Stranger in Town (Dundee, Idaho #5)(41)
Author: Brenda Novak

“That’ll be seventy-eight dollars and fourteen cents,” she said, hitting the total button even though he hadn’t yet responded to her question.

Gabe’s attention returned to the condoms. For the first time in three years, he wanted to buy some. But he’d just rejected a bouquet of flowers because of the potential for gossip. Surely he’d be a fool to buy condoms here. Marge would be on the phone before he could leave the store….

He could go over to the drugstore. But the situation wouldn’t be any different there.

God, he was tired of the unrelenting interest of everyone around him. At times he was tempted to move away from Dundee, but where would he go? After the fame he’d known, he’d have to leave the country to escape recognition. And he wasn’t about to do that. Since the accident, there was definitely something comforting about home.

He considered his recent restlessness, how often he’d thought about sex this week….

It was just a passing mood, he decided. Nothing he needed to act on. His body was starting to adjust to his condition. But that frightened him more than anything. He couldn’t accept what had happened, couldn’t adapt too much—or twenty years from now he’d still be rolling around in a damn wheelchair.

Forget the condoms.

“Give me the purple hydrangea plant you have right there next to the cooler,” he said.

A hydrangea plant wasn’t like a dozen roses. Still, Marge’s eyebrows, which looked like they’d been drawn on with a pencil, lifted almost to her hairline. “You want to buy flowers?”

Good thing he hadn’t asked for the condoms. “Isn’t that what hydrangeas are?”

“Yes, but I…sure, okay.” Marge’s shoes squished as she walked to the cooler and back. “That’ll be a hundred and twenty-three dollars and sixty cents,” she said, giving him his new total as she set the pot of flowers with his other purchases.

He pulled out his wallet and handed her two crisp one-hundred-dollar bills. But the damn condoms seemed to be calling his name…. He resented the craving that prompted the purchase. But he resented even more the fact that he couldn’t ask for them as casually as the next guy.

Screw it, he thought. Let ’em talk. They did anyway. “And I’ll take a package of those,” he added.

Marge hesitated, money in hand, and turned to look where he was pointing. When she realized what he wanted, her eyes nearly popped out of her head, and he halfway expected her to blurt out, “I didn’t know you could still do that!”

“I’m over eighteen,” he said when she didn’t react right away. “I’d be happy to show you my ID if you’d like.”

“What?” she gasped. “ID? Oh, no. I don’t need that.” Her face flushed bright red as she withdrew a ring of keys from the pocket of her smock and started sorting through them. “Do you want the—the Trojans or…”

As long as he was thumbing his nose at the gossips, he figured he might as well do it right. “Give me a size large in the natural sheepskin.”

She set the box on the counter, then fumbled to get the case locked up again. He was about to ask her if she could do that later when he heard a voice he recognized. “Looks like you’ve got a hot date, Gabe.”

Deborah Wheeler was just getting in line behind him. When he saw her, he nearly cursed out loud. Six months or so ago, he’d run into her at the gas station. She’d approached him to say she’d gone to school with him. He barely remembered her, but for the sake of being polite, he didn’t say so. They’d talked a little about football, then he’d left with a polite thank-you for the compliments she’d paid him. He’d never dreamed that simple exchange would give her the encouragement to call him. But it did. Her calls and invitations had continued, unrelenting, for several weeks.

Finally, he’d had to tell her he wasn’t interested in pursuing a relationship with her—and she hadn’t taken the news very well. She’d hung up on him, and followed that up with a couple of scathing letters, accusing him of thinking he was better than everyone else and telling him that rejecting her was probably the biggest mistake of his life.

She was not the kind of person he wanted to see him buy condoms for the first time since suffering a major spinal cord injury….

“Or, considering your condition…” Her eyes swept over his legs, which, for the most part, he couldn’t feel, and focused on his groin, “Those must be for a few of the boys on the football team, huh?”

He knew what she was suggesting—that he couldn’t get enough of an erection to make a condom worthwhile. He could tell by the way she looked at him. Ever since he’d made it clear he wasn’t interested in her, she’d been absolutely vindictive.

Anger and humiliation ripped through Gabe with a vengeance, but he refused to give her the reaction she obviously wanted. “It’s nice to see you again, too, Deborah.”

Marge frowned. “You wouldn’t give these to the boys, would you? I mean…they’re not old enough. That’s why we put them in the case.”

A triumphant smile lit Deborah’s face when Marge followed her lead but, although Gabe’s blood raced with fury, he kept his expression perfectly pleasant. “No worries about that,” he said. “This box won’t last me through the weekend.”

Marge blushed and giggled, obviously relishing his response. Deborah’s mouth formed a surprised O.

Taking his change and his groceries, he started wheeling away. “Have a nice day, ladies.”

“Who are the flowers for?” Deborah called after him, but he didn’t respond. He’d been stupid to buy them in the first place.

HANNAH WAS LOOKING FORWARD to helping Gabe. Washing windows was one more thing she could do to improve his life in some small way. But she was torn about leaving the house. Sly’s mother had called earlier, claiming Kenny had attacked her son without provocation and saying Hannah would have to pay the medical bills for Sly’s stitches. Hannah was worried about the money, but she was even more concerned about Kenny. What had made him hurt Sly? She’d called Tuck’s house several times already, hoping Kenny’s best friend could explain the mystery, but Tuck and his mother had been gone all day.

As Hannah rounded the final bend in the road before the turn-off to Gabe’s driveway, the clock on her dashboard read three-thirty. There was a possibility that Kenny and Brent might beat her home tonight, she realized. She didn’t want that, but she knew Russ was just as likely to keep them out late as bring them home early. He was so unpredictable.