Chapter 21 Warp Speed #2
“Gabe’s coming, and I think I made a mistake calling him, because he sounds pissed.”
Raye, Jessie and Harlow, all having their own Hottie Squad members, nodded understandingly.
“On the one hand,” Shanti said, “I can see they’d be worried, what with the two who came before you. On the other hand, they can’t be ignorant of who their son is, so gotta say, not sure this was their brightest move.”
Tex lumbered in at this juncture and asked, “Is this Angels business?”
“No, we’re—” Harlow tried to answer.
That was as far as she got before Tex noted, “It’s lunchtime, and we got a full house and no one to bring them food. Not sure why I gotta keep tellin’ you this shit, but it works like this. People order food. We give it to them. They pay for it. And that pays your wages. Are you following me?”
“Gabe’s parents are here,” Raye told him.
He reared back. “Mike and Shelby? How’d they get by me?”
“And Luke,” Jessie added.
“Ah.” Tex nodded. “That’s how they got by me.”
“And Willow’s folks surprise showed too,” Shanti put in.
“And Willow has a love bite,” Luna finished explaining my current tribulation.
Tex homed in on my love bite.
Then he visibly gagged.
It was then, Tito showed.
“Willow, I’ve seated your guests,” he announced. “Your mom and Shelby have wine, and the men have beers. And I’ve put in an order of Lucia’s arancini bites. So they’re fine. Take your time.”
With that, he left.
God, I loved Tito.
“You want me to run down the street to the thrift shop and get you a scarf?” Harlow offered.
“We don’t have time,” Luna answered for me. “Does anyone have any makeup?”
And God, worth a repeat, I loved my chicks.
“I do,” I said. “It’s in my car because I’m staying at Gabe’s tonight.”
“Right.” Per usual, Raye took charge. “Harlow is on makeup. I’ll go get it from the car. The rest of you, go back out.”
They took off to see to business, and when Raye gave her my makeup kit, Harlow dabbed foundation then patted powder over my love bite, and this was almost done when Jessie showed at the door.
“Gabe’s here, and you need to get out there.”
I wasn’t sure if Harlow was done, and I didn’t check.
Feeling kinda stupid for hiding, I dashed out to the restaurant.
Gabe’s and my families were seated at a back table.
Gabe was there.
And Brady, Shaw and Landon (Landon was another new member of the team, and yes, it goes without saying, he was gorgeous) were hanging back and watching the scene unfold with inscrutable (but handsome) faces, which told me they were all feeling Gabe’s pain, but too good mannered to let it show in front of the parental units.
“…pull this shit,” Gabe was saying to his father as I rushed to him.
I put my hand to his back, he looked down at me, and I assured (yes, lied), “Hey, baby. Here I am, and I’m good.” I looked to our loved ones at the table. “Sorry I took off. I was just a little taken off guard.”
Gabe’s angry face switched to Gabe’s enraged face, and he looked back to the table too.
“And that’s the shit I’m talking about,” Gabe growled at his dad.
“Son—” Mike tried.
“No, Dad. There are no words you can use that would make me okay with you ambushing my woman, ever, but definitely not at work.”
“It was my idea, honey,” Shelby put in.
Gabe turned to her. “And there’s no words you can say either, Mom.”
“I’m okay,” I said hurriedly, and Gabe’s wrathful look moved to me. “Everything’s okay,” I promised, putting my hand on his chest. “See, baby? They have wine and beer and fried food. That’s the essence of okay.”
“You were hiding in the staff room when I got here,” Gabe pointed out.
“Not my proudest moment,” I said, trying for breezily and not quite cutting it, so Gabe’s wrathful look went overdrive. “But I’m okay now.”
His gaze moved down to my neck and his lips thinned.
I wasn’t sure what that meant, if we’d failed at covering it up, or he was pissed I had to cover it, but I wasn’t going to ask now.
“So!” I took my hand from his chest and clapped both, turning to the table. “Since you started Italian, can I suggest Lucia’s Bolognese? She uses pepperoni as well as bacon, so it’s ridiculously bad for you, but so good.”
“I get you want to make a good impression on my parents, cupcake,” Gabe cut into my efforts to smooth things over. “But you need to get I’d want my parents to make a good impression on you too.”
“He calls her cupcake?” Mom whispered enthusiastically to Shanti.
“I guess so,” Shanti replied happily.
“They’re fine,” I said to Gabe. “We’re all fine. Look, your dad wore a nice shirt.”
Luke chuckled.
Mike teased me. “Thanks for noticing, sweetheart.”
“You’re not getting away with this shit,” Gabe warned his father.
I latched ono his biceps and got his attention again. “They totally are, honey.”
“So!” Mom chirped toward Mike and Shelby before Gabe could carry on being mad. “Our kids are working, and we’re here, and you’re here, so after lunch, we’ll show you the town then we can meet up with the offspring for dinner.”
