Page 59 of For Always
“Monica Lakefield, that’s what you said your name is right? Okay, well Monica you and Alex Bennett can follow me upstairs. We have a guest room you can use to freshen up and get yourselves together while we wait for Dr. Morrison to finish up with Gabriella.”
“Tyler, you and Jagger need to finish dealing with all the commotion out there. Sheriff Alvarez will want to speak to you both but Clyde says for you to meet him in the office so he can talk to you first.”
There was silence after her commands were given and no movement.
“Go!” Dessie yelled and snapped her fingers.
Jagger moved first and Tyler looked at Gabriella. “I’ll just be in the next room. I’m coming right back when I’m finished. Don’t you move.”
She shook her head. “I won’t.”
Good, he thought. That was good. And before Tyler left the room he bent down and touched his lips to hers.
“Don’t you move,” he whispered again.
“I won’t,” she replied and kissed him back.
“Alex spoke to the detective in Connecticut just before dinner. He said they’re looking for Austin and don’t believe he’s left town. He hasn’t been at work for the last two weeks. They say he’s on vacation.” Tyler talked while moving around the bedroom.
He was checking all the windows to make sure they were locked. He even went into the bathroom to check the small window in there before coming back to see that Gabriella was still sitting up in bed, where she’d taken her dinner about an hour ago. Tyler stayed with her while the rest of the family had eaten downstairs in the dining room.
“Great,” Gabriella sighed. “He’s on the loose in Connecticut and a killer’s on the loose here. What kind of times are we living in that these things can happen? I mean, what is going through people’s minds these days?”
“I don’t know,” Tyler replied. “But all I’m concerned about right now is keeping you safe. So everything is locked up tight. Jagger and Alex checked everything downstairs.”
“Did Dessie leave?”
“Yes, thank God,” Tyler said with a sigh. “I thought she would collapse from running around here barking orders the way she did all day.
“It’s her way of helping,” Gabriella told him.
She’d wanted to thank Dessie for being there for her yet again. Gabriella had meant it when she’d said they were like her family now. Dessie and Clyde, they had been seeing to her needs since the day she stepped off the plane and arrived here in Hobbs Creek. From getting her the rental car to setting up this job. And when she was prepared to leave they’d even offered to drive her to the airport and return the rental car for her. She cared about them deeply.
Jagger, on the other hand, Gabriella could only shake her head when she thought of him. Tyler’s too smart for his own good brother had grown on her in this past week, especially after she’d seen how truly hurt he was over Brooke’s betrayal. He’d fallen in love with the wrong person. Gabriella could certainly relate to that.
Now her brother and Monica were here. This entire house was filled with her family. And Tyler. She clenched the sheets between her fingers and felt the weight in her chest growing heavier. Because she knew she was still lying to them all.
“Did Sheriff Alvarez leave?”
It wasn’t what she meant to say, but Gabriella swore she was going to get to it. She just didn’t want to freak out the way she had earlier. Causing her own minor concussion was embarrassing enough without a repeat performance.
“Yes,” Tyler said when he finally sat on the other side of the bed. He bent over and was taking off his shoes. “Clyde told him we would all give our statements tomorrow. Sheriff wasn’t terribly happy about that, but unless he comes back with an arrest warrant, that’s how it has to be for now.”
“He probably wants to ask us about the incident at the restaurant.”
“Why do you say that?”
She shrugged. “It just makes sense. We have a very public confrontation with Hannah and the next morning she turns up dead, on your property.”
“We’re not murderers.”
“No.” She agreed. “We’re not. We’re lovers?”
He shook his head and moved over on the bed until he was sitting right beside her. “We’re more than that, Gabriella. At least I want us to be.”
He’d taken her hand and Gabriella looked down as he twined his fingers with hers. “I think I’d like that, too. But first, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Ok, I’m listening,” he said and then waited.
