Chapter 28 It #3
The idea that her husband had been a colossal dick was not.
So I focused on the hilarious part.
It was the day before eat-until-you-pass-out day, and we were at a Mexican restaurant where I was engaged in eating until I would almost pass out, when I heard Gabe grunt.
In our time together, I’d learned he was a man who grunted, for a variety of reasons (most of them delicious).
But this was a grunt the likes I’d never heard.
I looked to him.
Then I looked to where his eyes were aimed.
Primarily at a really pretty brunette who was standing just inside the entry at the hostess stand.
I knew by the way her gaze was pinging between me and Gabe (because, yes, we were sitting very close, and another yes, he had his arm slung along the back of my chair), and the way her hurt face morphed to incredulous, and incredulous morphed to bitchy, all of this in a matter of seconds, that she was Ariana.
“Oh shit,” Mike mumbled.
Yep.
Ariana.
Ariana started in our direction.
“Oh no, she is not,” Shelby spat.
Gabe stood.
Mike clamped down on Shelby.
I debated whether or not I wanted to break a nail in a catfight the day before Thanksgiving.
Gabe moved to intercept her.
When he did, she morphed her face again to give him a come-hither look and added resting her hand on his chest.
“Oh no, she did not,” I bit off, preparing to slide from my chair.
But then Ariana’s face changed to shock, and her eyes narrowed. I knew she was screwing up to be ugly, but Gabe didn’t give her the shot.
He turned his back on her, returned to us and sat back down in his chair beside me.
I instantly curved a hand on his thigh and put in the effort not to sink my nails in to add to my claim.
Ariana glared at us for a long time before she noticed everyone in the restaurant was watching her standing there, glaring at a man who walked away from her in order to sit with another woman he was obviously very with, and as such, she was making a fool of herself.
She then stomped out, and the people she came in with, clearly her parents, sent sorrowful looks toward Gabe (oh yeah, they knew what she threw away) before they followed her.
When the coast was clear, and I was in no danger of breaking a nail, I asked Gabe, “What did you say to her?”
“I said we were over. I said she made us that way. I said years have passed, she is not a part of my life and hasn’t been for a long time.
So her making a scene when I’ve moved on in a way I’m never gonna turn back would be a waste of energy.
And I thanked her for showing me what I didn’t want so I could find what I did. ”
Wow.
It didn’t seem their interaction lasted that long.
Also, sick burn.
I smiled at him.
He smiled back and added a kiss through it.
It was pretty awesome.
When he pulled away, Maisie, Luke and Ava’s youngest, proclaimed, “This isn’t fair. Wyatt can’t be my boyfriend, because he’s married to Kacie. And now Gabe can’t be my boyfriend, because he’s with Willow.”
“You’re too young to have a boyfriend,” Luke stated.
“I am not,” Maisie retorted.
“And you’ll be too young until you’re fifty and hopefully I’m dead,” Luke went on.
“Luke!” Ava snapped.
“Daddy!” Maisie snapped. “I’m not waiting until I’m fifty to have a boyfriend!”
“We’ll see,” Luke muttered.
Maisie screwed up her face toward her father.
Ava rolled her eyes toward me.
Luke ignored them both and took a pull of his beer.
“Nana, Daddy’s being mean to me,” Maisie told on her father.
“He’s being protective, sweetheart,” Josie replied. “One day, you’ll understand the difference.”
Maisie harrumphed.
“I’m waiting to meet a man just like Daddy,” Gracie, Luke and Ava’s oldest, and an apple that didn’t fall far from her Grandma Josie’s tree, announced primly.
“Oh my God, don’t do that,” Ava replied.
Luke’s brows went up and his indigo eyes went to his woman.
“There’s only one of you,” Ava explained. “She’ll never find anyone if she’s looking for someone like you.”
“This is not a problem,” Luke retorted.
Ava’s eyes got dangerously squinty.
Luke ignored her too and sent a wink to his oldest, who smiled brightly when she received it. His youngest, who was sitting next to him, got a daddy headlock and a kiss on the top of her hair. Maisie squirmed through this, but I could tell her heart wasn’t in it.
And I wondered how some men didn’t understand how absurdly sexy it was to be a demonstratively good and loving dad.
