34. Veronica #3
“Guys, I’m fine. Everything is fine. You don’t need to keep apologizing.
” I smile, reaching for both their hands.
“We’re constantly having sex all over this place; I’m sure it wasn’t the first time someone got an eyeful and probably won’t be the last. Besides, if they work for Julian, I’m pretty sure they have some huge NDA contract signed that won’t allow them to speak or do anything with whatever they see. ”
“Yeah, most likely,” Gabe says, returning my smile, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. I get it; they’re both worried about me and the fact that we still haven’t heard anything from Victor. They know it’s starting to really mess with my head despite me trying to act like it’s not.
“I need to get going.” Noah looks at the time on his phone, then puts it away and kisses my forehead.
“Are you nervous?” I search his eyes for how he might truly be feeling.
Today is Noah’s first one-on-one appointment with Dr. Hallaway.
She knew there were things the boys might not want to share in front of me, or maybe even be embarrassed to speak of, so she thought all of us having private sessions as well as a group session every other week would be good.
Tomorrow will be Gabe’s first session alone, I’ll have mine the following day, and next week we have our second group session.
“Not really nervous, just… trying to put myself in the mindset of having to open up and talk about my feelings.” He smirks, knowing it’s the thing he struggles with the most.
“You can do it, babe. I know you can, and I promise you’ll start feeling a lot better after.” I pull him in for a kiss.
“I know,” he breathes against my lips before stepping back. “I’ll see you later, Kitten.”
The moment the sound of the elevator shutting echoes in the quiet space, Gabe wraps his arms around my waist from where I’m still sitting on the kitchen island. “Mmm, finally, I have you all to myself.”
“Oh, shush. You act like you never get me alone.” I giggle as he starts peppering my neck with kisses.
“Not enough.” He nibbles on the skin beneath my ear as I swat him away. “It’s almost lunchtime. Have any requests?”
“Hm, how about my favorite salad? I want you to teach me how to make it.” I grin up at him, my arms now wrapped loosely around his neck as he chuckles.
“You say that like you’re planning on making it yourself one day.” He raises a brow as I snort.
“Not a chance. You’re my personal chef from now on until we’re old and gray.” I laugh.
“Good to know, because I plan on cooking for you for the rest of our lives.” He claims my lips as I melt against him.
I love these little moments with Gabe so much, where he’s all playful and touchy and talking about our future together.
I still can’t believe there was a time when I couldn’t stand this man, when his goofiness and flirting ways would get on my nerves.
And now, I can’t imagine falling for any other version of him but this one.
“All right, up you go. If my lady wants her special salad, then we best get to it.” He bops my nose before lifting me up by the waist and setting me down on the floor.
Gabe moves over to the fridge, where he pulls out all the ingredients we’ll need, then places everything in front of me, along with one big bowl, two smaller ones, a knife, and a cutting board.
I watch as he sets a pot of lightly salted water to boil on the stovetop while washing my hands, then wait for him to turn back to me with a warm smile.
“Okay, first, we’re going to start with chopping up the kale. Think you can do that without cutting yourself?” He smirks as I narrow my eyes at him.
“That was one time! And for the record, that cucumber was super slippery. It’s not my fault the knife slipped over to where my fingers were.
” He laughs the same way he did when it happened last week, still not believing my story.
I roll my eyes and pick up the knife he’s set aside for me.
“Shouldn’t we wash it first? You’re always going on about having to wash things before eating them. ”
“No need, I washed them this morning.” Gabe comes up behind me, resting his hands on my hips and kisses my shoulder.
“You washed the kale this morning?”
“Mhm.”
“Why?”
“Because you ask me for this specific salad once a week, and it has now been…” He thinks for a moment.
“…six days since you last requested it. I had a feeling today was the day, and would you look at that, I was right.” He laughs at me once more and bites my neck.
“Now focus, or else we’ll never get this food done and you’ll end up with another cut. ”
I get to work on chopping the kale, and honestly, it looks like shit compared to how I’ve seen Gabe do it. His is always so perfectly done and a decent size between cuts, while mine has some huge pieces and others extremely small.
“Slowly, Vixen. It’s not a race, take your time.” He kisses my temple and goes back to the stove now that the water is boiling and adds in the basket of fresh edamame pods.
When I’m done chopping everything up as best as I can, Gabe picks it all off the cutting board and puts it into the big mixing bowl. “Now you’re going to massage it.”
“Excuse me?” I pull my head back and turn it to the side to look at him.
“God, you’re adorable.” He laughs and takes my hands, placing them inside the bowl. “Play with the leaves a bit. We want them nice and soft.”
“That sounds so wrong.” I giggle but do as he says while his hands stay in the bowl with me and help me feel the difference.
Leaning back against him, I tilt my head to the side and close my eyes momentarily, enjoying this simple yet intimate moment. “I love you, Gabriel,” I find myself whispering as my eyes flutter open and find his.
I’ve never really been the type of person to say those words unnecessarily. Even in the early days with Victor, those weren’t words I’d say very often. But with Gabe, I find myself wanting to say them repeatedly simply to see his face light up the way it’s doing right now.
The brightest grin takes over his face, like he truly can’t believe I would choose to love him, before he lowers his face closer to mine and claims my lips. “If this is a dream, I never want to wake up from it,” he breathes against my lips after a few seconds.
“If this is a dream, I hope we get to stay in it together forever. You, Noah, and me.”
There’s so much tenderness and love in his eyes at this moment that I wish I could freeze time to never forget that look, never forget that someone once looked at me in such a way.
Like I was the answer to every question he ever had or could have, like I was the key to everything he ever wished for.
The timer for the edamame pods goes off, and Gabe kisses the top of my head before letting me go. “I think the kale is good now. Why don’t you move on to cutting the yellow cherry tomatoes in half and adding them into the bowl while I let these cool down in cold water.”
I move onto my next task, and Gabe soon joins me to dice up the avocados and slice the toasted almonds.
When I’m done with the tomatoes, I add in the blueberries to the quickly filling up salad bowl and crumble some goat cheese in.
While Gabe pops the beans out of the pods, he then moves onto making the dressing with olive oil, lemon juice, honey, minced chives, Dijon mustard, and salt.
He whisks all the ingredients together before drizzling it over the salad and tossing everything until it’s well combined.
“Would you look at that.” Gabe beams down at the two bowls now filled with my new favorite dish. “We just made our very first salad together like a real couple.”
I snort and turn in his arms, wrapping my own around his neck. “That’s because we are a real couple, silly boy.”
He grins again. “That’s right. You’re my girlfriend. My fucking sexy-ass, perfect girlfriend.” His arms circle my waist as he lifts me off the ground and spins us around.