It wasn’t like Tab and I didn’t have time, it was just hard to get it on when his very ex-girlfriend had been taking up space in a corner of my mind. It would have been tacky, not to mention really super cruel to get it on when she was essentially along for the ride. So what if she’d technically broken up with him by stabbing him in the back and sending him to Hell… the first time…
Yeah, shit between Tab and Iaoel hadn’t been complicated at all.
I was kind of amazed that he could love me, knowing she was on board in my mind, but somehow… somehow, love had found a way despite either of our best efforts to keep it at arm’s length.
Yeah. I was really looking forward to putting on some speed and the wind therapy that came along with it. I leaned the bike into a cautious turn to guide it up onto the I-5 North on-ramp and kept pace with Tab, riding together.
I had no idea where we were going, but I couldn’t deny I trusted Tab with every fiber of my being. Of course, being the Angel of Free Will, Tab had put no little trust in me. Forever and always he stood by my right to choose and never, not once, did he ever try to sway my decision. He simply presented the facts and waited for my decision.
I loved him for that. The fact he so staunchly stood by my side, protecting me and my right to be an individual, as well as my freedom and independence. It made me just as fiercely protective of him. I’d go back to Hell for him in a heartbeat, and I’d already been there once.
We rode for an hour or so, which then stretched into two. I was beginning to think we were going to make the crossing into Canada, but nope. He turned off at one of the northern most exits to Bellingham. We rode east and the small cityscape dissolved into country winding roads as we made our way closer to the North Cascades.
It was beautiful up here. We’d left the leaden rain clouds behind and it was blue skies with fluffy cirrus clouds as far as the eye could see. The grass was green and the trees greener, and with all the world-hopping we’d done, I was a little sad to realize I wasn’t quite sure what season it was supposed to be. I couldn’t even say what month or date it was with all the travel between realms and into my own mind I’d done.
If I had to guess, with the temperature and the weather being what it was, I would say it was spring, but again, I just didn’t know for sure. It bothered me a lot more than I cared to admit.
I rode with Tab further and further into the countryside, the mountains of the North Cascades rising in defiance against the blue cap of sky, their gray surface jagged. The lack of snow pack on their peaks was pushing me further toward a mild summer rather than spring and I was jarred to realize that if it were summer, Tab and I were coming up on a year together – a whole year of one flight to the next, running not just for our lives but for the lives of all humanity. An entire year of fight or flight seriously wears on a person and I was far from the indecisive, bitter girl he’d hauled up off the floor of that waterfront antiques shop.
I was starting to get antsy the further into the countryside we rode – past farmland, cows, and pastures until it didn’t even feel like we were in Washington at all. Finally, Tab turned carefully onto a dirt and gravel track and I followed suit, nerves jangling. The unfamiliar bike plus unfamiliar riding surface equaled a tingling sensation and heightened anxiety all the way until we spilled out of the tree-lined drive in front of an impressive looking house sitting right on a riverbank.
Tab killed the engine to his bike, and I followed suit, heeling down the kickstand. I pulled off my helmet and breathed deep the clean mountain air before asking, “Where are we?”
“Someplace where you two can be alone, like I suggested. Now, I have a nice dinner planned for the both of you, so move it or lose it.” I blinked and looked from Gabriel to Tab, who was smiling to himself and shaking his head.
Gabriel was a man again, his gender-bending knowing no bounds, his long black hair in a loose ponytail down his back. He wore a white thermal shirt, the waffle-patterned cotton tight over the muscles in his arms and chest. He’d paired the shirt with some worn, butter soft jeans over some tawny colored boots and the look worked for him. It was rugged like the scenery around us and the house behind him which looked less like a house and more like a modern take on a cabin.
Tab and I exchanged a look and a shrug. I laughed lightly and got off of my bike, Tab following suit. It tickled me that we were in almost perfect synch. We went toward Gabriel and the door. He stood aside gallantly and said, “Down the hall, second door on the right past the stairwell. Showers and dress for dinner. Tab, might I suggest Basil’s?”
I didn’t turn to look at Tab who was coming into the place behind me, but I could hear his smile in his voice when he said, “An excellent choice, Gabriel. Though, are you sure it is wise given the circumstances?”
“They’re as neutral as it gets, Tabby Cat. I’m sure it’ll be fine and I’ll make the reservation. Have a good time, cupcake!” I turned to say something, but when I looked past Tab, Gabriel was already gone; the door we’d come through shut firmly on the outside world.
Tab smiled faintly and gestured for me to continue my forward march to the door Gabriel had indicated. I opened it up and went through into a beautiful and surprising bedroom.
It had once been a closed-in sunroom, though heavily remodeled. The glass ceiling sloped and the view of the river was astounding. A fireplace burned bright and cheery, set into what was once the outside wall of the cabin, and another door on the other side of it led into a bathroom. The bed, a sleigh bed and easily king-sized, was just inside the door. Across from it, down the narrow room, were a couple of chairs and a table set between them. I closed my eyes for a second and imagined a morning of drinking coffee across from one another and quietly talking. I couldn’t wait.
“Here, let me take this,” Tab murmured and lifted my pack from my shoulders. I let him have it, and he set it beside his bag on the bed.
“You go first,” I murmured, indicating the bathroom.
“I need a haircut,” he said.
“I know, which is why I need you to go first. I can’t do it with your hair dry, it won’t come out right.”
He looked at me curiously. “I didn’t know you could cut hair,” he said.
I smiled at him slyly. “You don’t know everything about me.”
“You are correct,” he said, drawing me into his arms, “I do not. However, I very much so look forward to learning.” He murmured the last before placing his lips to mine in a kiss that stole my breath away.
Tab went first when it came to a shower while I slipped out and scared up a pair of scissors. Gabriel was gone again, though I did find a kindly older woman who ran what was apparently a bed-and-breakfast that we’d be staying in for tonight. I trusted Tab so implicitly, I hadn’t even been curious as to where we were going or where we were staying. It just was what it was, and it wasn’t like I had anything I wanted to go back for or to.
For a moment, an incredible sadness over that settled over my shoulders, guilt running its fingers down my spine.
My mom and I never got along, but as far as she probably knew, my boss had been murdered and I’d disappeared. It’d been over a year by now and I wondered to myself if she was over it, or if like so many other times when it came to me, she simply swept me under the rug and didn’t acknowledge my existence. That was kind of where our relationship had left off the last time I’d seen her. I was her greatest disappointment but then again, I couldn’t be anything other than me and the me that I was just didn’t fit what my mother wanted me to be.