19. Gabriel
Chapter nineteen
Gabriel
Really, Sy? Your mom?
“So… is this like, just for fun? With Ronnie I mean.” Aubrey blushes at my side as we walk down the path to reach our friends.
“I know Ronnie always says she doesn’t want to date, but I think that’s a lie.
I think she’s just afraid to let anyone in.
And I know I shouldn’t be saying this, but right now, she’s confused about her feelings for you both.
I just don’t want you to hurt her if it is just fun for you guys,” she finishes softly.
I look down at my feet. Do we really come out as such assholes who only think about fucking chicks?
I guess that makes sense since we’ve never had a relationship with a woman of any type to show them the contrary.
But I don’t think it’s because we didn’t want one.
We just hadn’t found someone we wanted to take that next step with, someone we couldn’t stop thinking about. Not until Ronnie.
When I take too long to answer, she continues. “Look, I’ve known you guys for a while now, and I love you both, but Ronnie’s my best friend. I would hate for something to go wrong and then have things be weird between all of us, or her not wanting to hang out with the gang anymore.”
I place a hand on her shoulder, stopping her from taking her next step and turning her to face me.
“Let me stop you right there.” I smile. “I care deeply about Ronnie, and so does Noah. Whatever happened between us three today wasn’t just about sex, it was more, and I’m just hoping she saw it that way as well.
So maybe if you could put in a good word for us, that would be cool.
” I chuckle, then sling my arm over her shoulders as we begin walking again.
“I understand your worries, baby Ford. Noah and I haven’t shown you the best example of boyfriend material, or any, for that matter.
But I promise you, we only have Ronnie’s best intentions in mind.
I swear.” I kiss the side of her head. “Plus, have you ever known us to pursue the same woman for eight months straight without giving up and moving on?”
She giggles. “I guess you have a point there. You two were really pissing her off with all the flirting non-stop.”
“Yeah, but she secretly loved it.” I look down at her and wink.
“I’m starting to think that may have been the case.” She smiles with a soft blush over her cheeks.
We finally make it to our friends, who sit at a long table inside an open-air restaurant. There’s a roof, but no walls, giving you direct access to the beach.
“Finally! We were about to start eating without you,” Emma calls. “Where’s Ronnie and Noah?” She looks behind us, searching for the two missing bodies.
“Ronnie’s sleeping, and Noah wanted to stay by her side until she wakes up,” I inform her as I take a seat next to Clay, who sits at the head of the table. While Aubrey goes to sit beside Emma on the other side of the table.
“You guys screwed her into a coma, didn’t you?” Greyson asks from his seat between his daughter and girlfriend.
I throw my arms up, clasping my hands behind my head with a satisfied grin. “That we did.”
“Poor girl.” Clay chuckles.
Cecilia giggles. “It’s about time.”
“I’m honestly surprised it took that long. How long have you two been trying to get her attention? It feels like it’s been years,” Morgan asks as she stuffs her face with bread in front of me.
“Eight months. Eight orgasms for eight months.”
Silas, who’s sitting at the other end of the two empty chairs beside me, chokes on his beer, then slaps his hand on the table before bellowing out with laughter.
“You guys gave her eight orgasms!? No wonder she’s out cold!
” He continues to laugh. “The last time I did something like that to Minnie in a short amount of time, she was delirious for a few hours. I honestly started getting worried and wanted to take her to the hospital.”
“Actually, she only made it to six, then started babbling stuff that didn’t make sense and passed out.” I shrug, still smiling smugly. I know I’ll probably get yelled at by Vixen once she finds out I’ve informed all our friends about our little cave experience.
“Still pretty impressive.” Sam laughs from his spot between Aubrey and Morgan.
Cecilia narrows her eyes at her husband from her seat at his side, Dante also munching away on bread to her left. “Thank you for telling everyone at the table about our sex life.”
“I’m just letting everyone at this table know how well I satisfy you,” he answers back, enunciating the word ‘everyone’ as he looks directly at Sam. Jesus, he’s still going on about this?
I guess we should put the poor guy out of his misery. He becomes all macho man for no reason every time Sam is around, which is practically every other day since he takes care of the kids. “Hayes, Sam’s not going to steal your wife. He’s gay,” I blurt out.
The table falls silent as Silas frowns and turns to me. “How do you know he’s gay?”
“Because he’s checked all of us out more times than I can count. Just yesterday at the beach he was eye-fu–” I look at the kids before finishing the word. Shit, how am I supposed to censor that word? “Eye-humping you when you were getting out of the water. The man is into you, not your wife!”
