Chapter 5

5

G wen answered the call and raised her phone to her ear. "Hey, Leslie. I'm not going to be able to come tonight, after all. Sorry. I promise I'll try on the dress before the wedding."

"Wait. What?" Leslie demanded.

"I'll call when I know my schedule." She would not put her family in possible jeopardy.

"Whoa, wait a minute, Gwen." She could almost see her cousin extending her palm in a "Stop" gesture. "You're home now, right?"

How did Leslie know these things? Gwen squelched a sigh.

"Is your car on the fritz again? Do you need me to come pick you up?"

"No!" That was the last thing she wanted. Leslie could walk into a trap. If not for Will, she might have, too. She shuddered at the image of the SUV hulking in the trees. "No," Gwen repeated more calmly. "Don't come by."

"Why not? You've been putting this off since last week." Leslie's voice rose closer to the hysteria level.

"Can you hold on a sec?" Gwen pressed the phone to her chest. Will pulled into a gas station and she waited until he stopped beside a pump. "She's offering to drive by my apartment. I need a convincing excuse why she shouldn't."

"Are you still there?" Leslie's voice came through loud and clear. "Unless you say something. I'm leaving now."

Will laid a hand on Gwen's arm. "Tell her we'll come by right now, but we can't stay long."

His touch sent squiggles dancing all the way down to her fingers. She took a breath, watching as Will got out, swiped his card in the pump, and began to fill his tank. "Don't go anywhere, Leslie. We'll be there in a minute,"

"Is this guy cute?" Leslie asked.

Gwen rolled her eyes. Will was much more than cute. Try dangerously handsome. Erin should have warned her, but she probably hadn't had time to do more than make her request. "You'll find out when we get there."

She ended the call and studied the cars and trucks pulling onto the pump apron. So far, she'd seen no black SUVs or anyone looking her way. She checked her phone for any news from the police and wished her stomach would stop jittering around.

Will climbed back inside. She rubbed her arms through the loose weave of her summer sweater. "I take it you've changed your mind about us being in danger."

"No, not at all." He flicked a wave of auburn hair from his forehead, and his brow furrowed. "Something strange is going on here. I agree we don't want whatever that is to threaten your family."

"I'm sure there's an explanation, but I can't imagine what it is." She rubbed her palms together. "I'm nervous waiting for the next shoe to drop."

"I hope the police find that car and then let us know the situation." He squeezed her hand and checked out the car pulling up to a pump—a red car, not black. "The good news is that the guy in the SUV didn't come looking for us after we passed your apartment and turned the corner. No one's followed us since we left the neighborhood."

Gwen crossed her arms. "I heard a ‘but' in there somewhere."

"But—" He grinned, and a warm glint flashed in his blue eyes. Her breath caught at the transformation to his face. "We shouldn't stay long at Leslie's, and I don't think your cousin needs to know about the car watching your house."

"I'm not mentioning the creep who followed me around Manhattan, either." She clutched her hands in her lap. "That's going to be hard. Leslie and her mom and dad became my second family when my parents were killed."

Gwen caught her breath. This wasn't exactly a first date-type revelation. This wasn't a date at all, even if Leslie probably thought so.

Will reached across the console and squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry."

"Thanks." She shrugged. "It happened when I was a teen, ages ago."

"But you had to adjust. Also, you don't look old enough to be able to count your past in centuries."

She laughed as he doubtless meant her to, but she'd had plenty of time to make mistakes, especially where guys were concerned. "I need to tell you how to get there."

On the way, the cops called her back. While they'd seen where the vegetation on the shoulder had been crushed, they hadn't found any SUV, black or otherwise, in the area. She relayed that information to Will.

"They said the couple upstairs hadn't noticed the car, but I have their number. I can call." She flicked open her contacts list.

"What would you ask them? ‘Are you doing something illegal, perhaps working with the Mafia?'"

She laughed. "Come on, Will. I'd be a little more subtle. But you know something?" She straightened as another thought occurred. "If it was the upstairs tenants' apartment the car was watching, why hadn't the driver of that car knocked on their door or left once he'd seen they were home?"

