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)
And Raye was on with Jinx, because Duane had copied his plate number from some old surveillance video at the motel, therefore we had Noah’s address, we were ready to roll with that, but Jinx was getting cold feet.
Last, Gabe and I were home early enough to have plenty of time for a thorough sex sesh, then maybe we could clock in at seven hours of sleep before we got up to have another sex sesh.
“The moms seem to get along well,” I noted as I put my purse on his island. “And the dads have managed to sync in on the translation of their grunts, so that’s looking good too.”
Gabe shot me an I-get-what-you’re-doing, I’m-still-not-over-it look.
Guess we were synced too.
Hmm.
He threw himself on one of his couches. “Only good thing about today is, seems like there’s a more than healthy chance, we have a girl, she’ll have your hair.”
With what he said, and how good he looked lounged on his couch, even though I really, really needed sleep, I was thinking maybe our sex sesh should go long that night.
I came to a stop looking down at him.
“Are you worried how heavy, how quickly this is getting?” I asked.
“No. Are you?”
“I feel like my hair is on fire.”
“Shit,” he muttered. “I’m doing it wrong. Other parts of you are supposed to catch fire.”
I rolled my eyes, even if his teasing was cute, and before they rolled back, I found my hand jerked, and I was sprawled on top of him.
I rearranged myself so I wasn’t sprawled, just laying, and looked down at him.
When I saw he wasn’t fully committed to a lighthearted, teasing vibe, I asked, “Is there something I’m not getting here?”
Put-it-all-out-there Gabe put it out there.
“I love them. They went through Denise with me. Having her and not. Losing her the way we did. They went through Ariana with me, and both of them instantly disliked her. Both of them talked to me about her. The whole, ‘are you sure about this one, son?’ shit. Or I thought it was shit at the time. I didn’t see what they were seeing. I thought they were being overprotective after Denise.”
“Did they like Denise?” I asked carefully.
“They liked her a lot. They didn’t like her with me. That wasn’t about her. Not sure this makes sense, but they saw how hard I was working with her, and they wanted easy for me.”
I got that, so I nodded.
I wasn’t sure I’d be easy, but I wouldn’t be Denise (or Ariana).
“I’m less pissed that they pulled what they pulled and more pissed at myself for how obvious it is I put them through shit I should not have put them through.”
Oh.
My sweet man.
“It’s always going to be something, baby,” I told him. “It’s part of parenthood. Mom went through what Christian did to me, and onward to Kevin. And as an aside, she was second mom to Jen, so she went through losing her too. Eventually, you have to give your kids the space to make their own decisions, which means make their own mistakes. But that isn’t going to stop you from being a parent and wanting to intervene if mistakes are being made.”
“Yeah,” he muttered.
“And I think it says a lot about them, that they’d make the effort to come down here and look after you.” I put a finger to his lips when he was about to say something. “Oh, for sure, I know you’re a grown-ass man. I know that really well.”
He smiled under my hand.
I curled my fingers, ran them along his jaw and kept speaking.
“But they obviously love you a lot, and it’s rare a lot of love is ever a bad thing.”
“Yeah,” he repeated.
“Are you over it?” I asked.
“No choice,” he answered. “I love them too, and they weren’t coming from a bad place, so…yeah.”
“Can we have our sex sesh now?” I asked.
That got me a Gabe Grin, and he asked back, “Sex sesh?”
“I’m tired, so my body votes hot and heavy quickie. But it’s relatively early for us, and as such, my brain is saying long and lazy, but also hot and heavy.”
He started chuckling.
But, I’ll note, he did it while pulling us out of the couch.
I was frowning as he led me to the stairs, holding my hand.
“You’re not going to carry me?” I asked.
He looked down at me.
Then he bent and hoisted me up on his shoulder.
I squealed for no reason.
Gabe carried me to bed.
PS: Gabe picked long and lazy.
And hot and heavy.
Le sigh.
TWENTY-TWO
PERIWINKLE AND TUSCANY
Late the next afternoon, after I’d prepped upcoming orders and delivered the birthday cake (I was right, saving that time driving home, parking and getting sorted at home to dive into more work seemed like I wasn’t saving twenty or so minutes, but instead hours, so when I could stop deliveries too, I was going to be golden)…and while I was waiting for Mom and Robbie, Mike and Shelby to return from their day kayaking (but of course they made plans to do something—together—while Gabe and I worked), I sat at one of the tables in the courtyard with Alexis, going over cake stuff.