Chapter 24 All Good
TWENTY-FOUR
ALL GOOD
I woke.
It was still dark.
I was sprawled on my back.
I turned my head.
My man was turned toward me, on his side, with an arm slung across my stomach.
He had a king.
I could be free and breezy in a king.
And I was.
There was something to say about being curled up like a cat, tucked up close to your guy.
Strangely, I preferred this.
I noticed from Gabe’s bedside clock I still had an hour to sleep.
And there was something to say about other sleeping positions too.
I rolled toward him, his arm tensed as I did, pulling me closer, but once I got in position of cuddled up front to front, it relaxed.
Mm.
Gabe pulled me closer in sleep.
I smiled.
Then I drifted away.
* * *
My Friday started out promising.
I woke up next to Gabe (not sprawled, still cozied up in each other arms, le sigh).
That was enough to make promising last the whole day, but then we had a quickie in the shower.
So, yeah, that made the start of the day super promising.
He brought me coffee while I got ready for work, and it seemed this was going to be our thing, and I liked that thing very much, thank you.
I went to work.
Gabe went to the gym.
Once at work, things were normal.
No parents ambushed me.
Ariana didn’t show out of the blue demanding a girl fight to win Gabe (and no, I wasn’t dissing girl fights, but I figured she’d fight like a girl).
Tex didn’t seem any grumpier about anything.
Tito was his usual present, but silent.
Raye shared we were having our chat with Titus because she figured he’d know the players, and he’d give us some insights into how to plan tomorrow night.
And since she was right about that, and I’d never turn down the opportunity to hang with Titus, I told her that was a great idea, and I was all in.
So…
Yeah.
It was all good.
Okay, so it was boring, and I jotted on my mental to-do list to think later about the prick of discontent I felt that there was no drama.
But still, it was good.
Until, unbeknownst to me, seeing as I was in the restaurant, and this happened in the coffee cubby, workmen showed, and I only knew they did when they were gone, Tito wandered to the coffee cubby, and Tex bellowed, “Willow!”
The lunch rush was almost over, but all the girls were in (save Gemma and Joey), and such was that bellow, we all wandered to the coffee cubby to see what was up.
I sensed we all did this with low hums of excitement because the day had been normal (and boring) so far.
Really, even thinking on it only a little bit, it wasn’t a surprise we were Angels.
But it was only me who looked through the still-healthy line in front of the coffee cubby to the west window, so it was at first only me who gasped.
The other girls’ gasps came after mine.
And then I was about to lose it.
Entirely.
Because in the window was a big decal of a cute, illustrated girl with pink hair, blushing cheeks, happy crescents for eyes, wearing a chef’s hat with a pretty little green flower on it. She was holding a piping bag.
And under her in a pretty but fun font, it said, Willow’s Good Stuff.
It was my logo, enlarged, backwards from where I stood, but my logo.
In order not to collapse into sobs at witnessing that magnificence, I put my hands over my nose and mouth and pressed hard.
“I’m gonna take that as you approve,” Tex remarked.
I didn’t remove my hands from my face as I looked to him and nodded.
Someone was rubbing my back.
I finally pulled my hands away and said a throaty, “Thank you,” to Tex. I then turned to Tito and said, “Really, thank you so much.”
“You’re gonna make us buckets of bread, which means I’m gonna be able to buy my Nancy that wine fridge she wants. So don’t thank us,” Tex said.
Maybe.
Maybe my desserts on the menu and more treats in the case and their percentage of my business (and we hadn’t even negotiated that yet!) would make them a little more money.
But they were taking a chance on me. They were giving me my dream.
And lest we forget what just happened…
They’d bought me a big-ass decal and put it in the window.
So Tex could be as casual as he wanted because he wasn’t big on showing emotion.
But, worth a repeat, they were making my dream come true.
As such, it was safe to say, I was grateful.
I turned to Tito and hugged him.
He patted my back while he returned the hug.
“Really, thank you,” I whispered in his ear, wishing I had more words, ones that would share even a hint of what I was feeling.
“Should have done it a while ago.” He pulled slightly away. “But I’m glad we’re doing it now.”
I didn’t know what to say so I just sniffed.
I sensed he got me as he let me go and patted my shoulder.
I looked to Tex. “Can I hug you?”
“Fuck no,” he replied.
As suspected.
I gave my girls a happy smile and noted they were already smiling that way at me.
Then I took my phone out of my apron, went outside, snapped a few snaps and sent them first, to Gabe, then to Mom and Robbie.
