Chapter 40 #2
Reid sat back, contemplating his words. Silence fell over us, only the clink of Shelby’s building set she had opened making any sound. Reid scratched his nose and tilted his head as he studied the present.
“Why does that make you sad?”
I inhaled, a sound that shattered the silence, and I glanced up to see my father holding my mother, who was wiping her eyes.
“Because he doesn’t give presents,” Liv said for Gabe.
Reid looked up at her, his eyes darting between her and Gabe. “He’s your daddy, too?”
A simple question, but with so much weight that I felt it settle over her.
“Yes.”
Reid took the present from Gabe and set it down. He got to his feet and gave Gabe a hug that nearly knocked him over, then ran to Liv and tackled her with a hug that left her frozen.
“She doesn’t do hugs, buddy,” Gabe said with a laugh that eased the tension in the room.
But Liv accepted the hug, holding him tight until she peeled him from her. “Don’t wrinkle me,” she said, humor in her voice.
“You’re in pajamas,” Gabe observed.
She shot him a look as Reid sat down with the present. “It’s good that he’s trying to be nice,” he said. There were times he reminded me of a tiny adult. It was the side of him he got from Gabe because in those moments he sounded and looked the most like him.
“I think so, too,” I said.
He gave me a big smile before he tore into the present.
“Is that a briefcase?” my brother asked.
“Leave it to my father to give a child a briefcase for Christmas. No wonder Mama bought all the gifts,” Liv muttered.
Gabe ran a hand through his hair as Reid excitedly took the child-sized briefcase from its box. Fingers tracing the engraved initials, he read them, “R. N. I. Reid Nathaniel. What’s the I for?”
My heart stopped, blood freezing in my veins. I’d never stopped to think about his last name, giving him mine on his birth certificate since Gabe was no longer in the picture. But I had listed Gabe as his father with the only name I knew him by: Gabriel Hughes.
Gabe seemed as speechless as I was because we hadn’t discussed this yet, and we’d only just gotten engaged.
“Icinda,” I said, finally finding my words. “It’s Gabe’s last name and will be mine when we marry.”
“And that means it’s mine, too?”
Gabe looked over at me, and I nodded.
“Yes,” he said. “It will be.”
That was the end of the conversation for Reid, who opened the case, his excitement growing at the things inside: a miniature legal pad, a pen, a play phone, and a clip-on tie.
“Can we go play?” he asked.
“Of course you can,” I told him.
He stood, keeping the briefcase in his hand as he gathered a few other toys and ran off with his cousin. My mother said something about starting lunch as we picked up the discarded wrapping paper.
Grabbing the box to stuff it into, I said, “Gabe, there are other presents in here.”
His head snapped up, and everyone froze. I pulled the three small packages out.
“For Reid?” he asked, and I shook my head.
I handed the one with Liv’s name to her, the one with his name to him, and kept the third one with my name on it.
“Why don’t we help your mom with lunch?” Brandi said, dragging Cash from his seat.
“That sounds like a good idea,” my father added, following them from the room.
I sat back on the couch next to Liv and clutched the box, waiting to see what Gabe wanted to do.
“He really is an asshole,” Liv muttered. “All these years, and now he wants to give gifts? Do you know how many years I gave him presents only to hear him grumble about hating holidays?”
“Was he always like that?” I asked as she tore the paper off her box.
“No. When Gabe was small, he would celebrate with us. It really wasn’t until Mom’s mental health slipped further that he started having business trips at Christmas.”
“Was he cheating on her?” I didn’t know where it had come from, but the thought was there.
“Nah,” she said. “He just didn’t want to be around us. I think we ruined things for him.”
Gabe stayed quiet, his eyes still on the gift.
Liv opened the box, her jaw dropping. Hand shaking, she pulled a diamond necklace from the box. Her eyes went to Gabe.
“He said he got rid of everything.” Her words were so low they came out as a whisper.
“Two days after the funeral, every trace of her was gone.” She ran her finger over the necklace.
“I used to play dress-up in her jewelry box. She had so many beautiful pieces, and she would do my makeup and let me try on her gowns. I wanted her jewelry, and he told me he had given it all away.”
She pulled other pieces from the box—earrings, bracelets. A collection of jewels and a curt note. She would have wanted you to have these, and it’s time I let her go.
