Perfect Fit - Brenda Jackson [92]
“Gabe?”
Finally accepting that the sound wasn’t a trick of his imagination, he quickly turned around. Sage was standing a few feet away from him all bundled up in a coat and snow boots, with a scarf around her neck and a fuzzy-looking hat on her head. Even with all of that, she still looked adorable.
“Sage? When did you get here?” he asked, overwhelmed at seeing her. It was as if his very thoughts had made her appear.
“I came straight from the airport over thirty minutes ago. I saw your car and figured you had to be here. When you didn’t answer the door, I went back and sat in my car awhile. But when it started getting late, I decided to check out back. You mentioned that you occasionally go walking in the evenings.”
He nodded and watched as she folded her arms nervously across her chest. His brow rose with a question that he didn’t really want to ask. The mere fact that she had come to see him straight from the airport after spending time with her ex-fiancé didn’t bode well. Had she come to tell him that she and Erol had worked things out? A feeling of déjà vu shifted over him. He would never forget that similar time with Lindsey. He cleared his throat. “Is there a reason why you’re here, Sage?”
Forcing a smile, Sage nodded, thinking Gabe didn’t particularly act as though he wanted to see her. And all this time she couldn’t wait to leave Dallas to get back to him. She wrapped her arms tighter around herself. Maybe she had made a mistake in coming.
“Sage?”
She met his gaze and knew that whether he still wanted her or not, she had to say what she came to say. “Yes, I was hoping that we could talk.”
Gabe sighed, feeling a sense of doom coming on. “All right, let’s go inside.”
“Boy, it feels nice and warm in here,” Sage said as she began removing her coat, scarf and hat.
Gabe shrugged as he removed his jacket and then nodded toward the fireplace. “You may want to go stand in front of that to warm up some more.”
Sage nodded. When she’d first arrived, she’d had other plans on how she wanted to warm up, mainly in his arms, more specifically in his bed, but now with the way Gabe was acting, she wasn’t sure it would be appropriate to harbor any such ideas. “Thanks. I think I’ll do that.” She quickly crossed the room to the huge brick fireplace that was emitting a massive amount of heat.
“Would you like anything to drink?” Gabe asked, leaning against a bookcase as he watched her. The dress she wore looked good on her and was shorter in length than the ones she normally wore, and thick black tights covered her legs. But that didn’t matter. He didn’t have to see her legs to know how gorgeous they were. Hell, he even knew how they tasted since he had done a good job licking them all over the last time they were together.
“Yes, I’d like something to drink.”
Sage’s soft voice brought him back around. “You want brandy?” he asked.
“Is that what you’re drinking?”
“Yes.”
“Then, that’s what I’ll have.”
Nodding, he went to the corner of the room where the bar was located. He decided to ask the question that would open up his world or effectively close it. “So, how was your trip?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her shrug. “It was all right. In fact, I believe it was rather productive.”
He shook his head, not having a damn clue what that meant. So he decided to come at it from a different angle. “Did you and your ex get to spend time together?”
Now feeling warm enough, Sage crossed the room to sit down on the sofa. She felt tired. She had left Dallas early only to have to sit and wait all day at the airport for her flight to leave. “Yes, we had dinner last night, and he even took me to a rodeo afterward.”
Gabe turned so his back was completely to her as he drew in a long, silent breath. She and her ex had had dinner and had gone to a rodeo afterward? His heart sank. He began feeling angry, frustrated and disappointed. He turned around, deciding they may as well have their talk and get things over with.
He walked over to the sofa with Sage’s brandy in his