Shelby changed the subject to say to me, “I’m thinking about taking a Christmas shopping trip to Phoenix in a couple of weeks. Viola introduced me to that mall, but I’m into giving my custom to local businesses. Do you think you could show me around?”
Ohmigod!
I’d love that.
“I will one hundred percent play that kind of tour guide,” I replied.
“Brilliant,” she said. “I have a line of attack. I’ll text you what I’m looking for.”
“And I’ll build a shopping tour that’ll rock your world.”
“Rock our bank account, you mean,” Mike said.
Shelby rolled her eyes. “Says Mr. Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend.”
“Uh, they are,” I put in.
“I know,” Shelby agreed. “He gets me some every Christmas. And I will make certain to note that what I said was not me registering a complaint. The thing is, Mike is so good at giving gifts, I can’t compete. But I also can’t give up.”
“You don’t have to compete,” Mike stated.
“Like it works that way,” Shelby muttered.
“It could, if you’d stop competing,” Mike returned.
They bickered.
Gabe ate his tacos.
Kacie turned to Wyatt and stated, “Since we’re talking Christmas lists, you can pass the diamonds and buy me a new pair of hiking boots.”
Wyatt winked at his wife in a way I conjectured those hiking boots were already hidden in their house somewhere, awaiting their holiday unveiling.
I pried my hand from Gabe’s thigh and went after my burrito, not knowing, several weeks later, that I would learn father and son were like minded.
Because I got the prettiest, little delicate necklace with a trio of dainty but lustrous diamonds from Gabe for Christmas.
So, yeah.
Shelby was right.
Nothing to complain about there.
The first to fall was Jessie.
No surprise.
The writing was on the wall.
It happened after she and Eric returned from their Thanksgiving vacation to France (or, Disneyland Paris, Jessie was one of those adult Disney people, which was a shocker, because Jess really wasn’t like that, however, she also totally was).
Even though she expected to get a lot of guff when she announced she was moving out of the Oasis to officially move in with Eric, she didn’t.
It helped she showed us the glinting, huge-ass rock on her finger when she made the announcement.
More assistance with her not getting any shit: she shared that Eric proposed to her on a bridge over the Seine.
I mean, how romantic was that?
And yes, this meant Tod and Stevie came back down to add to her wedding scrapbook, and to have sit downs with Alexis, Bill and Zach, and Raye (and Bill and Zach) to go over the ever-developing details of theirs
It didn’t take long for us to receive word about who was going to be taking her apartment.
It was a chick named Alice.
She was Shirleen’s stepdaughter.
And just saying, she was a social worker, and as such, didn’t work at SC.
But when we met her, we all knew immediately.
She had Angel written all over her.
I was so heavy with all that happened that night, all I had left in me was to drag myself into Gabe’s townhouse and throw myself on his sofa.
I heard his keys land on kitchen island about two seconds before his body landed on mine.
I looked from the ceiling to him and opened my mouth.
I got nothing out because Gabe got there first.
“You gotta let it play out.”
I shut my mouth with a teeth clatter.
It had been a full crew get together of the AA/HB night.
It seemed everyone had fun.
Except me.
Because I had to watch Shanti pretend to pretend she wasn’t sending longing looks Liam’s way.
Then I had to pretend to pretend that Liam hadn’t been checking her out every opportunity he had, just as long as he did it when she wasn’t doing the same.
And if Brady and Luna were playing a game with this whole “we’re just good friends spending time together, even though we look and act like a couple” thing, it seemed they were playing with fire.
Word was, Knox was on the outs with his girlfriend.
Giving credence to that word, he didn’t bring her that night.
Giving more credence to that word were the livid looks he was casting the laughing, smiling, “we’re just good friends spending time together, even though we look and act like a couple” Brady and Luna.
“Luna is closed-lipped about it, is Brady talking?” I asked. “Are they playing a game to get Knox’s head out of his ass?”
“Promise discretion?”
Oh my God!
He was going to give me the skinny.
“Cross my heart,” I replied.
“Knox and Brady had a thing. Months ago. I wasn’t there, but I heard it was something about Brady getting up in Knox’s shit about stringing Luna along.
This resulted in Knox finding Cheyenne, which pissed Brady off more.
So, I don’t know if they’re playing a game or if he and Luna are just tight. But it’s probably both.”
Even I was dubious about this question with the hints I was catching in regard to Brady and Gem, but when you played these kinds of games, feelings could get confused.
