeah.” I scoffed amidst my controlled breathing. I knew enough about Tulane Avenue in terms of where all these women were coming from to know Ruth, Skye, and Chloe had no business going there by themselves. And if Brennan wasn’t going, it was going to have to be me. I didn’t know what Luke was up to today either, but I knew both he and Brennan would want me there if they knew these ladies were trying to do this without someone there to make sure nobody fucked with them. “I’ll go with y’all.”

“Oh, you’re the absolutebest,” Ruth gushed, her hand flying sideways to grab mine and squeeze for a second before she let go.

“Nah.”

“Yeah,” she echoed, mimicking me, and I smiled. I’d done that more in the past month than I ever had since before the USMC wrecked me. And what could I say?

What I had with Ruth now was almosteverything I could possibly want.

Almost.

* * *

Chloe wouldn’t stop bouncingher leg the entire drive from Algiers Point to Tulane. She was in the backseat of my truck with Gunner, and I was driving, and the only reason I knew she was bouncing her leg for the whole drive is because she was literally kicking my ass through my seat. And by the time we rolled past the medical center, my left eye was starting to twitch.

“I’m being ridiculous, Ruth,” she was saying. “I already know that. I’ve been ridiculous through this whole process. Luke is honestly asaint.” The kicking against my ass stopped only long enough for Chloe to reach between the front seats and pat the side of my arm. “Your brother is asaint.”

I smirked at the taillights in front of me. “Don’t go telling him that or his head’ll get so big it’ll just fall right off his neck.”

They both broke into chortling laughter, and Ruth’s hand suddenly squeezed my knee as she said through a snicker, “You always crack me up.”

Could I just pause time and let this microsecond exist in perpetuity?

Of course not.

Ruth slipped her hand away from my knee and turned in her seat to look back at Chloe. “You’re not, though, friend. It’s not ridiculous. And it’s not even solely because of your illness.” She waved her elegant hand in a wide arc, wafting the subtle scent of her lotion into my nose, and I literally had to imagine a stinking pile of dog shit to keep the blood from rushing to my dick—and it didn’t even completely work. I was pulling up to the curb with a half-mast boner, and I was going to have to get out of the truck with him like this, the poor old fucker. And I meant my cockandmyself. “Don’t even get me started with how terrible of an example the fashion industry has set, andnobodylooks good in dressing room mirrors. Those can make anyone’s self-esteem take a hit. It’s like theywantpeople to look bad in there. That’s a lot of triggers on top of what you’re already dealing with,andit’s yourwedding. The pressure is already on. It’s just a lot. You’re not ridiculous.”

Chloe made a noise that sounded like a half-laugh, half-whimper. “God, Ruth. I seriously freaking love you.”

Oh, and here came my treacherous-as-fuck imagination again. Today it was reminding me of howadorableit would be if Ruth and I got together, and we werecouple bestieswith Luke and Chloejust like the Deneau-Riley Quad-Squad. Yes, that would beso cute. Thank you, brain.

Thanks for not onlynothelping, but also making everything worse.

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