Chapter 27
27
ZARA
“L et’s go, Sweetheart.” He grabs my hand and pulls me away from my cousins and my brother, who is still giving Gabriel the death stare to end all death stares. “We have to do it fast before someone rents a plane and writes it across the sky.”
I laugh at him, and I can see eyes turning to look at us as we walk across the yard, stopping first at my father and Uncle Matthew and Uncle Max, who just look at us with a weird expression on their faces. Casey takes us in, and his eyes go to our hands before he looks over at my dad, who just takes a pull from his beer. “Hi.” I let his hand go to go to my father and kiss his cheek before walking over to my uncles, and since I gave them a kiss, I have to kiss Casey also. “This is a nice surprise,” I say nervously, wondering if my father has told them.
“Yeah,” my Uncle Matthew says, “your father said he was coming down to visit Matty, so we came with him.”
“Is that so?” I look over at my father, who just shrugs.
“Haven’t seen him in a while,” he offers. “He said he was coming down today, so we came to see RC.”
“Isn’t that nice?” I say sarcastically at him and raise my eyebrows, and I hope he can tell from my tone that the two of us are going to have words later.
“So what’s new with you two?” my Uncle Max asks, trying to hide his smile.
“Nothing much.” I shrug.
“What’s with the holding of hands?” my Uncle Matthew says, raising an eyebrow.
“Um,” I start to say.
“We’re together,” Gabriel jumps in, not even easing him into it. Matthew looks over at Casey.
“You were supposed to look out for her,” Matthew hisses, “not throw her at one of your offspring.”
Casey laughs. “I didn’t even know this was happening until it was too far gone.”
“Wow, Mr. Big Security Guy is getting old. Letting things slip,” Matthew gloats. “Time to hang it up.” Casey just leers at him not saying anything.
“I’m going to go see Mom and Dad,” Gabriel announces, pulling me away from the guys. “I hope we aren’t too late.”
“They didn’t say anything,” I assure him.
“How do you know?” he asks as he looks around, spotting his father.
“Trust me, if my Uncle Matthew knew, everyone would know.” I laugh when he whips his head around. “So we’re safe.”
“There are my parents.” He spots his parents who are with his grandparents, Jacob and Kallie. The four of them are talking about something. The men stand almost identically as they casually drape their arms around their wives. “Hey,” Gabriel says and the four of them turn to look at us. The smile on their faces quickly fade to confusion when they see me beside him and our hands together.
“Well, I’ll be,” Jacob says, smiling, “look at what we have here.”
“Hey,” Gabriel says and I awkwardly hold up my hand to wave hello.
“Hi.” I squeeze Gabriel’s hand.
“I was hoping we could talk to you guys for a second,” he states and his parents share a look of worry and confusion. “And you guys also,” he tells his grandparents.
“What’s on your mind?” Ethan asks, looking at Gabriel with worry.
“Are you okay?” his mother asks softly.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He lets my hand go but only to wrap his arm around my shoulders, very similar to how they were just holding their women. “We have a little surprise.”
“Oh,” Kallie says, “the surprise isn’t that you two are dating?”
“That’s not a surprise,” Jacob retorts, laughing. “Did you two not see them on Christmas Eve?”
I look up at Gabriel. “Here we were thinking we were smooth.”
“You guys were thick as thieves,” Ethan teases, smiling. “Little touches here and there.” I try to hide my smile. “In the corner laughing at things that were probably not even funny.”
I turn my face to him. “I told you that your jokes weren’t funny.” I hold up my hand to cup his cheek. “Didn’t I, Cowboy?”
“You sure did, Sweetheart,” he agrees, leaning to kiss me. “Well, no easy way to say this.” He looks at his father. “We’re having a baby.”
The gasps and shock hit all four of them at the same time, collectively. Kallie and Emily both put their hands to their mouths. Ethan steps forward first, going to Gabriel, putting his hand on his shoulder, and the smile slowly fills his face. “Well, then…” He pulls his son into him and hugs him, slapping him on the back as he whispers something in Gabriel’s ear before turning to me. “Welcome to the family,” he says, pulling me in his arms. The sob escapes me before I even realize it.
“Dad, you’re making her cry,” Gabriel hisses, pushing him away from me and taking me in his arms.
“He’s not,” I mumble to his chest. “It’s the hormones.”
“It’s a girl,” Gabriel tells them, and I push him away from me in time to see his mother coming to him. “I can feel it.”
“My baby is having another baby.” She smiles through the tears. “I’m so proud of you.”
I look around, trying to see if my parents are close so I can get them over here and they can see how it’s done with normal families. “Zara,” Emily says, pulling me into her arms, “thank you for the wonderful gift.”
“No.” I shake my head. “Thank you for making an almost perfect man.” I look over at Gabriel, who is hugging his grandparents at the same time.
“Almost perfect,” Emily adds, “is pretty much perfect.” She laughs, and then my parents join us.
“Congratulations, Grandpa,” Ethan says to my father, who just nods.
“It’s a surprise, that is for sure,” he replies, looking at me and then at Gabriel, “but I’m sure Gabriel will take good care of her.” I raise my eyebrows at him and side-eye Gabriel.
“Of course, he will,” Ethan assures my father, who smiles at me.
“He better,” my mother mumbles. “That’s my baby girl.”
“He better,” Ethan says, “or else I’ll help you kick his ass.”
“Well, this is fun,” Gabriel murmurs to me. “At least they are getting along.” I wrap my arms around his stomach. “Mr. and Mrs. Petrov,” he calls to my parents, “I’d like to introduce you to my son.” He lets go of me to walk with my parents, who are followed by his parents and then his grandparents, as they go and meet Colson.
