Free Beauty and the Feast by Julia Barrett Page B

he’d done a pretty damn good job of babying her.
    This was a first, Eva mused. She’d never before allowed a man into her bed. Oh, she wasn’t entirely inexperienced. She’d had sex, just not very often and never in her house. Napa wasn’t exactly hook-up city. She hadn’t been with a man since before she’d moved here, and when she’d lived in San Francisco , she’d made it a point to be cautious. According to her older brothers, every single man had one goal, and that goal was to get into a woman’s pants. Or under her skirt. They’d done their best to instill in her a healthy respect for her own body, even if they spent all their time trying to do exactly what they warned her about. It wasn’t that Eva was afraid of men, she wasn’t. She was picky. She liked to think she had discriminating taste. Not just any man would do. Watching Gabriel Abbott sleep, she knew without a doubt that he wasn’t just any man.
    Eva slid out of bed, being careful not to wake Gabe. Her knees were stiff and sore, but she wanted to brush her teeth and she desperately needed a shower despite the fact that she knew it would sting. She felt about as grungy as she’d ever felt in her life. She tiptoed out of the bedroom, closing the door softly behind her.
    The simple act of brushing her teeth had never felt so good. Eva turned the faucet and let the water warm up in the tub before she closed the shower curtain and switched on the shower. She decided she’d better go for lukewarm water, because hot and steamy, no matter how tempting, might be too harsh. She stepped into the tub carefully, keeping her back to the stream of water. Even so, Eva cringed when the water first hit her knees. Within a few minutes, the discomfort had subsided, and she washed her hair and scrubbed the sweat from her body. She took a good look at her knees and decided they weren’t so bad. She’d had worse over the years. It would be a pain to wear shorts to work all week and the scabs were going to be unsightly, but there wasn’t much she could do about it.
    Eva climbed out of the tub and dried off. She smoothed her favorite lotion over everything, even the raw spots. The antibiotic ointment would have to wait until Gabe woke up. She didn’t know where he’d put the tube. She towel dried her hair and quickly braided it. The only clothes she’d brought into the bathroom were the boxers and the old tee shirt she’d been wearing, so she pulled them back on and padded into the kitchen. The least she could do was make Gabe something to eat. She assumed he’d eventually wake up and he’d be hungry. It would be nice to have something ready, to thank him for his help.
    * * * *
    Gabe woke to singing. The room he lay in was dark and it took him a moment to remember where he was. When he smelled Eva, he knew. Gabe reached for her, but the spot where she’d lain was empty. He leaned back on the pillows, crossing his arms behind his head, and listened. It was an old Bonnie Raitt song, one he’d always loved—Angel from Montgomery . He closed his eyes and enjoyed the music. At first he thought Eva had turned on a CD player, but after listening for a few moments, he realized that there were no instruments accompanying the singing voice. It was all Eva. When she finished the song, she launched into a raw rendition of Lowell George’s Dixie Chicken. Gabe found himself grinning. If Eva would be his Dixie Chicken and he would most definitely offer to be her Tennessee Lamb. Gabe reached down to make sure he was covered in case she happened into the bedroom. He was relieved to find that she had thrown a quilt over his open fly. Maybe he’d covered himself. His memory was pretty vague.
    Eva must be feeling better or she wouldn’t be up and about, and singing her lungs out. Her singing voice kept a smile on his face. It was smoky, peaty, and right on key. She sounded exactly the way she sounded when he’d awakened her with his late night phone calls. Warm, cuddly,