When It's Right(87)
“You got me my favorite tea?”
“Just wait. That’s not all.” Blake cocked his head toward the waiter, who held a huge platter of food balanced on his shoulder and hand. The other guests smelled the food and stared.
Blake and Gillian waited for the dishes to be served.
“Every diner in the place is going to be jealous of you two. Enjoy,” the waiter said and left them to their meal.
Gillian stared at her plate. “It’s like a seafood explosion.”
“All your favorites, right? Lobster, crab, mussels.”
“Who knew you could get seafood like this at a steak house in Montana?”
“Well, it’s not impossible, but I had this flown in from San Francisco just for you.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “I know how much you miss the city. I wanted to bring a piece of it here to you. You didn’t even have to unload the fish off the boats to get it,” he teased to make her smile.
“I can’t believe you did this.”
“Well, I had help,” he admitted. “Ella owns a house in San Francisco. She was there about a month ago and raved about a restaurant. I told her what I wanted to do, and she put me in contact with the chef at Gerard’s. He put the food together and shipped it overnight.”
“Gerard’s is one of the most exclusive restaurants in San Francisco. Blake, this must have cost you a fortune.”
By far the most expensive thing he’d ever done for a woman. He’d never planned anything like this for anyone. “Do you like it?”
“I love it.”
“Then I’m happy to do it for you.”
Watching the way her eyes went soft with pleasure while she ate lobster dripping with butter made him wish they weren’t in a crowded restaurant. Everything she did made him want her more.
She licked the sheen of butter from her lips, placed her elbow on the table, laid her chin in her cupped palm, and stared at him. “You’re quiet, and you’ve barely touched your meal. You keep staring at me like that, I’ll blush knowing you’ve undressed me in your mind.”
Blake smiled. “Busted.”
“I told you I freaked out in the parking lot, so spill it.”
“What?”
“Tell me about Abigail and whatever wasn’t your fault but you think it is.”
“You saw the scar on her face. She’s got a few others you couldn’t see. We dated when we were seniors in high school. She loved to ride with me. She loved the speed but always wanted to beat me.”
“Let me guess, no one ever beat you.”
“A bunch of us used to get together and party in the fields. Bonfires and beers.”
“Hook-ups and heartbreaks,” Gillian said, understanding, even though she’d missed out on so much of her teenage years hanging out with friends, making stupid mistakes, and never worrying about the consequences of anything.
“It was dusk when Abigail showed up at my place so we could ride over to where everyone was meeting. I had the horses saddled and ready to go. She had a wild streak to match mine. Maybe the two of us together were a disaster waiting to happen. I don’t know. I do remember I was the one who dared her to race me to the west pasture gate. A big storm came through two days before and knocked down a tree, blocking the road. When I saw it, I reined in and yelled for her to stop. She didn’t. She thought she could jump it. I knew she couldn’t, because the horse I gave her always shied at jumping anything. Ten feet from the tree, he slid to a stop and sent her flying over his head. She flipped in the air, hit her head on the trunk, and landed in a tangle of arms, legs, and tree limbs. A branch sliced open her face along her jaw. Several others cut up her arms and back. Not anything like what happened to you. Still, some nasty cuts.
“We weren’t that far from where we were meeting our friends. They heard the horse scream when it stopped and threw Abigail. I whistled as loud as I could to make sure they came to help. I didn’t want to move her. She was out cold. My buddies showed up in their pickup, and we used a two-by-six board he had in the back to slide under her, strap her on with our belts at her head, waist, and feet.”
“Why didn’t you call for an ambulance?”
“Too far out of town. It would have taken them an hour to get to her. Although she was knocked out, she was breathing on her own. We worried about her spine but played the odds that her head was the worst of the injuries. We drove her back to my house, picked up my dad, called the hospital to have them waiting for her and give us advice about what to do. An ambulance met us on the road in, and we transferred her to them. They got to the hospital. She remained in a coma for three days until the swelling in her brain went down.”