“That sounds great,” Shelby replied, her voice dripping gratitude at Mom’s intervention.
Mom turned to Robbie, who I belatedly noticed was staring hard at Gabe. “What do you think? The Botanical Gardens? The Japanese Friendship Gardens? I know! We’ll walk Papago Park!”
Robbie stopped staring at Gabe and slipped into his I’m-in-the-city-and-I-just-wanna-do-my-time-without-murdering-anybody mode, so he just grunted.
Mom pulled her phone out of her bag. “Here, I’ll show you your options and you can decide.”
I pressed to Gabe’s side.
“See,” I said softly. “It’s fine.”
Gabe didn’t stop scowling at his father.
“We’re not done talking about this,” he threatened his dad.
“I suspect not,” Mike said to his son, but he was smiling.
Gabe grabbed my hand and dragged me to the staff room.
Once we were there, he pulled me in front of him and asked, “You okay?”
“Well, that has to linger around the top zone of the weirdest, most awkward meet the parents in history…”
When the wrath reentered Gabe’s face, I went on and fast.
“But it’s done. Mom will look after them. Robbie will grunt occasionally to confirm he’s still alive. And I’ll see if I can make a booking for dinner. What do you think? Chelsea’s Kitchen? Maybe Trevor’s? That’s a bit more casual. Mom and Robbie aren’t fussy. So anywhere would be fine with them.”
“I’ll figure something out, cupcake.”
“All right.” Since he wasn’t over it, I said, “They’re just worried about you.”
“I’m a grown-ass man.”
He sure was.
“And my parents are worried about me too,” I pointed out.
“And you’re a grown-ass woman.”
True.
“So, say you had a son who endured what you did,” I began.
Bizarrely, at my opener, his eyes lit with interest and his hands came to my hips.
“Or a daughter who went through what I did. What would you do?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t drive ten hours and disturb my son’s woman at work.”
I didn’t believe him.
“You sure?” I pushed.
“Babe.” He sighed. “I hear you. And it’s sweet, you bein’ nice about this.
But what they did is not okay. I’m pissed at them, but I’ll get over it.
I’m pissed at Luke for abetting it, but I’ll get over that too.
I’ll be over it by dinner so we can have a nice meal.
But none of that takes away the fact I gotta have a chat with them, not only about how I expect them to treat you, but how I expect them to respect my choices and understand I got a brain in my head, so I’m not gonna make the same mistake twice. ”
I could see why he’d need that, so I nodded.
His fingers flexed on my hips. “Now, you want kids?”
Yikes!
So, apparently, we weren’t going at the speed of light with this relationship.
We were going Star Trek Enterprise warp speed.
I mean, we’d been there for all of three days, and we’d done the meet-the-parents.
Now we were talking kids.
“Yes,” I answered.
“How many?”
“Well, I’d like to see how I feel pregnant before I make a firm choice on that, but if pregnancy doesn’t totally suck, two.”
“Two works.”
That didn’t sound definitive.
“You want more?”
“I have a sister, and I like having a sister. So I’d like a boy and a girl. If that doesn’t happen the first go, I wouldn’t mind trying another time. But if you’re done at two, then we’ll stop at two.”
If you’re done…
Then we’ll stop…
Not “my woman” or “my wife is done.”
Totally warp speed.
“You think Lucia would set me and the boys up with some of those fried things I saw on their table?” Gabe asked.
Okay…
Shoo.
He seemed to be getting over his parents showing and the kid talk was done so…
Onward.
“I think that can be arranged,” I answered.
“Awesome,” he muttered, and dipped in for a kiss.
I happily accepted his kiss (it was wet this time, only a little, but it was a nice little).
We headed out.
He went to the restaurant.
I went to Lucia.
Our parents (and Luke) ordered the Bolognese and decided on a gender split: the women to the Botanical Gardens, the men to some Harley dealership (and this meant Robbie spoke words while we were gone).
They left and SC was normal again, or as normal as SC could get.
Lucia had no problem with me baking while she cooked after my shift was over.
So oddly, even after that latest drama, life was good.
Actually great.
Regardless that my relationship was going so fast, my hair was metaphorically on fire.
* * *
Later that night, after Gabe wisely took us to The Porch for dinner (casual, hearty bar food, sports on TV everywhere, quiet enough Mom and Shelby could gab, sporty enough Mike could keep an eye on all the scores, lowkey enough Robbie was comfortable—see!
Gabe was a miracle worker!), we wandered into his house.
Mike had finagled his wife being a worried, protective mom into a very long weekend at the Biltmore resort.
Mom and Robbie were staying at mine.
Arthur had reported he’d have a full brief on Amy and Dexter and his crew tomorrow.
This was good, because Duane shared that the drops were supposed to take place on Saturday night, so we’d have time (though, not much) to find out who we were dealing with, also time to plan whatever it was we were going to do.
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.