Her phone chimed with an incoming call. "Speak of the devil. It's Margie, the wife who lives upstairs?"

"Hi. What's up?"

"The police stopped by a few minutes ago and asked if we'd seen anything unusual going on in the neighborhood. They said a car had been surveilling the house," Margie explained. "We said we hadn't noticed, but I wanted to tell you when you come home to be careful."

Gwen thanked her, said she was staying elsewhere tonight and disconnected. "The upstairs couple called to warn me to be careful."

In fifteen minutes Will parked at the curb in front of her aunt and uncle's brick and wood ranch house. She couldn't worry about the SUV now. Her relatives would pick up on her worry. She gathered up her tote. "You ready for this?"

"Sure." Will shut off the motor. "I'm looking forward to meeting them."

"You may be sorry." She stepped out and grabbed her tote.

Will came around and closed her door. "Stop trying to scare me."

Her cousin, Leslie, opened the front door before they even rang the doorbell. "What took you so long? I was getting worried."

"You know, this and that." Gwen waited a beat, but her cousin didn't invite them in or step back. "Can we come inside? Or are you going to make us stand out here?"

Leslie opened the door wider, gave Will a once-over, and sent Gwen a significant look.

Her cousin's look said she wanted to know all about Will, how they'd met, how long they'd known each other. All of that. Gwen merely raised her brows before walking inside.

She peeked into the living room where her uncle sat in an armchair positioned for viewing the large, flatscreen television, only his legs visible. "Hi, Uncle Tim," she called. His arm rose from the armrest and waved.

Her Aunt Kathy came in, carrying a beer and a glass, which she handed off to her husband. Her grandmother, apron still tied over her housedress, entered from the kitchen, and Gwen gave her a hug.

Her grandmother pushed her stylishly round-lensed glasses up her nose and regarded Will, who was closing the front door. "Well, well, well. Who is this?"

Her aunt propped her hands on her hips and peered at Will over the reading glasses resting on the end of her nose.

Gwen touched Will's arm. "This is Will Strongbow. He drove me up after I missed my train."

Uncle Tim set his beer aside and rose to shake hands. Everyone else made the appropriate noises. On the mantle clock, she caught the time and took a deep breath. She couldn't settle in and get too comfortable, all too easy to do with her family. Loose lips sink ships, and she'd rather jump overboard without a life jacket than cause them any worry.

"So—" Granny started.

Gwen could sense the questions coming and decided to head her off. She patted her gran's gnarled hands and turned toward the stairs. "Since I'm late, why don't I go put on my dress so we can get started?"

Gwen stopped after climbing four steps. "Come on, Leslie, show me yours. I haven't seen it yet, remember?"

Her cousin pulled herself away from Uncle Tim and Will and followed her upstairs and down the hall. "Where did you meet such a hot ticket?"

One of the upstairs bedrooms had been converted into bridal dress central. Her grandmother joined them there before Gwen could answer. "It's about time you found a nice-looking man of your own, Gwennie, dear."

Leslie plopped onto the sewing machine chair. "Please don't tell me he's a professor like the last one."

"What last one?" Granny looked from Leslie to her and back. "I don't remember him. What did he look like?"

"You didn't meet him. Neither did Leslie." Gwen had never brought any guys over here, not since high school, anyway, but Leslie knew because Gwen had made the mistake of confiding in her. "I can't even think about romance now. My boss is depending on me to keep the lab running smoothly while he's on vacation. I can't let him down."

"But that's only temporary. He'll be back in how long?"

"Six weeks." Gwen dropped her sweater on the arm of the armchair and shimmied out of her jeans. "But if I mess up, I could lose my job."

"I don't believe that. Your boss wouldn't have put you in charge unless he trusted you."

Leslie had a point. Her experience with the biology professor was the real reason she was currently off men, but she did want to do a good job. She also needed a little more time to put the bad experience behind her.

"He can still be a friend." Gran meant Will. "Tell me how you met him?

