Page 20 of Return of the Bad Girl (Rock Canyon, Idaho 4)

“If one person says it, it’s a rumor. If two people say it, it’s gospel.”

—Miss Know It All

“YOU’RE LIVING WITH Caroline Willis?”

Gabe’s beer stopped inches from his mouth when he caught the look on Katie Trepasso’s face. It was as if he’d just told her he’d decided to go on a homicidal rampage.

“Yeah. Something I should know?”

Katie’s big blue eyes swallowed up her face as she cleared her throat and got up from the patio table. “Nope. I’m just surprised. She just got back and everything. I figured she’d be staying with her sister.”

And before he could ask her anything else, she high-tailed it into the house. Giving Chase a questioning look, Gabe waited for an explanation.

“Don’t ask me. I’ve lived here over a year and never heard of her.”

Gabe let it go and looked out over the flat farmland behind Chase’s white house, searching for something to say. Things had been tense between the two of them since he’d arrived for dinner half an hour ago. He knew he had a lot to make up for, but he hated that it was so hard. So awkward.

The elephant in the room loomed over them both, but neither wanted to talk about it. Katie came back outside then, carrying a platter of chips and salsa and another beer for Chase. Setting down the platter, she handed him the bottle over his shoulder. “Here ya go.”

“Aw, thank you, beer wench,” Chase said, looking up at her with a wide grin.

She reached over his shoulder to slap his chest, and he grabbed her hand, pulling her forward. When her head was almost on his chest, Chase turned his head to kiss her.

Gabe looked away. He’d never been comfortable with public displays and such. Of course, the last woman he’d ever been with long enough to get like that had been Cherise, but that hadn’t lasted much longer than it had taken him to get back on his feet after being released. Cherise had been one of those women who liked to take care of people, to fix them. When she’d realized he didn’t want or need her help, she’d lost interest in him. It was nothing to break his heart over.

Not that he had been looking for the white picket fence, the sweet wife, or the handful of kids since he got out. Things that everyday Joes—and now, even Chase—had just weren’t in the cards for him after what he’d done.

He’d lost any chance he had at having a normal life the minute he’d driven his bike that night.

“So, Gabe, Chase said you want to open a custom motorcycle shop?”

“I said bike,” Chase said, pulling Katie down onto his lap, despite her yelp of protest.

“But you hate that word,” Katie argued.

“When you talk about my baby, yes, but we’re talking about his.”

Gabe laughed while Katie rolled her eyes.

“I was actually hoping your husband might want to stop in a few days a week and help out with some of the artwork. He designed the emblem on the first bike I built from scratch.”

“How old were you?” Katie asked, leaning across Chase to snag a chip.

Gabe didn’t miss the shadow that passed over Chase’s face. “Seventeen.”

Seventeen. They’d been seniors and best friends, getting into trouble and partying together.

Only . . . the last few months of high school had tested their tight bond. All Gabe had been able to think about was how Chase was getting out, but he was going to be stuck there, working for the local mechanic, with nothing but a small-town future ahead of him. Something he could only dream about now, but at the time, he’d envied Chase so much that his jealousy had started to consume him.

And then he’d caught Chase kissing his baby sister, and he’d lost it. How could Chase make the moves on Honey when he was just going to take off and leave her? Like he was leaving Gabe.

He’d been a fucking idiot.

The scene still played through his head like it was yesterday, even though sixteen years had passed.

“Come on, man, I’m sorry,” Chase had said, stepping back from Honey, his hands in the air. Gabe had been too drunk to care that Chase was his best friend; he’d just been kissing his sister. His sister, who was only a sophomore. She was smart, talented, and deserved more than a guy who was just going to take advantage and then leave her behind when he took off.

The bastard had to pay.