I set the bags of food and my purchases on the dining room table and opened my arms to him. “You shouldn’t feel guilty about extending an invitation to our home to enjoy a lovely dinner.”
“Yeah, but those nights are just supposed to be for the four of us,” he said.
“Sunshine, it can’t just be the four of us forever. Chaz and Meredith will find their soul mates like we found one another and they’ll be joining us. Families are made to expand, that’s just what they do.” I ran my thumbs over his cheeks, and I saw the tension drain from him. “As long as you extended the invitations for the right reasons and you don’t have Hallmark Movie Channel expectations, then I’m perfectly fine with what you did.”
Josh snorted and rolled his eyes. “I have yet to see an LGBTQ couple featured in one of their shows, nor many people of color for that matter.”
“I think you get my point, don’t you?” I asked.
“Yes, dear,” he said snarkily. I slapped his round bottom for his sass and began to unload the food and the loot. “What’s this?” he asked, holding up the bottle of oil from Marabeth’s. He read the ingredients and what it was intended to do then looked up at me. “Having trouble sleeping?”
“I thought we could both take a hot bath after dinner and the kids had a chance to play with their new toys,” I suggested. “So webothsleep well.”
Josh’s eyes softened like they did when we made love. “I love your considerate heart, Gabe.”
“I love you, Sunshine.”
The ballgame played in the background while we had fun playing with our critters. It didn’t hurt my feelings that Buddy wanted to play tug-of-war with Josh instead of me. I was busy splitting my attention between Jazzy and Diva while I tried not to regret getting Savage that ringing bell.
“Fucknugget!”Ding. Ding. Ding.
“Cumguzzler!”Ding. Ding. Ding.
“Dirty Bird!”Ding. Ding. Ding.
“Fire in the hole!”Ding. Ding. Ding.
“That’s new!” Josh and I both said at the same time, followed by, “I didn’t teach him that.”
“Roger’s boy!”Ding. Ding. Ding.
“That must be his previous owner,” Josh said. “He’s only said his name a few times in the few years that I’ve had him.”
“Big Daddy’s boy,” I said to Savage.
“Big Daddy,” Savage repeated back.
“Big Daddy’s boy,” I tried again.
It took several attempts, but he eventually said, “Big Daddy’s boy” to me. It made my entire night—well, that was until Josh pressed his wet, naked body against mine. As much as I loved the bird, it was nowhere close to the way I felt for his owner.
Once I had him spread and pinned beneath me in our bed, it was his turn to yell out who owned him—heart, body and soul. After we finished making love, we both fell into a deep sleep tangled up in limbs and love.
IT WAS NICE HAVINGGabe home later in the morning, and not just because he made me breakfast. Watching him cook our omelets reminded me of the time I’d gone to his house for a physical release—or so I had convinced myself at the time—and ended up accidentally staying the night. After sex, Gabe pulled me to him to cuddle before I could bolt from the bed and get dressed. He promised to wake me up, but I wasn’t smart enough to nail down the details before I closed my eyes and fell asleep against his chest. He woke me up the next morning, not in a few hours like I had intended.
I ran around his bedroom cursing him and everyone he knew while I dressed. The echoes of his laughter still bounced around in my heart. I knew then that I was crazy about him, even though I wasn’t ready to acknowledge it. Once we started dating, Gabe had told me about the omelet he had planned to make me that morning, and I demanded that he show me what I had missed. Gabe didn’t cook a lot, but it was always tasty when he did, especially his omelets.
It felt more like a Sunday morning than a Friday with Gabe reading the newspaper and drinking coffee after breakfast. I hoped that his sting operation didn’t run too late and I tried hard not to get jealous of him meeting with a sexy guy in a hotel room and touching his naked chest while affixing a wire to his body. I hated the images that my overactive imagination created and talked myself down by reminding myself that strip searches and lingering touches weren’t part of the process. It wasn’t like Gabe was going to be wrapping the wire around the guy’s cock.Right?I reminded myself that Gabe was just one of the guys on the task force and that he wouldn’t be alone. Okay, then my mind headed straight to terrifying threesome images of Gabe with Jonathon Silver and Paul.Nope!Not going there!
“What’s going on in that mind of yours, Sunshine?” Gabe asked, startling me back to reality. One corner of the paper was turned down, and he was peering at me over the top of it. “The hamsters in your brain are running so hard I could hear it over here. You might need to squirt some WD-40 on that thing too. It’s starting to sound a bit squeaky.”
“That’ll be the sound your balls make when I… never mind.” We both knew I wasn’t going to withhold sex from him as a form of punishment. “You better not be implying it’s rusty and squeaky from underuse.” I pinned him with my best threatening glare.
“Quite the opposite. That thing never shuts down and needs a rest,” Gabe reached across the table and covered my hand with one of his. “Seriously, what’s bothering you?”
I wasn’t about to tell him where my mind had gone because I knew my worry was unfounded. I trusted Gabe with all my heart, and I wouldn’t ruin our happy morning over problems that I had to work through on my own. “I’m just worried if I have enough ham to feed all the extra guests.” I had been worried about that before I worried about Gabe engaging in hot, sweaty cop porn.
“That’s what put that frown on your precious face? Or maybe you’re thinking about how you need to tell Chaz about Kyle coming to Easter dinner and how it’s not a good idea to wait until Kyle shows up to eat,” Gabe recommended.
