His reply was, Dad called. All good.
I then texted, Mom told me you have Robbie’s approval. Beware, this means when we go to Prescott, you’re not reworking rebar, you’re chopping wood.
On that, Gabe dropped a thumb’s up.
So my man wasn’t an enthusiastic texter.
But as mentioned, he was a lot of other things.
And Mom and Robbie approved.
So yeah.
Maybe boring wasn’t bad when everything was all good.
I tucked my phone away.
And got back to the cookies.
I was returning to my car after delivering the towers when my phone rang.
I dug it out, and since it was Gabe, I took the call.
“Hey, baby,” I greeted.
“Hey, we got plans Sunday?”
I folded into my car, closed the door and answered, “Yes. To sleep, fuck, eat, and sleep some more. Why?”
I heard his soft laugh.
I loved his soft laugh.
And then he said, “Roxie called Roam, and he’s rounding up whatever guys have Sunday free to go put in a drip system and some plants at Tex and Nancy’s.”
Ruh-roh.
“Uhhhh…” I drew that out. “This request came from Roxie? Roxie Nightingale? All the way up in Denver. And not from, say, Tex or Nancy? The people whose yard you’ll be installing the drip system in.”
It didn’t take a genius to read between the lines of that, but my guy had a master’s degree, so he cracked it instantly.
“You know something I don’t?”
“I know I was all in for Tex to lose his battle against Annette and the Rock Chicks so he and Nancy have a nice yard, instead of what he wants, rocks and dirt, and I put money down on him losing said battle. So I also know that right now, I’m caught in a pickle, because I want that, but I don’t want you in Tex’s line of fire.”
“You put money down on it?”
“New pool,” I told him.
“What’s the buy in?”
“Ten bucks.”
“Chump change,” he teased. I rolled my eyes. He continued speaking. “Put me in for Tex going down. I’ll tell Roam I can’t do this Sunday, but I can do next.”
Was he…?
“Wait a second, are you fixing the bet by horning in on the activity that would win the money?”
