“Gabe, I met your . . . friend today when I was out taking a walk. Imagine my surprise. I’ve never known you to have a visitor, other than family.”
He refused to explain himself to her. He had no idea what Sara had told her, but obviously she’d gone the safe route if Melanie was fishing for information. Once again, he knew he was being rude, but he didn’t feel like dealing with her. Take a fucking hint. “Did you need something, Melanie?” He knew she caught his deliberate omission of her nickname. He didn’t miss the tightening of her lips, before they curved into one of her fake grins.
“Oh, I just popped inside to wash my hands after petting the—Trouble. And you know how us girls lose track of time when we’re chatting.”
“I didn’t notice your car out front. Did you walk all this way?” Shit, I’m not taking her home. He was grateful when she waved a hand before saying, “Oh, I left it at Mr. Jenkins’s place. I got some of his mail by accident, so I had to drop it off. Figured I’d get in some extra steps while I was out.”
He was still screwed because it was dark outside, and regardless of how he felt about her, he would never let a woman roam around alone at night. Especially when she was at his house. “I need to take Trouble out, so if you’ll get your things, we’ll make sure you get there safely.” He saw it, the gleam of satisfaction she didn’t conceal quite fast enough.
She stood and turned to Sara. “It was lovely to meet you. It’s great having another woman around my age up here. Let’s get together for lunch one day. If the weather cooperates, we could even drive into town. I don’t know about you, but I could use a dose of civilization.”
Sara shrugged her shoulders. “I really enjoy being away from the hustle and bustle of the city. It’s so peaceful and relaxing here.”
Melanie smirked. “Let’s see if you say the same thing after a long winter. Oh wait, you won’t be here that long, will you?” It was all said in a friendly tone, but she didn’t fool him. Unless he missed his guess, Melanie was anything but thrilled to have Sara here. She was the type who liked men—period. Women, not so much, as she inevitably viewed them as competition. She didn’t discriminate by age either, as far as he could tell. He had discovered from spending time with her that she was basically an insecure person who needed her ego fed on a regular basis. He figured it was a by-product of her husband’s infidelity, although she’d never admitted that.
Sara didn’t comment, but he thought he saw her jaw clench. There was no way she could have missed the underlying meaning in the other woman’s comments. Heck, even Trouble had probably picked up on it. If he’d paid attention to his dog’s disdain for Melanie when they’d first met, he’d have saved himself a lot of aggravation.
Trouble jumped up when he opened the front door. Gabe usually didn’t bother putting him on a leash when they were staying close to home. He’d never had an issue with him running off. Melanie said good-bye to Sara before sauntering ahead of him. The whole sexy stride was wasted on him, since he wasn’t vaguely tempted to check out her ass. Now Sara’s was a different story. If she caught him even half the times he’d been staring at her body, she’d have gone home by now. He couldn’t help it. Despite his reservations, the attraction he felt toward her was stronger than ever. “I’ll be right back,” he told her, and she nodded in acknowledgment. His last thought as he turned away was how natural she looked there among his things. As if both he and the house had been waiting for her. Am I losing my mind? First my dog loves her and now my house? Maybe I—
For once, he was actually grateful to Melanie for distracting him from the disturbing place his mind was intent on going. “Well, she certainly showed up out of thin air, Gabe. Imagine my surprise when I ran into her near your driveway. I thought maybe she’d gotten lost or her car had broken down on the main road. But—I recognized your dog.” She paused, waiting for an explanation that he wasn’t inclined to give. After a long moment passed, she made a sound that was full of exasperation. “Are you sure she isn’t related to you? Because both of you are so evasive.”
He smothered a grin at the frustration in her voice. Apparently Sara had closed her down, and she wasn’t happy about it. He’d always been a private person, and he liked that Sara was as well. “Possibly because it’s none of your business, Melanie,” he said pleasantly. She’d fallen a few steps behind him, but he didn’t miss her gasp.
“We—we’re all friends, Gabe. We watch out for each other. Don’t you think you should tell the rest of us when you have a visitor staying with you? What if I’d called the police, thinking she was a burglar?”
He’d had it. He was sick and damned tired of these games with her. The gloves were coming off, and she wasn’t going to like it. When he reached the next streetlight, he stopped, pivoting to face her. She was momentarily startled, then wary. “Let’s cut the shit, shall we? You couldn’t care less about any of that. What you’re outraged over is that a woman is living with me and you know nothing about her or our relationship. And guess what? You’re not going to, because I don’t owe you or anyone else here an explanation for what I do, or who I do it with.”
She held out a placating hand, knowing she’d overplayed her hand. “Gabe—I didn’t mean—”
But it was far too late for that. This talk was long overdue. He tried to avoid conflict, but in his line of work, he knew how to push emotion and sentiment to the side and focus on the task at hand. “What we had is over. You’ve mistaken politeness for permission to meddle. And that is my fault for leaving any room for doubt. So let me be very clear, Melanie. I do not have feelings for you. Nothing is going to happen between us again. We are neighbors—and that’s it. I’m not playing these games with you, nor will you attempt to do it with Sara. Truthfully, I’ve never trusted you, and I certainly don’t now. Do you understand me?”
She averted her eyes, but he still saw the anger there. “I apologize for overstepping,” she said stiffly. He half expected a show of fake tears, but she was either too startled or too pissed over what he’d said to fake it.
They resumed walking in silence. Even Trouble was subdued, as if sensing the tension in the air. She’ll probably run us over with her car. When they reached Old Man Jenkins’s place, she went directly to her vehicle. “Drive safely,” he said in way of good-bye. She tossed a hand up that was more in line with giving him the finger than a wave. He didn’t care, though. He’d been the bad guy more times than he could count in his career, and he’d long ago learned not to lose sleep over it. He was never an asshole without it being warranted. If someone did right by him, he’d do everything in his power for them in return. But he absolutely loathed people who said one thing but did another. The pretenders of the world were toxic and would contaminate everything around them if left unchecked.