Chapter 24
Gabriel
“You’ve got to be kidding me,”
I say as I roll my eyes at Milo.
Milo. The only one in my family who knows the truth about my marriage to River. The same guy who feels it’s suddenly his duty to preach to me about what I am and am not feeling. River went for a walk and isn’t here to listen to this, thankfully.
“I saw it. You were into that kiss.”
He gives a low whistle, his lazy smile wolfish as he leans back on the banquette in my kitchen.
“Can we talk about the non-profit, please?”
That was why he came, so we could hash out some ideas about starting a charity that offers scholarships to group homes and long-term care centers. He wasn’t supposed to be here analyzing my actions of the night before. “I am a guy. She started kissing me. I had to play along, and I guarantee anyone in my shoes would have, too. And wouldn’t have hated it.”
He peers at me intently. “I get it. It’s hard to admit your feelings.”
At my resistance, he holds up his hands. “And you don’t have to. I see that you’re not ready to talk about this right now. But, for what it’s worth, I think it’s cool.”
“You’re twenty-four years old, Milo. You don’t know anything about relationships. College dating is nothing like the real world.”
Not that this fake marriage is necessarily the real world, but that’s neither here nor there.
“Like I said, we don’t need to talk about this until you’re ready,”
he says. “But I know what I saw.”
“What you saw was a touch of frustration that she was paying so much attention to that Antonio guy. I don’t care. I just can’t give Dad any reason not to believe this marriage is going to change me.”
Milo smirks like he wants to kiss his fingertips and pat my forehead, like “Whatever you say.”
I may or may not have done that to him a time or two growing up.
“And how long has she known that guy?”
he asks. “Because yeah, maybe he’s sad she’s married, but who knows if she likes him or not?”
“You weren’t there when he came,” I say.
“Yeah, I was. I saw when you three were talking. I was there when he said goodbye to her. He doesn’t like that she’s married. The jury’s still out on how she feels about him.”
My head begins to ache. “You said we were into each other . . . that you could tell from our kiss.”
His tone is chiding. “Maybe she hasn’t made up her mind on who she wants yet.”
Hot rage manifests in a throb in my temple. I can’t think of a single thing to say that wouldn’t sound immature.
“Anyway,”
Milo says. “I don’t blame you for feeling the way you’re feeling, and I don’t think you should fight it.”
“Thanks for the unsolicited advice, Milo. Can we please focus on the task at hand?”
I don’t mention how it felt to have River call our mother “Mom.”
I know it sort of just came out; River looked as shocked as I was. But I liked it.
Milo’s still smiling like the Cheshire cat when, a few minutes later, he leaves me to my work, pulling out several novels from his shoulder bag.
“A stack of books?”
He lifts both shoulders. “I have to bring all the ones I’m reading because I never know what I’ll be in the mood for.”
“You’ve started reading all of those?”
He looks at me like I have two heads. “I can’t read one book at a time. How boring.”
Personally, I couldn’t keep the storylines all straight if I read so many at once. But Milo’s a smart guy, I’m sure he’s fine.
He looks through the stack and selects a thriller.
After a few minutes of reading, he returns the books to his bag, stands from the banquette, and goes over to the outer living room wall. “One more thing.”
He kicks a small corner of the air mattress, something I’d hastily deflated and shoved behind the sofa when I heard he was coming over.
Shoot. He wasn’t supposed to see that. “You better get rid of this before anyone else in the family stops by. I heard Stella wants to bring you guys dinner.”
“Hey, speaking of Stella. What did you say to her?”
“About what?”
“You know. About . . . this.”
I motion around my not-so-humble abode that River and I share. It’s a representation of the secrets we hold.
Milo’s brows go up. “Nothing at all. I promise. Did she call you out?”
“Not verbally. But her eyes did.”
Milo smacks his forehead. “Whoa. Stella’s eyes, man. If looks could condemn . . .”
“Yeah.”
I shudder when I remember how she raised us in the summers while our parents were traveling for the company. She was a great support, providing exactly what we needed, even when it was a good kick in the pants.
I hear River’s voice on the phone as she enters the mudroom from outside. “Yeah. That’s definitely not going to work. I’m sorry, Jana.”
Jana’s response comes through on the speaker phone. “It’s okay. It’s been fine so far, but the landlord isn’t happy about it.”
“What does your lease agreement say?”
River kicks her sneakers off and they land with a thud on the mudroom floor.
“It was amended recently, apparently. No pets for longer than one week at a time,”
Jana says through the phone. “So yeah, we can’t keep Liz anymore.”
River enters the living room, her nose and cheeks flushed from the cool mountain air, and waves at Milo. “Do you think Caring Souls would ever make an exception to the rule?”
she says to the phone.
“No,”
Jana says. “They can’t for the safety of the other residents.”
“I guess we need to find a place for Lunchie until Skye moves back in with me.”
“River, why would she move back in with you? She loves it there,”
Jana says. “She’s gonna be fine.”
River gets a drink of water. “I’m trying to prepare myself for when I get a call saying she’s had a meltdown and I need to come get her. It’s fine. I would. I will.”
She swallows the rest of her water and turns away from me, walking back into the mudroom, like she doesn’t want me to hear any more of her conversation.
Milo leaves and I start looking at my spreadsheets again, but in a house this small, it’s impossible not to hear them talking.
“Residents have meltdowns on a regular basis around here,”
Jana says through the speaker phone. “It’s part of it. That doesn’t mean they go home. Let Skye do this, River. It doesn’t need to be a perfect experience for it to be the right thing.”
River shunts out a breath, taps her phone, and now she’s off speaker. “I can’t have this conversation right now,”
she says quietly into the phone. “Gabriel’s here.”
I get up and knock on the doorframe. She turns to me, her eyes blinking back tears. “Just a second,”
she tells Jana through the phone.
“Sorry I overheard. I wasn’t meaning to eavesdrop.”
She slides her fingers through her hair. “It’s okay.”
“Tell Jana we can come get the dog from her, no problem.”
“You can have a dog here?”
“Yeah. One small dog, Steve and Meagan said. And Lunch Lady Liz is one small dog, so it’s settled.”
She opens her mouth to protest and then slams it shut again.
“It’s fine,”
I insist. “Lunch Lady Liz is cute.”
“You won’t think that when she’s thrown up all over your air mattress.”
I laugh. “I’m not too worried about it.”
There was a chill in the air between us even before last night’s mind-blowing kiss at the reception. And instead of helping things, that moment of connection might have even made things worse between us.
Or maybe that was just my dad and his all-seeing eyes.
What does he see, is the real question here. Does he know it’s fake? I think Stella might.
And then there’s Milo’s accusation, that I’m in love with my wife.
In any other scenario, that would be a good thing.
But in this one? It would be a disaster.