Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
I blinked and stepped back, dropping my hand. “You’re what?”
“I’m gonna look into him. And if he hasn’t cleaned up his fuckin’ act, I’m gonna find him. I’m then gonna tell him who I am. I’m gonna remind him internet shit never dies. And I’m gonna share with him that if he doesn’t get his shit straight, he’s gonna learn what it feels like to carry weight someone else piled on him that he can never release. But his is gonna be so heavy, it might fuckin’ crush him.”
Oh yeah.
I was getting a very bad feeling about this.
“And I think we might want to talk about why you’d have an urge to do that,” I said quietly. “Because, again, Gabe, it’s over. And I’m fine.”
“You’d given up on men four days ago.”
Hmm.
Well, there was that.
I tried to tease, smiling and saying, “Seems like someone talked me out of that.”
Gabe wasn’t in the mood for teasing.
“Yeah, but you haven’t clued into the man you’re with,” he ground out.
I dropped the teasing and replied earnestly, “I love that you want to protect me like that, but in this case, honestly, baby, it’s unnecessary. It was a long time ago, and I’m over it.”
Having let it slide before, he came at it directly this time and demanded, “Since you’re so fine about all this other shit, was it just the Kevin shit that held you back from me these last months?”
Oh crap.
“Not exactly,” I hedged.
“Right,” he snarled. “I lost months of you, because of them.”
I lost months of you…
And there it was again, my lungs collapsed, but it didn’t feel as bad this time.
“You’re still you because of the woman you are, the strength you got,” he kept going. “Another woman—”
He stopped talking so abruptly, his entire body jerked with it.
That bad feeling went into overdrive.
Nope.
Hyperdrive.
“Gabe—” I started urgently.
He cut me off. “If you won’t get me a name, Brody will. Just know, it’s gonna happen, babe, one way or another.”
And with that, Gabe decided to put a line under it.
He swooped in for a quick kiss (and of course he was that guy who would swoop in for a kiss after an intense discussion) before he ordered, “Remember, I want check-ins tonight. Did you bring me a cookie?”
And again, Gabe was that guy who could be cute and ask for a cookie after an intense discussion.
Wordlessly, I pointed at the little white bag that held his cookie that was sitting on my kitchen counter.
And before I could utter a word, he’d nabbed his cookie and was out the door.
I stood in my kitchen, staring at the door.
I had not forgotten how he’d woken up those days ago.
We’d been busy. I’d capitulated (happily) to an us on Sunday. We’d had sex for the first time last night, and that was Monday. Now it was Tuesday. We both had work, and I had an Angels assignment that night, and I probably wouldn’t be home before nine.
In other words, we hadn’t had the chance for deep dives into history, especially history that was so big, it changed our psyches.
Case in point, Gabe learning about what happened to me in high school before I could tell him.
But we were going to have to carve out that time.
I was going to have to carve it out.
And soon.
Because I was never going to complain about having a protective boyfriend.
But that wasn’t just being protective.
And it wasn’t just about me.
Not even close.
EIGHTEEN
YOU IN?
“So, Gabe paid me a visit this afternoon,” I shared with Shanti and Raye as we walked down the alley behind the Sun Valley Motor Lodge.
I was carrying a bag that had a box of six cupcakes in it for Duane (the other six in the batch were at home, waiting for Gabe as a bonus to him for asking for a cookie (and, who was I kidding? they were also waiting for me)).
Shanti and Raye were carrying their Tasers at the ready.
Joey had texted she was in the room, but the back window was slatted, so we had to sneak around the front.
We weren’t thrilled with this change in plan, but we had no choice but to roll with it.
As for me, naturally, I was also still freaking about Gabe’s visit earlier.
“And he lost his shit about all that crap that happened to me in high school,” I finished.
“You told him?” Shanti asked.
“No. He found out from the Nightingale computer guru, Brody,” I answered. “Warning, Gabe told me this Brody guy has done deep dives on all of us.”
“Those boys are so weird about everything,” Shanti muttered. “God, I suppose I’m gonna need to break down and read those Rock Chick books.”
It wasn’t anybody else’s story I wanted to know, it was Gabe’s.
“He lost it, you guys,” I told them.
They both stopped and looked at me.
“Lost it?” Shanti asked. “How?”