Chapter 23 #2
“Gabe’s throwing a spanner in our works,” Willow shared, she and Shanti coming up to my other side. “He wants a destination wedding at a beach.”
As noted, they weren’t engaged either.
“I’m always down for a beach,” Jessie said.
“Don’t you want a beach?” Harlow asked Willow.
“I’d never thought of a beach. Since they moved there, I’ve always wanted to get married at Mom and Robbie’s cabin,” she said.
“That’d be killer,” Jessie said.
“Does Gabe have a problem with that?” I asked.
“We’re discussing it,” she answered. “He’s hung up on how long it would take for us to get from end of ceremony to beginning of honeymoon. He says, we get married on a beach, everyone can fuck off, and we can go to our room and bam! We’re on our honeymoon.”
“I see his point,” Shanti said.
Willow smiled. “I have to admit, he’s winning me over.”
“I can’t wait to get my scrapbook,” Gemma gushed when she made it to us.
We all looked at her.
We then turned to find Brady, who was standing with Roam, Cap and Raye, gabbing with Stevie.
“I’m thinking about marrying a Russian,” Joey said.
She was with us too.
“It’s hard to remember he probably does very bad things on a daily basis when he’s in close proximity,” Gemma mumbled.
We all turned back to Brady, then we looked among ourselves.
“Hello?” Martha called crabbily. “Cocktail?”
Jessie handed me my cocktails.
I took one to Martha then went to Knox.
He was chatting with Gabe, Lan and Shaw.
After they all gave me chin juts (these dudes), I told Knox, “We have trouble brewing.”
“What?” he asked.
“Joey and Gemma both have crushes on Dimitri.”
Lan frowned.
Ferociously.
I watched him do this.
Closely.
Um…
What was that?
“Brady really needs to get his head out of his ass,” Shaw murmured.
I was still keeping an eye on Lan, and that didn’t seem to faze him.
So…
Was he into Joey?
Ohmigod!
“He’s got shit to deal with first,” Knox murmured in return to Shaw’s comment.
That got my attention.
And wait.
Last night, covered in borscht, then after, face stuffed with stroganoff, I hadn’t quite processed Knox told me Brady had some history Knox didn’t know.
I sure didn’t know it.
Therefore, I prompted, “And that shit is?”
“Just keep Gem away from the Russian,” Knox replied.
Now I was watching Knox closely.
This was bro stuff, I could see.
I’d never get any bro stuff out of him, that I knew. What I further knew was, unless he got the go ahead from Brady to share it (which he clearly didn’t), it was uncool for me to push about it and therefore put Knox in a bad place, caught between girlfriend and bud.
As such…
Foiled.
“Nice hat,” Shaw said.
I turned to him and smiled.
All the men focused on my smile.
But only Gabe muttered, “Fuck, it’s a sex thing.”
My smile got bigger.
Lan made a pained noise.
And it got even bigger.
Knox cleared his throat.
At this point, all the men caught sight of something behind me, and then they twisted to look in the opposite direction.
I turned to the first point that took their attention and saw Roam staring across the courtyard.
Therefore, I, too, twisted to see what he was staring at.
And I saw Alice, a new resident at Oasis Square, coming in the gate laden with what looked like a very heavy laptop bag and what appeared to be an overstuffed (but stylin’) tote, both hanging from her shoulder, the handles of two Trader Joe’s bags were in her other hand.
She was very new to the Oasis, so we didn’t know Alice well.
We knew she was a social worker. We knew she was Moses’s (Shirleen’s husband and the manager of the control room at NI&S) daughter from his first marriage.
We thought she was on tap to be an Angel because we knew she’d jumped to the front of the very long waiting list to get a unit at Oasis Square, and that was normally a prelude to a new pop portrait turning up at the Angels’ Lair.
We were surprised that hadn’t happened (yet?).
And we knew, even though she’d moved from Denver just a few weeks ago, she was super busy because we never saw her, except how she was now.
Loaded with stuff and hurrying somewhere.
Last, we knew she was Roam’s stepsister because Roam was Shirleen’s son.
I had deeper intel on this, since Cap was also Shirleen’s son (yeah, this whole thing was a family affair in a variety of ways), and Raye was my bestie.
So I knew Cap and Roam didn’t meet Moses and his two daughters until both the boys and the girls were in their late teens.
And then both the boys went off to do their thing, and both Moses’s girls went away to college.
So it wasn’t like those men grew up with those women.
And looking back at Roam, I was seeing his feelings about Alice were not at all brotherly.
However, he didn’t make a move to help her get up to her apartment carrying her burdens.
That was so un-Nightingale Man I was stunned.
Hmm.
“I’m outta here,” Shaw said into my reverie. “Later.”
We all gave him our laters, but it was only me who looked at Knox with big, what’s-up-with-Roam-and-Alice eyes.
Knox’s lips hitched up and he shook his head.
I didn’t know if that meant “not now” or “not ever.”
We would see.
Those in for the long haul settled in, the rest of us wandered to our respective units.
Knox and I did it after we stopped to give Alexis a hug. I also gave Jacob a hug, but Knox and Jacob slapped each other’s biceps so hard, I figured they’d bruise.
After that, me with my guy who had my dog cradled in his arms while I had our scrapbook (somehow (magically?) Tod had pared our scrapbook down in the interim so Knox and I could peruse it without extraneous stuff getting in the way) headed up the stairs to my place.
When we were locked in, Knox put Jacques down and he trotted directly to the bedroom (with a quick stop to sniff his empty dog bowl and grab a half-hearted slurp of water). His trajectory was Knox’s or my pillow.
He’d be displaced. He always was.
But he never gave up.
I dropped the scrapbook on the kitchen bar and turned to my man.
“Does Lan have a thing for Joey…or is it Gemma?”
“No comment,” he replied.
Oh no he didn’t.
“Knox.”
“It’s not Gem, and that’s all I’m gonna say about it.”
Seriously?
“Ugh!” I cried. “What is it with these guys? Why don’t they call the fucking ball?”
“Babe, just let it happen however it’s gonna happen.”
I had no choice.
But I didn’t have to like it.
I wasn’t a pouter, but I was feeling like pouting.
“Alice and Roam?” I tried.
“You gotta know what that’s about.”
Yeah.
I did.
If Roam went there, and it didn’t work, that could be cataclysmic for their family, so I could totally see the hesitation and even the decision never to take it there, no matter how much he was into her.
Knox called my attention back to him when he asked, “You freaked about your wedding book?”
“Our wedding book,” I corrected.
He grinned at me.
“I’m not if you’re not,” I answered.
“I’m not.”
“I could tell.”
He came to me and rested his forearms on my shoulders. “So, when that comes, warning. I want in.”
“In?”
“On planning.”
He hadn’t made a secret of that, but it was nice to have confirmed.
I tipped my head to the side. “Do you have a dream wedding?”
“No. But I found my dream girl, so I’m gonna be in on planning because we’re both gonna have our dream wedding.”
Best answer evah.
“I’m losing track. Is it my turn to go down on you or is it your turn to go down on me?” I asked.
A slow smile spread across his face. “Sixty-nine?”
“I could do that.”
“You’re gonna have to lose the hat.”
I took it off and tossed it to the couch.
He started laughing.
Through it, he said, “I’ll shut down for the night. You get naked.”
I could do that too.
So that was exactly what I did.