His jaw drops open, then he looks around the table as everyone nods, and Sam just shrugs with a smirk. “You all knew?” he asks, appalled.
“Yup. Caught him checking me out the very first day.” Greyson chuckles.
“Same here,” I add.
Silas turns to Clay next. “Yeah, I’ve seen him looking a few times, too.” He lifts a shoulder. “Plus, Morg told me.”
Silas’s brows lift to his hairline as he shakes his head a little. “Wow… Minnie, I don’t really like our friends right now. Can we temporarily add them to your hit list for the time being?” He looks down at his wife, who’s trying desperately not to laugh and gasps. “You knew, too?!”
“I’m sorry.” She breaks out in a fit of laughter.
“You let me go on for months about him!” He peeks at Sam. “Sorry about that, man. Didn’t mean to be such an A-hole to you. But you get it, right?”
Sam waves him off. “Yeah, I get it. All’s good.”
“By the way, I’m not into dudes. But I’m flattered.”
I laugh. “I’m pretty sure he knew you didn’t roll that way, Hayes.”
He glares at me. “Just pointing it out.” He looks back at Cecilia, keeping the glare on his face, but there’s no real anger to it. “You really are an evil woman.”
“HA!” She gapes at him. “Me? Evil? You just told everyone at this table that I went coo-coo after you gave me too many orgasms.”
“So did he!” He points at me.
“Yeah well, I’m sure Ronnie won’t be too happy about that either.” She looks at all of us with a wicked smile. “By the way, what he forgot to mention about that story is that he called Mira after.”
“Really, Sy? Your mom?” Emma scrunches up her nose.
“I didn’t know what to do, she was mumbling non-stop and rolling around in the sheets like someone possessed! I freaked out!” Silas exclaims as a chorus of laughter breaks out.
“You could have called one of us, literally any of us,” I tell him, laughing along with the group.
“Seriously,” Greyson adds. “That’s really weird. I feel so bad for Mira now.”
“Imagine me when she asked how I was doing after my orgasm high over family dinner!” Cecilia covers her shame-filled face with her hands.
“Spence must have had a field day with that.” Emma giggles.
Spencer, Silas’s younger brother, loves to tease people, certainly his older brother. We don’t see much of him, but every time we do, he finds something to say to get on Silas’s nerves.
“Oh, he did. Still does every time we see him and almost causes a fight between them every single time,” Cecilia tells her.
“Okay, how about we eat and stop talking about orgasms? I’m starving! And I feel like Aubrey’s about to pop a blood vessel or something with how red she is.” Morgan giggles.
We all look at the poor, shy girl, and sure enough, she’s redder than I’ve ever seen her. It’s almost alarming. “Sorry, baby Ford. Didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” I offer.
She clears her throat. “It’s okay. I’m fine.” She smiles timidly now that all the attention is on her.
The girls go on to chat about the foundation that Cecilia and Emma have created, which will be debuting at the end of the month, as food begins to arrive. It’s like one of those eight-course meals, where they bring you a bit of everything that’s on the menu, one plate at a time.
I watch Morgan continue to pick into the breadbasket every few minutes, her eyes going wide with hunger. She’s practically salivating as she spreads a bit of butter over the piece of dough. It’s adorable to watch.
“You look absolutely beautiful, Morgan. Pregnancy really suits you,” I tell her tenderly.
She looks up as she brings the bread up to her lips but stops short, her eyes glossing over as she smiles. “Thank you, Gabe. That really means a lot.” She looks down at the bread, then back up at me as a pink tint appears on her cheeks. “Sorry, I’m just always hungry now. It’s horrible.”
“You’re growing a little human in there, no reason to apologize.” I smile.
She smiles back and proceeds to eat. When I look to my side, I find Clay watching her with love in his eyes. This man is obsessed with his wife; they all are. And I get it now, because it’s how I feel about my Vixen.
“How does it feel to know you’re going to be a dad in just a few more months?” I ask him quietly, not needing everyone to join into our conversation.
He doesn’t take his eyes off her as he answers me. “Like freaking bliss.” He then swallows and turns to me. “You know, for a moment I started wondering if I was the problem. I had an appointment booked for after the playoffs to check if everything was okay.”
Morgan places her hand above his that rests on the table. “I never doubted you. It just took us a little more time than others, but it will have been a thousand percent worth it.”
He lowers in to kiss her, and instantly, I wish Ronnie was here. I miss her already.