Finding Ashlee

Chapter 2 - Gabe

Dear Brooke,

My trip to Juneau was uneventful. I slept most of the way and even missed my free drink and peanuts on the plane! I guess I was really tired. Thanks so much for dropping me off at the airport. I know you wanted to come in and stay with me as long as you could. But it would have been so hard for both of us. I will call you as soon as I get a new cell phone that works in Alaska. Thank you for everything. And your 'promise to death'? I'm letting you off the hook. I called mom and dad from the airport when I transferred planes in Seattle. You were right. They freaked. But do you want to know the truth? As mad as they were, I think they were secretly glad that I finally found something that I was passionate about. idk. Maybe they'll forgive me for not telling them before I left. I love you so much and will write or call soon.

Love ya!

A.

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Running for the shuttle bus that would take me from the Juneau airport to the ferry terminal, I was too distracted to notice the group of men jogging along behind me. But as I sprinted the last few feet and tossed my suitcase on the lowered step of the bus, I finally heard the sound of their running footsteps. Turning toward the sound, I had a moment of fear as I saw the five roughly dressed guys clustered behind me. I swung my head back and with a pounding heart I boarded the shuttle and wrestled with my bag.

"Let me get that for you." The voice beside me was deep but surprisingly gentle. I turned to say thank you and my voice caught in my throat at the sight of him. I couldn't believe it. I hadn't been in Alaska more than thirty minutes and standing right in front of me was my Alaskan dream man.

"Thanks." I finally managed to mutter. I couldn't stop myself from staring as he lifted my heavy bag with one hand and swung it onto the rack. My startled eyes traveled over his plaid lumberjack coat, the sleeves straining to contain his massive muscular arms. As he turned to look down at me, my mouth dropped open at the sight of his head full of curly hair and the sweetest smile I had ever seen.

"Hi. I'm Gabriel Brown." He introduced himself and pointed to a pair of empty seats. "If you want to sit down here, you can." He offered shyly.

"Um, sure." My mind was still reeling that a man who I thought was simply a dream, actually existed.

I plopped down into the seat and scooted over a bit to one side. He was a big guy and the seats were small. As he squeezed into the seat with me on one side and an older gentleman on the other side, his wide shoulders barely allowed him to sit back in the seat. He was so embarrassed and a little pink appeared at his neck. I was already laughing and giving his knee a light tap before I gave myself time to think about what I was doing.

"Here, let's do it like this." I pulled my shoulder forward so he could sit all the way back. "Just put your arm on the back of my seat and we should be ok." I encouraged him.

"Thanks. These seats are really narrow." He grinned and I could see a small gap between his top teeth and another one between his bottom teeth. He was adorable.

"No problem. Thanks again for helping me with my bag. I'm Ashlee."

"Hi, Ashlee. You can call me Gabe."

I honestly couldn't believe what had just happened. I positioned myself so that I could watch the side of his face while pretending to look out the window. His long sideburns turned into muttonchops that were as full and curly as the rest of his hair. His blue eyes were bright and friendly and when he turned his head to look out the window, I saw that his curly hair was long in the back and gathered into a short ponytail. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. I had come all this way chasing a dream but I hadn't expected to meet my dream man this soon.

Feeling the sensation of eyes watching me, I glanced toward the back of the shuttle and saw the other four guys grinning and staring at me and Gabe.

"So..." I momentarily lost my thought as Gabe turned his blue eyes back to me. "Um." I tried to quickly recover. "Those guys?" I jerked my thumb toward the smiling group and Gabe shook his head at me.

"They're my brothers. If you just ignore them, they'll stop staring after a while. I hope." He finished, throwing a fierce glare at his brothers..

"Got it." I knew if they were on this shuttle that they were also going to be on the ferry to Hoonah. It was a three hour ferry ride from Juneau and I began to wonder if there was a way I could finagle it so that I spent the time getting to know Gabe.

Between sneaking out of the house that morning to make the early flight out of Ohio, to the quick tear-filled call to my parents from the SeaTac airport, I had been running on adrenalin and no food for almost ten hours. I suddenly became self-conscious about my tired eyes, mussed hair and stale breath. 'Oh, great.' I thought. 'I must look horrible.' But Gabe kept sneaking glances at me and he didn't seem to be put off by my shabby appearance. On the contrary, I could feel the side of his thick chest pressing closer to me as the ride continued. Within minutes, I saw the passengers begin to stir and hitch their bags on their shoulders. We were pulling up to the ferry terminal.

Gabe jumped up quickly to get my bag for me, but as he pulled himself forward, his meaty arm that had been draped on the seat behind me, connected with a solid 'thwack' on the back of my head.

"Yeow!" I yelled as I reached back to rub the back of my head.

"Ashlee, I'm so sorry." Gabe's face was horror stricken and he grabbed my head with both hands and planted a loud, but soft kiss on the back of my head. Immediately realizing what he had done, his face became even more horror stricken. "Oh, wow. I'm really sorry. That was awkward."

He hurriedly yanked my bag off the rack and before I had time to respond, he was heading for the door. I ran to catch up with him and out of the corner of my eye I saw his brothers trailing after me, roaring with laughter.

"Gabe, wait!" Hunching my carryon backpack over my shoulder, I stepped up to Gabe and waited a second for his brothers to be within earshot. Once I knew they could hear and see everything, I threw one arm around Gabe's neck kissed his check.

"Thank you so much for helping me, Gabe. You are the sweetest man I have ever met." I spoke with complete honesty. Taking my bag from his hand, I began rolling it toward the ferry entrance. I didn't even look back. I was pretty sure I had made enough of an impression that I would be seeing Gabriel Brown again very soon.

"Gabey!" The high-pitched female voice rang out and I had to move out of the way quickly as she ran past me. All of a sudden, I was so nervous that I couldn't move. I watched with a sinking heart as the young woman ran the rest of the way down the ramp and flung herself at Gabe. As she wrapped herself around him, dotting noisy kisses on his face, he looked up and caught my eye. The expression on his face was too hard to read through the hot tears that suddenly clouded my vision. Before I made a fool of myself and let him see how hurt and confused I was, I gave him a slight smile, tossed back my hair and turned to walk the rest of the way to the ferry.