The Hookup (Moonlight and Motor Oil #1)(119)

Perry was awarded one weekend a month of visitation.

He came and got Brooks twice and then never came again.

He also paid child support twice and never paid it again.

During this time, Addie very poorly hid she was falling in love with Toby.

For his part, Toby very poorly hid that he was falling in love with Addie.

Brooks, however, didn’t bother hiding he’d gone head over heels for both the Gamble men.

And just to say, all that was very fun to watch play out.

Deanna and Margot thought so too.

Though Johnny didn’t agree with us.



Johnny didn’t get down on a knee.

But there was champagne and roses on his dining room table and the steaks he made with the garlic and herb cheese I loved so much.

He’d duped me.

First, he cooked all the time. He cooked because he was home first and said he was hungry.

But I knew he did it for me.

Steaks were special but he was a good cook so everything he made was fantastic.

Also, when I moved in, he found out I hit Macy’s Flower Shop every Friday. So he started to have flowers delivered every Thursday.

That was Johnny Gamble.

Yes.

That was my Johnny.

They’d broken ground on the stables that day. The day he proposed. We’d approved plans within a week of him finding a contractor he wanted to go with. They didn’t have a lot of time before there was a danger the ground might freeze so Johnny was paying for double the manpower so I could have Serengeti and Amaretto with me.

I didn’t say a word.

I should have known when I came home and there was a pink shoebox sitting on the island that contained the pair of tie-strap, suede Alexandre Birman sandals I’d been rhapsodizing about on the laptop when Deanna was over the week before.

He was trying to throw me off the scent by being doubly generous.

It worked.

After I put my new wineglass down and was about to pick up my fork and knife to resume eating my steak, he’d murmured, “Give me your hand, sp?tzchen.”

I’d looked at him and reached out my right hand.

“Other one, Izzy.”

My breath caught and I gave him my left.

He was right.

The ring was extraordinary.

I loved it.

So much, we didn’t finish dinner.



That night, the night of the ring, I didn’t know what woke me.

But I woke.

I realized I was alone in the bed instantly.

I turned.

Johnny was outside, bathed in moonlight, wearing sweatpants and a half-zip sweatshirt with a high collar.

He was standing at the railing, staring through the dark at the creek.

I pulled back the covers and walked down the hall to the bathroom and into the closet with three dogs trailing me (Toby had given Addie and Brooks a rescue, half ridgeback, half we didn’t know. See? Poorly hiding the falling-in-love thing).

I yanked on a pair of Johnny’s thick socks, moved to a different drawer and tugged another of his sweatshirts over my head to cover his tee I was already wearing.

Then me and our dogs headed back out, down the hall, to the door.

We also headed out of it to see Johnny looking our way, frowning.

“Eliza, your legs.”

It was cold, for certain.

I assumed.

I didn’t feel it.

It was then I discovered his ring held magical powers.

It warmed me through and through.

I just walked up to him, fit myself to him and wrapped my arms around him, feeling the alien feeling of my ring shifting on my finger due to the weight of the stone.

I liked that feeling.

He just did the wrapping his arms around me part.

“Why can’t you sleep?” I mumbled into his chest.

“I’m too happy.”

I didn’t know what his answer would be but that was not an answer I’d ever expect.

My head tipped back. “What?”

“I’ll get used to it,” he said to the creek.

“You can’t sleep because you’re too happy?” I demanded his confirmation.

He looked down at me and shook his head. “You’re still not with the program.”

“I always wanna kiss you, Johnny, but right now I wanna know more why you’re standing out in the cold instead of in bed with me.”

“That’s not the program I’m talking about.”

I closed my mouth.

“Never know whether to clue you in,” he muttered.

“It’s always the right thing to clue me in.” I did not mutter.

“I’m a dreamer.”

I stared up at him.

“Always been a dreamer. Always.” He paused then socked it to me. “Since she left. That she being Mom.”

I kept staring up at him but now I was doing it with my chest feeling tight.

“You wanna know what I dreamed, Izzy?”

Unable to speak, I nodded my head.

“I dreamed of winning a pretty woman and making her love only me. I dreamed of living with her at this mill and filling it with babies. I dreamed of keeping those garages strong for my sons to take over when it was their time. I dreamed of living my life knowing things would come and go. My children would be born, my woman and I would raise them and love them, and then they’d move on to live their own lives and be happy. But that pretty woman, my pretty woman, would always be with me. Now tell me, sp?tzchen, how does a man sleep when he’s living his dreams?”