Chapter 5
Shay poured more of the super strong, leaded coffee into Gabe’s cup, and sat back down beside her.
She’d found Gabe hunched over the kitchen table with her head in her hands three hours ago, and she’d barely moved since, except to empty mug after mug of the black stuff.
At eleven a.m., that was preferable to the double-digit shots they’d downed after they’d gotten back from Lori’s disastrous birthday dinner.
Shay had a high alcohol tolerance, but even she was feeling the after-effects of the full bottle of Jose Cuervo they’d finished at five a.m. When she’d managed to put Gabe to bed shortly after, Shay had thought she’d be unconscious until noon at least, but the rattling cups and coffee pot bubbling had started just a few hours later.
If this was love, it was another good reason for her to stay clear of it.
And she had to concede that if Lori didn’t forgive Gabe for not being fully truthful about her past, Shay’s newly found situationship with Rosie would probably be over too.
It was selfish to be thinking about that right now, but she’d run out of platitudes and promising prophesies for Gabe and Lori’s future two or three cups ago, and the tension from last night’s confrontation had initiated an itch that only one thing could scratch.
Which was why she was thinking about Rosie…
and all the positions they’d gotten into on Thursday night.
There’d been no awkwardness about any of it until Rosie had asked if she’d gotten what she needed.
No one had ever asked her that question before and given that she was essentially using Rosie’s body to work out all the residual conflict from contact with her father, it wasn’t a question she wanted to answer.
She didn’t want to use Rosie that way. She was going to be different from all the transient trysts of Shay’s past because they had an explicit understanding of what they were going to be together.
Casual. No strings. No messy emotions. It was going to be perfect.
Or at least it had promised to be. Until Solo had opened her big mouth last night and revealed the elements of Gabe’s past she’d been keeping from Lori, Shay and Rosie had been heading to night number three, and Shay had been looking forward to laying back on Rosie’s bed and letting her loose with her body.
Rosie had hinted at restraints, which had been something Shay always wanted to try but hadn’t been able to give that kind of control over to any of the women she’d had short encounters with.
Maybe now she could build that kind of trust with Rosie.
“No improvement?”
Shay looked up at Woody’s question and shook her head. “Not cured by coffee, tequila, or sleep.” She nodded toward the counter when Woody sniffed the air. “I just brewed a fresh pot. Have at it.”
Gabe emerged from the fortress of her forearms and leaned back in her chair. “Love isn’t a disease that needs curing.”
Woody stopped pouring her coffee and raised her eyebrows. “So it’s officially love? How the hell did you let that happen?”
Gabe shook her head slowly. “I have no idea… Maybe it isn’t love, but whatever it is, it doesn’t feel good right now.” She took a long slug of coffee and glanced at her watch. “Do you think she’ll be there to let me see Max?”
Shay shrugged. “I think someone will be there, but I wouldn’t count on it being Lori. She was angry in a way that takes a while to settle down.”
Gabe motioned to Shay’s phone on the table. “Still no word from Rosie?”
“No,” Shay said. And there probably wouldn’t be since she hadn’t texted her like Gabe had asked her to.
Gabe had told Shay about Rosie’s “threat” with regard to not hurting Lori when they’d visited the garage together a couple of weeks ago; there was no way she’d be interested in hearing about how bad Gabe felt right now.
More like she was already creating a voodoo likeness for Lori to torture.
Gabe reached for her own phone, and Shay pushed it out of the way. “Don’t do it. You’ve sent one text. Don’t be the asshole that doesn’t give a woman the space to process her feelings.”
“For someone without them, you sure know a lot about feelings,” Woody said.
She sat in a chair opposite them and stared at Gabe with the kind of bemused and bereft expression reserved for children discovering their parents weren’t superhuman after all.
“That’s what looking after five brothers’ll do for you.” Shay gripped Gabe’s shoulder. “Okay, it’s time to move. You stink of sweat and regret, and you’ll blow Max’s nose away. Take a shower and get ready to go see him.”
Gabe pushed away from the table and got up. “You think she’s still going to let me see him?”
“You’ve got one way to find out,” Shay said and waved her out of the kitchen just as RB got to the doorway.
“Morning, fam.” RB sidestepped Gabe, who grumbled something inaudible before heading upstairs. She thumbed in Gabe’s direction. “Is this about last night?”
“Of course it is.” Shay stood up and began to gather the ingredients for a smoothie bowl.
“First Solo and now Gabe.” RB rubbed at the back of her head. “It makes me glad I’m a confirmed bachelor.”
Shay glanced over her shoulder. “That’s not what you are. You just haven’t found anyone reckless enough to take you on yet.”
“What about you? Are you next? You and Rosie seemed awful cozy last night. Until, you know, everything went to hell.” RB nudged Woody as she sat beside her. “We thought you were about to go at it right there at the table.”
Shay scoffed. “We’re just fuck buddies. And I don’t have time to fall in love, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.”
Woody cocked her head. “On that note, have you heard any more from your pops about the menacing knock on his car?”
“No.”
“So did he want something else from you?” Woody asked.
Shay ran through the conversation quickly before switching on the smoothie machine.
“I don’t get it,” RB said. “If there was nothing wrong with the car, and he didn’t need help with anything else, what did he really want?”
Shay poured the smoothie mix into the bowl alongside the granola then carefully laid pineapple pieces between the two.
