“Save those kisses for Lady, big guy,” she said, giving Beau a scratch behind the ears. “She’s going to need them.”

Gabe wiped dog drool from his chin with the back of his wrist and took the empty seat beside Melanie.

“I can’t feel my legs,” she said.

“Beau,” Gabe said. “Get down.”

The dog groaned and then hopped to the floor and lay at Gabe’s feet, still as stone. He rested his head on his front paws and turned a watchful gaze to the door.

“Aw, he misses her, doesn’t he?” Melanie said. “Did you get both dogs at the same time?”

Gabe shook his head. “Beau is five years older than Lady; she’s only two. Still a pup, really. I had another lab before her. A beautiful chocolate female named Sweetie. She was the most docile and loving dog I ever met. Beau still mourns for her, don’t you, big guy?”

Beau blew out a breath that made his jowls shudder.

“Did she die?” Melanie asked.

Gabe nodded, his heart constricting in his chest again. “Got tangled up with a wild hog.”

“I’m sorry, Gabe. I can tell your dogs mean a lot to you.”

“That transparent, am I?”

She smiled. “Maybe a little.”

Beau suddenly jumped to his feet and eyed the doorway intently. A moment later, the veterinarian strode into the waiting room. Her reassuring smile did amazing things to reduce Gabe’s level of anxiety.

“Lady should pull through,” Dr. Nelson said. “Her liver is swollen, so I’m going to keep her here at least overnight. We’ll see how she feels tomorrow. Her side needed stitches due to a long laceration, and her foreleg has been set. She’ll be in a cast for several weeks. I didn’t see any signs of neck or head trauma, but she will definitely be sore for a week or so.”

A week during which Gabe had to be on the road with the band, but he nodded. “Can I see her?”

“For a few minutes. She’s sedated, so she won’t know you’re there.”

Lady was asleep on the exam table, the fur shaved from her side and dozens of stitches running the length of her dark skin. The assistant was wrapping her leg in gauze for her cast. Gabe stroked Lady’s soft ears and told her to be a good dog, though he decided she could chew as many shoes and steal as much fried chicken as she wanted if she made it through her ordeal. He wouldn’t even yell at her.

Chapter Fifteen

On the way back to Gabe’s ranch, Melanie checked her phone for messages. She hadn’t received a single call, email, or text from Nikki in over twenty-four hours. Melanie would have liked to believe that her friend had finally discovered tact and had allowed Melanie to enjoy her weekend with Gabe undisturbed, but she knew Nikki better than that. Either Nikki was having too much fun to bother checking in—unlikely, because when she was having that much fun she liked to brag—or something was wrong. Very wrong. Dread settled in Melanie’s stomach, and she couldn’t shake it. She sent Nikki a text, asking her to please check in because she was starting to worry. Melanie anxiously waited for the answering smart-ass response, but seconds became minutes and her text was marked delivered, but not read. Maybe Nikki had forgotten to charge her phone. Though that wasn’t likely. Nikki might forget to pay her bills or fill up her car with gas, but she never forgot to charge her phone.

“Everything okay?” Gabe asked.

Melanie peered around Beau, who was sharing her seat. Well, sharing wasn’t really the dog’s forte. He was hogging her seat.

“I don’t know. I’m really starting to worry about Nikki. It’s not like her to not bug me about something for this length of time.”

“She’s probably just having a good time in New Orleans.” He grinned at her reassuringly. “It’s easy to lose track of time in the Big Easy.”

Melanie prayed he was right. Prayed Nikki was all right.

“We’ll be back in New Orleans day after tomorrow,” he reminded her. “I’ll show you what I mean then.”

“What are you going to do with Lady while you’re on the road?”

His brow scrunched. “I’ll think of something. The guys keep bringing their women on the bus; surely they won’t protest if I bring along my own Lady.”

“But I have to work on Monday.” Unfortunately. She’d love to spend more time with Gabe. Hell, she’d love to spend all of her time with Gabe. But she had a life in Kansas. And she wasn’t missing it at all.

“I meant the dog.”

Oh. So that was where his loyalties lay. She scowled.

“I wish you could travel with me too,” he said hastily. “Do you have any vacation time saved up?”

She felt marginally better. Very marginally. “A little.”

“Could I interest you in wasting it all on me?”

She craned her neck to try to see around the eighty-pound hairball panting and drooling all over the dashboard. Didn’t dogs like to sit by the window? Apparently this one preferred a front and center view with the air conditioning vent blowing cold air at his throat.

“You might,” she said.

“You could join the tour for a couple days, which isn’t very pleasant once the novelty wears off.”

She couldn’t tell if he was trying to dissuade her from joining the tour or sincerely thought she wouldn’t enjoy riding on the bus with him.

“Or you can visit me at my place again. It’s usually calm and peaceful. Today has just been a day from Hell.”

Despite the emergency with Lady, Melanie had to admit she liked being a part of his day-to-day life. She loved his home. Loved his dogs. Loved… Well, she didn’t want to get ahead of herself with thoughts like that.

“Or,” he said, “we can take off somewhere, just the two of us, and have a real vacation.”

“Like where?” she asked. She so rarely got out of Kansas. She’d always wanted to travel, but had never found the time or a likeminded individual who wanted to travel with her.

“Anywhere. You pick. Our last option would be hanging out at your place for a few days.”

She cringed. Now that didn’t sound like fun. “I think it would be fun to go someplace unique.”

“Are you talking The Bahamas-unique or Antarctica-unique?”

She instantly knew where she wanted to go. The place she’d been dreaming of visiting since she’d seen the movie The Gladiator.

“How about Rome-unique.”

He made a sound of interest—a short mmm. “I’ve never been to Rome,” he said. “Rome it is.”

Really? Was she really going to live her dream of seeing the coliseum at Gabe’s side? If a wall of beige fur hadn’t separated them, she would have hugged him.

“But that’ll have to wait until the tour is over,” he said. “I don’t have enough time off between gigs to do a proper vacation.”

“When is the tour over?” she asked.

“November.”

“November?” She scowled. “I won’t get to see you until November?” This dating a touring rock star thing was a challenge she hoped she’d live through. Just being away from him for five days had been torture. What would it be like to not be able to see him for weeks or months? She’d go mad.

“We’ll see each other,” he said. “Just in small bites. You might discover that’s all of me you can handle in one setting.”

“Gabriel Banner, I want to eat you whole. Trust me, I can handle being with you for extended periods of time.”

He chuckled and turned off the highway onto the gravel road that led to his home.

When they pulled into the driveway, the first thing Melanie noticed was that the beat-up pickup was no longer parked along the side of the road.

“I hope to God that little fucker didn’t find those keys and drive,” Gabe said. “I should have pocketed them instead.”

Melanie opened the door and shooed the massive form of Beau out of the truck so she could actually interact with the man who was so obviously in turmoil.

“Don’t beat yourself up, sweetheart. You had to take care of Lady first. There was no time to make sure that kid did the responsible thing. You did what you could under the circumstances. You even called the police.”