Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
“What do you think of this one?” Sabrina grabs a white dress off a rack and holds it up.
"We’re supposed to be replacing clothes you lost in the fire.” I punch a hand through the cutouts in the bodice and ask, “Where is the rest of the dress?”
She makes a face at me. “We are replacing clothes I lost. Starting with a sexy dress for my anniversary dinner.”
“Gotcha.” I hold up a dress with a longer hemline but a deep v-cut chest. “What about this? And then we’ll pick out something really sexy for underneath.”
Sabrina replaces the white dress on the rack. “I love that idea.”
I hand her the dress I chose, and she drapes it over her forearm. “Can we please talk about Gabriel?”
Even thinking his name puts a fluttery, pitter-patter feeling in my chest. “What about Gabriel?” I ask, holding a pair of jeans to my waist. Gabriel is incredible, almost too good to be true, and I’m keeping him tucked away. Like a squirrel stockpiling for winter, I am both saving and savoring.
“You’ve been inseparable for a month now.” Sabrina’s eyebrows lift. “Your dad thinks he’s a real life superhero, and he’s even won over Camryn, which says a lot.”
“She’s tough,” I agree.
Sabrina scoffs. “Nearly impenetrable.” She runs a hand over the fabric of the jeans I’m holding. “I like those. They’re soft.”
“I’m going to get them.” I add them to the little pile laid over my forearm. It’s half the size of Sabrina’s. “As for Gabriel…” I breathe deep as I gather my thoughts. “I don’t want to jinx anything. He’s…well, he’s everything.”
Sabrina nods knowingly. “You love him.”
“It’s only been a month,” I say, as if that’s a valid argument.
She shrugs. “So? Look at your dad and Lara. They’re getting married in March.”
“Don’t remind me,” I groan. “My head is full of articles on how to make a second wedding special.”
Sabrina grins. “I like her.”
“You like that she agreed to be a reference on your résumé, and put in a good word for you with her school’s principal.”
“True,” Sabrina draws out the word. “Job prospects aside, I think she’s good for your dad.”
“It’s not all roses. Her sons aren’t loving that their mom is getting remarried.”
“You met them?”
I nod. “Last week. We went to brunch. They’re ok, I guess. Standoffish.” I shrug. “My dad and Lara’s dreams of a Brady Bunch situation have been dashed. We’re all a little too old for that anyhow, and besides, they live in Texas. Proximity wins this round.”
“I bet her sons will come around. They need time to see how happy their mom is.”
My nose wrinkles as I think about the happy sounds coming from their bedroom early this morning. I hadn’t been able to sleep, so I got up to make coffee. The hushed but insistent string of vowels I heard as I passed their door had me walking away double-time.
“I heard them having sex this morning.” I push aside some shirts on a rack and glance up.
Sabrina smirks. “I know it’s gross, but everyone has sex.”
“Including your parents,” I point out.
She makes a face like she’s going to be sick. “Now you’ve gone too far.”
I laugh. “Anyway… I’ve been looking for someplace else to live. Camryn’s always staying the night with her friend Danielle, so it’s not like I’m really sharing a bed with my little sister, but it’s time. I can’t live in a house with the soon-to-be newlyweds any longer. Camryn has the right idea by arranging to be gone as much as possible.”
“I’m sick of living with my parents, too.” She jingles a necklace on a hook, making it clink against the others. “Insurance is being difficult about the house. My dad’s been on the phone with them nonstop. His voice is tense but polite when he talks to them, and when he hangs up he makes a full sentence out of curse words.”
I laugh at the thought of Sabrina’s reserved father spewing expletives.
“Speaking of sex…” Sabrina steps closer to me. “Are you going to talk about what that’s like with Gabriel? Or are we supposed to avoid that subject, too?”
I clear my throat. I knew this was going to come up today. Sabrina and I have never been shy about talking about our experiences in the bedroom, though mine are far tamer and more limited than hers.
“We haven’t had sex yet,” I tell her quietly. “I live with my dad right now, remember?”
This isn’t an actual reason, and Sabrina knows it. “Gabriel has a house.”
Irritation rises, but it’s not directed at her. “I’m aware.”
“Hey,” she says gently, touching my shoulder. “I’m not trying to upset you. We don’t have to talk about this.”
I sigh and apologize. “It’s not you. I’m frustrated. With Gabriel. When he kisses me it’s…it’s…” I don’t want to say out loud what it’s like, but the truth is that when his lips are on mine it’s like he’s setting fire to my body.
We lie on his couch and kiss until my lips are sore. He stops there and pulls away, leaving me burning up with desire.
I haven’t had a lot of sex, and I most definitely haven’t had any good sex. I can tell Gabriel will be different. His patience, his slow hands, the way he tastes my mouth and my neck. The writing is on the wall. He is going to blow my mind.
“Have you asked him about it?”
I shake my head quickly. Saying those words , whatever they may be, is the last thing I want to do. When it comes to matters of intimacy, I clam up. Can’t Gabriel be the leader? I most certainly cannot.
I step around Sabrina, pretending to consider a gold braided belt. “I don’t have the vocabulary for a question like that.”
“That’s ugly,” Sabrina says, taking the belt from my hand and replacing it on the hook. “And you have the vocabulary. You just don’t have the voice.”
Pursing my lips, I nod. “Right. Also, maybe he’s trying to be a gentleman?”
“Maybe he’s nervous? Grab a bottle of wine, have a glass to brush off the nerves. Then?—”
I shake my head. “Gabriel doesn’t drink.”
A ‘v’ furrows between Sabrina’s well-tended eyebrows. “Why not?”
“He hasn’t said why. He just doesn’t.”
She frowns. “Everybody drinks.”
I make a face at her, a desire to defend Gabriel’s choice rising inside me. “Not everybody.” I point at myself. I rarely drink. My tolerance is low, and I don’t like how I feel after.
“Fair,” she concedes. “But most people have a reason for not drinking.”
“Why does he have to have a reason?”
Sabrina stops thumbing through a table of perfectly folded shirts and looks at me. “Why do you sound like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re angry.”
“I’m a little annoyed at having to talk about Gabriel’s alcohol intake, or lack thereof.”
“Why?”
“Because a person should be able to not drink and have it be a non-issue.”
Sabrina holds up her hands. “Agreed.”
We go back to shopping, but it’s not as fun as it was prior to the Gabriel conversation. My annoyance with Sabrina has faded, and now I’m uncertain it was ever directed at her in the first place. It’s me. It’s my curiosity that’s bothering me. I, too, want to know why Gabriel doesn’t drink. And I don’t want to ask him, because right now Gabriel is the best thing in my life.
What if I don’t like the answer?