That she could answer without mentioning the strange men suddenly popping up all around her. She would also need to sidestep any of Leslie's questions about why it had taken her so long to get home.

"He works with my roommate at the shipping company."

"Really?" Leslie handed her the pale pink dress that had been hanging on the back of an open closet door. "What's his job? Personal trainer?"

Leslie, who had a more than passing acquaintance with hot men, always noticed a guy's muscles first. Her groom was ripped, but that didn't mean everyone went gaga over a man's muscles. All right, all right. She had, too.

"No." Gwen fluffed the taffeta skirt with lace overlay on her bridesmaid's dress, hoping to distract them from talking about Will. "This is a really lovely color."

Her grandmother picked up the cue and chattered away about dresses and materials and sewing. Gran had always made all her own clothes, most of them right out of the pages of Vogue magazine, and so far, had made dresses for three family brides, including Leslie.

"I'm waiting," Leslie said.

Her cousin was like a dog with a tug toy. "He's an engineer."

"And a friend." She gave Gwen a knowing look. She and Gran and the rest of the family had taken finding Gwen a beau as a personal challenge. "Everything starts on the friend level."

"I only met him tonight. I want to get to know a guy before rushing into anything romantic." The way she had with the professor. But live and learn, and she planned to remember her lesson.

"You're not getting any younger," Leslie's mom said from the doorway.

"I'm only twenty-nine." A sudden thought nearly cut off Gwen's breath. "Please, Aunt Kathy, don't say anything about any of this in front of Will." She'd die of mortification.

Knowing her family's tendency to share her personal information, her uncle had probably already embarrassed her. The best course of action now was to focus on getting the dress hemmed so she and Will could leave. She dove under the dress's skirt and tried to shift the bodice down without testing the stitches temporarily closing the back.

"I haven't had a chance to ask a question," Aunt Kathy said. "Tim's picking his brain on the Jets playoff possibilities."

"Leslie, help Gwen get into her dress so I can get this done in time to watch my program."

Her gran never missed an episode of "Blue Bloods," which meant she probably admired Will's physique, too.

Gwen adjusted the garment's waist.

"Oh, my. You look so much like your mother!" Gran clasped her hand to her chest. "Doesn't she, Kathy?"

"Especially your smile," her aunt added.

Gwen stopped adjusting the dress. She wasn't anything like her foolish mom. "I have her genes. That's all." She climbed onto a small platform normally used to display house plants on the sunporch.

Her gran pulled over a chair and sat to begin pinning the hem.

Leslie crossed her arms. "So, Will's a friend?"

Gwen recognized the tactic. "I probably won't know him long enough to be a friend."

"Does he live around here somewhere?" Gran asked. "Turn to the right."

"Someplace in Manhattan, I think."

All three paused to stare at her. "If you know that, it means you're at least interested," her aunt said. "Don't get huffy. That's good."

This was such a predictable remark. Gwen squelched a sigh. "He gave me a ride up since I was running late, and we had to pick up the car from a garage."

"But you're still riding around with him?" Aunt Kathy asked.

"We're going out to eat when Gran finishes and—" Gwen caught herself before she could say anything about going back to his city apartment.

"There's plenty left from supper." Aunt Kathy returned to the doorway. "You and you friend can eat here."

Of course, her aunt would offer to feed them. For Aunt Kathy, food solved all problems, but she and Will needed to leave the house as soon as possible.

"Why don't you save it for tomorrow? Will?—"

"Likes you, Gwen," Leslie slapped the arms of the chair. "I vote for her to spend as much time as she can with him."

"Sorry. Will needs to get back to the city." Gwen ignored her cousin's comment, but she hated making him the excuse.

Gran didn't waste any time pinning the hem. When she finished, Gwen got out of her dress, pulled on her clothes, and went downstairs. Will had settled in the armchair next to her Uncle Tim. He leaned forward, elbows on knees, listening to her uncle. Both men stood when she returned. Will smiled, looking a little relieved. "You ready?"

"Yup." She hugged her uncle. Will went outside, but Uncle Tim held her back to give her a thumbs-up and whisper, "He's a keeper."