I’d said I was sorry. I didn’t know much about his operations but anyone had a moment in their day to check their voicemail and mine said I was sorry. If I cared about someone and they told me they were sorry in a voicemail, I would call them and put them out of their misery. It had been seven hours and he hadn’t put me out of my misery.

Maybe the giggling pissed him off.

I dropped my head to the table again.

“Gwen,” Cam said softly.

“I was falling in love with him,” I told my lap and I heard three, quick, feminine intakes of breath. “Deep,” I finished on a whisper then lifted my head, “and I f**ked it up.”

“He’s busy, babe, don’t jump to conclusions,” Cam stated.

“Every time I see him, every time he touches me, I get butterflies,” I whispered.

“Oh boy,” Elvira murmured.

“Scott didn’t even do that to me,” I shared.

“Who’s Scott?” Elvira enquired.

“Her ex-husband and Denver’s Patron of Dickheadedness,” Tracy answered.

“Ah,” Elvira replied, that one syllable full of understanding.

“You didn’t tell me about the butterflies,” Cam whispered.

“I denied them,” I whispered back. “They scared me.”

Cam’s face gentled. “Oh babe.”

“He’s bossy and annoying and intrusive and lives a narrow life and demands emotional closeness but keeps distant but that last part is because he lost his wife and his little daughter,” I went on. “And she was cute. He showed me a picture. She was wearing pink. She looked like him. She had the best of both of them in her.” Cam, Elvira and Tracy kept gentle eyes on me and I kept on. “But he thinks I’m funny and Dad and Meredith adore him and we banter and I like it. It’s fun and it’s safe, though I didn’t know it at the time, and he holds me while we sleep and he’s an unbelievably good kisser and even better in bed. He gave me four orgasms in thirty minutes and I didn’t even know that was physically possible.”

“Four orgasms in thirty minutes?” Elvira breathed.

“Four orgasms in thirty minutes,” I confirmed

Elvira put her hand flat on the table and her upper body started teetering as she mumbled, “Lordy.”

“Maybe we should get the smelling salts,” Tracy noted, her eyes on Elvira.

“Babe, I don’t have smelling salts,” Cam returned.

“I need to quit,” Elvira announced. “I gotta turn in my resignation. I can’t work with a man knowin’ his capacity to give pleasure. I mean, I can work with a man guessin’ his capacity to give pleasure but not knowin’ it. This is it. I hit the threshold. I never understood TMI. In my opinion, no amount of information is too much information but I’ve found it. I’m here.”

“You can’t quit because of me!” I hissed. “I get the sense that Hawk likes you and depends on you. If you have someone like that, you don’t want to lose them. He can’t lose you because I told you he can give multiple orgasms!”

“Those four orgasms were a multiple?” Elvira asked.

“No, those were mostly separate. He can only pull off three in a one-go multiple,” I answered.

“Holy crap,” Tracy breathed.

“No joke?” Cam asked.

Elvira teetered so I put my hand on her so she wouldn’t go down and looked at Cam. “Why do you think I let him keep coming at night? I told you he was good but he’s not good, he’s good.”

“Stop talkin’,” Elvira whispered. “Where’s the martini shaker? I need a reload.”

Cam got up and sauntered to the counter.

Then it hit me. “My God, if he doesn’t forgive me, I’m ruined for all other men.”

“Gwennie, honey, really, don’t stress. It hasn’t even been a day,” Tracy soothed.

Cam started pouring vodka into the shaker and decreed, “All right, this is serious for you and obviously he had reasons to be a motherfucking ass**le meaning he actually never was one. So, you called, left a voicemail, said you were sorry. You wait. He doesn’t call you back by one-thirty tomorrow, you call again. Voicemails can get missed. He’s there, you explain and apologize again. He’s not there, you leave another voicemail. He doesn’t call back, say, for two days, you know where he’s at, you make a batch of cookie dough, you call us and we’ll all come over and eat it.”

Thank God. A plan.

That was all I needed.

I took in a breath, checked Elvira to make sure she was steady, let her go and looked at Cam.

“Thanks, babe.”

Camille nodded her head and poured in cranberry juice.

“He’ll call,” Tracy whispered and my eyes moved to her. She smiled her hopeful smile.

I smiled back but mine felt shaky.

Chapter Thirty-One

She’s My Sister

I lay on my side, my knees curled up to my chest in Cam and Leo’s guest bedroom and I flipped opened the phone, went to contacts, scrolled down and hit go.

I immediately got Hawk’s, “Talk.”

“Hi,” I whispered. “I don’t know if you got my other voicemail but I wanted you to know, I drove over to Cam and Leo’s tonight and had enough to drink, it wasn’t safe to drive home so I’m spending the night.” I paused. “I just… wanted you to know where I am.” I paused again then kept whispering. “I hope, even after what happened this morning, that you managed to have a good day, baby.”

Then I flipped the phone shut and stared at it.

God, I was such an idiot.

I tapped the phone on my forehead and then put it on the nightstand.

It was nearly midnight. Over ten hours since I called.

Shit.

I tucked my hands under my cheek and closed my eyes tight thinking maybe I should have texted.

Then I heard a scratching at the window.

My eyes flew open and I shot up to an elbow in the bed. I stared out the opened curtains and my heart squeezed.

Ginger was standing there, partially illuminated by streetlights and the entire left side of her face was swollen, bruised, bleeding and mangled.

“Gwennie,” I heard her pained whisper.

I didn’t think. I threw the bedclothes back and raced from the room, the panels of Cam’s long, sexy, satin nightgown that would make Meredith’s mouth water and had slits up each side practically to my h*ps tangling with my legs. I went straight to the front door, unlocked it, threw it open and dashed out, running and frantic. I made it to the edge of the house, turned and collided headlong with something big, hard and solid.