Gabe’s brows went up, and so did the edges of his lips, but his ass went down in an armchair.
“They’d be badass,” Robbie said.
God, I loved how much he approved of Gabe.
“We’re not forming a militia, Robert,” Mom, in another armchair, said with such conviction, I wondered briefly if Robbie was actually joking.
Robbie ignored her and did not set my mind at ease when he asked Gabe, “Wanna go out target shooting tomorrow?”
“Sure,” Gabe replied, also not setting my mind at ease.
“You ever heard the one where—?” Robbie began, an intro Mom and I had heard frequently over the years, this meaning it was an intro to Robbie telling what was probably going to be an absurdly filthy joke.
This was why Mom snapped, “Robert! Don’t you dare!”
Robbie grinned roguishly.
He was totally going to tell a filthy joke.
But Mom didn’t want him to, so he didn’t (though, I figured he’d tell it during target practice, for sure).
I snuggled closer to him.
Gabe watched me do this with a gentle, contented look in his eyes.
The men got into a discussion about guns and ammo.
So, obviously, Mom and I ignored this discussion and talked about how she was getting tired of her stoneware, there were a lot of chips in her current set, and it was messing with her eating-pleasure mojo. So we decided, while the men shot the next day, we were going to go to some commission resale and antique stores in town to look for a new set for her.
She and I drank tea.
Robbie let go of me to get him and Gabe a bourbon.
A little later, Gabe and I had sex that night “real quiet.”
I wasn’t going to think about it, but with the looks Mom and Robbie were exchanging before we all went to bed, and the lovey way they woke up, I suspected they did too.
Gabe and Robbie shot the next day.
Mom and I found a great set of stoneware at the third shop we visited.
On the way back to Phoenix that evening, Gabe told me he would be totally down to help Robbie build us a cabin on their land because, “They got a sweet setup, cupcake.”
He was not wrong.
Two days later, Mom called to tell me we needed to come back up because Robbie was clearing trees, and he needed Gabe’s help.
I sensed why he was clearing trees, and I adored what I sensed.
Then I talked to Gabe about when we could go up again.
We went up the next weekend.
Parents and Family Part Three happened very near the Colorado Monument.
This was because Gabe and I went up to Grand Junction for Thanksgiving, meeting Kacie and Wyatt, Luke and Ava, their girls, and Gabe’s Aunt Josie there.
For your information, Ava was a hoot.