My text was, I’m official.
Mom sent about fifty intermingled sobbing and smiley emojis. Robbie dropped a thumbs up on the picture.
And Gabe replied, Fucking awesome.
He was so right.
We all got back to work.
Later, after my shift was over, I was working in the kitchen with Lucia, all the cupcakes were done and boxed and awaiting delivery so I could assemble the towers at the site, and I was closing in on finishing decorating the cookies for the baby shower the next day…
That was when Mom sashayed into the kitchen.
“So this is where the magic happens,” she said.
Before I could reply, say, tell her she couldn’t just stroll into a restaurant’s kitchen even if her daughter worked there, both the owners were eccentric (to say the least) and on any given day (or Angel assignment), all sorts of people could be trooping through there (what could I say?
I didn’t want anything to mess with Lucia’s and my equilibrium because I didn’t want anything to mess with the opportunity Tito and Tex were giving me), she spoke again.
Loudly.
“Ooo! Look at how cute those are!”
She was gazing animatedly at my cookies.
They were cute, little foxes and bears, squirrels and bunnies, deer and racoons.
But Lucia was in her zone, and I didn’t need my mom’s animation to disturb it.
I rounded the prep table, grabbed her hand and tugged her to the staff room.
Once there, I said, “Love you, Mom, but you can’t just walk into Lucia’s kitchen like that.”
She was puzzled. “Why not?”
“Because she’s an artist. You don’t interrupt an artist.”
“You’re an artist too.”
“Yeah, so you shouldn’t interrupt me either,” I told her. “I thought we were meeting for dinner after I make my delivery. Is something up?”
“Well, kind of, if me and Robbie, Mike and Shelby ditching on dinner is something that’s up.”
Now I was puzzled. “You’re ditching dinner?”
“They’re coming up with us to Prescott. We’re gonna show them around.
It carves about an hour and a half off their drive home on Sunday and Mike is like Robbie.
He can only do the big city for a little while.
He’s antsy. I’m gonna meet Shelby in a little bit, and we’re going to do a quick troll through Fashion Square Mall, and then we’re all heading up. ”
“Oh,” I said, trying to pinpoint how I felt about Mom and Robbie, Mike and Shelby careening down the road to being best buds.
Obviously, I liked it.
But it, too, was warp speed.
“I also wanted to share personally that Gabe officially has Robbie’s stamp of approval.”
Now I was struggling to pinpoint if I remembered how to breathe.
“When we got back from dinner at that sports bar,” Mom continued, “he just sat on your couch, bent forward and put his head in his hands. He sat that way for a long time. I gave him that time, then I sat with him and asked what’s up.
He lifted up and said,”—she took off Robbie’s deep voice—“‘This one is gonna take care of her. This one, fuck, babe, he’d die doin’ it. ’”
No way to hold them back this time, tears sprang to my eyes and started falling.
Because…
Yeah.
Gabe would.
He’d do that.
He was a giver, not a taker. He was a supporter, not a mooch. He was a partner, not a bum. He was a protector, not a user.
He was everything.
Like knew like, I guessed, because Robbie was all of that too.
But even if having this knowledge settle deep into my bones was absurdly awesome, putting the cherry on the top was that me with Gabe didn’t make either my mom or my dad-of-the-heart worry.
Mom gathered me in her arms, and in my ear, she said, “I’m sorry I disturbed you at work. But I didn’t want to leave without you knowing that you and Gabe have Robbie’s and my approval. And I wanted to be here when the words were said.”
It was then it fully dawned on me that Angels’ business, and other business besides, frequently tore Lucia from her zone, and she never complained.
And The Surf Club was more family than work (no matter what Tex kept trying to drill into us).
And Mom was family.
I was just up in my head about doing Tex and Tito right, Lucia right, and not messing up this chance they gave me.
I always wanted to see my mom.
And I definitely wanted to be with her when she shared what she’d just shared.
“Thanks, Mom,” I choked out, hanging on to her like she was holding me up. “And don’t worry about disturbing me at work. I just got my decal today, so I’m overemotional.”
“Understandable,” she replied, and then, “I hope you know, I love you so much, baby doll.”
I pulled back, swiping at my face and said, “I’m sorry I put you through so much with Kevin.”
She shook her head, a small but happy smile on her face, even if what she said next might belie that.
Still, it also didn’t.
