Right Where We Belong (Silver Springs #4)(82)

Even worse, she’d liked being with him, and now she couldn’t quit thinking of that night and the one where they’d made love up against his truck. If Branson hadn’t come into the house when he did today at the barbecue, she might’ve found herself with yet another memory like that—this one at Aiyana’s, no less!

“You’re screwed up, or there’s more to that rebound business than you’ve ever cared to believe,” she told herself. But when she’d first slept with Gavin, she hadn’t thought she was truly getting involved with him. She’d thought it would be an isolated event, a temporary escape. One night of companionship. One night of forgetting.

Why couldn’t either one of them seem to leave it at that?

Reese’s call transferred to her voice mail, but once she sent Branson to shower in the hall bathroom and Alia to shower in the master bath, she carried her phone out on the porch to listen to his message.

“Hey, finals are over and I managed to do okay. I’m one step closer to becoming Dr. Pearce. This is such a long process. Anyway, call me, will you? We need to catch up.”

He’d been so busy with school and the new girl he’d been dating that she’d hardly heard from him since she moved to Silver Springs. He’d texted her a few times to check in, but she hadn’t called him nearly as often as before. She got the impression he thought she was going to be okay now that she was out of Nephi, that she was forging ahead with her life. And that was mostly true. He didn’t need to know the rest. She hadn’t wanted to disturb him if he was under pressure, or say anything that might let him know she was actually creating problems in this new place.

After summoning the mental wherewithal, she returned his call.

“There you are,” he said when he picked up.

“Sorry, I was at a swim party earlier and was trying to get the kids in the shower so they can wash the chlorine out of their hair.”

“A swim party, huh? You must be making friends.”

She would like to believe that Eli, Cora, Aiyana and Roger were now her friends, not to mention the others she’d met. They’d all been so nice. But they were still just acquaintances. Gavin was her only friend, and she wasn’t even sure she could call him that. People didn’t typically dream about making love with their friends, did they?

“Yeah, things are going well,” she said, which wasn’t a complete lie. The house was coming together. Thanks to what Gavin had done, and what James Glenn had accomplished, she now had all basic appliances, a sturdy new bridge over the creek, patches in the Sheetrock where bullets had created holes and several new lighting fixtures. She was shopping for new carpet, believed she’d soon find something she could afford. And she had more improvements scheduled in the next couple of weeks, including the dry rot repair Gavin had said he’d do next Saturday. On top of all that, Branson hadn’t wet the bed for several days, so he seemed to be doing better. It was only the possibility that Gordon had murdered Emma Ventnor, and that Savanna somehow needed to get that information out of him—and her love life, of course—that were giving her problems right now.

“Glad to hear it.”

“You coming out?” she asked.

“I can’t. Not right away. I have such a small window before classes start up again, and work is crazy. We’re short on bartenders, so I’m putting in a lot more hours than I’d like to be. Once they hire someone else, I’ll be able to fly over for a few days, though. Shouldn’t be too much longer.”

“No problem. I’d rather have the house further along, anyway, so you can see what it’s going to look like.”

“What’s left to do?”

“A fairly long list. I need to put on a new roof, for one, but we’ll be getting to the cosmetic stuff soon. That’s when it’ll get fun.”

“Do you have enough money?”

She’d have to get a job in a few months. No way could she take a year off as she’d hoped. Everything cost far more than she’d budgeted. But the kids would be in school by the time she had to find work, so she wouldn’t need to hire a babysitter, except for maybe a couple of hours after school, so that was good. “For now.”

“And you’re comfortable living out in the country?”

Thanks to Gavin, she was. She loved having him so close. Maybe she’d screwed up when she slept with him, but she figured she shouldn’t be too hard on herself. He had a way with women, a magnetism that wasn’t necessarily apparent at first glance but grabbed hold soon after. Besides, she’d needed someone, and he’d been there for her. The move would’ve been so much harder without him. “Yeah. I’m happy here, glad I came,” she said, which reminded her that she’d soon be traveling back to Nephi, so they talked about Emma Ventnor and what she hoped to accomplish when she visited Gordon.

Reese didn’t like what Sullivan had asked her to do any more than Gavin did, but she told her brother the same thing she’d told her neighbor: she didn’t feel as though she had any choice, not if there was any chance of recovering Emma, or even her body.

“You don’t really believe Gordon will screw up and say anything, do you?” Reese said. “He’s not stupid.”

“He’s definitely not stupid, but he should be feeling a measure of panic, which might make him reveal something he wouldn’t under normal circumstances. At least, that’s the logic. Sullivan thinks if I get him angry he won’t be watching what’s coming out of his mouth.”