I follow and see my father reaching out his hand to shake Colson’s. “You know how to skate?” he asks, and I put my hand to my chest, knowing it’ll be fine.
* * *
I walk up the steps to my house, putting my key in the door and opening it before walking in and dumping my bag. The phone rings from my purse, and I fish it out, seeing it’s Gabriel calling me. “Hey, Cowboy,” I answer, kicking my boots off before walking up the stairs with my bag toward my bed.
“You didn’t call me when you landed,” he scolds, and my chest tightens at his voice.
“I figured I would call you when I got home and unpacked.” Even though I don’t want to unpack my bag nor do I want to be here.
“I thought we discussed this,” he says, and I hear my phone ringing and see he’s trying to FaceTime me. I press the connect button. “Hey, Sweetheart.” The smile on his face is everything, and I have to blink away the tears that are threatening to come.
“Hey, Cowboy.” I put the bag down in my closet before walking over to the bed and lying down on it.
“You didn’t call me,” he reminds me as I lay my head on the pillow he used and I smell him, making me feel a bit better, but then I miss him a bit more. “We discussed this and said we were going to work on communication,” he starts, “and this meant you would call me at your every move.”
I laugh. “That wasn’t the discussion at all. There wasn’t even a discussion; it was more along the lines of you call me when you get in.”
“And you said yes, so that means we discussed it,” he explains, and I see he’s in his office at the bar.
“I thought you were busy. You said you were behind on your paperwork since you didn’t work the whole time I was there.”
“I got most of it done.” He looks around. “I just have to take inventory, but I can do that after.”
“I miss you.” The words come out before I can stop them.
“I miss you too, Sweetheart.” Even though he says the words, I would give anything for him to be here and give me a hug. “I told you to stay.”
“I can’t just stay, Gabriel. I have an in-person meeting tomorrow,” I remind him, “and in person means I have to show up and not Zoom it in.”
“Okay, but then when are you free?” he asks me.
“I have to check, but I know that I have to call my doctor,” I remind him, “and get an appointment.”
“Okay, why don’t you go do that”—he leans into the phone—“and I’ll go take inventory.”
“I’m going to have to take a nap,” I tell him, “and then I’ll do all the things.”
“Okay, Sweetheart, call me when you wake up.”
“I will,” I mumble.
“And when I say call me when you wake up, it’s not after you get up and go to the bathroom and get a snack.” He doesn’t hang up, and I roll my eyes at him. “It’s like when you open your eyes.”
“You’re annoying,” I point out. “Were you this annoying when we met?” I don’t wait for him to answer. “I don’t think so, or else I would have never slept with you.”
“Sweetheart,” he coos softly, “the only thing I was thinking about the day we met was trying to make sure I got your number before you left.” He taps the desk. “Which I didn’t do.”
“Well, we slept together instead,” I remind him, “so you got very lucky.”
“Luckier if you would still be here,” he mumbles. “Go nap and tell my girl I miss her.”
“Or boy,” I constantly have to tell him. “It’s going to be a boy at this point.”
“Nah, I feel it in my bones.” He smiles. “A girl as beautiful as her momma.”
“Or a boy as handsome as his dad.” I smile, thinking about our son. “You guys can have matching cowboy hats.”
“Yeah, we can…” He trails off. “Go sleep.”
“Okay, Cowboy.” I bring the phone to my lips, giving him a kiss. “I’ll call you the minute my eyes open.”
“Thank you,” he says and hangs up the phone, putting it on the pillow he usually uses. I get up and take off my sweater and pants, going to grab something to wear when I remember I stole two of his T-shirts. I open my bag, pulling out the white T-shirt he wore this morning when he got out of bed to drive Colson to school. The minute he got back, he joined me in bed and the T-shirt was tossed to the side on top of the clothes, so I snuck it in my bag when I was packing. I take it out and smell him as I put it on and walk back to bed, sliding under the covers and smelling him all around me.
My thirty-minute nap ends up being two hours long, and when I open my eyes, I’m sad when I remember that I’m home and I’m home alone. I get up calling Gabriel, who is in the middle of his shift at the bar. We speak for five minutes as I get my sneakers on and head out to grab myself something to eat and get fresh air. The minute I walk down the steps and to the corner, it dawns on me that everything I used to love about the city, I now don’t. I don’t like the crowd of people on every corner. I don’t like the honking every second. I don’t like the number of sirens that just blare in the distance. I look up at the sky, not seeing one fucking star.
This is your home, I remind myself. What are you going to do? Move to him? You can’t just uproot your life and move to him, then what? I don’t move from the corner, even when the light turns green and then red again. I turn, walking back home and calling Gabriel, who answers after two rings, and I see he’s now in his office. “How is this going to work?” I ask him, and he just stares at me.
“I have no idea,” he answers me, rubbing his hands over his face. “I don’t want to spend too much time thinking about it, or else it’ll make me sick.”
“We have to figure it out, I guess,” I mumble. “Like, are we dating? Are we a couple?”
“Of course we’re a couple.” He chuckles. “Sweetheart, we were a couple the minute I kissed your lips.”
“Yes, but I live here, and you live there.” I tell him something he already knows.
“You can come here. I can come there,” he replies, and I want to ask him and then what, but I don’t. “I’ll be up this weekend, and we can see how your schedule is.”
“Fine,” I concede. “I’m going to go and get something to eat. I’ll call you when I get back.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I’m about to hang up when he says, “We’ll figure it out, Sweetheart.”