“What the hell does that mean?” she asked, but the picture that was slowly forming of their father was a more complex one than I thought they knew. “Open yours, Gabe.” She shoved the jewelry back in and slammed the lid over it.
His throat bobbed when he looked up at us.
“Go on,” she said. Every day, she revealed more of the commanding big sister and helped me see what torment Gabe had gone through when he’d let himself fall in love with me that first time.
With more finesse, he removed the wrapping paper. While Liv’s box had been a long rectangle, his was a larger square shape. The lid popped off, and his hand trembled when he dropped it.
He looked up at me, so vulnerable, with emotion splayed across his face, his hazel eyes a myriad of shades. Handing me the note, he said, “You read it.”
I opened it. “This was my favorite picture of the two of you with her,” I read. “The others are ones I could never share.”
When I looked up, I saw the photo in his hand. Tears welled in his eyes, and he swallowed them back.
“That's Mama,” Liv said, leaning over to see the picture. “I think that’s in Italy. Remember, we would go every year to visit her family?”
She looked at me, and a reflection of the young girl she must have been before her father’s verbal abuse and having to witness his physical abuse against her little brother had hardened her.
Her eyes were vibrant with the memories.
“We would go every summer. There was so much family, so many people and the food and laughter. And my mother was happy. It was the happiest I remember her.”
She took the picture from Gabe and handed it to me. “That’s Mom. She was the most beautiful woman, elegant almost regal.”
The woman in the photo was indeed beautiful.
With long auburn hair in curls that cascaded down the front of her dress.
Her smile lit the photo, and her hazel eyes were identical to Gabe and Liv’s.
It was obvious they had taken after her.
In her arms was a baby with a head of brown curls, the spitting image of Reid when he’d been a baby.
Gabe. And at her skirts was a little girl who looked like a miniature copy of her mother.
The photo was creased; the edges frayed.
“Like he kept it in his wallet,” I said, not realizing I’d spoken out loud. My eyes jumped to Gabe’s, thinking about the flower he’d kept all this time.
This man had held onto his past so much that he’d let it damage his present.
Gabe rifled through the other pictures, mumbling about how his father had told them he’d burned them all. Almost like he’d wanted his children free of the past that haunted him, never knowing how much he was hurting them.
“What did he give you?” Gabe asked, stuffing the pictures back in the box.
I handed the picture back to him and looked at my box. The smallest of the three. Fear crept up my spine. My chest was already aching for them. I didn’t want to bring them anymore pain.
“Open it, Tori,” Liv told me.
With a sigh, I removed the paper, finding a ring box.
I glanced up at Gabe. Tension sat in his shoulders, his muscles taut under his T-shirt.
Opening the box, I stared at the ring. A cluster of diamonds surrounding a sapphire gem set in a white gold band.
No note accompanied it, so I picked it up and showed them.
“Mom’s ring,” Gabe said, his brows cinching.
“Yes, but it was Dad’s mom’s first. He gave it to her on their wedding day. I remember her telling me the story of how it passed down to the firstborn son of every generation. If there wasn’t a son, it would pass to the firstborn male cousin, following that part of the family’s line.”
“I can’t accept this,” I said, handing it to Liv, who put her hand up and pushed it back to me.
“It’s yours. Gabe is the firstborn son. He’ll pass it to Reid when you’re both ready.”
Gabe rose, stretching his back before coming over to me and pulling me from where I was sitting.
He took the ring, spinning it in his fingers before picking my hand up and slipping it on my finger where it fit surprisingly well.
“It’s yours. There’s little we have of our family except the bad, but this was always part of the good.
My mother never took this ring off, and she would want you to have it. My father knows that, just like we do.”
“I need a drink,” said Liv. “Scotch, little brother?”
He waited for my reaction.
“I think this is a scotch kind of day,” I told him, ruffling his hair with my fingers.
“Scotch it is, big sister.”
She strolled out of the room, leaving us alone.
“You all right?” I asked him. The morning had been emotion packed.
“I think so. Knowing you’re here with me helps.” He picked my hand up and kissed my engagement ring. “Knowing you’ll be my wife soon makes it even better.”
“Should we get that glass of scotch and start discussing dates? I already have the dress.”
He drew me against him. “I was thinking April,” he said, his mouth coursing down my neck. “And I have just the location.”