Right Where We Belong (Silver Springs #4)(68)

The keys Gavin had pulled from his pocket cut into the palm of his hand, making him realize he was squeezing them too tight. “Did the doctor check to see if the baby’s okay?” he asked, easing his grip.

“He didn’t do an ultrasound, if that’s what you mean. He told me I should get one in the next few weeks, when I go back to my ob-gyn. He checked the baby’s heartbeat, though. Scott didn’t hit me in the stomach or anywhere close. So the doctor doesn’t think we have any reason to worry.”

We. She was talking as though they were already together, already concerned parents.

“The baby’s so tiny right now it’s well protected,” she added.

It was easier to focus on Scott and the anger Scott’s actions provoked than to sift through the mixed feelings he had about having a child with Heather, so that was what he did. “I’m going to have to have a talk with Scott. I’ve tried not to let this situation turn into some kind of feud, but he has to understand that there are consequences to what he’s done, has to know I won’t tolerate anything like this ever happening again.”

“Gavin, no,” she said. “I don’t want you to get involved. Please stay away from him. He’s been arrested, so the police will take care of any consequences. I plan on pressing charges.”

How much time would Scott get if she was going to be okay? Chances were it’d go on his rap sheet, and he’d have to pay Heather’s medical bills and perform some community service.

That wasn’t enough, not in Gavin’s opinion. But Scott was in jail, at least for the time being, so Gavin couldn’t do anything tonight. He needed to calm down.

“Where were you earlier?” she asked as they reached the automatic doors, which whooshed open to disgorge them into a quiet, moonless night. “Why didn’t you answer my earlier calls and texts?”

He didn’t see any reason to make her night worse by telling her he hadn’t wanted to hear from her so he’d been ignoring her attempts to reach him, or that he’d been spending every minute he wasn’t engaged in something that required his full concentration thinking of someone else. So he kept his answer vague. “I was so exhausted by the time I got home from work, I went to bed. I wouldn’t have seen your last text, either, if someone hadn’t run into my truck while it was parked in my drive. The crash is what woke me, right before you tried to call.”

Her eyes widened. “Someone hit your truck? You just bought that last year!”

He shrugged. “Shit happens, I guess.”

“But how’d something like that happen all the way out where you live?”

“I have a neighbor now.”

“Savanna.”

He didn’t ask how she knew Savanna’s name. He already knew they’d met. “Yeah. Her mother-in-law wrecked into it and then took off.”

“You’re kidding! A hit-and-run? But...Savanna will give you her contact information, won’t she?”

“Of course. She feels terrible.”

“Was her mother-in-law drunk or something?”

“Savanna doesn’t know what got into her.” Gavin used Savanna’s key fob to unlock the doors of the car and opened the passenger side for Heather.

Heather blinked at the Fusion as though she was only now seeing it. Apparently, she’d been too intent on the conversation and letting him guide her through the lot to pay any attention to the vehicle they were approaching. “Whose car is this?”

“Savanna’s.”

“She let you take it?”

“You were in trouble. And my pickup wasn’t drivable.”

“It’s that badly damaged?”

“I’m not sure. I might be able to pull the metal away from the back tire. This was just easier, since I was in a hurry.”

“How nice of her to step up,” she said, but Gavin heard the caution and displeasure in her voice. She didn’t like Savanna, simply because she feared he might.

He wished he could tell her that she was silly to feel threatened. But he couldn’t bring himself to play her that false, not when what’d happened outside less than an hour ago was so fresh in his mind. If he closed his eyes, he could still smell Savanna, still feel her smooth skin and taste her soft lips.

*

Savanna told herself to go to sleep. She needed the rest. She had kids, couldn’t sleep late in the morning. But she couldn’t seem to nod off. She kept thinking about the strange way Dorothy had acted on the porch, from the second she’d mentioned Emma Ventnor’s name, what’d happened afterward at Gavin’s truck, how quickly a few words between them had turned into so much more and whether Gavin was spending the rest of the night with Heather in the hospital.

Would he bring her home with him in the morning?

Savanna hated the thought that she might bump into Heather on a routine basis. She lived so close to Gavin, and they were so isolated, that it would feel as if she had a front row seat to Heather’s advancing pregnancy. That she cringed whenever she imagined Heather’s baby really did belong to Gavin wasn’t fair, and she would be the first to admit it. She didn’t have any claim on him. Maybe it would actually be easier once they moved to Nashville...

Fluffing her pillow, she rolled over and again tried to quiet her mind. But after spending another ten minutes tossing and turning, she leaned up on her elbow and grabbed her phone. She hadn’t heard an alert but hoped maybe she’d missed that telltale ping. She’d tried to reach Dorothy at least ten times. Had Gordon’s mother finally responded? She’d hit Gavin’s truck, for crying out loud. Surely, she’d have to explain her behavior—and be held accountable for it—at some point.