And after he gave his gruff love to his family, the scowl he aimed at the rest of us was ferocious.
But his mouth stayed shut.
Now, he was standing in the screened-in catio, one cat perched on his shoulder, another one in his arms batting at his overlong beard. He was glowering at all of us crawling all over his yard, the guys laying down the drip system and the gals planting agave and other desert plants, all of this following Annette’s hand-drawn plans.
Tito was in the catio too, lazed on a deck chair, his ever-present hat over his face, a cat wrapped around the top of his head, and one curled up on his chest. All of them were asleep.
I looked from Tex and Tito to the action.
Gabe was working with Mo, digging a trench to lay some drip line.
Eddie was crouched, laying some of that line with two of his sons, Alex and Dante, helping out.
Landon and Liam were hauling bags of fertilized soil toward where Jet and Joey were setting in some plants (three bags each on their shoulders, because why would superheroes pretend to be normal even when doing yardwork?).
And Shanti was eyeing up Liam while pretending to adjust her garden gloves.
Also, Knox was shooting daggers out of his eyes to where Brady and Luna were yukking it up next to a newly planted paloverde tree (by the way, Knox’s girlfriend Cheyenne was not there, which was no surprise, I’d noticed that Cheyenne wasn’t a posse type of gal).
Someone called Luna, and she walked away.
Brady watched her.
But when Brady noticed Knox also watched her, so he was no longer watching Brady, Brady’s eyes went right to Gem.
Right to her.
Like a shot.
It was then I turned to Gem just in time to catch her noticing that Brady noticed her. Immediately, she tripped over a mound of dirt.
Obviously, at this juncture, my eyes moved back and forth as Brady smiled at her like he thought she was adorable.
Then Gem noticed he’d noticed her trip, and she also couldn’t miss his smile.
She got red as a beet, ducked her head and tucked some hair behind her ear, doing both before attempting an escape, which only made her trip again over another mound.
At this point, Brady grew concerned, and he started to move toward her.
And at this point, Gem grew freaked out, and she scurried across the yard, jumping piles of dirt, skirting tubs of trees and plants and disappearing into the house.
At her retreat, Brady had stopped and now he was staring at the house where Gemma vanished inside it.
Okay…
Um…
What was that?
On my way to relocate Gabe in order to go to him and ask, my eyes skimmed over Liam, then they skimmed right back.
Shanti was no longer pretending not to watch Liam. She was now crouched next to Lottie, and they were doing the delicate work of pulling an agave from a tub.
That was when my eyes pinged between Liam and Shanti, mostly because Liam’s eyes weren’t pinging anywhere.
They were glued to Shanti.
My heart skipped, my gaze flew to Gabe, only for him to be reading me through our strong bond (at least, that was what I liked to think was the reason he could read my mind), and I found his gaze was on me.
