Justin flashed her side-eye. “Too late, Gabs. I already made bouillabaisse and a crusty baguette. I had it at this little café inMarseille on my last trip.” He made a chef’s kiss. “You’re going to love it.”
She would. Justin was always going to Italy and raving about tiny restaurants and art museums. All the statues in his yard arrived after he’d visited the Boboli Gardens a few years ago. Gabby hadn’t been anywhere except the Pottery Barn in Orange County and an all-inclusive resort in Mexico once.
“Thank you, Justin.” She couldn’t ask for a more loving and supportive friend.
“And it was good you were out of the way, because I fixed your house.”
“Really?” Every time Justin came over, he made the most incredible food, and reorganized everything “the right way.”
“You’re going to love it.”
She wasn’t going to be able to find a thing for a month, but she gave him a big hug. “Thank you.” The least she could do was break out the best bottle of wine. She had bought it to celebrate her anniversary with Phil. It had been bottled the year they were married.
As she opened the wine, Kyle walked in. For the first time in a while, the look of teenage boredom was wiped clean off her face. “Mom, your hair!”
Gabby struck a pose. “You like it?”
“It’s so… not you.”
“That’s the point.” She was now Agent Darcy Dagger.
She gave Kyle a hug, and her daughter molded to her side, which melted Gabby’s heart. Her big girl was still her baby.
“How was work, Mom?”
“Boring,” she lied. “I’ve never done so much filing in my life.”
Justin shook his head. “Ugh. That sounds like a nightmare.” Justin didn’t do paper.
Gabby sat down heavily on a kitchen stool. “Let me tell you. I definitely need a glass of wine.” If they only knew. None of them would believe she spent the day working on hand-to-hand combat and target practice. They would believe that she couldn’t shoot and gave her trainer a black eye, though.
Lucas and Kyle looked at their bouillabaisse with confusion. Gabby hadn’t introduced them to the finer things in life. It was good for them, though. Everyone would remember this day for a different reason: Gabby shot a hole in the EOD’s ceiling, her kids had to eat some weird octopus soup, and Justin reorganized all of her spices.
After dinner, her mom called. At the sight of the number, Gabby’s stomach turned. Before she even said hello, her mom said, “Gabby, it’s about your grandma.”
“Ohmygod.” Gabby’s stomach dropped as she prepared to hear that her grandma had passed.
“She’s been kicked out of her retirement community.” Her mom announced it as if it was as bad as death.
“Did she run out of money? What happened?”
Her mom groaned. “Her boyfriend moved in.”
Gabby laughed. “Who cares? Can’t Grandma have a little fun?”
“Well, Grandma’s ‘hot piece,’ as she called him, moved in and started using all of the services, the cafeteria, laundry, and he’s not paying for any of it. Your grandmother wouldn’t make him leave, so the home is kicking them both out.”
Gabby smiled hard. She only hoped that she’d be getting kicked out of a retirement community at eighty.
“I was thinking…”
Uh-oh. Gabby heard a request coming on. Her mom was going to ask her to take care of her grandma.
“You’re home all the time anyway. If we moved Grandma in with you…”
“Mom! I can’t. I just got a job.”
“I’ll pay you. You know it’s bad for older people to live alone. I never liked that she was in a retirement community.” Gabby hadn’t liked that either, but it made more sense for her grandma to move in with her mother.
