I dropped the teasing and replied earnestly, “I love that you want to protect me like that, but in this case, honestly, baby, it’s unnecessary. It was a long time ago, and I’m over it.”
Having let it slide before, he came at it directly this time and demanded, “Since you’re so fine about all this other shit, was it just the Kevin shit that held you back from me these last months?”
Oh crap.
“Not exactly,” I hedged.
“Right,” he snarled. “I lost months of you, because of them.”
I lost months of you…
And there it was again, my lungs collapsed, but it didn’t feel as bad this time.
“You’re still you because of the woman you are, the strength you got,” he kept going. “Another woman?—”
He stopped talking so abruptly, his entire body jerked with it.
That bad feeling went into overdrive.
Nope.
Hyperdrive.
“Gabe—” I started urgently.
He cut me off. “If you won’t get me a name, Brody will. Just know, it’s gonna happen, babe, one way or another.”
And with that, Gabe decided to put a line under it.
He swooped in for a quick kiss (and of course he was that guy who would swoop in for a kiss after an intense discussion) before he ordered, “Remember, I want check-ins tonight. Did you bring me a cookie?”
And again, Gabe was that guy who could be cute and ask for a cookie after an intense discussion.
Wordlessly, I pointed at the little white bag that held his cookie that was sitting on my kitchen counter.
And before I could utter a word, he’d nabbed his cookie and was out the door.
I stood in my kitchen, staring at the door.
I had not forgotten how he’d woken up those days ago.
We’d been busy. I’d capitulated (happily) to an us on Sunday. We’d had sex for the first time last night, and that was Monday. Now it was Tuesday. We both had work, and I had an Angels assignment that night, and I probably wouldn’t be home before nine.
In other words, we hadn’t had the chance for deep dives into history, especially history that was so big, it changed our psyches.
Case in point, Gabe learning about what happened to me in high school before I could tell him.
But we were going to have to carve out that time.
I was going to have to carve it out.
And soon.
Because I was never going to complain about having a protective boyfriend.
But that wasn’t just being protective.
And it wasn’t just about me.