“I wish I knew. It’s like he just wanted to remind me how much I disappoint him.
He doesn’t approve of my career, my lifestyle, the way I dress.
This time, he even accused me of acting like a boy. ”
Woody clamped her hand over her mouth, and her shoulders shook with the obvious effort not to dissolve into laughter.
RB shoved Woody so hard, she had to stop herself falling off the chair. “What would he make of us then?” RB asked.
“We’ll probably never find out. I invited him to the auction, but I’m pretty sure he won’t be coming.”
“Why not?”
“He’ll be too busy playing dominoes and talking trash with his best friends at the rec center. I swear he’s spent most of his life with his work buddies.”
“Are any of your brothers coming?” Woody asked.
Shay shook her head. “If I invited them and their families, there wouldn’t be room for the people interested in actually buying the Brewster. And black tie events aren’t really their thing.”
“They’re not my thing either, but Gabe insisted on taking me to get a new suit,” RB said.
“A new suit?” Woody laughed. “You mean your first suit.”
“Whatever.” RB got up and stuck a bagel in the toaster. “I’m not on sale. I don’t see why I can’t just wear my sweats.”
Shay shook her head and took RB’s seat. “Because you’re representing our business, so you have to look the business.”
“What’re you wearing, pretty boy?” Woody asked.
Shay rapped Woody’s knuckles with her spoon. “A very elegant evening dress and four-inch heels. Why? You want to try it on for size?”
Woody laughed and rubbed her hand. “Obviously, I’d love to. I look like a bad drag queen in a dress, although I do have amazing calves.”
“But you walk like a farmer with a sack of potatoes on his back, and you’d break your neck in heels.” RB chuckled. “Though I’d pay to see you try.”
A heavy thundering of feet downstairs announced Gabe’s imminent arrival.
“That was fast, even for you,” Shay said. “Are you sure you’ve buttoned up your shirt straight?”
Gabe tugged on the hem of her plaid shirt and inspected herself. “Looks like it.”
“Looks like you’re dressing to impress. I don’t think Max cares if you wear Ralph Lauren as long as you bring him treats.”
“No, but Lori’s got a soft spot for this style.”
Shay smiled. She wasn’t used to seeing this vulnerable, slightly desperate side of Gabe and wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.
She’d just have to be around enough to support Gabe when she needed it.
But she couldn’t help thinking that it was another indication that love wasn’t for her.
And maybe it wasn’t for Gabe either, at least, not with Lori.
“Good luck. Text me when you’re on your way back; we’ll get something to eat. ”
“Sounds good. See you later, guys,” Gabe said and left to a chorus of goodbyes from RB and Woody.
“If they don’t fix things, do you think it’d still be okay to stay in touch with Hank?” RB dropped into a chair and took a huge bite of the cream cheese bagel she’d prepared.
Shay frowned. “Why would you want to do that?”
“He was interested in what I had to say about his veterans’ project, so I told him that I’d write down some ideas and send them to him.”
Woody snatched the other half of RB’s bagel and licked the top of it before RB could reclaim it. “That’d be okay as long as that was the end of it. If Lori cuts Gabe out of her life completely, I’m pretty sure she won’t want you talking about Lori’s dad all the time.”
“Do you think she’ll do that?” RB asked.
Woody shrugged. “She was damn angry last night. Gabe’s been spending a lot of time with her, and she had plenty of opportunities to come clean about Cynthia Nelson. Lori might not be able to forgive that kind of betrayal after what she’s been through.”
“It’s not a betrayal.” Shay dropped her spoon into her bowl and pushed it away, the sudden acidic burn in her stomach destroying her appetite. “We all know why Gabe fucked Cynthia, and it was nothing like someone cheating on their wife for fun.”
Woody held up her hands. “Hey, I’m sorry, Shay. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Shay released her death-grip on the kitchen table and got up to empty her breakfast into the trash. She sighed and leaned against the countertop. “And she’s paid a heavy price for it already.”
Woody nodded. “That wasn’t your fault, Shay. Gabe doesn’t blame you, you know that.”
Shay studied her feet and directed her focus on the need for a pedicure. The polish had chipped off on her big toe when she’d caught it on Rosie’s bed in her haste to get Rosie naked. Thinking about that was preferable to revisiting her guilt over what Nelson had done to Gabe.
“Shay…”
She looked up finally and tried to smile.
“Nelson had to go, and Gabe made it happen,” RB said. “She’d do that and more for you, for any of us, in a heartbeat.”
“I know that. But she shouldn’t still be paying for it.
She’s really opened up to Lori. If this doesn’t turn out the way it should, it’ll break Gabe’s heart.
” And mine. Anything that hurt Gabe hurt her twice over.
She might never entertain the romantic version of love, but she loved Gabe as much as she’d loved anyone.
“If that happens, we’ll be here for her like she’s always been there for us,” Woody said. “It’ll make a change for us to look after the alpha, right?”
Shay smiled easily this time. Their chosen family could be as dysfunctional as a blood family, but their bonds had been forged in the heat of war and were unbreakable.
If Lori was stupid enough not to listen to Gabe’s explanation, if she was too short-sighted to give Gabe a chance, and if she did break Gabe’s heart, Shay and the rest of their little family would circle the wagons and hold her safe until she recovered.
After everything Gabe had been through, she deserved her happily ever after. Shay hoped that Lori was just as smitten with Gabe. Everything would work itself out. It had to.