I asked the question anyway.
“Does Brady have a thing for Luna?”
He shook his head and told me what I’d already guessed. “No.” Then he grinned. “Brady trends toward me and Javi’s taste in women. You know, the ones who wear cute dresses and make us cupcakes.”
I slapped his arm, even if I was beside myself with glee that was his taste, and it was fascinating to know this about Brady.
And Gemma was kinda like Harlow and me, except she could be really shy, especially around guys, most especially around hot guys, and this could turn into awkward, which she was a lot around the Hottie Squad (the hint to the reason for that was in the name).
Though, once I’d first noticed it when we were doing Nancy and Tex’s yard, I’d since noticed it a lot more, and it seemed Brady thought shy and awkward was all kinds of cute (or, at least he did when Knox wasn’t paying attention).
Gabe was in my brain, I knew, when he ordered, “Stop matchmaking.”
“I wasn’t matchmaking,” I lied.
“Yes, Brady has clocked Gemma,” he confirmed.
I felt my eyes get big and happy.
“Fuck,” he said.
“What?” I asked, confused by his change in tone.
“Like I said, I think Brady and Luna are playing a game,” he confessed. “And I think this because I know Brady is into Gemma, but now he’s got his shit in a bind because he’s doing whatever he’s doing with Luna.”
“A tangled web has been woven,” I muttered.
“Which is why I’ll repeat, let it play itself out, so you don’t get stuck in it.”
Ulk.
“That kind of crap always gets messy, baby, and you don’t want to get tied up in the mess,” he went on. And then he reminded me, “In any game, there’s always a loser.”
It seemed in this one, Cheyenne was.
I couldn’t say this bummed me out, and not only because I wanted Luna with Knox.
It was also because Cheyenne didn’t fit, and, sure, that was naturally the way when you were brought into an already tightly knit posse.
But even if we all wanted Knox with Luna, we were welcoming with Cheyenne. We tried.
She didn’t.
Instead, she acted, any time she was with us, like she couldn’t wait to get Knox away from us.
Then again, it might be she wanted to get Knox away from Luna.
Hmm.
“You’re not letting it go,” Gabe observed.
“I just want everyone to be happy,” I replied.
His eyes warmed.
His lips brushed mine.
And they didn’t leave that area when he repeated, “Let it play out.”
I didn’t like it, but I had no choice.
Gabe pulled slightly away.
“Wanna watch another episode of Shetland before we hit the sack?” he asked.
We were so busy, we were still working our way through them.
I smiled. “With popcorn?”
“I’ll cue it up, you get the bag.”
Since we had a plan, Gabe rolled off me.
I went to the kitchen to get the bag of popcorn and some drinks.
Gabe cued up the show and turned out all the lights, except those on his skinny Christmas tree.
We cuddled on the couch and watched Jimmy and Tosh fight crime on a beautiful Scottish isle.
And after that, we headed upstairs and hit the sack.
It was post-Christmas and pre-New Year’s when it happened.
Gabe got a middle of the night callout.
These happened, but they were rare.
This one, though, I instantly knew was different.
I knew it due to how urgently he hauled ass out of bed after he got the call.
I knew it with the stony look on his face after I turned on a light, considering I’d felt the urgency of his leaving our bed.
Dressing in point zero three seconds, he came to kiss me, and I asked anxiously, “Is everything okay?”
“Gonna see, cupcake. I’ll call you.”
He wasted no more time (except to give me another quick peck).
And then he was gone.
I usually went right back to sleep after these callouts.
This time, I didn’t.
This time, I didn’t even turn off the light.
I just lay with my phone close, intuition kicking in, so I was also fretting.
I wasn’t sure if it was half an hour, or five of them, before my phone rang.
It was Raye.
I snatched it up and asked, “What’s going on?”
“We gotta get to the hospital, babe. One of the guys has been shot.”
“Gabe?” I pushed out.
“No,” she replied. “Cap was in the thick of it. He didn’t share who, but I heard Gabe talking in the background. Cap just said get to the hospital ASAP before he had to go.”
I didn’t ask another question.
I jumped out of bed and was dressed in point zero one seconds.
And after I got dressed, I raced to Raye’s.
The End
The Angels Will Return in…
Avenging Angels: A Lick and A Promise