Page 104 of Return of the Bad Girl (Rock Canyon, Idaho 4)

“You know, it wasn’t too long ago you were begging me to stay,” Caroline said.

“That was when you were Fun Caroline. Now you’re Obnoxiously Sad Caroline.”

“Ellie and I dealt with you when you were sad.”

“I don’t get weepy. I get hungry. I eat. You blubber and moan . . .”

“All right, fine. I’ll go home.”

“And take those cats with you,” Val called over her shoulder as she walked away.

“You’re a brat!”

“Freeloader!”

“Anal retentive!”

Caroline flopped back on the couch, depressed. She hadn’t told Val she’d given up the apartment because she hadn’t wanted to listen to Val tear Gabe apart. Gabe had said he wanted to talk and see where things went, but he still hadn’t called. She couldn’t blame him, though. Gabe had every right not to forgive her, and she just had to accept that.

GABE FINISHED UP another call and hung up the phone with a wide grin.

“How many orders is that?” Chase asked, his pencil poised above the sketch pad.

“That’s twenty-six since Tuesday.”

“And I’m sure your recent boom of success has nothing to do with that article the Rock Canyon Press printed about you.”

“Hey, who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth?” Gabe said. The truth was, the orders had been a good distraction from thinking about Caroline. He kept meaning to call, but every time he did, he lost his nerve. Besides, everything he came up with to say just didn’t seem right.

I miss you? I’m sorry I was so quick to judge?

None of it seemed good enough. Especially when he’d been tossing and turning every night, catching himself burying his head in her pillow.

“Yeah, especially when another handful of customers were recommended to you by Caroline,” Chase said, setting his pencil down. “Have you even called her, man?”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“How about, ‘I forgive you. I’m sorry it took so long, but please believe I love you’?”

“I don’t know, man. What if I took too long?”

“Well, if you wait any longer, you’re going to miss your chance. I mean, what are you waiting for? You love her, she loves you, and you’re perfect for each other. Stubborn, opinionated—”

“I never said she was anything like me,” Gabe said.

But she was. She was his reason to smile in the morning, and he missed the soft touch of her hands on his skin. He could hear her laugh echoing through their empty apartment, and he wanted her to come home.

Home. Their home.

Maybe Chase was right. Their similarities were working against them.

“I read between the lines. Since you complained that you two fought all the time, I decided it was because you were so similar.”

Gabe had gone over every scenario for days, but each one left him with the door slammed in his face. Chase was right. She’d saved him, and instead of falling to his knees and telling her he loved her, he’d let her walk out the door.

He kept blaming karma and punishing himself for his mistakes, but this one was on his own stubbornness. And his own fear. If he opened up to her about his feelings, would she cut and run again?

“What if she doesn’t accept my apology?”