“When your father finally was gone for good, it was about the fifth time I kicked his ass out. And it was about the sixtieth time I knew I had to kick his ass out and do it for good. I took him back, because I loved him. I took him back, because we’d made a family.
I took him back, because I didn’t want to admit to myself how wrong I was about him.
I took him back, because I didn’t want to admit to anyone else I was wrong about him.
I could stand here and give you a hundred other reasons I convinced myself, and he convinced me, to give him another chance.
Would I have liked to share that with you thinking it would save you the hassle and heartbreak of dealing with Kevin?
Yes. Did I know you had to figure it out for yourself, just like I did? Also, yes.”
She cupped my jaw in both hands and leaned close to me.
“As rough as I knew that was for you,” she went on, “I knew you’d figure it out in the end. I had no doubt. I was right. And you figured it out way before you got yourself in a space where it wasn’t only you it would affect.” She gave me a toothy smile. “Progress.”
I’d gotten a handle on the tears, but when she said all of that, I lost it again.
So, of course, Mom pulled me in her arms again.
And she wasn’t done shredding me, but in the loveliest way possible.
“You’ll learn, when you have your own babies, that it’s worth going through those times so you can have times like these.
Times when you’re proved right and you feel so proud.
Times like Robbie had, when you got a girl who’s smart enough to learn, strong enough to get on with it, and sharp enough to find the right one the next time. ”
I hiccoughed with my sob.
She pulled away, put her hands back to my jaw, but this time, she swiped under my eyes with her thumbs and said, “I hope you have some makeup to do a refresh.”
I’d thought they were spending another night, so I left it at Gabe’s.
But we had a lot of chicks working there, therefore I figured someone would set me up.
“I’ll be okay,” I assured.
“We want him up for the weekend. Soon. Robbie’s ecstatic he has someone to chop wood with.”
First, I had to wrestle with the concept of Robbie being “ecstatic” about anything.
Then, I had to tamp down all the goodness that bubbled up at the thought of watching Gabe chop wood.
Finally, I said, “We’ll figure that out. And we’ll do it soon.”
She gave me another hug, tapped my cheek with her finger, and then she sashayed out.
I grabbed my phone and texted Gabe about the change of plans tonight and his parents going to Prescott.
His reply was, Dad called. All good.
I then texted, Mom told me you have Robbie’s approval. Beware, this means when we go to Prescott, you’re not reworking rebar, you’re chopping wood.
On that, Gabe dropped a thumb’s up.
So my man wasn’t an enthusiastic texter.
But as mentioned, he was a lot of other things.
And Mom and Robbie approved.
So yeah.
Maybe boring wasn’t bad when everything was all good.
I tucked my phone away.
And got back to the cookies.
* * *
I was returning to my car after delivering the towers when my phone rang.
I dug it out, and since it was Gabe, I took the call.
“Hey, baby,” I greeted.
“Hey, we got plans Sunday?”
I folded into my car, closed the door and answered, “Yes. To sleep, fuck, eat, and sleep some more. Why?”
I heard his soft laugh.
I loved his soft laugh.
And then he said, “Roxie called Roam, and he’s rounding up whatever guys have Sunday free to go put in a drip system and some plants at Tex and Nancy’s.”
Ruh-roh.
“Uhhhh…” I drew that out. “This request came from Roxie? Roxie Nightingale? All the way up in Denver. And not from, say, Tex or Nancy? The people whose yard you’ll be installing the drip system in.”
It didn’t take a genius to read between the lines of that, but my guy had a master’s degree, so he cracked it instantly.
“You know something I don’t?”
“I know I was all in for Tex to lose his battle against Annette and the Rock Chicks so he and Nancy have a nice yard, instead of what he wants, rocks and dirt, and I put money down on him losing said battle. So I also know that right now, I’m caught in a pickle, because I want that, but I don’t want you in Tex’s line of fire. ”
“You put money down on it?”
“New pool,” I told him.
“What’s the buy in?”
“Ten bucks.”
“Chump change,” he teased. I rolled my eyes. He continued speaking. “Put me in for Tex going down. I’ll tell Roam I can’t do this Sunday, but I can do next.”
Was he…?
“Wait a second, are you fixing the bet by horning in on the activity that would win the money?”
“Sure,” he replied on a verbal shrug.
“Masterful, oh Sage One,” I joked.
“Smartass,” he replied, but I still heard his humor. “See you later, babe.”
“Definitely.”
We hung up.
And I started my car and drove to Gabe’s.